Bowed left wrist query

[jonnygrouville]

Okay. Starting to develop my understanding of the wrist action and trying to work out how it can help my swing.

My grip is neutral. If I hinge the club straight up from address it retains some cup in the left wrist. However, my left wrist bows a bit at the top and I can’t work out why it is bowing. There is plenty of advice for people with open clubfaces going the other way, but I can’t find a lot of help on an arched left wrist.

Any ideas on what is causing this or what I can have a look at to keep some of the cup in my left wrist?

[imperfectgolfer]

An arched left wrist is really a wrist that is excessively palmar flexed, and that means that your clubshaft is not in a straight line with your left arm (disrupted left arm flying wedge alignment). Your clubshaft is presumably laid-off at the end-backswing position. One would need to study a swing video of your backswing action to determine the likely causal factor(s)? If you keep the left arm flying wedge intact throughout the backswing, then your left wrist should be slightly cupped at the end-backswing position.

Jeff.

[jonnygrouville]

Thanks. I will have to sort out some decent swing video at some stage. Was hoping for now that there might be some reasons for the left flying wedge breaking down, but clearly too numerous to have a blind punt.

I have been reviewing your 'right-hand clapping' action and the left arm parts of the paper and videos. Also had another look at David Orr's 'walrus' clapping and 'warchant' motions.

The hands are clearly partners in crime and I have been getting confused by the right wrist bending back. As usual, the penny is taking a while to drop, but I am starting to get there by breaking everything down into little bits.

From address with a club, if you bend the right wrist back, the left wrist is going to arch. Not good.

Starting from address with the hands in the open clapping position, if you hinge the left wrist and bend the right, your palms will not be facing each other. If you bend your right arm to push your palms together like a grip, you start putting together the orientation of the flying wedges you should have at the top. Don't you?

With the correct walrus and warchant to the top, your right arm should be set up in the 'supporting wedge' position without the left wrist arching. I am starting to think the right arm motion is the problem.

[imperfectgolfer]

Jonny

You wrote-: "Starting from address with the hands in the open clapping position, if you hinge the left wrist and bend the right, your palms will not be facing each other. If you bend your right arm to push your palms together like a grip, you start putting together the orientation of the flying wedges you should have at the top. Don't you?"

I presume that you mean "cock" the left wrist. I reserve the term "hinging" for the act of bending the wrist in a horizontal plane, not the vertical plane of cocking.

A key point that a golfer needs to understand is that the right wrist operates in a plane of motion at 90 degrees relative to the plane of motion of the left wrist during a right forearm takeaway backswing action - even though the palms are more-or-less facing each other across the grip. The bending of the right elbow makes this biomechanical action more easily possible.

I think that a major reason for arching of the left wrist in the late backswing is that the right forearm flying wedge is not able to readily support the left arm flying wedge. Consider an example.



Note that Jim Furyk has an arched left wrist at the end-backswing position, and that his clubshaft is not in inline with his straight left arm (image 1). The likely reason is that he cannot get his right palm to sufficiently support the left hand/grip at the end-backswing position - because he cannot get the right forearm flying wedge closer to his hands (which are high above his right mid-clavicle).

I personally do not think that his arched left wrist is a problem because it disappears as soon as he starts the downswing. Note that when he drops his hands, that the arching disappears and that his left arm and clubshaft become correctly aligned (as he reconstitutes the left arm flying wedge) - image 4. I think that if a golfer can reconstitute his left arm flying wedge by the mid-downswing, that it really doesn't matter if the left wrist is arched at the end-backswing position.

Consider another example.



Sergio Garcia's left wrist is minimally arched at the end-backswing position - image 1. Note that it temporarily becomes increasingly arched when he starts the downswing - image 2. That is because he drops he hands vertically downwards at the start of the downswing by actively adducting the right arm. That causes the right forearm flying wedge to be pulled down and that motion pulls the left hand into a slight state of palmar flexion, thereby forcing the left wrist to become temporarily more arched. However, that only lasts a split second - note that his left wrist is neutral by the end of the early downswing (image 5).

I think that you may not have to worry about an arched left wrist at the end-backswing position if you are able to reconstitute a good left arm flying wedge alignment by the mid-downswing.

Jeff.

[jonnygrouville]

Thank you once again for your time and consideration in reply.

You're right. I didn't mean hinge. Told you I was just getting the hang of this...

The point you make about the orientation of the planes of motion of each wrist is indeed key, but I do not think this is well understood or explained anywhere (admitting now that I have not read ‘The Golfing Machine’). The left and right wrists do very different things, but hold the same club. Sounds facile, but it took me more than one cup of tea to get my head around how that works.

Oddly enough, one of the main areas I have been working on in my swing is the action of the right arm. I tend to get my hands too deep early in the backswing and the right elbow ends up more pushed out behind my body at the top. Exactly as you say, the right forearm flying wedge is not in a position to play its supporting role. Hopefully I might see less arching in the wrist if the right arm is in a better position.

Always fascinating to see the swing sequences. Incredible how these guys retain control of their left wrists. I am not saying I can swing the club the same way on the downswing as they can, but I must reconstitute some sort of half-decent position otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get the ball round the course. My concern is the consistency with which this is achieved. For me, the kind of compensations required to reassemble the left forearm flying wedge mid-downswing take a lot of time and talent to perform successfully consistently. You can clearly play well from less than ‘ideal’ top of backswing positions, but I feel that the time taken to set these flying wedges in better shape here is well spent for the average golfer.

Thanks again!

[jonnygrouville]

Slightly hard to see from the video in the blog, but it looks like Dustin Johnson bows his left wrist at the top. Doesn't seem to worry him though eh? Going at it as hard as he does from there, I would probably hit it between my legs.