Stop Believing This Nonsense About Squaring the Clubface!
Far too many golfers are being told to “just rotate” or “take the hands out of the swing” to square the face — and it’s flat-out wrong. In this video, I’m breaking down what actually happens at impact using real data and real analysis. We’ll look at how elite players deliver the club, why body rotation alone can’t square the face, and what role the hands and arms truly play in the downswing.
You’ll see clear evidence (not opinions) on why this myth is ruining your consistency, direction, and power — plus I’ll give you simple, effective drills to help you train the correct motion and start striking it better than ever.
📉 If you’ve been struggling with slices, pulls, or weak strikes — this could be the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for.
➡️ Watch now and stop letting bad advice hold your swing back.
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00:00 Introduction
00:28 Massive Golf Myths
01:10 Truth About Impact
03:57 Release Drill
06:23 Stop The Flip
i am fed up not just with bad information but with coaches reputable coaches giving you false wrong information about what happens in the golf swing and specifically through impact today we’re going to clear all that up and I am bringing proof data from research to show you and explain exactly what is happening through impact if you want to release the club better and square the club perfectly every time this is the video for you so the first lie that you are being told is that the body rotation squares the club into impact it doesn’t we’re going to prove that in a moment and the other big lie that you’re being told is that you will play better golf you’ll be more consistent if you can take the hands and arms out of the golf swing and only yesterday just a quick search on YouTube threw up all of these videos preaching these two completely false claims and only yesterday this comment came onto my channel assuming that the body rotation squares the club face these are research data really high scientific studies that have been done on the golf swing and what they found is that typically when we look at an average tour player when the club reaches about this port point in the down swing the club face from here to impact has to rotate anywhere between 70 and 100° that is a lot i mean that’s 90 degrees of rotation we’re looking at around about that amount so that’s from last parallel down to impact and then when we look at how fast that face is rotating really quickly so the rate of rotation is anywhere between 1,800 degrees a second right the way up above 3,000 so think about that that club face from here to impact in high elite golfers is rotating around about 2,000 degrees per second and it has to move around about 90 degrees that’s a lot so let’s look at is the body doing that is body rotation square in that club face well let’s have a look at this graph this graph is telling us what the torso is doing through the down swing and what you can see is that from the top the body rotation gets faster and faster and faster and faster so my torso is rotating quickly towards the target when it gets around about here what does it do it slows down it actually gets close to stopping now it doesn’t stop but it slows down so that research tells us that from here to impact the club face is doing a hell of a lot and the body is slowing down so this rotation is not responsible for what the club face is doing what is responsible for what the club face is doing is the hands and the arms there’s going to be so many of you out there now watching thinking Chris but isn’t that a flip isn’t that a scoop i already do those things so let’s go through exactly what the hands and arms are doing through this impact area then I’ll give you a little drill to work on it so when we get into our delivery position from here what are the hands and arms doing we’re just going to use the left hand to to demonstrate this the wrists which are going to be of set in the back swing are going to unset so that would be my thumb working down towards the ground that has to happen now look at where the low one of my glove is it faces you where would it be at impact facing the target so there’s also some arm rotation so you can see how the logo is going from you to target the third movement we have got available to us is we could change what our wrists are doing now so many of you who flip the club will have this through impact too much because you don’t have enough of the rotation so let’s go through a couple of little drills I’d love you to do first of all let’s just find that delivery position club goes up club goes right add little bit of body turn so now we’re in our delivery position you can see how the club is to the right of me so if we now turned our body so our shoulders were not closed by sort of 10 to 15 degrees but more open by 10 to 15 degrees does that deliver the club to the ball does it square the club no it’s nowhere near is it so this would be our sort of impact post impact body position and at that point the arms would have gone this way so the club would now be to the left of my body that’s what’s happening the body’s rotating a small amount and the arms are going from the right hand side of you to the left hand side of you and those three movements we just spoke about are all happening so what I’d love you to do is try this little exercise and I’m actually not going to get you to hit straight shots initially sounds a bit bizarre so I’m setting up sort of into the middle of the green i’m not going to hit the ball anywhere near that distance i’d love you to try this up right bit of body turn now what I’d like you to do is go to that same point the opposite side of the ball so shoulders turn arms release and see if you can make the ball go left of your target and right of your target by what you’re doing with your hands and arms you’re starting to self-develop you’re starting to understand that the hands and arms are everything when it comes to delivering the club and controlling the face if you can start to make the ball go left and right which theoretically shouldn’t take you that long guess what you can find the one in the middle it’s not easy but you can find the one in the middle so the next goal will be to say okay what did that feel like what did that feel like can I start to find the happy medium can I start to find something that falls between the two here here add a bit of turn there’s my delivery go through the opposite side a little better still a little left but again club has gone to the left hand side of my body and I’ve released the club and the ball has gone left so we’re starting to self-discover we’re starting to really deeply appreciate that when we are talking about delivering the club squaring the club face the hands and arms are everything for those of you who are flipping who it looks like you’re early releasing it doesn’t look like a structured impact here’s why that is happening when you get to this position in your dowsing you will be taking your thumb and you’ll be moving it towards the ground that’s correct but if you look at my upper arm here what will be happening is that your lead wrist will be cupping you can see that which squares the face but it puts a big cup in the wrist and as you go through the arm hasn’t rotated so you can see how the palm of my lead hand would be facing the ground so for those of you who flip you are using your hand and arms but using them in the wrong way that’s why it feels awkward and that’s why it almost makes sense to take the hand out of the golf swing because it feels like it would be more consistent with the body but what’s happening is you’ll be going thumb down wrist extends arm doesn’t rotate and you get these kind of horrible kind of looks into your post impact where the elbows are separated so essentially you are missing the rotation of the arm so here’s the drill I’d love you to do to start to introduce all three movements when you get all three and they’re blended you are unlocking some seriously good golf with some seriously powerful deliveries because you’re starting to sequence everything you’re not relying on this to square the club face you’re relying on the hands and arms head covers gone under my lead arm if I make that poor release thumbs down wrist extends no rotation that’s more likely going to fall out and so many of you will see this position i did a lesson recently with a guy called Aza we worked specifically on this because he was in this position post impact with a head cover under your arm it’s going to feel like you’re able to rotate the arm look at where my elbow faces it’s more behind me head cover stays under my arm and you can see those three fingers on my lead hand the poor release you can see how different that is you can’t see those fingers elbow points up body’s not in a great position so once I’m in this position I can start to learn how to release the club correctly that was pretty much where I was aiming where is my body slightly open where is the club left hand side of my body you can see the fingers arms in a great position where was that club prior to impact this side of my body so it goes from right side of the body to left side of the body because of what my hands and arms are doing my hands and arms are squaring the club my hands and arms are creating the speed my hands and arms are creating the shot that I’m hitting i’ve said it before it’s not the body rotation you do not want to take your hands out of the golf swing you’re going to be in a whole world of trouble please do not spend any time trying to square the club face with your body rotation doesn’t happen please do not try and be passive with the hands and arms that doesn’t happen in great golf swings what you need to do is slow the body use the hands and arms correctly and then you will start to hit some of the best golf shots of your
20 Comments
I can't believe its taken this long for a pro to call it like it really is. Most of the 'instructional pro's' contradict themselves almost the next day if not a couple of days later as they spew out content to get 'likes'. It's mostly garbage. As an exercise, if you were to rotate the body but deliberately hold your arms back you'll never hit the ball so there's no way simply rotating the body squares the face. I'm a low h'cap player, nowhere near a pro but it's always struck me that if your grip is right relative to how you swing the club you'll hit the ball flush and straight to where your aiming. That comes through practise and knowing what your body is capable of and you adapt the grip to suit. In my view the swing, any swing is either made or ruined by 1st parallel. If you allow the face to fan open in the takeaway you'll naturally throw the club out to in with an open face. It's instinctive. If you have the face 'looking at the ball' thru 1st parallel you've got the best chance of returning it square to your path. That 1st takeaway move wrecks or makes the shot. In my view it's that simple but of course, that difficult. Tks for the video, about time old son 🙂
Great advice, distracting teeth
Great video, thx
So true, thx
This man is speaking the truth. One of the only golf instructors i will watch now after being misled for years by other “instructors”
The reason why coaches and pros are transitioning away from "squaring" the club face is because it requires impeccable timing to do so. The new meta is to keep the club face square throughout the entire swing so the smaller muscles (hands, wrists, forearms, and shoulders) aren't involved in making sure the face is correct. It is just like how when we putt we don't use the small muscles since their integration leads to inconsistentcy, same concept applies.
Messed up my iron play a bit by taking my hands out and not releasing the club. Took all feel out of my game. Thankfully the experiment was short lived 😂
God you talk way too much
I was taught initially by Dennis Sheehy who was the Leadbetter Academy Head of Instruction. He told me their philosophy of the Dog Wags the Tail was absolutely geared towards tour level players. That most amateurs don't use their arms and hands enough and most pros do. The body release is an anti-left maneuver as pros fear going left and the two way miss. Pros have "educated" hands so have already built in the release and can use the stable clubface as they already have speed and compression.
It is a reasonable approach but applied to the wrong people is a disaster.
Hello Chris. What are your thoughts on this data compared with tons of data from GEARS the AMG guys have on swings…essentially saying the arms don’t swing past the body…impact happens on the right side of body & club gets to ball with rotation?
Thanks
Everywhere you look they are teaching hitting with body turn. No way that body swings can time it up and create speed.
Will this left, right, center drill be beneficial for driver and longer clubs? I do the drill with my short irons and wedges just fine, but completely lose the club face feel on my woods. It is some of the most infuriating practice sessions I have had.
Keep speaking the truth chris ryan. One of the few real ones
Of course the arms and hands are involved but the question is one of intent. If you have relaxed arms and the body moves correctly and slows down the hands and arms accelerate naturally. Same in tennis with a forehand. There is no and can't be a conscious thought as in "Begin rotation of the forearm" as it happens far too quickly.
Bravo
Soooo fking long. We are not 5 years old
The anti-flip drill is exactly what I needed to see. I'm going to add this element to what my coach wants me to do. I've struggled to get my wrists to turn over for decades in a variety of sports. Probably going to be frustrating for a bit but I completely understand what I need to train my body to do.
Thanks for posting this Chris and going against the grain of YouTube golf instruction. I played competitive golf growing before all the YouTube gurus and definitely relied on my hands and arms just as you show them. In fact, I was starting to doubt whether I flip (I absolutely do not). Golf course swing is a lot different than driving range swing and you have to be able to hit different shots, which rely completely on the hands.
I truly appreciate your video.
Great tips
Where I disagree with your proposition of using the hands to square with the ball on impact is you are showing the hands facing outward on the downswing (which indicates you opened the clubface on the backswing) and then timed turning the hands to square by the time of hitting the golf ball. That timing of rotating the trailing hand to square is difficult for us average and subaverage players. Instead, start with the hands squared to the ball and keep them square through out the back swing/takeback, Thus, on the downswing the hands are ALREADY squared coming back down. I wholeheartedly agree do NOT pronate/flip the hands/forearms thru the hit, that requires a lot of timing which many of us don't have.