3 Ridiculously Simple Moves for an Automatic Release – No Thinking Needed

Master the golf swing release with 3 natural moves that require zero manipulation! Learn Greg Jones’s proven system for releasing golf club correctly – discover how to release the golf club using YMCA, crossover, and hitchhiker drills that create effortless power and accuracy. Email me here greg@gregjonesgolf.com

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0:00 – 🎯 Natural release observation from casual swings
1:04 – 📐 YMCA Drill: Breaking and reshaping the Y at 3:00
2:35 – 🔄 Y positioning for draws, fades, and straight shots
4:17 – 🏌️ Post-impact analysis of tour pros at 3:00 position
4:52 – 🚗 Driver release: Y must come AT the ball (71-inch driver)
6:04 – ✋ Crossover drill with left leg only setup
7:16 – 👍 Hitchhiker drill for complete release verification
9:00 – ⭕ Circle concept and swing planer demonstration
10:01 – 📝 Complete homework routine breakdown

Stop holding off your golf swing release and learn the three natural moves that create automatic power! This releasing golf club system teaches you how to release the golf club through Greg Jones’s signature drills: YMCA (Y must come after ball), crossover with left leg only, and hitchhiker thumb position. Discover why trying to “hold the angle” causes pushes right and how letting go creates square, on-plane releases.

What you’ll learn:
-Jack Nicklaus’s philosophy: release is natural rotation, never forced
-YMCA drill for irons – reshaping the Y at 3:00 post-impact
-Why putting Y together at 6:00 causes scoopy high shots
-How to adjust Y position for draws (4:00-5:00) and fades (2:00)
-Driver release difference: Y must come AT the ball for 71-inch efficiency
-Ben Hogan’s crossover concept: left hand leads, right crosses at contact
-Left leg only drill to isolate natural arm and hand path
-Hitchhiker thumb position indicating complete, square release
-Why “hold the angle” instruction causes blocks to the right
-The circle-making philosophy of proper golf swing instruction
-Complete practice routine: 5-6 reps of each drill per session

#golfswingrelease #releasinggolfclub #howtoreleaseethegolfclub

If you and I are just standing on the tea box waiting on the group in front of us to clear, just standing around swinging like this, one-handed, left-handed, maybe we’re talking about family, football, or how we’re about to play this hole. Do you see what’s taking place with this left arm and this left hand? It’s releasing naturally. And today, it’s all about release. Somewhat vague. And I often get asked, “Hey, Greg, what’s a release? How do I release it? What am I releasing?” Well, today I’m going to clear that up for you. I’m going to show you a great formula so that you can remember it. I’m going to show you how to get back in line and reshape your why, how to cross over and hitchhike your way to a great release. Hi, my name is Greg Jones and welcome to the channel Finish First. I’m excited to show you this video today. And if you’re new here, you’re going to want to stick around because we’re going to be putting out new content weekly and we’ve got a long way to go. And if you’re returning, welcome back. We’re building a great library of instructional videos. Let’s get into the release. How to build it, how to work on it so you can fire it and knock the flag out of the hole. Jack Nicholas, the release is simply the natural rotation of the arms and hands as the body turns through the ball. Nicholas emphasized that it should never be forced, just a product of good motion. So, here’s the one I show most often. This is uh where do you get back in line? Where do you put it all back together? So, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to set up to the golf ball right here. And I’ve got this yellow ball that looks like a soccer ball here representing 6 o’lock. And then 5:00, 4:00. And this yellow ball right here, 3:00. And so what you’re going to see is I set up to the golf ball. My forearms and the club shaft make the shape of the letter Y. So I’ve got a nice Y built right here. And as I swing and hinge, I just broke the tail off the Y. It’s not in shape anymore. I just broke the tail off. And then as I come through, where do I put my Y back together? Well, if you do this properly, you’re going to put the Y back together right here at 3:00. And this is the little shot that it looks like. So, I’m going to set up with my original Y, break the tail off, and put it back together right there at 3:00. And that’s a nice natural release. What you’ll also notice there is I’ll show you in the images how tight this upper left arm is to the chest. The arms didn’t run away. Okay. So, let’s do that again. 3:00 is going to be the most desired place to put your Y back together. If you put your Y back together at 6:00, you’re going to hit scoopy high ones that don’t go very far. If you wanted to hit a draw or a hook style shot, you would put it back together out here at five or four so you can get the club face closed a little more so you can hit a draw. Well, conversely, if you were hoping to hit a fade, you might not put that Y back together till well over here at 2:00, which thus meant the face was still a little open back here at the ball. But for straight shots, we’re going to put the Y back together at three o’clock. I’m gonna break the tail off and put it back together right here at 3:00. And those are super straight. So, this is what I call the YMCA drill. Okay? This is the YMCA drill. And the reason I call it that is we’re going to make the Y must come after the ball. We’re going to put the Y back together after the ball. Y must come after. So, here it is again. And I put the Y back together right over here in this straight line. Now, my Y is put back together after the ball. Okay. One of my favorites. I show it all the time. Easy to work on and it’s going to help you feel your natural release. It’s also going to build connection with your upper arm and your chest. Great drill. I I probably do these half a dozen a day just to kind of get that feel of firing and getting back in line. Another reason why this YMCA drill is so great. Look at some of these images. Look at these guys post impact and ladies, look at these guys and gals post impact and look where they are. Right over here where their club is pretty much pointed at 3:00. They’re all back in line right here. They reshaped their Y right back here. So, here it is again. I’m going to break the tail off the Y and put it back together at 3:00. Right there. And that’s a nice full release with connection. All right. For the YMCA drill with an iron, the Y must come after the ball. And that would be over here at 3:00. But with a driver, YMCA, the Y must come back together at the ball. Y must come at the ball. So with a driver, we’re going to put that Y back together right here. And that’s the 71in driver that you want. If you’re not familiar with the 71in driver, there’s a great video. You’ll see how to hit big, high, nasty bombs and how you might only be using about 63% of your maximum driver efficiency. So, we want to get this driver back in one line. We get a square face and a big long driver cuz we add 45 and 26 to get that 71in driver so you can pound it. So, remember YMCA with a driver. Y must come at the ball. Ben Hogan said, “The left hand leads the right hand and the right hand finally crosses the left as the ball is contacted.” Hogan saw the release as a natural crossover, not a forced roll. In order to have a square hit, the club face must be square when it meets the ball. And the only way to get it square is through a proper release. So, here’s how you work on the crossover. What I’m going to do is I’m going to hit these balls with the left foot forward and the right toe in the ground. Basically, left leg only. And to do this, I’m going to put my left foot about even with the ball and put my right toe in the ground behind me. Now, when I do this, I’ve basically shut off the ability of the lower body to be activated. And what that’s going to do, it’s going to allow my arms and hands to make their natural path. And when the club gets back to the center of rotation right here, the left shoulder, because of the way this club is designed, it wants to cross over. It wants to cross over. So, here’s what that looks like. And you can see the crossover right here. You can see my glove is under my right hand and the right arm is crossed over the left arm. There’s your natural crossover. No lower body, all arms and hands. And you get that nice crossover action. So that’s how you work on the crossover. So, remember earlier when I was talking about standing on the tea and waiting for the group in front of you to clear and just swinging one-handed, left-handed? What a healthy golf swing exercise that is. Well, just by the nature of the fact that you got one hand and one arm operating here, we’re almost not strong enough to hold it off. And actually, that doesn’t feel very good. That kind of hurts up here. So, I don’t want to do that. So, if I properly externally rate rotate my left arm, I’m going to get this nice hitchhiker thumb right here, that means I fully completed the release squarely and on plane. Well, this is what it would look like coming right at you right there. And you can see I’m working right up this beautiful 45 degree incline plane in the through swing right there. You will never do it too much. So the next time you’re standing on the tea, waiting on the group in front of you to clear, thumb a ride. Hey, like I said, you can never swing too much doing this one-handed, left-handed. But if you wanted to put the ball in play to really feel it, I got nine iron on a low te just kind of medium. And that’s what it would look like. And then here’s that great hitchhiker position right over here. And this is what it would look like coming right at you. There’s that hitchhiker position we’re looking for. Not too worried about the quality of the shot. Just learn the move and strike that ball. And if you strike it, that’s a victory. And learn that hitchhiker position. And that’s the finish of all the release. And you did it squarely. You did it in time at all the right places. One of my job descriptions as a professional golf instructor is I teach people to make a circle. That’s right. The swing is all about a circle. And so I’ve got my swing planer here and I’ve got my swing planer aid and I’m going to get on the planer and swing and break the tail off the Y. I’m going to come back here to post impact and reshape my Y. I’m going to put the tail back on the Y and get back in line. A little bit further is the crossover and a little bit further than that is the hitchhiker thumb. That is a full and complete release that’s on plane, square, in time, and in all the right places. But there’s some instruction out there that will tell you to hold the angle. Hold the angle. Hold, hold, hold, hold. Well, if you do that, you’re going to hit it right all day long. So, I know you don’t want to do that. We want to let go. We want to release and let go and let that club go right around that circle so that you can get a full and complete release that’s square in time and on plane. All right. You know, at the end of every session, I’m going to give you some homework. This is exactly what I want you to do in your warm-ups or practice sessions. Pull aside a few balls and we’re going to do YMCA. Get back in line. That’s where we break the tail off and put it back together. Right about there, it looks like that. Okay, if I was coming right at you, this is what it would look like. Right back here, back in one line. That’s the YMCA drill. Then there’s the crossover drill. That’s where you’re going to go left leg only. About five or six of these. This is going to teach you the crossover. We shut down the lower body and the arms just cross over naturally. And then after that, left arm only swings. You will never do this too much. And if I swing just like this enough, you’ll see that the club face is getting square right here at the center of rotation. And then I get this hitchhiker position right over here with the left hand or the glove hand. And if I was coming right at you, it would look just like that. And there’s that hitchhiker thumb. And that resonates with a lot of people. You put all that together, you swung on plane. you squared it properly, you released it properly, and you’re staying on plane with a square face. Give me about five or six of those with every session, you’re going to see a dramatic difference in your ball striking. All right, the summary board is short and sweet this week. I just gave you your homework so you know just exactly what to do. Work on your YMCA position. Do the crossover drill, the uh hitchhiker left arm only. You’ll never do it too much. And uh no nothing in golf quite like releasing and flushing one and looking up and see it going right at your flag. But it’s not going to happen if you don’t release. No more hanging on. No more holding off. Turn it loose. Hey, if you’d like to work with me, drop me an email, greg gregjonesgolf.com. I use the coach now app and it’s easy to work together. So, hit me up and you and I can work together and get you more detailed into your swing and maybe even a practice plan so that you can have all the drills that’ll help you benefit your swing so that you can shoot your lower scores consistently and finish first. I hope this video helped you and if it does, please consider liking and subscribing. It means a lot to me. Comment below with any questions you might have and I’ll see you next