How to Release the Golf Club for Maximum Power
Mike Austin set the Guinness Record of 515 yards on a drive in the 1974 National Senior Open. His prodigious clubhead speed was not completely due to size and strength, but instead his technique to release the clubhead.
Steve Pratt and Jerry Crowell, PGA, take you through every detail and joint action required to make this powerful motion, and why this is the ONE AND ONLY hand action Mike Austin used during his playing career.
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31 Comments
Viewer beware! Sure this feeling could be good temporarily for someone who slices it hard or needs to add distance and speed. That's about the only type of player that should try this. Anyone else this is a quick ticket to BIG HOOKS and a two way miss. Literally none of the best ball strikers of all time release the club this way. What good is distance if you cant find your ball? Horizontal hinging will produce a power draw when your timing is good, and huge hooks and blocks when it is off. This type of release used to be taught and predominant decades ago but there's a reason why pros stopped doing it. They are playing for money and releasing it this way will surely take you out of the money, every time. Your good shots might be longer but your scores will go up quickly with a high rate of closure like this. Much more of a timing element involved in this stall flip release than say an angled hinge
As Mr.Palmer said swing your swing.. what that means is go hit balls and figure it out and learn to repeat it. Many different swings in the Hall of fame, guess what they practiced WOW.
My pro was trying to show me this move, I didn't get it . . . . !
It seems a hugely alien move for me, which is no doubt why I'm lucky to drive it 220.
"This is how we start the downswing" 0:51 ….that was so wrong !! …pickle jar tip is good but it happens at impact with hips approx 25* open
Thank you sir
Wow…great explanation, thanks guys
Isn't this the same move that Mike Malaska teaches.?? just trying to be clear with all of the YouTube instructions out there these days. Thanks.
Sorry I don't open jars with my left hand and my shoulder so high.
Too many techniques… Back to Paul Wilson
Nightmare! Practicing with your right wrist drill, i throw a stone with clockwise movement; changing to the left wrist along, from P5 I twist//bowing the wrist like shown in this video; anticlockwise, so hitting by both hand,, wrist one of those should be passive and more important: to do it right to exclude timing in the swing. Still strungling! 🙁
Would be very difficult to time consistently.
and the last instructor on you tube said to not rotate the forearms, geez so many conflicting methods
How would I stop hooking with this motion? Not being a smart ass, just curious. I fear I would hook it terribly doing this. By the way, hooking is my nemesis. Thanks for your reply
I’ve been enjoying your videos and just about every Mike Austin video on YouTube having recently discovered Mike. I do however have a question about the release. I have interpreted Mike’s videos with more of a Dorsi flexion of the left wrist and a palmar flexion of the right wrist(for right handed golfers of course). I have seen him discuss what you are explaining as well as what I have just explained. He seems to explain it i2 distinctly different ways. In fact I saw a video of Phil Rodgers a few years back discuss the dorsi flexion of the left wrist and a palmar flexion of the right wrist. I commented on that in another video you made. The dorsi flexion of the left wrist combined with a palmar flexion of the right wrist seems to allow the club to travel(at least a feeling of the arms)more upwards. The explanation in this video appears to be more of a rolling over of the right wrist with less dorsi flexion of the left wrist causing more of a left exit around the body. Shouldn’t the feeling be of the arms lifting. Lifting go back & lifting up after impact to remain on plane with a high finish as Mike Austin has? I notice you have a lower left exit in your own swing. Sorry for the long message, would enjoy hearing your take on this. Thank you.
So, I'm a 68 year old 5 hdcp and multiple club champion. I've played golf for 55 years with a personal low of 64 (twice). I shot my age three times this year. Having said that, I looked at this video with interest as I've always felt I never truly stuck the ball as well as I could. I took your wrist snap to the course today for the first time with no prior practice. I struggled somewhat with the driver and three wood, but saw some potential. But, wow, what a difference it made in my iron shots! The pull shot Ive struggled with over the past year went away and the irons were crisp and hot. I hit a 6 iron 170 into a stiff wind, I haven't done that in 20 years. Thanks!
This seems very similar to the Malaska move.
Aha! 4:14.
That’s the “Early Backward Wrist Break” of Joe Dante’s that I’m trying to promote.
30 months into the MA swing and my mind/body still at times reverts to old disastrous habits.
I needed to isolate movements and adopted Joe’s EBWB combined with a shift to the right foot, hip breaking the barrel (as opposed to ‘ol Percy’s “in a barrel.” Also Dante’s move allows a soft right hand as when pitching a baseball – you can’t imagine how much I tried and failed to achieve this with a normal smooth-swinging backswing.)
Using Mike’s backswing pearls:
-7th vertebrae centered.
-Neck to instep as one axis.
-Navel over instep.
-Hip outside foot.
-Right hip rises.
-Gate post, saloon door.
And especially the wall drill I can consistently be in good position at the top.
I then “place” the club according to Jim Waldron’s backswing theory while turning the right hip to 4 and getting the left shoulder under the 7th vertebrae. Darned if it didn’t feel and look like a reverse pivot; but it’s not; it’s the only way to counterbalance like the woman’s walk that Mike talks about.
I can’t yet smoothly take it back on Mike’s plane without wrist breakdown or over swinging or letting the left elbow get away before mid backswing or otherwise brain freezing.
By “placing” the top and throwing the clubhead, (Mike’s thumb flick or Dan’s spinning meatballs or your pizza box) as a 67 year old who dropped from 260 carry to 220 in my early 60s, I can get a machine like 245 carry. Fades or draws – hardly miss a fairway anymore.
When I can swing at near your tempo (rather than placing the club with my 3 step backswing,)
I can carry as much as 265 with a 103 head speed.
Believe me, at 67 I’m overjoyed at getting 250 total.
Thanks to internet and to you Steve.
My method of the MA swing is really simple and might be something gifted amateurs and pros don’t quite understand. After all over 200 years of great instruction from the best and we amateurs still haven’t improved our average handicaps.
Just flap your wings, says the eagle to the penguin.
Penguins might just have to do it another way. BTW my seemingly eternal 7 handicap has dropped to 5 thanks to the (slightly modified) MA method.
Thanks again, Steve.
Don't think your gonna pick this up after a 6 minute video. This is a very very difficult maneuver (not incorrect) and will take you many hours of practice to come even close. I know someone who has tried to do this for 3 years and can barely break 100. Be realistic in how much you are willing to practice and how far you really need to hit it. My opinion is stick to a stable release and you need to be happy with the distance you get.
A guy named Milo Lines was talking about this method. Tried it and right away I can see a big improvement, especially with Driver.
Great clip!
Steve; pickle jar awesome visual. Sealed it for me. Just as you said, pickle jar wrap works great for chipping. Club face square linger. Great from 50-60 yards in. Direct to pin every time and solid contact. Top of jar best for distance and more speed. Fuller shots or knock downs. Definitely full iron/wood shots.
Awesome! Absolutely the best swing advice and demonstration. The golf lesson industry tricked us for years telling us to hold angle.
Jesus, finally lightbulb! I’ve been doing the other method and for the life of me, couldn’t work out why I’ve been hitting straight with no power!🤦♂️ Thank you!
Great, exelent…
I agree that the pickle jar maneuver you show is a stronger action than the "modern" Austin hand action to open a pickle jar. However, to open the tight pickle jar with the left hand (and for a right handed golfer we are talking about the left wrist here, that is the one that will be cocked up in radial deviation and then down in ulnar deviation to open the jar) anyone (including you in this video) would obviously bend the left elbow as much as possible in order to create maximum torque. But in the golf swing the left arm is straight, so if you hold your left arm out in front of you straight and then try the pickle jar maneuver it is not at all clear whether that is a stronger, faster motion then holding the left arm out straight and doing the alternate motion, the flap. Any thoughts on that?
Steve, what do you think about this theory I have come up with: Maybe a better analogy for the pickle jar is to think of the pickle jar being held upside down in your RIGHT hand at the top – in that case, spinning the pizza box with the right hand opens the pickle jar and you really are in a position with the right elbow bent to make a powerful motion to open the jar. I understand that the left wrist will ulnar deviate with this motion as well, but to my point in my previous comment below, the left wrist in the position at the top with the arm extended does not feel to me to be in a powerful position, but the right one certainly is.
Furthermore, if you even have just a little bit of bowing of the left wrist at the top, the amount of radial deviation you can do with the left wrist is extremely limited. You can still ulnar deviate, and that would happen when the right hand spins the pizza box, but unless you have a big cup in the left wrist at the top you really cannot radially deviate it and you need to do that in order to make a strong pickle jar action, combined with a bent elbow which you also do not have on the left side.
This is a perfect illustration! Seriously can't thank you enough. I'm teaching a friend and he is having a very hard time grasping this concept and this will 100% work. Wow great job
Great video tips
Thank you big time for this one. Really made things clear for me.
didn't Mike he use both actions in a full swing?