Violent flipping of wrists on finish

Question
QUESTION: This doesn't happen often, but if I don't pay attention it will pop up (and I feel it AFTER making contact) with all clubs.  The bad result of it is a sculled or thin shot.  I can control it (by staying behind the ball until impact and finishing low with proper weight transfer; in other words, I can't do a complete finish with the club behind the head) but I have lost about 20 yards on the irons (I hit a PW about 100 yards now; pitching distances haven't changed).  The up side is that I have taken this into account and actually have been getting pretty accurate with my short irons and have been hitting greens more often (and actually have distance control down to an art under 100 yards). I'm OK with distance on fairway woods and I can tinker with the 9 wood to compensate for the gap between the 7 wood and the 6 iron, but it would be nice to get my distance back on the two hybrids and the short irons.

Don't know about driving at this time (I had to lay off golf for about a month since I stressed my back while testing my driver at the range - I overdid it; I felt it a couple days later and it was so bad on my lumbar that taking a stance was painful).  

The only other anomaly that popped up the other day was I started shanking my 64 wedge and it seemed like I could do nothing to correct it (I was nailing over the bunker shots and then, after an hour, this popped up).  I tried all the things like balance and proper finish.  I then read a forum where one of the responses was that the clubface was lagging the handle.  So what I did sometime later was go over to the park and hit a pitch shot INTENTIONALLY not completely uncocking the wrists and the ball shot off 45 deg right. I have not had a problem with shanking at all since then.

ANSWER: Lou:

Hold your left arm straight out in front of you chest high, with the palm facing the ground.  Now, turn your arm over (rotate) so the palm is facing the sky.  Do it again, and notice how much you use your wrist to rotate your arm the other way.  The answer is ZERO.  Now, that movement of the arm, meaning the rotation of the arm is correct.  That is what should happen when you hit a golf ball.  So if you are flipping the wrists as you call it, then you are simply using your HANDS incorrectly.  You CANNOT move your wrist!  Wrist action is involuntary.  Your wrist is nothing more than a hinge that ALLOWS your hands to cock and rotate.  One of the biggest misconceptions in golf is "flipping your wrists."  I understand what you mean, but simply put, it is crappy hand action.  If you use your hands incorrectly, you start shanking and popping up.  Learn the drill I just gave you, then go put it into your golf swing.  

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So basically the rotating of the wrist (like you described in the drill) would make the cocking and uncocking more or less involuntary if done right?  I'm going to do this starting slow-mo at the park (with pitching and chipping and working up to a full swing).  

Do you think the crappy wrist action could be a byproduct of too much body movement? (possibly the breaking of the wrists after impact being caused by coming up too soon).  This might explain why when I keep my head behind the ball at contact and have a lower finish (with the club at waist height and clubface perpendicular to the ground), I am reasonably consistent.  A small amount of spine tilt seems to help.

ANSWER: Lou:

Too much body movement simply gets everything out of sequence with each other.  When that happens, you have to use your hands to save it down there, so yes, I'd say that is correct.  

Eddie

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Did the drill rotating the wrist like you said.  Took my PW out to the park - started chip shots, pitch shots and then full swings integrating the movement. The last thing I did was the left hand only drill and was consistently hitting a one-handed PW about 50-60 yards.

Answer
Lou:

Good, but I'll correct the language again.  I did not give you a drill of rotating the wrist.  FORGET ABOUT YOUR WRISTS!  It is your hands and forearms.  They must rotate together, in one unit, to produce clubface rotation.  If you have the image of "wrists" in your brain, and it sounds like you do, you'll never get rid of the "flipping" motion that plagues you.  

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member