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Master Your Clubface Control: Achieve Consistency and Improve Accuracy

After analyzing more than 1,000,000 golf swings with the HackMotion technology, we know that clubface at impact is mainly controlled by wrist and hand position.

Clubface angle at impact is the ultimate decision-maker regarding ball flight.

If your clubface is open, the ball goes right, square, it goes straight, closed, it goes left. Golf is really that simple.

What is not quite as simple is learning to control the clubface. With HackMotion, you can finally feel what it takes to control your golf clubface and get the ball on the target line you want.

Why Does Clubface Control Matter?

Clubface control controls where the golf ball goes. The better you control the clubface, the better your chance of hitting the golf ball straight.

clubface clubpath animation

However, the tricky part is that clubface control doesn’t always come naturally to players. You may feel like your club path, your body rotation, or your head movement is the reason you can’t hit the ball straight.

Although these things can play into it, the clubface is controlled by the wrist position.

Do an experiment where you put your hands on the club in your normal position, now take a backswing to the stop, and check where the clubface is.

Start over, and this time change your wrist position. You can flex or extend your lead wrist, whichever feels more comfortable, and take that same backswing. You will notice the clubface no longer looks the same.

Why is this?

The wrist controls the clubface, and you change the wrist angle. Now if you learn this type of control and maneuverability while you are swinging, you can really become a great player who is able to attack any pin on the golf course.

extension and flexion in clubface control

What Influences Clubface Control at Impact?

Once you get to the impact position, it’s too late to fix the clubface position. The clubface at impact is controlled by:

  • Where does your clubface start (i.e. do you have it square when you set it up)
  • Grip strength and hand position
  • Forearm rotation just before the golf ball
  • Lead wrist flexion/extension at the top of the backswing and in the early parts of the downswing.

With the HackMotion device, you can measure your rotation, check for consistency in hand position, and perfect lead wrist flexion and extension throughout the entire swing. The lead wrist extension/flexion seems to be the main flaw for most golfers working on clubface control.

How Lead Wrist Extension/Flexion Influences the Club and the Clubface

The better the position you can get your lead wrist in throughout the golf swing, the easier it is to control the clubface of your golf club.

Impact on the Clubface

  • More wrist flexion has a tendency to close the clubface, pointing it downwards and towards the target.
  • More wrist extension has a tendency to open the clubface, pointing it upwards and away from the target.
wrist extension and flexion explained in golf

Impact on the Club Path

  • More wrist flexion in transition has a tendency to shallow the club, moving the club’s center of mass more behind the player.
  • More wrist extension in transition tends to steepen the club, moving the club’s center of mass more in front of the player.
full swing shallow steep
full swing shallow steep

Poor Clubface Control vs. Great Clubface Control

If you are a visual learner and need to see what these poor wrist angles in the swing can do to your clubface control, you are in the right place. Here are some examples of poor vs. proper clubface control in golf.

Look at how the player below lifts his hands, cups the wrists, and then pulls on the handle during the transition – he gets into a position he cannot recover from, and he cannot rotate his body as effectively.

This is obviously an extreme case, but this is a frequent issue for many golfers. As you can see from this type of a position, clubface control is nearly impossible.

bad example clubface control
good example clubface control

Tommy Fleetwood is a prime example of proper wrist mechanics, and as a result, he has incredible clubface control. If you watch Fleetwood’s position, the most important thing to see is his ability to rotate through a golf shot.

This additional rotation creates speed and consistency that some golfers are not able to achieve because they don’t have the proper wrist mechanics. Without these mechanics in place, you are stuck at impact trying to correct the clubface angle.

Pro Tour player wrist action in golf swing

How to Improve Clubface Control?

There are a few key steps to improving clubface control.

First, you will want to set up with the club in a square or neutral positon. This is something all golfers should be doing when they set up to hit a shot. Try to get as neutral a grip as possible at the start of your setup.

Once you have mastered that, the key thing to work on in your golf swing is the wrist flexion and extension. You can use the HackMotion audio feedback tool, combined with these recommended ranges, to get these motions down.

Recommended Lead Wrist Extension Ranges

benchmarks table

What are recommendations based on?

These recommendations are developed from tour player wrist data analysis.

This pattern can help the absolute majority of golfers to improve clubface control and become more consistent and accurate.

PGA Tour coach Jake Thurm suggests up to 90% of golfers would benefit from this technique. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Tommy Fleetwood have a similar wrist motion. Now you can learn it as well!

Using HackMotion Audio Feedback to Master Clubface Control

Golfers standing on the range practicing are often not working on clubface control. The reason behind this is that they have no way of working on it! Clubface control is difficult to work on without the use of a device like HackMotion.

The HackMotion audio feedback tool allows you real-time access to your wrist data and where you may have room for some improvement.

Reinholds focus mode learn correct wrist motion

Step 1:

Take a few swings to measure the wrist movement.

Pay close attention to the differences between extension (cupping) at address, the top of the backswing, and during the transition. For example, the player has a 20 degree difference in extension, 30 degrees at address, and 50 degrees at the top. Decreasing the extension at the top of the swing can make squaring the clubface easier.

Step 2:

Set the audio feedback range for wrists based on your data.

Step 3:

Test the audio feedback and get used to it. Move your wrist around so that you can get comfortable with the audio feedback.

Step 4:

Do slow rehearsals with real-time audio feedback. After you get used to the new feel, take some full speed swings.

Step 5:

Continue to monitor progress. We all have slight changes that occur in our swings, and you don’t want the position of the golf club in your golf swing to end up in a position it shouldn’t be.

Regularly check in on how you are doing to see the best results. HackMotion is a tool that you can use for your entire golf career.

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Final Thoughts

The secret to clubface control is in the wrists. If you can master the wrists in the golf swing using HackMotion, you will have a clubface that is square at impact. A square clubface means you can work on increasing power and getting the distance that you want out of your game.

All it takes is a little time on the range, the right technology, and the understanding of what goes into having a square clubface.

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