Understanding & Creating Lag in Your Golf Swing: Proven Tips & Drills for Compression

Lag is one of the key ingredients that separates great ball strikers from average ones.

It’s the angle created between your lead arm and the club shaft during the transition, and it directly affects how much power and compression you can generate.

After analyzing more than 1,000,000 swings with the HackMotion wrist sensor, we’ve learned that wrist action plays a central role in creating and maintaining lag.

If you’re looking to add lag, strike the ball more solidly, and pick up extra yardage, the following tips and drills will give you a clear path forward.

Creating Lag in The Golf Swing (Key Takeaways)

If you don’t have time to read our guide on understanding lag, here are the most important things to remember.

• Lag requires proper sequencing: pressure into the lead foot, unwinding hips, chest rotation, and a shallowing club.
• Avoid excessive cupping (extension) in the lead wrist to prevent an open clubface and ineffective lag.
• Adding radial deviation (wrist hinge) during the downswing is ineffective for increasing lag in the golf swing.
• Body rotation during the downswing is essential for maintaining lag and ensuring a powerful, controlled impact.
• HackMotion provides real-time feedback and drills on wrist angles to improve lag control and swing performance.

Understanding Lag in the Golf Swing

Lag is the angle between your lead forearm and the club shaft during the downswing. For most amateurs, it feels like the club is trailing behind the hands as you approach impact.

When maintained correctly, lag creates a whip-like effect, adding clubhead speed, distance, and a more efficient transfer of energy into the ball.

But here’s the key: lag is not something you force by aggressively hinging your wrists.

That’s one of the most common myths in golf, often fueled by photos of players like Sergio Garcia that appear to show more wrist hinge in the downswing.

In reality, professionals aren’t adding hinge, they’re sequencing correctly. The club shallows naturally, which makes it look like more radial deviation from certain camera angles.

How to Create Lag in the Golf Swing

Lag is created when the clubhead trails behind the hands on the downswing, storing energy that can be released at impact.

More lag means more compression, distance, and control—but it only works if the wrists and body are moving in sync.

For amateurs, the challenge is learning to keep the wrists stable while sequencing the downswing correctly. Below are the key ways to create lag, why they matter, and drills you can use to train them.

Control Wrist Extension at the Top

Too much lead wrist extension (cupping) at the top of the backswing makes it nearly impossible to deliver a strong, flexed wrist position at impact.

Professional players often reach the top with a flat or slightly bowed lead wrist, giving them a head start on maintaining lag through the downswing.

By getting the wrist angles correct earlier in the swing, you make it far easier to keep the club trailing behind your hands and release that stored energy at the right time.

Hinge at the Right Time

Wrist hinge (radial deviation) is necessary to create lag, but most amateurs either hinge too soon or exaggerate it. Both mistakes add extension (cupping) and leave the clubface open.

Proper lag isn’t about forcing hinge, it’s about allowing the wrists to hinge naturally as the body turns.

The key is timing: hinge gradually during the takeaway and set it fully by the time the club is parallel to the ground in the backswing.

A compact hinge helps you keep structure and prevents an overswing that bleeds away lag.

Maintain Flexion in the Downswing

The downswing is where most golfers lose lag. If the lead wrist stays extended, the club releases too early, causing weak contact and an open face.

To maintain lag, the lead wrist needs to move into flexion (bowing) as the body rotates toward the target.

This move keeps the clubface square, stores the lag angle, and allows the lower body to lead while the arms and club follow. The more consistent your flexion, the easier it is to compress the ball and deliver maximum power at impact.

Avoid Early Casting

Casting is one of the most common lag destroyers. Many golfers throw the club from the top, thinking it will create speed.

Instead, it releases the angle too early, costing both power and control. True lag comes from letting the lower body start the downswing while the arms and wrists trail behind.

This creates a delayed release, which delivers the stored energy right at impact. Learning to hold the angle longer, not throw it away, is the difference between a weak strike and a powerful one.

Other Ways to Build More Lag

While wrist mechanics are the foundation, lag also improves when your overall sequencing and setup are correct:

• Start with width: A wide takeaway gives you room to create lag later in the swing.
• Lead with the lower body: Initiating the downswing with the hips allows the club to fall into place and trail behind the hands.
• Stay relaxed in the arms: Tension kills lag, looser arms let the club “whip” through impact.
• Strength and mobility: Good forearm and wrist strength plus shoulder mobility make it easier to hold angles longer.

Final Thoughts

Creating and maintaining lag in your golf swing is essential for maximizing clubhead speed, achieving powerful ball striking, and controlling your shots.

Utilizing tools like HackMotion to provide real-time feedback allows you to fine-tune your wrist angles and ensures you’re on the right path toward more consistent and controlled shots.

The key is to take advantage of real-time feedback and data to improve your fundamentals and lower your scores.