Understanding & Creating Lag in Your Golf Swing (And How to Improve Yours)

What amateur players think lag is and what lag actually is (or feels like) are very often two different things.

Lag plays a big part in your transition from backswing to downswing. It also plays into your ability to make clean contact with the ball. Working on creating lag is not always the easiest task.

After analyzing more than 1,000,000 golf swings with HackMotion, we learned quite a few things about properly creating lag in the golf swing.

Understanding Lag (Key Takeaways)

Take some time to read our entire guide on lag, but if you need a quick takeaway, here’s what you should know.

• Effective lag is achieved through the correct sequence of pressure shift into the lead foot, hip, and chest unwinding and club falling behind and shallowing.
• Understanding wrist movements – extension, flexion, radial, and ulnar deviation – is crucial. Excessive extension (cupping) in the lead wrist should be avoided as it leads to an open clubface and decreases the amount and effectiveness of lag.
• Many golfers incorrectly try to increase radial deviation (wrist hinge) during the downswing, thinking it creates better lag; however, this is not an effective way to increase lag.
• Body rotation during the downswing is essential for maintaining lag and ensuring a powerful, controlled impact.
• Using technology like HackMotion can help golfers understand and improve their wrist angles, leading to better lag control and overall swing performance.

What do I Need to Understand to Create Lag

In golf, “lag” refers to the angle created between the lead forearm and the club shaft during the downswing. What it feels like to amateurs is a golf club that “lags” behind as you transition through the golf ball.

Maintaining this lag allows for a whip-like action in the clubhead, leading to increased clubhead speed and greater distance. Proper lag also contributes to better timing and sequencing of the swing, ensuring a more efficient transfer of energy to the ball at impact.

The Common Myth that Exists about Lag in Golf

Lag is not this “Sergio Garcia” perceived move that many think it is. It is not an increase in the wrist hinge down from the top. Lag is simply allowing the club head to fall behind the hands.

It is more about proper sequencing in the downswing and allowing you to move into the ball correctly and powerfully.

The problem, as I see it with the “Sergio Factor,” is this.

Many times, when we see pictures or video of Sergio, or any other professional for that matter, they seem to be increasing their wrist hinge, or radial deviation, on the downswing. This is how we see it from a face on view. This often creates an illusion.

Golfers like Sergio allow the proper sequence to happen on the transition down. They are allowing the clubhead to fall behind the hands or shallow out. You can see this if you look from a down-the-line view. Professionals very rarely increase the wrist angle, or their radial deviation, on the downswing.

The proper sequence of actions on the downswing and through impact is as follows…

• Pressure Shift Into Lead Foot
• Hips Start to Unwind, and Clear
• Chest Starts to Unwind
• Hands Narrow
• Club Falls Behind and Shallow’s
• Clubhead Moves into the Ball at Impact with the Proper Shaft Lean

The body will slow down a bit, allowing the energy to transfer into the clubhead as it approaches impact.

How the Wrists Move in the Golf Swing

To fully understand how the movement of your wrists impacts lag, you should understand these basic facts about wrist motion in the golf swing.

• Wrist Extension – The movement of the back of the hand towards the top of your forearm.
• Wrist Flexion – The movement of your palm towards the underside of your forearm.
• Wrist Radial Deviation – The side movement of your wrist towards your Radius bone.
• Wrist Ulnar Deviation – The side movement of your wrist towards your Ulna bone.

When you attempt to increase your lag angle on the downswing, you will inevitably need to add extension in the lead wrist.

Again, extension is the cupping of your wrist. There are better situations than this as you move down and into impact. Too much extension in your lead wrist at impact will lead to an open clubface.

The goal moving into impact is to have a flat lead wrist and a complete release of your lag angle.

The flat lead wrist leads to control of the clubface and straighter shots. The full release of the lag angle leads to proper shaft lean at impact. Having a slightly flexed lead wrist at impact will have the same end results.

That shaft lean is a necessity in compressing the ball at impact.

Tips for a Better Transition in the Downswing and Maintaining Lag

To create and maintain good lag on the downswing, you need to work on a few things.

• Sequencing on the Downswing.
• Body Rotation on the Downswing.
• Flexion in Your Lead Wrist at Impact.

Your Sequencing on the Downswing

A great drill for working on your sequencing on the downswing can be seen below.

This drill will help you get a feel for what the proper order is as you move into the ball at impact. Doing this will get that shaft lean that is necessary for crisp shots.

Your Body Rotation on the Downswing

A great drill for getting a feel for the proper body rotation during the downswing can be found in this video below from the guys at Athletic Motion.

The importance of drills is getting you to FEEL something you do not currently do.

In golf, practicing things that feel foreign or uncomfortable, primarily when directed by a reputable coach, often means that you are well on your way to improvement. Making positive changes requires you to feel something different.

Flatten or Even Add Flexion in Your Lead Wrist at Impact with HackMotion

When a golfer attempts to increase their wrist hinge on the way down, they ultimately will need to extend or cup that lead wrist. As pointed out, this is a no-no and leads to an improper impact position.

Using HackMotion and working on your wrist angles, especially keeping your lead wrist flat or slightly bowed as you swing into impact, is a great way to achieve the lag you are searching for.

Check out this video from PGA coach Rob Cheney to learn how to work on a good lead wrist position at impact, using HackMotion.

What the Professionals Can Teach Us

Pro vs. Amateur lag is quite different. As you may imagine, the professionals do a really good job of letting the proper wrist angels take over and moving through the ball with the correct sequence of events.

Sometimes, seeing the difference between what the professionals do and what amateur players do is all you need to create more lag in your golf swing.

This video by Athletic Motion Golf shows you exactly what professionals are doing to create lag, and the great news is that you don’t have to be hyper-flexible or even in great shape to do it.

The two key points to take here show us:

• Wrist angles control the clubface angle.
• Lead arm position relative to your shoulders can create and improve lag.

How Wrist Angles Control the Clubface

Using Hackmotion wrist data, we see that pros are much better at closing the clubface and squaring early, typically just after the transition. Amateurs often have a very open clubface late in the downswing.

Flat wrist by delivery (shaft horizontal before impact). Not all grips are the same, so stronger grips might be slightly extended, weaker grips more flexed, but on average, pro wrists are quite close to flat.

Analyzing Pro vs. Amateur Data

Take a look at the graph below. One simple data chart from the HackMotion sensor shows the clear difference between an amateur player and a pro. The graph view shows wrist extension/flexion throughout the swing.

The solid green line represents a typical amateur swing. Notice how starting from the top of the backswing, they typically increase the extension (cupping) in their lead wrist (the peak in the green line) and then sharply try to decrease it.

This typically happens when players try to add lag to their swing and do not realize they are opening the clubface instead.

The green dotted line represents Tour players. As we clearly see, the player is not increasing the extension (cupping). Instead, starting from the top, he gradually flexes (bows) the wrist until impact.

Drill to Create Lag in Golf

One of the best drills to create lag in golf is to swing with just one arm. Take a look at this video from Clay Ballard Golf as he explains how you can finally feel, and see how lag works in your swing.

Pay close attention to wrist angles while doing this. You will see the extension in the lead wrist, which must be kept to a minimum if you want to create a lag in the swing.

Summary

Lag in golf is still a difficult-to-understand concept, but with HackMotion, you can get your wrist angles in the proper position and finally control your swing sequence.

Practice with your HackMotion and examine whether your extended wrist position is causing you to lose out on lag in your golf swing.