Shaft Lean at Impact: A Comprehensive Guide to Better Swings
You probably have the general idea that having a forward shaft lean at impact is important.
Why?
The shaft lean at impact is what allows you to keep the clubface square through impact for the longest period of time. If you had the option for a longer square clubface, wouldn’t it make it easier to hit straight shots?
Absolutely. The problem is that most amateurs try to achieve more shaft lean at impact the wrong way. After analyzing more than 1,000,000 golf swings using the HackMotion device, we have learned exactly how to get the shaft in the right place at impact.
Shaft Lean at Impact – Key Takeaways
- Shaft lean at impact is necessary to compress the ball, maximize distance, and get the ball flight that you are looking for.
- A slight shaft lean at setup will help you return to this position again at impact.
- The amount of flexion or bowing in your lead wrist at impact will directly translate into additional shaft lean.
- The lead wrist is more flexed at impact than it is at address, meaning the club handle will actually be a bit higher and the lead wrist a bit more bowed than it is at address.
- Proper swing sequence and timing are necessary to maintain shaft lean at address.
- Working on your golf swing by wearing the HackMotion and swinging in slow motion is a great way to improve shaft lean at impact.
Contents
1. What do you want to improve in your full swing?
Most Common Mistakes in Creating Shaft Lean at Impact
I’ll give amateur golfers credit in that most do understand that the shaft being forward at address is important. All it takes is one or two small chips around the green to realize that this is really the only position for the golf club that makes sense.
However, there are still a lot of mistakes that happen when players try to create shaft lean at impact.
Too Much Shaft Lean at Address
A little bit of shaft lean at address is great. However, if you add too much shaft lean, you will do damage to your swing. Place the hands slightly in front of the golf ball. Check your address position continually by using the HackMotion device.
HackMotion records wrist data at address, and you can use this to see if you are creating a consistent address position.
Hinging Too Quickly in the Backswing
Hinging is where golfers get confused with their wrist action in their golf swing. One of the best golf swing tips I can give you when it comes to hinging is to let this happen naturally. Instead, focus on the right arm’s position and the right wrist staying bent.
You will get to a much better place at the top of the backswing if you focus on that as opposed to a hinge right off the bat.
Too Much Extension at the Top of the Backswing
At the top of the backswing, many amateur players have added too much extension in their wrists. From this position, it’s hard to square the clubface, and shaft lean is probably not going to happen.
Look at players like Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, and Dustin Johnson to see how they have more flexion than extension at the top of their backswing. Although we all don’t have the same wrist flexibility or grip position that they do, getting your position at the top to have less extension is the goal.
Improper Wrist Action Throughout the Swing
Wrist action, in general, is often overlooked by amateur golfers as it can be a little difficult to understand at first. When using HackMotion, you can quickly learn the proper patterns that all great players are using and apply them to your swing.
There is no perfect wrist angle or wrist position in golf. The shape of your hands, wrists, arms, body, and individual playing styles comes into play here.
However, learning proper wrist action and then developing it with HackMotion training will absolutely lead to more shaft lean at impact.
How to Create More Shaft Lean at Impact
The video with Eric Cognoro and Jess Frank shows us exactly how to create more shaft lean at impact without going about this in a way that creates additional issues in your swing.
I’ll break down this process for you so that you can understand how to recreate it in your golf game.
Step 1: Recognize the Difference Between Horizontal and Vertical Motions
At first, you should be able to recognize horizontal and vertical motions. As Cogorno demonstrates in the video, there is a clear difference between the motion wrist hinging and bending create.
- Wrist hinge (adding radial deviation) moves the shaft vertically.
- Bending the wrists back and forth (extension / flexion) moves the shaft horizontally.
The bending of the wrists is the key motion you should be optimizing for. With this bending (extension/flexion) of the wrists, you can control the clubface; the wrist hinge does not provide this same amount of control.
If you are looking for additional explanation on how wrist motion affects the golf swing, read about the role of wrist angles here.
Step 2: Know What Proper Shaft Lean Looks Like
If you have ever seen a golfer set up with a big forward press of their hands, you know they probably don’t fully understand how this whole shaft lean thing works. Yes, the shaft should be pushed forward slightly at address and again at impact, but the motion is not necessarily exaggerated.
At impact, the hands are pushed just forward enough of the head that they are more in line with your lead leg. In addition, you will notice that the flattening and the bowing of the wrists is more important than the hinge of the wrist.
Setup to hit a shot and then rotate forward to the position you will be at impact. You should notice that your left wrist didn’t hinge at all; in fact, all it did was bow a little more, decreasing even more of the extension.
This is a good position to practice when trying to get a feel for what proper shaft lean looks like.
Step 3: Understanding the Wrist Hinge
As you swing a golf club back, your wrists will hinge. This motion helps to give some of the vertical plane that we need in the swing. However, the hinge is not what you should be focusing on in order to create shaft lean.
Instead, you need a repeatable pattern for flexion and extension.
The lead wrist should lose a certain amount of extension during the swing. Whether the lead wrist should be completely flat at impact depends on your grip strength (stronger grips have more lead wrist extension throughout the swing).
The advice from Cogorno is in line with a common tour player pattern. Based on HackMotion data and insights from the world’s leading golf coaches and top players, we have been able to identify that pros do 2 things to control the clubface:
- Maintain stable extension from address to top.
- Consistently decrease wrist extension before reaching impact.
On average, pros decrease extension by around 20-25 degrees from top to impact. By removing the extension, pros also get their hands ahead of the ball at impact.
Step 4: The Role of the Body
At HackMotion, we deal a lot with the wrists and how they can do so much to control the clubface and improve consistency in your golf game. However, the legs and lower body rotation play a huge part in all of this.
If you can get your wrist extension so it remains stable from the address position to the top of your swing and then decrease on its way down to impact, you will be able to use your body to fire through impact.
For golfers that forget to incorporate the lower body, the core, and the hips, the consistency and the power just won’t be there.
The body plays a huge role in everything you do in golf. Start your golf swing with some lower body rotation, and you will find that it’s easier to get the club to a flatter position at the top of your backswing.
Once in that position, fire through to the target, and your clubface should be square.
Drills to Get the Perfect Amount of Shaft Lean
There are a variety of drills and training aids out there in order to get more shaft lean at impact.
One of the most famous options is an impact bag. With the impact bag, you get resistance at impact, which helps you see where your wrists should be.
We like to take a bit more of a technology-based approach to this and use the HackMotion audio feedback to perfect the amount of shaft lean at the address.
Step 1: Determine the Baseline
Start by hitting 10 to 15 shots with a club like a 7 iron while wearing your HackMotion device. As you practice, the data will record.
Step 2: Compare Your Numbers
There are two things to look for when improving shaft lean at address.
- How much extension did you add in your lead wrist from the setup position to the top of the backswing?
- How much less extended are you at impact than you were at address?
If you have not added much extension from setup to the top, that’s great. Move on to what is going on through impact. Professional golfers have less extension at impact than they do at address.
Not adding extension as you take the club back only makes it easier to decrease it as you move through impact.
For example, if you start with 15 degrees extension and get to 30 at the top of your backswing, now you need to do a lot of work with your wrists to get down to 15 or, ideally, 0 as you get through impact.
If, instead, your backswing gets you from 15 degrees extension to 14 degrees extension, your work on the downswing is much easier and leaves you a chance to get to the point of flexion.
Step 3: Set Your Ranges for Audio Feedback
Now that you have your data and can see where your faults are, set the HackMotion audio feedback to get your wrist angle in range. The HackMotion will make a noise indicating that you are in the proper range; simply swing so that you can continually hear that noise.
This real-time feedback is unique in the golf industry, and although it can be a bit frustrating to change your wrist angles at first, if you stick with it, the results are impressive.
Slow Motion Swing Drill
Mr.Short Game put together a great training video to help promote more shaft leat at impact. With this drill, you will wear your HackMotion device and take very slow and exaggerated swings to increase shaft lean at address.
How will you know you have created more lean at address?
If your lead wrist is flat or slightly flexed, you are creating shaft lean at address. With HackMotion, you can set the range so that you are alerted anytime the wrist positions are incorrect.
As you slow down the motion, you can increase your speed and try to maintain the same feeling. Go back and forth between fast and slow to get the proper feeling of flexion at impact and forward shaft lean.
FAQs
How much forward shaft lean should you have at impact?
At impact, it is best to have your hands in front of the ball, your lead wrist in a flexed position, and your hands in line with your lead leg.
Why can’t I get a forward shaft lean in my golf swing?
Most golfers that struggle with forward shaft lean in golf also struggle with too much extension in their lead wrist; this often leads to an open clubface. As you are moving through impact, the tendency is to flip the club and close the face, but that motion adds extension instead of flexion.
Should you have a forward shaft lean with driver?
Excessive shaft lean in a driver is a problem. However, you won’t want your hands to be behind the ball at impact, either. Very little or almost no shaft lean is acceptable, but don’t reverse this concept and take the hands behind the ball with the driver.
Does forward shaft lean increase distance?
Forward shaft lean can increase distance because the clubface is square and the golf ball is compressed. There is no benefit to exaggerating forward shaft lean; at some point, you will deloft the club so much it loses forgiveness and ball flight.
Final Thoughts
At this point, you should understand why your golf swing has had issues with shaft lean at impact. If you have been thinking about this concept incorrectly, you are certainly not the only one.
Shaft lean at impact takes a bit of time to learn, and the best way to do so is by working with the HackMotion device. Those wrist angles at address, the top of the backswing, and impact give us so much insight into why a golf ball does what it does.
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