One of the simple but most important parts of the golf swing (the backswing mainly) is how exactly you will set or hinge your wrists. Even though it is a small part of the swing, if it is done incorrectly, it can be detrimental to your game and swing and get you towards hitting a bad shot from the very beginning. So, let’s dive into the wrist hinge and get you hinging those wrists like you’ve always wanted to.
What is a “Bad” Wrist Hinge
The worst way that you can hinge your wrist in the golf swing would be what we call a “horizontal hinge,” meaning if you were to hold out your hand directly in front of you and hinge your wrist to the right (horizontally), this would put you into not only a lousy position but would also put you into a dangerous position that could damage your wrist joints in the process. Doing this type of hinge can also lead to the club head getting behind the hands in the backswing, which can promote an over-the-top or out-to-in move in the downswing.
What is a “Good” Wrist Hinge
If we can imagine that a bad wrist hinge would be considered horizontal, then what exactly would a good wrist hinge be? That’s right, vertical hinge. Hinging your wrists vertically or feeling like pulling your wrist back and towards you in the backswing allows you to properly hinge your wrists and put you in the best position to start your downswing.
Hinge the Wrists Correctly
If we think about it, the wrist hinge is simple for us to do as long as we can think about it in a simple way. All we’re trying to do in our backswing with the arms and wrists is hinge the wrists to about 70-80 percent of our max range of motion, allowing our arms to elevate, and allowing that trail arm to go into a little bit of bend. We don’t need to get overly technical about what it is that we’re trying to do in the backswing. We need the proper movements to get us into a position to swing the club efficiently. If you struggle with hinging your wrists consistently, check out our video below for an in-depth explanation of how you should be hinging your wrists and getting to the top of your backswing.
