The Correct Wrist Set Simplifies Your Golf Swing

Mike Malaska, Golf Digest Legends of Golf Instruction, explains how Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, and Jack Nicklaus set their wrists in their golf swings but also clarifies how he recommends amateurs to set their wrists.

Wrist hinge in the golf swing can be confusing, but leave it to a legend to clarify the confusion and simplify your swing so you can enjoy the game more.

Whether you set your wrists early or late, there is an optimal way for your wrists to work to hit the ball more consistently.

Thanks for watching!

00:00 Title
00:40 Hand Action
01:42 How Your Hands Work
02:43 Benefits of Early Writs Hinge
04:23 When DJ, Tiger and Jack Set Their Wrists
06:26 Which One Is Right???

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Don’t just play golf. Understand it.

MIKE MALASKA TEACHING CREDENTIALS
Golf Digest Legend of Golf Instruction
2011 National PGA Teacher of the Year
2021-2022 Golf Magazine Top 100 Teachers in America (Lifetime Achievement)
2020-2021 Golf Digest 50 Best Teachers in America
TaylorMade National Advisory Board Member, 2020-Current
PGA Class-A Member since 1996
Honma US Advisory Board, 2019-2020
Worldwide Director of Instruction at Nicklaus Golf Academies
2017 PGA Southwest Section Teacher of The Year
25 years as a Jack Nicklaus Academies Trainer & Instructor
2017 GRAA Growth of the Game Teaching Professionals Elite Member
TaylorMade National Advisory Board Member, 2015-2018
2016 GRAA Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professionals
Southwest Section Senior Player of the Year
TaylorMade/Adidas Instructional Consultant
Former Director of Instruction at Superstition Mountain Golf & CC,
Superstition Mountain, AZ

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The correct wrist set is very important relative to getting your body to move the way it’s supposed to and the club to be able to run into the ball with the least amount of compensations so if you’re struggling with your golf swing how you use your hands and how you

Set your wrists if you want to call it that really is what drives most of your golf swing so what’s right what’s wrong how do you do it what are they trying trying to do when do you set them early do you set them late what’s going on

Well let’s talk about first hand action what you want now there’s two ideas about hand action one is that hands work this way boom boom and rotate I spent most of my professional career doing that struggled big time with it I prefer not to do that I don’t do it anymore I

Didn’t do it when I started and I was really good at controlling the golf ball so when I as I studied the body and how it works and how joints work relative to a golf swing you really don’t want this Bo this wrist and trying to do this I

Mean that that’s very difficult to control the face it’s a way to do it but it’s very difficult to control the face so how do your hands let’s talk about how they work first quick reminder here like And subscribe to our YouTube channel and go to the comments and tell

Me about where you are with wrist hinge and what you’re seeing and what helps you and what you’ve seen other players and what you’ve heard and what maybe your questions are that really helps me to understand where the industry and where people are so I can help you even

More with what we put out on YouTube so your left hand should be on the club here not over here so it’s here then there joints line up the way they naturally want to line up plus that’s a strong hit that that kind of hit is very

Strong so you see what my wrist is doing so this wrist basically when I put it on this one is just going like that I go back I come down I hit and then it works over here like this this hand is going this way now what it isn’t doing is twisting

This way so my palm is facing there I go back I come down and then it hits and then it goes that way so if I put those two together my hands are working this way what they’re not doing is they’re not twisting coming down and then twisting going through that’s too hard

To time plus it doesn’t fit how these joints work all right now let’s talk about the benefit of hinging your wrist early or what that does or doesn’t do to your golf swing all right so if I set up here and I start the club back and I

Start it back and I lever my wrists early like this well what that’s doing is when I lever my wrist early it’s driving this handle down or it’s keeping it level what does that help in a golf swing most people when they take the club away they

Take the club away the handle goes out and the club head goes back here behind them and your shoulders turn really flat so if I set up here and I lever the club the way I do it so I start it back and I go like this I’m driving the

Handle down which is pushing my left shoulder down which pushes my right shoulder and my right hip up so all of a sudden boom now my whole body is turn correctly because of what I’m doing with the grip end of the club now I prefer that my wrists hinge fairly

Early I don’t like to wait wait wait and then try to hinge them up here now I’ve done that in my career the downside when I did that is when I would hinge him at the top when I would load the club I’d get different amounts of load and I’d

Get a little bit different wrist angles and so I didn’t have as much control of the ball sometimes I could could hit one that’ go forever and then not so good so I want my wrist to be set way before I make my change of directions where’s my change of

Directions right here is where I start to change directions so I want my wrist to be set by the time my left arm is parallel to the ground which is where most tour players are now if we look at these Players let’s take Jack Nicholas probably arguably the best player who’s

Ever played so what did he do well Jack he he had a little forward press and then he had a little wrist hinge but then basically when he got right here he wanted to feel a lot of extension and his right hand on top of the club at

This point then as the club broke up then his wrist hands and they were set here and he would come down into the ball you know so he liked the feeling of that floating and then setting the club really hard at the top which put a lot

Of pressure into the shaft now there’s one way to do it now if you look at Tiger Tiger’s kind of in the middle so tiger gets set up and he starts back and his wrists are pretty much fully HED right about here he doesn’t set him early he doesn’t set him late they’re

Kind of just constantly and by the time his left arm gets parallel to the ground he set his wrist to where they’re going to be at the top now you look at somebody like Dustin Johnson let’s take him for a minutes what does he do Dustin has a strong grip

Then he forward presses and he starts the Club back like that his wrists are set before he even moves the club back so he’s here and he goes here and then he goes there and then he just turns back and goes so that’s one of the earliest wrist Setters he does that

Because he likes the feel of having his wrist right there where he wants them back at impact and where he wants him at the top of his swing and then he just turns up and turns back and hits it what I’d like for you to do go to molas

Golf.com go to the website get on it get to the m system go to M2 and we start to talk about the lever System Watch How I use my hands watch all the drills to learn how to use your wrist and how the face works if you get that part down

Which is hand action and face control you’re going to be a much better player than you are right now I don’t care what level you’re at which one’s right it’s an individual thing coming from me watching hundreds of thousands of amateurs late wrist set turns into all

Kinds of weird stuff so if I can get you to set up and get your wrist to work correctly now we’re going to talk about that in a minute if I get your wrist good right here and then you just turn back and turn down into the ball so you

Go get your wrist good you go up you come down and hit it it’s amazing how much more control you have of the club now when I say Wrist set this left wrist I start here when I set my wrist it it levers but this is flat so if I

Try to pull on my wrist I can’t pull it this way anymore it’s solid if there’s a cup in this Wrist all of a sudden you see what I can do to it well in a golf swing when you set your wrist when you get to the top and you change direction

If this wrist has a cup in it when you change directions it it takes all the there’s no pressure put into the shaft plus the face opens now if I’m solid like that and I change directions because this joint is so solid when I change directions it puts load into and

Loads the shaft and gives me more explosion into the ball so you watch most the tour players now most all of them by the time they’re right here this is flat some get a little cut but when they’re up here then they do this then they Bowl their wrist when when they

Change directions they bow their wrist because that stabilizes the club and gives them more control of the club through the ball so looking at that again I’m here I go like that now this is important for you to watch this because what I’m not doing is going like this you see the

Label on this glove it’s not going up this way if anything it’s it’s turning where I can’t see the label the old players a lot of them used to talk about these last three fingers of their left hand rolling the club underneath well all that’s doing is it’s

Setting your left wrist and getting the club face where it’s not wide open all right so how you use your hands determines what’s going to happen with the face what you have to do to catch the face up how you set your wrist sets into how your shoulders are going

To want to move how your hips are going to want to move so the correct hand action the correct wrist set is very important relative to getting your body to move the way it’s supposed to and the club to be able to run into the ball with the least amount

Of compensations so that early wrist set correctly with the hands not just set them but set them correctly is huge relative to your performance in the game