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The great Henry Cotton always stressed the importance of ‘educating the hands’, and for me he nailed the essence of the swing. Down the ages, the game’s greatest players have all made the same basic movement (i.e. a body turn coupled with a wrist hinge); they play with a hand action that both conducts and multiplies the energy created by the body all the way down through the shaft and into the clubhead.
It’s no coincidence that the greatest names in golf have all shared a wonderful hand action – Ben Hogan illustrating perhaps better than any other golfer the value of hand/wrist and forearm rotation in maximising the ‘whip’ through the ball. Britain’s greatest ever golfer, Nick Faldo, is often cited as a ‘mechanical’ player who relies on the ‘big’ muscles in the swing; truth is, Faldo’s hand action has always been his greatest asset. Good players understand the principle of centrifugal force and they maximise the efficiency with which they rotate their body to create it. More importantly, they translate this force into clubhead speed thanks to this vital component of the swing – hand action.
Modern teaching has increasingly focused on the role of the bigger muscles in the body, which misses the point entirely as far as the weekend golfer is concerned. Golf is a speed game, not a power game. And you do not create speed with the big muscles, you create speed with the smaller muscles in the hands and forearms. So, with that in mind, let me introduce you to a series of drills to help you improve your hand action. With practice, they will enhance your ability to create a naturally correct swing that maximises speed.