Good Hands!

Plenty of instruction emphasizes the big muscles of the upper torso. But if creating aa powerful coil is challenging for you, allow your hands and wrists to take some of the responsibility for creating power. And even if limited flexibility isn't an issue, good hand action helps keep your swing on line and your clubface square. Here's how to make it happen.

WRISTS ONLY

Effective hand action is deceptively simple. To isolate the movements, take your address, and then, without moving your arms, shoulders or body, lift the club toward your head using only your wrists. That's a full wrist cock, and it happens between address and the top of the swing. Now lower the clubhead back to the ball. You've just made the same un-cocking motion that occurs as the club comes into impact. Lift it back up; that's your wrists re-cocking as they should do in the follow-through.

HALF-SWING

To incorporate the wrist cock into a swinging motion, stick a tee in the grip end of a 5 iron and tee the ball up. From address, swing the club back until the hands reach hip-height with your wrists fully cocked. You'll know that your wrists are properly cocked if the tee in the grip points directly at the ball. If not, there's likely been too little or too much hinging. Once you get into the proper position, swing through impact until the hands are at hip-height in the follow-through. Again, the wrists should be fully cocked with the tee in the grip pointing directly where the ball was. Hitting these two marks also keeps your clubhead swinging straight down the target line.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

IINcorporate good hand action into your full swing by extending the half-swing drill. Start swinging the club back and forth from shoulder-high to shoulder-high. Without losing the emphasis on the hand action, gradually lengthen the swing of your arms each time until it is full. Now you're maximizing the power of your hands and wrists to give your swing some added pop.