Vertical Hinging

I was practicing pitching last night with a vertical hinge...

It seems to me that it's very hard to have a flat left wrist at impact at vertical hinge...

My wrist wanted to bend. Is this normal?

Originally Posted by rwh

Originally Posted by birdie_man I was practicing pitching last night with a vertical hinge...

It seems to me that it's very hard to have a flat left wrist at impact at vertical hinge...

My wrist wanted to bend. Is this normal?

Since Hinge Action does not involve bending/unbending or cocking/uncocking of the wrist, it has to be improper execution. There are many reasons why you may be doing it -- bent plane line, trying to help the ball into the air, monitoring the clubface. But for a cure, go back to your Basic Motion in front of a mirror and monitor your hands -- first with hands only, then with a paddle, then with a dowel and then with a club without a ball and then with a club and ball.

Something that I noticed in working on this is the tendency to try to "hold" the vertical hinge at Impact. Mr. Kelley noted two things in this regard: first, we should make no allowance for Impact; and, second it is much easier to move the hands into a position that to hold the hands in a position. Yoda gave me this tip for executing any kind of hinging and it is really a good drill for using with Basic Motion: Notice where the palm should be facing at followthrough. Then, from the "top" of the Basic Motion backswing, simply make the motion that will get your palm into that position.

For Vertical Hinging, the left palm will be facing down at the followthrough. Don't pay any attention to Impact -- just move into that followthrough position. It works for all hinges.

Another Yoda tip: for short shots using vertical hinging, have your left hand in just the opposite position at the "top" as you want it at followthrough -- i.e., palm up at the top, palm down at followthrough.

But, always --- monitor the hands and never the clubface.

Hope that helps you, Paul.

RWH,

Hall of Fame post on Hinging! Related question . . .

I understand that there is different "travel" for each Hinge Motion with Horizontal having the most "travel." But . . . At what point does Hinge Action begin and at what point does it end? Start down to Follow-through? Release-Point to Follow-through? And does this differ for Hitters and Swingers?

Thanks!

Bucket

Birdie man...if you are going to take a fairly big swing and vertical hinge it, the natural motion is for the left wrist to bend quickly.

If you want the "hinge" video of tomasello and watch him demonstrate the vertical hinge you'll see how the left wrist bends quickly as the swing becomes longer.

I try to stay away from vertical hinging for the most part - I do like to practice it on pitch shots as I go through the three hinge actions. There's really not much you can do with a vertical hinge that you can't do with an angled hinge. What full shots would benefit from the introduction of a vertical hinge instead of an angled hinge?

For the short shots, the shaft/ground angle gets steeper as the lie angle of the club increases. This alone will play around with the closing and layback properties of the angled hinge. It will become more "layback" and less "closing." When putting, an angled hinge is very close to a vertical hinge, and completely without the deliberate muscular manipulation that always accompanies vertical hinging.

With 60 degree lob wedges....one rarely needs to use a vertical hinge.....maybe sand shots!!!

DG

So what's the consensus then?

Open clubface + Angled Hinge for a Lob, rather than Vertical Hinging w/ a square clubface?

Originally Posted by birdie_man So what's the consensus then?

Open clubface + Angled Hinge for a Lob, rather than Vertical Hinging w/ a square clubface?

Depends on the shot/lie requirements. Certainly a verticle hinge shot is risky from a tight lie and an angled hinge lob may not be 'soft' enough for a tight pin out of thick rough when you need to 'float' the ball as high as possible. 'most' of the time angled hinge is by far the better percentage shot for a lob

During impact:

the "vertical hinge" adds loft (vertical angle) to the clubface with the minimal change to its horizontal angle, which I use for higher trojectory and leaking/weaker shots (really tight lob or sand, high pitching, high slice w/open stance), or putting sometimes.

the "horizontal hinge" reduces loft (vertical angle) to the clubface with tremendous change to its horizontal angle, which I use for lower trojectory and compressing/stronger shots (regular full shot, draw, hook). No short games, BTW.

the "angled hinge" does the least manipulation to the clubface angles (both vertical and horizontal), which I use for (regular) putting, chipping, sand, punching, or fade.

For an extremely low trajectory shot, I do "reverse vertical hinge or hooding", which reduces the vertical angel of the clubface during impact, yet maintains its horizontal angle.

Originally Posted by bts During impact:

the "horizontal hinge" reduces loft (vertical angle) to the clubface with tremendous change to its horizontal angle, which I use for lower trojectory and compressing/stronger shots (regular full shot, draw, hook).

Neither Horizontal (Only) Hinge nor Dual Horizontal Hinge has any effect on reducing clubface loft. In fact, none of the three Basic Hinge Actions reduces the loft of clubface, i.e. no hooding motion.