The Rotary Swing Book

by Chuck Quinton

Watch "Arms vs. Body Release " Video
Macromedia Flash Player Required (Free Download)

Do You Release the Arms or the Body?
by Chuck Quinton

One of the things I often refer to in my lessons is to "release the body" and many golfer don't understand what is meant by this. There are two very basic ways of releasing the club to square the clubface. You either release the body through the shot or you release the arms. Understanding these two types of release dictates a great deal what type of things you need to work on in your golf swing.

In general, Rotary Swingers should release their body through the shot and Classical Swingers need to release their arms. Inside this video, we take a look at both.

Note the two photos above. In the left photo, this golfer has aggressively released his arms, hands and clubhead to square the face and you can see that at this point in the swing the clubface is very shut, or in a "toe down" position. This can create a great deal of speed but increases the demands on timing and hand eye coordination. The golf on the right has the butt of the club appearing to go right through his belly button and the clubhead is still directly in front of his chest. In order to square the club, he needs to continue rotating (ABT) his body and no excessive use of the hands and arms is necessary. When looking at your swing on video, see what disappears first, your hands or the clubhead. The aggressive hands and arms release will cause the clubhead to disappear in the next frame while the Rotary Swinger's body release will cause the hands to disappear, demonstrating a much quieter and more stable club head through impact.