By Shawn McConnon

July 22, 2022


Learn the Correct Way to Create Lag

A common misconception is golfers are trying to create and hold lag. Ideally, it's a byproduct of a good golf swing. 


No pro is swinging 115mph and holding lag. Otherwise they wouldn't be swinging that fast.


The folks at AMG do a great job at explaining this with real data.

How to Get Lag in Golf Swing Transcript

0:00

I don't think there is a day go by Sir

0:02

almost not a lesson that goes by where

0:04

the player coming in at some point in

0:07

the lesson talks about needing more lag

0:09

to compress the ball more something we

0:10

hear quite often I'm going to show you

0:12

not only how to create lag properly but

0:15

also how to use it more downswing which

0:17

is probably more important

0:21

right so at address we've got some built

0:24

in already because no you know not many

0:25

people set up like in a dead straight

0:26

line okay yeah so your belt buckle

0:28

that'll give you this offset angle here

0:30

the average is right around 135 degrees

0:32

if angle right there so you've already

0:33

got some lag angle okay built in yeah

0:36

this would be zero

0:38

we're about 135 exactly so as you go

0:40

back start shifting weight and getting

0:42

the club to swing the club will go back

0:45

continue to set it'll kind of max out

0:47

set kind of right here in transition

0:49

you'll get a little bit of load in the

0:51

wrist so that's your maximum lag angle

0:53

there's a window there of kind of the

0:55

progression of that it's going to

0:57

roughly be around 135-ish 140 is right

0:59

here it's set up to about 95 to 100 at

1:02

the Top If I keep my left wrist flat

1:05

and lag it that's not quite 90 degrees

1:08

with it flat now I can bend my wrist and

1:10

go way more which we don't want to do

1:11

right so you want to think about

1:12

creating this lag with a fairly flat

1:14

left wrist it's right around and there's

1:16

some Dynamic movement so there's exactly

1:18

it would change direction somewhere

1:19

around 95-ish degrees and some players

1:22

are going to do that earlier than others

1:24

and some players are going to kind of

1:25

delay it what we see from our amateur

1:28

golfers is when they delay it they'll

1:31

set it with the elbow elbow which is not

1:34

the correct way to do it yeah so they'll

1:35

they'll say I want to get a lot of width

1:37

early right they don't have this kind of

1:39

dynamic kind of setting motion as they

1:42

go to the top they'll do no set and

1:43

instead of setting the wrist they'll

1:45

bend their arms this way yeah it

1:47

actually unsets the it uncocks or it's

1:49

even worse and then there's so literally

1:51

in an effort to try to create width they

1:54

actually Rob themselves of lag right

1:56

that's lagging all that we're talking

1:57

about and really put themselves behind

1:59

the eight ball with how the arm moves

2:01

exactly okay so it's a gradual set game

2:04

roughly what's what's nice 25 from 135

2:06

40 degrees ish that's you're setting 40

2:10

degrees is from basically address to the

2:13

top of the swing of lagging

2:17

so from the top you're roughly around 95

2:20

degrees of that lag angle okay right

2:22

from there to left arm parallel what

2:24

happens so you might load a little a lot

2:26

of guys stay the same but right to there

2:28

it's pretty much what it was at the top

2:30

might be a little bit less we see a lot

2:32

of golfers will try to manually increase

2:35

that by narrowing and doing something

2:38

with the wrist to crease that and again

2:40

it usually just causes the cut the club

2:42

to cup a lot and open the face exactly

2:43

and they also over bend the elbows that

2:46

gets the left first cup like you said

2:48

they lose the club face because there's

2:49

a little momentum involved right the

2:51

club's swinging back towards the target

2:52

as the arms are kind of starting down

2:54

and that keeps it should keep the club

2:56

head behind my head a little bit that's

2:58

what allows in some players that angle

3:00

to increase a little bit but for

3:01

practical purposes it's roughly the same

3:03

angle here as it is at the top that's a

3:05

good way to think about it

3:08

so I think this is where a lot of the

3:10

confusion starts you're looking at two

3:11

major Champions both here at left arm

3:13

parallel and their downswings these guys

3:15

are on TV a lot and when The Telecast

3:17

shows a replay of the golfer here in

3:20

yellow broadcasters will inevitably say

3:22

this player has the most lag in golf and

3:25

that's usually followed up by something

3:27

like if you folks at home want to hit it

3:29

farther crease your lag like this guy

3:31

and the confusion happens because none

3:34

of those comments are really true sure

3:36

from this angle the player in yellow

3:37

looks like he's got a ton of lag

3:39

certainly more than the player in blue

3:41

but once we turn on the angles you can

3:43

see there's less than a degree of

3:45

difference between them and why these

3:47

angles look so different here from this

3:49

view is just really an illustration of

3:52

how the camera can lie if we rotate

3:54

these guys to the down the line view

3:56

notice how much flatter the yellow

3:58

player is compared to Blue that's why he

4:00

looks I can't stress that enough looks

4:03

like he has more lag even though he

4:05

doesn't so the flatter the club the more

4:08

of the illusion you'll get for lag and

4:10

that's just all it is really it's just

4:12

the illusion of more lag

4:14

[Music]

4:17

you're your left arm parallel you've got

4:19

your wrist set your right elbow has it

4:21

narrowed it's pretty much stayed where

4:23

it was at the top too fairly flat left

4:25

wrist everything's good yeah you're in a

4:27

good spot from here you can either go

4:29

way off the rails or hit a good shot

4:30

yeah so from there you've got to get the

4:33

club head below the hands and let that

4:36

angle out

4:38

say that one more time you've got to get

4:40

the club head below the hands

4:42

and let the angle out okay so if I'm

4:45

thinking back to the beginning of this

4:46

video you went from roughly 135 to 95 so

4:50

you you added about 40 degrees of flex

4:52

in the downswing right the last third of

4:56

the downswing left arm parallel to

4:57

impact you have to get rid of 50 to 60

5:01

degrees of this angle

5:03

yeah it's going to be a hard concept for

5:06

you guys to understand that's not a cast

5:07

it's not a cast that's releasing the

5:10

club well at the same time you're moving

5:12

and shifting and turning you have to be

5:14

letting that out because it impact good

5:16

players have their hands slightly higher

5:18

than they did at address so that angle

5:19

is actually out a little bit more yes

5:21

from here to impact is .08 seconds

5:24

that's fast try it on yourself so this

5:26

is not a hold hold hold hold release it

5:28

here you've got to get it out

5:31

pretty gradually all the way down so by

5:33

the time you get to here you have 60

5:35

degrees less angle 50 to 60 degrees less

5:39

than you have right here right and I

5:41

think people get confused like okay but

5:43

this will help clear it up if I did

5:46

nothing with my body from here this is

5:48

to impact

5:50

that's what the arms do that's what the

5:52

arms and wrists do now if I add the body

5:54

movement to that

5:55

that puts me in a perfect impact so you

5:57

have to let that out we've talked about

5:59

shooting the BB imagine a BB's in the

6:01

shaft shoot that out you'll still have a

6:03

little bit of shafting because of the

6:04

body movement but that's how you go from

6:07

lag to unloading that lag so here's the

6:09

kicker lag angle is not shaft lean that

6:13

take that in in your head for a second

6:15

often you'll hear lag used to describe

6:18

both of these angles the problem with

6:20

that is these two angles are not the

6:23

same we've had too many golfers tell us

6:25

that this simple fact alone has caused

6:28

them years of frustration from trying to

6:30

adopt movements as if these two angles

6:32

were the same hopefully that'll start to

6:34

change we call the angle between your

6:37

lead arm and the shaft lag angle and we

6:39

call the amount the shaft leans forward

6:41

of impact shaft lean you can call them

6:43

applesauce and spinach really doesn't

6:45

matter just as long as you understand

6:47

that these angles are not the same

6:48

they're not created the same way and

6:51

they're not utilized to produce the same

6:53

things

6:53

[Music]

6:56

if there's over the top and then there's

6:58

over the bottom which I stole from you

6:59

yeah so I don't know where I got that

7:01

from many moons ago but it makes sense

7:03

this is over the top I can have a pretty

7:05

good downswing but if I overhold lag we

7:08

call it tipping out so the club will

7:10

start to tip outside the hands early the

7:12

club really shouldn't get outside the

7:14

hands till it gets below the hands if it

7:16

tips out early because you're trying to

7:18

get shafting by holding lag all you've

7:20

done there is bake in a scoop yes that

7:24

makes it worse that's why so many of you

7:26

are struggling to have shaft lean

7:28

because if the angles you're trying to

7:30

hold and create it's it's guaranteeing

7:33

that you won't have shafting and this is

7:35

going to be like a mindset shift yes

7:38

because I know everybody's been taught

7:39

for so long to drive the elbow forward

7:42

and take the grip in front of the ball

7:43

only thing that does a lot of times is

7:45

get you really steep over the bottom and

7:47

makes the problem worse because like I

7:49

showed the tip out is actually a scoop

7:51

the shaft lean comes from this motion

7:53

not this motion okay

7:56

now if I take that to the top of the

7:58

swing

7:59

that's actually right there does impact

8:01

this would be

8:03

if you made a top of backswing like this

8:05

now you can hold this angle and create

8:07

shaft lean but you're not going to hit

8:09

it anywhere exactly so there's your

8:11

trade-off that's right so you have to

8:13

get rid of your lag angle in order to

8:16

create shaft lean so we really want to

8:18

drive this point home to you you're

8:20

looking at our Pro here at the top and

8:21

by any standards this will be a very

8:23

normal looking top of the backswing

8:25

especially as it relates to this lag

8:26

angle he's created he doesn't have the

8:28

downswing thought of trying to hold this

8:30

angle but if he did this is what the top

8:32

of this swing would have to look like if

8:34

you wanted to hold his impact lag from

8:37

the top kind of looks crazy right now

8:39

what about the other way what if he

8:40

tried to hold his lag from the top down

8:42

to impact this is what that would look

8:44

like you'd miss the ball by about three

8:46

feet like you just can't get the club to

8:48

the ground if you successfully hold that

8:51

angle as crazy as both of these look we

8:54

see golfers every week who tell us

8:55

they've been trying to do one or the

8:58

other versions of these hold moves that

9:00

idea alone makes the downswing brutally

9:02

difficult and thank goodness there's an

9:04

easier way

9:08

by Pro standards a very lean shaft with

9:11

a seven iron like you're seeing here

9:12

would be about 12 degrees of shaft lean

9:15

that's two seconds on a clock face for

9:17

reference now if you're at the slower

9:18

end of the scale for Club head speed

9:20

you'll want to also be at the lower end

9:22

of the scale for shaft lean roughly six

9:25

degrees or one second on the clock face

9:27

the normal range for tour Pros is around

9:29

8 degrees so keep that in mind when

9:32

you're rehearsing what you want to do

9:33

through impact just doesn't take much to

9:35

have world-class shaft lean

9:40

if I just hold this club with two

9:42

fingers I can't manipulate this at all

9:44

and start it right here this 90 degrees

9:46

and just let it swing that's a ton of

9:49

shaft lean and this has gotten rid of

9:52

the lag angle right I'm just not

9:54

disrupting it now to train that until

9:56

your golf swing you need to be able to

9:58

feel that we got a great little drill

10:00

for that yeah I'll do this a lot unless

10:01

it's just to show people that you know

10:03

I'm letting go of control and I'm using

10:05

the the sequence and the movements to

10:08

get the lag and the shaft lean at the

10:09

right time this is we call this our

10:11

flute drill but Ben Hogan did something

10:13

very similar with this and he had a ton

10:15

of shaft lean and lagging his Dolphins

10:17

yeah he would like kind of goes and

10:19

fingers so similar you hold it with

10:20

three fingers of each hand leave your

10:22

pink and your ring finger off we'll do

10:24

it all the time I'll swing it Forward

10:25

back and then through again just holding

10:28

it here to show them I can't hold any

10:30

angles and when I do that they usually

10:33

surprised to see that I can hit it

10:36

pretty darn good right and I have tons

10:39

of shaft lean I've got lag I'm unloading

10:41

at the right time and I can't manipulate

10:43

it you want to use the weight and

10:45

momentum of the club along with good

10:47

sequence to get all the good stuff the

10:49

lean and I'm smiling because when we see

10:52

guys do this in lessons

10:53

and they'll look back well first they'll

10:55

look to watch the replay of the video

10:57

and they've like you said they've never

10:58

seen themselves having the shaft that's

11:01

angled forward or lag up here at this

11:04

part of the swing and they can't believe

11:07

that they did really nothing

11:09

to create those angles they didn't hold

11:12

anything they just basically got out of

11:14

their own way got out of the way of the

11:15

club yeah especially if they've been

11:17

struggling with it their whole life yeah

11:18

letting some of these angles out feels

11:20

really freeing it feels like other

11:21

sports they played if you played

11:23

baseball you wouldn't check swing right

11:25

that's basically what you're you're

11:26

training in yeah and the progression is

11:28

just to gradually start to add the

11:30

fingers and the grip pressure

11:32

but the key is creating lag so you can

11:35

use it here so you can get rid of it so

11:38

you can produce some shaft lean and it's

11:40

understanding how this angle allows you

11:42

to produce this angle that really starts

11:45

to click the uh turn the light bulb on

11:47

really allow you to get lag and shaft

11:49

lean because you got to have both of

11:51

them to play really good golf if you

11:53

want more compression on your iron shots

11:55

More tour quality solid iron shots every

11:58

time you go out to play we created a

12:00

free video just for you

12:02

in the pin comment below you're gonna

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find a link click on the link going to

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be taken to another page you can enter

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you do that you're going to be taken

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instantly to the free video training

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where you're going to learn our number

12:16

one go-to drill to get more compression

12:18

on your iron shots it's going to lie to

12:20

get more greens and have more fun

12:21

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[Music]

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AllGolf instructionsPGA TOURRelatedRecently uploadedWatched


Release Lag to Create Shaft Lean

You have to release lag to get shaft lean.

If you try to hold it you will dump the club creating a scoop. Your mind knows you can't hit the ball so to help you hit the ball it will make other compensations like slowing your body rotation.

You Don't Need a Ton of Lag...

As you heard in the video most Pros have about 8° of shaft lean at impact with an iron.

And most Ams need less than this because their swing speed is slower.

With a Driver most Pros are about 1° of shaft lean.

Stop chasing lag to get shaft lean, you need very little to increase your ball striking.

img-2

Start Releasing Lag to Keep Lag and Get Shaft Lean

Hopefully this article and video will help you free up your swing and stop trying to manipulate lag and shaft lean. 

You need very little and it always is a byproduct of a good pivot and golf swing.

Free up your swing and you will have more lag and shaft lean.

Happy Golfing,

Shawn

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About the author

Shawn is the founder of UpGlove. He started UpGlove to solve his own problem of getting an affordable player's glove. Shawn is a single-digit Handicap and loves to play different courses throughout Tampa Bay. He also enjoys taking his two doggies Brutus & Champi for long walks.

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