One of my students asked:
Q – On the downswing is it the turning of the hips at a nice pace with the right wrist cock retained?
A – The hips “PULL” your arms back down in front of your body… A powerful image would be to visualize that, your elbows realign with the hips as you rotate (how they were at setup)… again this must come from the hips/thighs pulling them down via unwinding (not the arms coming down on their own). Now, that being said, if you achieve this synchronization (actually very easy and natural once the right muscles take control) you can turn as fast or slow as is needed for the shot… you do not want to rely on having to turn at a “nice pace”… your pace is not a factor. If it is, there is something wrong somewhere… there really is no need to try to time things. Yes there is the correlation of elbows and hips, but it is to help train your body how to move. Hope this all makes sense. The big key… DON’T LET THE HANDS AND ARMS TAKE OVER ON THE DOWNSWING. If you keep your hands and arms passive, your core (hips/thighs), can easily pull your arms and club right back down in front and continue turning.
Now… I previously taught, “Retaining the Wrist Hinge” since we were all taught this from previous instruction. What this was trying to do was, use the hands to hold back, or postpone the stored potential until the last possible moment. Then, change holding back to throwing the club head as hard as possible into the ball and hopefully square the club face and maybe hit the sweet spot. I now know, that keeping the hands passive and a constant grip pressure during the swing, allows the Large Muscles to control the swing and all thoughts of swing plane and hinging work automatically and perfectly every time.
The power in the golf swing comes from winding up the shoulders against a resisting lower body in the backswing and then… unwinding the downswing completely… not in the wrist hinge as a lever for hitting with the hands. Actively hinging or retaining, disrupts the harmony of the entire body working together. Hitting with the hands will never be as powerful or consistent as the entire body working, turning, trapping the ball, while accelerating to the finish…