Strengthen Your Wrists for Better Club Control

Posted on March 9, 2017 Written by Kyle

Thus far, I’ve written quite a bit about getting better distance out of all of your golf shots. But what about better control of your shots? After all, there’s no point in crushing the ball when you can’t keep it on the course. I’m positive you’ve all played with someone who can out-hit you but can’t manage to keep the ball straight from one shot to the next. And chances are, you’ve scored lower than this power hitter simply by keeping the ball in play. At the same time, you’ve probably been in a situation where you’ve tried to put that extra “oomph” into the ball only to see it veer hard left or right, and disappear into the woods. So how can you make your shots with your maximum power AND great control? Working on your wrist and forearm strength is a great place to start.

Wrist strength is important in your golf game for 4 main reasons:

Helps you control the club throughout the swing, ensuring consistent and square clubface alignment.
Allows you to hit the sweet spot of the clubface more consistently.
Allows you to impart more power on the ball at impact.
Helps you “fight through” tough shots out of the rough..

Luckily, strengthening your wrists is relatively easy and doesn’t require much equipment. All you need to get started is a dumbbell, a ball and your golf clubs. Here are 3 exercises you can add to your routine.

Dumbbell Curls – Holding the dumbbell in your hand, perform wrist flexion (palm up) and extension (palm down). You can either do repetitions or isometric holds.
Ball Squeezes – You can use any ball you have lying around: tennis, hockey, stress ball, or hand grips. Simply squeeze the ball in your hand doing repetitions or isometric holds.
Club Rotations – Hold an iron in the middle of its shaft. Hold it out in front of you and slowly rotate your wrist side to side, twirling the club. Start with one club and you can work your way up to 2 or even 3; just go slowly and make sure YOU control the club and it doesn’t control you.