Longer Clubs Revisited

This sport can drive a guy to drink... more.

I've gotten a few more practice sessions in now that we're getting back into the 70's (Yay, South Texas. I'll have to suffer a slightly longer offseason once I get up to Fayetteville.). I'm a bit torn, as I seem to have markedly improved... and regressed. Unfortunately, I don't have the experience nor consistency to figure out quite what the problem is.

Here's the standard practice session:

I start with my PW, and hit back to back to back more beautiful shots than I ever hit before my winter break. While I'm not throwing darts, my shots -do- at least strongly resemble what I intend them to resemble. Little draw here, little cut there, take something off to hit a certain flag. It's all kinds of pretty from PW, 10 iron (It's a Nickent thing, 44* club), 9 iron, 8 iron... and then the wheels start to fall off. My middle irons start losing trajectory and by the time I get to the 5 iron, I'm hitting those low skimmers with a bit of hook...

My usual problems arise from getting too far back from the ball (I hit off the toe quite a bit), or letting it drift too far up in my stance (pull hooks).

For the hybrids and my 3w, I'm pretty much all over the damn place. Strangely, my driver isn't as rough. I can certainly hit plenty of slices or popups, but it isn't the worst club in my bag.

ANYway, lacking a swing vid I'm sure there can't be a great deal of assistance, but I'm just wondering if the trend rings any bells for anyone?

The secondary problem is that once I go BACK down to the short irons... I still can't hit jack. I start out great with them, and then the whole fiasco with the hybrids and woods jacks my swing up. I'm guessing that part is just mental/frustration/tension.

Try hitting as soft shots as you possibly can. Don't try hitting them far. Take a short backswing and just focus on a smooth transition, making good contact. Don't fall into the temptation of swinging harder and faster if you hit one shot solid. Just keep doing it simple. Ignore the distance, just focus on being able to swing the club. It's very difficult to feel how far you swing the clubs. Have someone watch you and tell you how far you swing the irons. Make it shorter to the point where the club go slightly past perpendicular to the ground at the top, then stop there.

Pick a PW and a 5i. Hit one shot with each club, always keeping it smooth and easy. When swinging the 5i, imagine you have a PW in your hands. If you find yourself overdoing it, take a break, do some chipping before you resume.

You may of course have some flaws which make it very hard to swing the longer irons, but without a video it's hard to tell. Regardless of that, if you can hit a PW, you can hit a 5 iron. It's just that our mind makes us do things differently with a longer club in the hands.

If you start with the PW and work you way down, fatigue may be a factor. This is both short-term fatigue for the day, and the fact that you haven't played in awhile.

A college coach I took lessons from down in Oklahoma told me that the woods, especially the driver, are the most physically demanding clubs to hit. So, he suggested doing any extended workouts with the woods right after you warm up - when you're fresher physically.

Also, be sure to take a 15-minute break here and there to rest up your muscles, and recharge mentally. Also drink some water or Gatorade - people forget because weather is not blazing hot that dehydration can still sneak up on you.

Good thoughts.

I'd considered fatigue. One of my tendency errors, along with getting too far from the ball, is to let my right (lefty) arm break down on the swing. Thus, I hit thin and have the low-altitude hook I'm talking about. Unfortunately, if I think too much about this I can err on the other side and hit it fat (I tend to attack the ball).

I'm sure I get lazy and in a hurry at times.. true "fatigue" might be a misnomer. I do twelve hour run around shifts pretty regularly.

Anyway, why I was asking... If I can hit a 10i pure, I can hit a 5i pure. I'm getting mentally lazy, most likely. (To add: My '5i' is probably around the average 3 iron. Nickent's 3dx has this 'Longest irons evaah!!' scheme. The 5i is lofted 22*, it's really just a glorified 3 iron.)

I've noticed the same thing once in awhile. Personally I think it stems from thinking you need to swing harder with the longer clubs. Try to make the same swing with the longer clubs as you do with the short irons, granted ball position and your distance from the ball will change, but you shouldn't try to swing harder just because its a longer club. Having this thought when I start doing the same thing helps a lot. Ignore the number on the bottom of the club. Distance will be achieved through the loft and length of the shaft. Just my $.02.

Swing speed makes a difference, no doubt about that. BUT! What makes the most radical change is ball striking. You can swing at 110mph and have a lousy outcome with a poor impact. If you have good impact, hands in front of the ball, club descending into the ball, you can swing at 90mph and do very well. Ball striking is the most crucial detail when it comes to hitting good shots.

HIT DOWN ON TH BALL!!!! and the ball will go up. hit up on the ball, and the ball will go down. that's it, it's really that simple. try and hit the ball into the ground with the back of your hand. this will give you an idea of how a proper shot should feel.

Saw this video a little while ago posted somewhere on this forum and I thought it described beautifully how to hit the long irons. Plus, It's my man Phil so you can't go wrong ;).

2 possibilities come to my mind.

1. You might be making a different swing with your longer irons. I know I tend to do this, and for me, if I just think about making the same swing and letting the club do the work, oftentimes things get sorted out.

2. Hopefully this isn't it as it's a hard truth, but very often if you can hit your short irons well but things fall apart in the longer clubs, it indicates some fundamental flaw in your swing. The high loft and more forgiving nature of the larger headed short irons can mask swing flaws, but when you're hitting clubs with 35* of loft or less, those flaws start to become much more apparent. Post up a vid, I'm sure you'll get some great advice!!!

Thanks, guys.

Had a really solid range day, trying to work on the mid-long irons (I guess my 5 would be a long iron. It's lofted at 22*). I took the idea of hopping back and forth between my PW and the 5i, trying to maintain the same feel. Worked out pretty well. There are still some kinks to work out... I'm tending toward a push. But a push I can account for and play with, versus the random spray fat thin everywhere bs that was going on before. I'm putting it around 180, which is where I was expecting to end up if I got to hitting it well (My 150 club is the 8i).

As an unexpected benefit, I really came around with my driver today. Probably just a matter of being more focused than usual, having a specific goal in mind... even if that specific goal had nothing to do with my driver, haha. While I wouldn't dream of calling myself a long hitter, I was carrying some laser-straight shots with range rocks in the 230 range. If I can keep that on the course with a real ball and the old South Texas roll, I'll definitely be happy. I tend to cut my driver swing a bit short, as when I do really cock back I see the driver head in my peripheral and distract the hell out of myself. Not sure if that's something worth getting used to... really blast into the thing, but it's just a dramatic balloon slice. *laugh*

Hoping to give it a shot back out on the course, tomorrow.