Thinning the ball

Here's the deal, I am consistently thinning my irons.  It doesn't matter it seems which set of irons I am playing and believe me I have a great choice.  I am consistently hitting the bottom two grooves.  Not only that it seems when I do make contact my ball flight isn't very high nor does it seem very long.  Totally frustrated.

I hit my driver well and my woods well so go figure.  thanks

your trying to scoop the ball instead of hit down on it,

usually in conjunction with a bad weight shift during the swing and teh scoopy action causes your weight to go backwards, your head up, and shot thinned

obviously google will be your friend if you search "hitting down" or "correct weight shift"

a drill i used before switching to S&T; was to "walk after the ball" as i started the downswing i would in my mind be wanting to walk after the ball as soon as i made contact, this lead me to shift weight forward in preperation for this, and as soon as i hit the ball i would walk after it,

I also found that swaying in my backswing and then getting stuck on my back foot caused thins, so try during your backswing to stay centred, dont let your upper body or head move backwards

Thinning for me has historically been one of a few things:

- Ball position too far forward

- Flipping the wrists at impact

- Not enough weight forward

In addition my grandfather thins balls all the time (all!) because he keeps his weight centered throughout the backswing but then as he's about to start his downswing, for extra oomph he shifts his weight to the right foot, his head moves back a few inches and then he swings at the ball where his swing lowpoint has obviously moved back a few inches and his club will be ascending into the ball instead.

To 'fix' this and because he's 78 and doesn't want to learn golf again we're using higher tees for him - Dirty but satisfactory as he enjoys golf more now.

I'm guessing because of your 12 handicap that you're no longer scooping or flipping the club over the ball. Do you have the same problem with your fairway wood from a ground lie?

I recently overcame a similar problem in that I was thinning some iron shots and woods shots with the ball on the ground, but drove the ball off a tee all right. I found out that I was lifting my body a little too much before impact. Because the driver's face is taller and the ball sits elevated on a tee, there's more margin for error and I was able to contact the ball with my drives well enough.

I focused on the following:

1) Keeping the butt back up against an imaginary vertical plane throughout the entire swing. This prohibits one's butt from moving towards the ball in the downswing and prevents the body to stand up. Keeping the butt back also counteracts the weight of the arms, hands, and club as they swing around, thus keeping your body in balance and allowing it to freely rotate about the front leg.

2) Keep the head level to the ground and prevent it from swaying too much back or forward.

3) From the "down the line" perspective, maintain your spine angle throughout the back swing and downswing release.

4) Make sure the path of your hands is low and thru towards the target as you strike thru the ball.

5) As the hips are moved forward in the downswing, make sure that you pivot both shoulders enough.

If you think that you have this same problem, here are a few videos that can help:

Thinning Irons, Like Erik said, keep arms extended.

Also make sure your waist isn't going towards the ball, this will cause you lift up, and thin shots. Your left hip should move lateral, then around and up. Your right hip should move around and down.

Hit down though the ball, then turf. Work on getting the swing bottom beyond the ball (on the target side of the ball) a few inches (at least 4). Don't be afraid to move some dirt to get this sequence consistent. One old pro was quite famous for suggesting "the secret is in the dirt".

Thanks fella's.  I think I am also going to try and go back to a modified 10 finger grip.  It seems years ago, like back in the 90's when I played well this worked pretty good for me.  Almost like the second fella said allowing my right arm to clear underneath my chin.  thanks

I went over to Lake Shore CC today this p.m. after looking at the posts here and viewing some vids here and on U tube.  I am hitting X18's I just bought the other day(used of course).  For the most part I did alright but not great.  Still hitting the ball alot of time on the bottom 2 or 3 grooves of the club.  Not all the time but alot.  I am really trying to stay down on the ball when hitting through it.  Now what I did notice right off is that it seemed I was playing the ball a bit back in my stance.  So what I did is position it off my left side, depending on the club I was trying to hit determined how far left of center I was placing the ball.  I also went back to a modified 10 finger grip I used to use back in the 90's.  Pinky of my right just riding a touch up on my left index finger.  I also noticed doing this that if I had my right hand gripping the shaft but with a pronounced hook in my right finger, the right hand more down the center of the club on top that my shots were more of boring trajectory.  If I brought my right hand up more tight to the left without a pronounced hook to the finger but still aligned more along the top of the grip I hit shots nice and high.  Again not all the time but some.

The other thing I figured out is that when making my shoulder turn I need to keep my left shoulder under my chin throughout the swing and have my right shoulder angled down towards the ground when coming through.  In other words if I keep my head still over the ball when I swing through it seems to make my upper stand up  abit.  So a slight sway to the right side and keeping my head on the same plane thoughout helps too.  Ok that's it.  thanks

Could be worse - I consistently hit my irons FAT ... hurts my wrists and get little distance.    At least when you hit it thin, you get a fair amount of carry.      Crappy ball striking is no fun either way  - something we both can relate to...

Just thought I'd share my personal experience here when I thin the ball which I don't see anyone ever post this.

recently I developed an alignment issue.

What happened is that on address the moment I pull my right leg back, instead of pulling it back to the right and squared to the other foot,

I pull it back slightly... which resulted in a closed stance and the ball moved forward 2-3 balls.

The closed stance wasn't big, so it wasn't noticeable for me and I was so frustrated why I'm hitting all my balls thin, toed, skulled and fat.

So I made sure my stance is squared relative to the ball and ever since I errored much less.

Hope this helps.

Played yesterday with the Pi7's.  Didn't hit one worm burner with mid to short irons.  Very windy conditions from Irene I guess.   Not to say I didn't with my 4 iron but that is just me hitting a 4 iron in this set.  Seems the only decent 4 iron I hit is with my TM Firesoles.  The only thing I did is to modify my ball position just a bit more forward and like I said earlier I sway a tad bit back when swinging.  Don't know if that is right or not but it seems to be working for me.  thanks

The post about posture is a great post. Maintain the spine angle. Take the club away keeping the left arm extended as the shoulders turn. The sway is no good!

Yep I know it you are not supposed to sway but when I make my turn my head moves in back of the ball so I assume where my head goes my body follows.  Seemed to work pretty good for me doing this.  That and my grip seemed pretty functional too.  I have a trigger finger on my left ring finger so had a shot today for that and I am wondering if that didn't or doesn't contribute to some of my maladies in thinning the ball as in letting go of the grip somewhat.  thanks