Consistently striking the ball slightly on the toe!!

Hey guys,

So, I built a indoor hitting area in my house and my wife got me an optishot system for xmas.  So I've been hitting balls a few times a week just to keep in form....but I have a problem.

I have confirmed both with the optishot system and with tape on the clubface that I consistently hit slightly on the toe.

Here's an 8-iron with which I hit 10 shots.  I would say that 2 out of 10 were out of the center of the clubface and 2 of 10 were hit slightly fat (high on the face).  But the rest were hit out on the toe.  I can feel that they aren't pure...but they dont feel like terrible strikes.

My normal ball flight is a slight push draw.  My misses are slight over-the-top pull draws...or blocked pushes.

I have tried to obvious answer....stand closer to the ball...but that doesn't seem to help.

Any other suggestions?

I will try to get some video of my swing posted up in the next few days.

Thanks!

I use  two balls to practice. Lay three balls down in front of you. Pick up the middle ball, now aim for the ball farthest away from you. When you hit on the toe again you'll move the inside ball. Nice easy swings until you get used to it. This video helped also. http://www.videojug.com/film/golf-how-to-cure-a-slice-the-3-ball-drill#playlist-urlname=golf-stop-hitting-fat

Here is a tip from a professional on another forum:

Well, fitting can certainly be an issue. If someone has clubs that are far too flat, they can hit toward the toe too much. Get the lie checked.

When you are at the top of the backswing, the club needs to do two things to hit the ball: It needs to come both down and forward. Only down would mean that you would hit the ground by your feet. Only forward would mean that you would pass above the ground entirely.

Sooo... When someone hits on the toe, the club has too much down and not enough forward. This also produces a hit that's too much inside out. Anyway, make sure your body is rotating on the way through and that you are getting the feeling of swinging around to the left. This will help your swing get the right shape and will help you deliver the club properly into the back of the ball!

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I like to think of "down and forward" as "down and out at the ball" ... but the above may help.

Thanks for the input.  Those are good drills to practice.

I just hit the "range" for 45 minutes and had some good results.  One thing I notice after consistently hitting the toe for the first 15-20 minutes...was that I felt like the club wasn't releasing naturally.  Also noticed that I was losing my lag too early...

I did a few drills to help feel like the hands falling down from the top while maintaining my angles.  This felt like it put my hands into a position where I could hit down and out at the ball (like Mr. Desmond said).

The result was much more consistent strikes in the center of the club.  I still had the occasional toe hit...but they seemed to come from rushing to impact and getting my right elbow out away from my body and straightening too early.

I picked up about 4mph in club head speed (~85mph with the 6 iron) and picked up about 10 yards from where I was the last few days.

I will continue to work on this and report back.  But thanks for the help!

About 5 years ago I had this issue really bad. It was almost like a shank, but it was the opposite off the toe. The ball would fly about the same height and then fall way short of the target. It was beyond frustrating. I went from a 5 handicap to a 10 and was totally lost.

This started me on a long process of improvement so I cannot pinpoint the exact reason but my educated guess is that I was overswinging which got the club very steep on the backswing and caused me to flip.

A video would be best because everyone is different.

This is similar to what I was experiencing.  Not that I have this issue completely solved.  But it seemed like I was releasing my lag too soon and flipping a bit at the ball.

Letting the hands "fall" into the "slot" and holding that hinge/angle longer into the downswing really seemed to help.  I felt that I was releasing the club better and started striking it much more in the center of the face.  Still need to work on grooving this feeling in...but seeing some good improvements so far.

You could be pulling the left arm in at impact( small chicken wing)which will cause the face to be pulled in and causing the toe hits. I had a student doing the same thing, I put him on camera FO and he was pulling the left arm in a little through impact.

You might not be keeping your back straight through impact, which can pull the club in a little and hit the toe, and cause pulls

Would you please elaborate on what "back straight through impact" means?

Sure. Back straight like not bending your spine away from the ball or towards the ball... a lot of people "crunch" up trying to swing harder. Turning smoothly around the spine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-NrigoW_I8

I just feel like nobody has a straight back at impact.

Everyone bends their back a little. But it's kept consistent. perhaps straight is the wrong word, but the consistent throughout. To me it feels like i'm trying to keep it straight. those pictures show the side to side bend of the back, not the front to back bend of the back that i'm talking about

OK. I just used the view that you gave me.

I apologize if I am seeming like a jerk. It is not my intention. I am just looking to learn all that I can and I have never heard that as a fix for toe strikes.

You maintain your inclination to the ground, the spine angle changes through out the swing.

no you didn't seem a jerk at all. It's kinda of tough to explain exactly what i meant.

I think this was also part of it.  I think the true root cause is a bit of a flip...starts the club going left too soon.

It's hard to say with out a video of your swing, FO and DTL.