Hitting Full Shots

[hoselpalooza]

for you folks who know what %, do you track this and if so, how? e.g. an app or scribble it down while you're playing? seems like this could be useful for optimizing/prioritizing which shots to practice between rounds. 

[Shindig]

5 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

for you folks who know what %, do you track this and if so, how? e.g. an app or scribble it down while you're playing? seems like this could be useful for optimizing/prioritizing which shots to practice between rounds. 

I can't speak for the others, but the ability to tag shots as "punch shot, flighted shot, half shot, full shot" on Game Golf is on my wish list.  

[Shindig]

So I evidently said four years ago I'd learn this shot.  Maybe I did and I forgot it.  Early pages in the thread I linked too. 

Anyway, over the course of today I hit quite a few in my practice room.  Tomorrow evening, I am going to a par-3 near me.  Every hole is something I could hit with 6-iron or fewer on a full swing.  I will play there, using only partial swings for my tee shots, and see if I can get a feeling for the distances on this.

Saturday I'm playing a regulation round (friends, not a league match).  I'll aim to do this for full shots within the "full 6-iron distance" ... which for me is about 150 yards.  Does it work further out?  Would there be a reason if I would otherwise hit a full 5-iron, to instead grip down and try this with a 4H or 3H? 

[sofingaw]

Voted for 90%. This poll and the replies are enlightening. 

I’m still working on going from ‘Overswing’ to ‘Swing’ in general.

Seems like most better players chiming in here gear it down lower than that.. 

I always figured that it would be much harder to get consistent distances swinging less than ‘full’.  I have always believed my distance control to be a (relative) strength. Or, at least, knowing what club was the ‘right’ one. Seemed like ‘know exactly how far you hit each club’ was sound advice. It’s certainly repeated enough. 

It still is, I think.

I guess the distinction here is that there isn’t just one number per club, and that the highest reasonably achievable number may not be your most consistent. 

I can hit my 9i 150 (in some direction) on a good strike. But how often do I get a good strike? 10% of the time? 25%?

Maybe (it now seems obvious to say) I’d play better hitting it 130 or 140 50% of the time, (and straighter, more often)?

It all seems like common sense all laid out here in front of us.

But so does (did?) “hitting it as far as I can ‘putting a good swing on it’, and knowing that number.”

Seems like one way of thinking is a bit better for success. 

I think the quest that most golfers have for distance, -and to be fair, the proven benefit of controlled distance- have had too many of us, myself included leaning toward a more full effort per swing. 

Instead of thinking “I can hit it (x) far. Now just train to straighten it out”

I’m now looking to figure out “how far can I hit this thing and keep it straight?”

Insane that after spending 6 years playing, reading this forum, taking lessons, and loving golf, that this is just now permeating my skull.

I think it’s been especially hard because being a bit of a larger guy, I have never actively ‘chased’ distance per se. I’ve always hit it pretty far without a tremendous amount of effort. But, having ‘enough’, distance, I’ve never thought to give any up voluntarily either..

Edited May 17, 2019 by sofingaw

[boogielicious]

Apparently too much! Although lately, I have gone with the club up, smoother swing approach with very good results. I have started to get my 3/4 9, 8 and 7 iron distance down too. I've had very good results with a smoother, a little off 6 iron for 150 yard shots. Full 6 is 155-160 for me.

I need to use this mind set more.

[iacas]

12 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

for you folks who know what %, do you track this and if so, how? e.g. an app or scribble it down while you're playing? seems like this could be useful for optimizing/prioritizing which shots to practice between rounds. 

Just estimating.

[surfmonkey89]

Biggest barrier to me is what’s been mentioned above: decelerating on the downswing. I just have to practice it more.

[Shindig]

Okay, today I had 7 opportunities to hit this shot (four for GIR, three not).  I did so and really like the results.  I will be doing this more often.

[Binh Nguyen]

Voted before fully understand the question but it would still be like 70-90% of the time. 

I often went 1 club smaller if the distance is just equal my best strike with the bigger club. For example if it is 165 yards and I know when I can hit the 7 very pure I can hit 165 then I will still go with the 6 iron. 

Just reading this I just realized my instructor really emphasizes on hitting the ball half to 3/4 swing. Almost all the drills he giving me is a half swing.

I will try to play like that next time on the course. Should be interesting.

[chspeed]

Voted 50-70%. I wish it was more often. The problem is that when I start losing balls out-of-bounds, I get defensive and start hitting smaller "punch" shots for a while, these don't go far or high enough.

[iacas]

20 minutes ago, Binh Nguyen said:

Voted before fully understand the question but it would still be like 70-90% of the time. 

You can edit/change your vote.

[Shindig]

22 minutes ago, Binh Nguyen said:

I often went 1 club smaller if the distance is just equal my best strike with the bigger club. For example if it is 165 yards and I know when I can hit the 7 very pure I can hit 165 then I will still go with the 6 iron. 

Even without partial swings, you don't want to base your choice of club on your best-ever swing with a club.  

[Club Rat]

I seldom take full swings with scoring irons.
I can control the club head better which leads to better contact and accuracy.

I can determine the distance better while an occasional mishit which will not result in wayward results that bring more 
difficult play and make recovery results better.

My miss is usually long irons right which sometimes end up in greenside bunkers or penalty areas.
Easier swings sometimes lead to a slight pull which can also end up in predicaments.

 

[mdl]

I said 90+%.  I was expecting that was essentially the wrong answer, though wasn't expecting @iacas to say <10%!

I don't hit partial shots because, even though I've worked on the flighted shots a bit and had relatively good success with them, I still feel more comfortable and have a smaller distance dispersion, with a smooth full shot.  I've been wanting to do a better job of this and last round tried on two different shots to club up and hit it easier.  I airmailed both greens and gave away 3 strokes!

[Grizvok]

So a number of people have been talking about decelerating the swing, and I’m wondering if that is really the correct way to go about this? I’ve seen @iacas mention slower quite a few times (but never using the word decelerating) and slower doesn’t necessarily mean you are decelerating the club. Isn’t the general idea more in line with taking a slightly shorter backswing therefore reaching a lower swing speed since the distance over which you are accelerating the club is less.

[Nail]

17 minutes ago, Grizvok said:

So a number of people have been talking about decelerating the swing, and I’m wondering if that is really the correct way to go about this? I’ve seen @iacas mention slower quite a few times (but never using the word decelerating) and slower doesn’t necessarily mean you are decelerating the club. Isn’t the general idea more in line with taking a slightly shorter backswing therefore reaching a lower swing speed since the distance over which you are accelerating the club is less.

Yes that’s the way I always interpreted it, shortening the swing to achieve a slower speed rather than decelerating the downswing 

[surfmonkey89]

1 hour ago, Grizvok said:

So a number of people have been talking about decelerating the swing, and I’m wondering if that is really the correct way to go about this? I’ve seen @iacas mention slower quite a few times (but never using the word decelerating) and slower doesn’t necessarily mean you are decelerating the club. Isn’t the general idea more in line with taking a slightly shorter backswing therefore reaching a lower swing speed since the distance over which you are accelerating the club is less.

Yes, that’s correct. I’m just saying that when I try that, I screw up and decelerate instead. I need to practice this more.

[Shindig]

2 hours ago, Nail said:

Yes that’s the way I always interpreted it, shortening the swing to achieve a slower speed rather than decelerating the downswing 

Same here.  I grip down and have a shorter backswing, so that has to be a slower swing.  I certainly don't consciously speed it up.