Clubface Control Drills?

[saevel25]

What is the best way to practice club face control? Just seems like I have none of it. 

[iacas]

Correct.

Still traveling but I think we have a few Key #4 videos here. See the Instructional Content link.

[billchao]

Something I’ve done in the past is to stick a driveway marker in the ground in front of you and try to hit shots left, right, over it, etc.

Another thing that comes to mind is to picture a tic-tac-toe board in front of you and try to start your shots through specific squares.

[Carl3]

I like taking out say a 7i and hit a partial shot or two to the 80 yard flag, then focus on the 120 flag for a couple shots and then let a full swing go towards the 150 flag. I then repeat this about 10 times or so before going to maybe a 4i then driver.

I love this and can’t get enough of it. Maybe I am all wet?

[Vinsk]

4 hours ago, billchao said:

Something I’ve done in the past is to stick a driveway marker in the ground in front of you and try to hit shots left, right, over it, etc.

Another thing that comes to mind is to picture a tic-tac-toe board in front of you and try to start your shots through specific squares.

I place a stick 45* to my left..and try to hit behind the stick…I’m remarkably good at that one.

[Denny Bang Bang]

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

I place a stick 45* to my left..and try to hit behind the stick…I’m remarkably good at that one.

Wouldn’t that be a hosel control drill, vs clubface control?  (if I recall correctly, you’re a lefty)

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, Denny Bang Bang said:

Wouldn’t that be a hosel control drill, vs clubface control?  (if I recall correctly, you’re a lefty)

Pure precision….

[snapfade]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but after a few years off, I went to a local instructor and I was wanting help with pulls and slight hooks. He painted my 7 iron and had me hit some shots, and started talking and I thought this guy was just trying to hook me into buy more lesson time. Then I actually understood what he was talking about. I was not striking the ball in the same spot on each shot.  He explained that until I can consistently hit it on the same spot on the clubface, we dont need to be working on ball flight.  Id never heard it put that way before. So he had me working on hitting bad shots. Hit it off the toe, the heel, top the ball, etc. He said if you can do that on command, then you have control of the clubface. I cant quote word for word how it was explained, but worked. Had me place a headcover outside of the ball, inside of the ball. Out in front of the teeing area he had pool noodles standing up and had me hit to the outside of either the left or right.  All about the hands. Work in progress, but impact spray IMO is worth the money.  

 

[Guest]

Controlling the clubface is something you shouldn't be focusing on unless you are a very good player. Why do you feel that it would help? Controlling the clubface involves using your hands more in the golf swing and you want to avoid that at all costs in order to be consistent. 

[iacas]

4 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

Controlling the clubface is something you shouldn't be focusing on unless you are a very good player. Why do you feel that it would help? Controlling the clubface involves using your hands more in the golf swing and you want to avoid that at all costs in order to be consistent. 

Hard disagree there. Everyone needs to control the clubface to some extent.

[billchao]

4 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

Controlling the clubface is something you shouldn't be focusing on unless you are a very good player.

I think you’re thinking of controlling the clubface as shot shaping. Controlling the clubface could be as simple as simply not rolling it over and hitting duck hooks.

4 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

Controlling the clubface involves using your hands more in the golf swing and you want to avoid that at all costs in order to be consistent. 

Everyone uses their hands in the golf swing. Some people need to learn to use them better.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, iacas said:

Hard disagree there. Everyone needs to control the clubface to some extent.

Again more evidence and logic based reasoning here. 

18 hours ago, billchao said:

I think you’re thinking of controlling the clubface as shot shaping. Controlling the clubface could be as simple as simply not rolling it over and hitting duck hooks.

Everyone uses their hands in the golf swing. Some people need to learn to use them better.

No I'm not thinking that at all. What I am talking about is swinging the club with the thought of controlling the face. If you have that thought then you are going to be more active with your hands. I don't believe that the average golfer has the ability to do this and do it well. Obviously players use their hands in the golf swing but the ones that do it aren't doing it as a thought. It comes from working extremely hard and developing it through practice and it comes as an instinct and it happens naturally. 

If you have the correct grip and make the correct swing then you dont need to work on controlling the face. Why would you have to control the face if you have the right grip? If you make the proper swing the ball is going to go straight and the club will be square without having to think about it. I don't think that having that thought is going to help anyone, especially the average golfer who players once a week if they are lucky. It's not something that the average golfer should think about. 

The only time that I believe in teaching this to someone is when they don't release the club properly. I don't consider it controlling the face but it is similar. I teach it as the left forearm rotation and not in terms of controlling the clubface. Controlling the clubface is going to activate the hands and that is something you want to avoid if you want to be consistent. 

 

[billchao]

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

No I'm not thinking that at all. What I am talking about is swinging the club with the thought of controlling the face. If you have that thought then you are going to be more active with your hands. I don't believe that the average golfer has the ability to do this and do it well. Obviously players use their hands in the golf swing but the ones that do it aren't doing it as a thought. It comes from working extremely hard and developing it through practice and it comes as an instinct and it happens naturally. 

You're working on some outdated information or something. When I say that everyone uses their hands in the swing, I mean that literally. The forces generated in the swing require it. This stuff has been studied and measured. There's no such thing as passive hands.

Whether a player feels the hands are active or passive is entirely different, but even the people who feel the hands do nothing are doing quite a bit.

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

If you have the correct grip and make the correct swing then you dont need to work on controlling the face. Why would you have to control the face if you have the right grip? If you make the proper swing the ball is going to go straight and the club will be square without having to think about it. I don't think that having that thought is going to help anyone, especially the average golfer who players once a week if they are lucky. It's not something that the average golfer should think about. 

This paragraph contradicts itself. The average golfer who plays once a week if they are lucky is not making the proper swing and hitting the ball straight without having to think about it. Making the proper swing and hitting the ball straight is 90% of what the average golfer struggles to do, and doing so without thinking about it requires learning the proper technique, working extremely hard, and developing it through practice so that it comes as an instinct and happens naturally.

If golf was as easy as have the right grip and make the proper swing, golf instructors wouldn't have a job.

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

The only time that I believe in teaching this to someone is when they don't release the club properly. I don't consider it controlling the face but it is similar. I teach it as the left forearm rotation and not in terms of controlling the clubface. Controlling the clubface is going to activate the hands and that is something you want to avoid if you want to be consistent. 

Rotating the forearm to close the clubface? Sounds like clubface control to me.

[iacas]

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

Again more evidence and logic based reasoning here.

It is, actually, yes. One of the things that's happening here is that you don't seem to understand what we mean by "clubface control."

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

What I am talking about is swinging the club with the thought of controlling the face.

That's not it.

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

Obviously players use their hands in the golf swing but the ones that do it aren't doing it as a thought. It comes from working extremely hard and developing it through practice and it comes as an instinct and it happens naturally.

Gee, yeah… it comes from learning… wait for it… "clubface control." It's not "natural." It becomes perhaps "second nature" or "easy" or "repeatable" or a bunch of other things, but at one point it wasn't "natural." And even then… clubface control is one of the things that pros work on constantly.

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

If you have the correct grip and make the correct swing then you dont need to work on controlling the face.

Ummmmm… Rephrasing that: "If you do everything really well, you don't have to work on something."

There is no one "correct" grip. Nobody does everything "correctly." Even Tour players work on their clubface control.

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

Why would you have to control the face if you have the right grip?

I can give someone off the street the "correct grip" (if we pretend for a second that there is such a thing)… that doesn't mean they know how control the clubface.

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

I don't think that having that thought is going to help anyone

You're getting it wrong here: it's not a "thought" or something.

5 hours ago, Randomgolf99 said:

Controlling the clubface is going to activate the hands and that is something you want to avoid if you want to be consistent.

We don't share the definition here, man.

@billchao's post is good from a different angle, too.

[saevel25]

Yea, so to clarify for me. I do not feel the clubface much in the swing. I feel the weight of the club. I can feel if I hit the club off the heel or toe. When I try to feel if the clubface is open or closed in the swing, I feel it more with my hands, and less of the clubhead. I would classify majority of my swings as not feeling like the clubface does much of all. It feels like I hold the clubface open. In the finish, it doesn't feel like my left hand faces the ground. It feels more like it faces the sky. I will try to be more aware of this, but it was just the sensation I got when I was making what felt like good swings. For the most part, I was hitting slight draws or slight pushes. 

On this golf trip, I had to hit a low 8 iron around a tree to the green. I made an alignment adjustment, and actively try to roll my hands a bit more to get it to sling around the corner. I do have a habit of not adjusting how the clubface comes through impact, and I can still hit the ball straight-ish even moving the ball way back in my stance and trying to swing out more. 

Yea, my feels are more hands and arms, less actually feeling the clubface.