Question about FW woods

[kilbyman]

So recently I've come into trouble with the fairway wood and hybrid... in that I'm either topping, doing the worm burner thing, or hitting weak slice/shank stuff. I know it's because of poor contact. Can I fix this by having better arm through impact? Realizing the answer is probably a "yes," is there something I can do with my address position (closer to ball, farther from ball, ball left, right, etc.) that will encourage me to have better arm extension? I don't have this problem with my irons. I'm careful to not sway on the backswing (swing thought=straighten right leg) and keep my right elbow attached to my side.

[Zeph]

Hit them like your irons, ball a bit forward of the middle of your stance, not all the way to the left heel. Weight forward, don't shift back and try to lift the ball, hit down on it, like you would with the longer irons, almost taking a divot. From the top of the backswing, push the hips forward all the way to get a forward swing bottom.

[kilbyman]

My typical stance is about 3-4 inches off of my left heel, then just move right leg. I'll try doing a better job of keeping my weight forward (the 4 wood tends to bottom out before the ball in my swing).

[saevel25]

Sounds like your trying to get the ball into the air by helping it, so your staying back and trying to add loft to the club.

[kilbyman]

There's a good chance of that. Especially when the observed behavior is ball not getting in the air. Dang subconscious swing thoughts :)

[Teklabz]

I've been having this same problem, went from hitting my hybrids much better than irons, to the opposite : {

I will try putting the ball further back in my stance as Zeph sugggested, I've been playing them just off my left heel.

[zeg]

If you can find a grass range, go there and practice. What I do when I have trouble getting good contact (not just with my 5W, but with irons too) is to tee up someting a little bit and hit it a few times to get the good feeling back. Then I progressively lower the tee until it's level with the turf, and finally pull the tee away and hit from the deck. You can't really do this on a mat, though.