trouble with long irons of course

[Frito]

Was wondering if anyone could give me a few tips. For starters someone recently told me its best to hit the ball forward in your stance when using 6 5 4 irons - further forward respectively for each ? is that true ? also i seem to get bad hits with - while using those clubs because im thinking i might be swinging to hard (really hard) while using them. was wondering whats a common outcome of swinging too hard? and lastly while using those clubs do i sweep through with them or am i supposed to take a divot in front of the ball - also wondering what's the best way to do it.
any suggestion or advice regarding anything i've written would be most appreciated.
thx in advance to anyone who comes through with anything!

i would like to also add that with my hybrid i rarely have any trouble launching the ball straight but now i've come to hate to rely on it every shot.

[imtomtomim]

Well, usually the problem is not swinging hard, but swinging hard too early. Swing soft, hit hard. Let the club do the work.

Yes, the ball should be forward, but not so that you need to reach for it or is uncomfortably forward. It is most important for it to be where your swing bottoms out, or rather, slightly before that point.

You also do want to take a divot in front of the ball. I find the biggest mistake once people move to longer irons is that they get too far from the ball, a bit too extended, and the swing plane gets a bit too flat. You got to lead your follow through to go through the ground.

Hope some of this helps

[Shindig]

First, your long irons will be gaining a faster club-head speed due to the longer shaft. You don't have to consciously add speed to them. If you think of your 6-iron as a longer 9-iron, and make a few swings, you'll see what I mean.

Ball position depends on the shot, but for a general bread-and-butter shot, make a practice swing. Make a few and make a note of where the club brushes the ground. That's where you want to put the ball. Hogan played every basic shot from the same position, relative to his left foot. Some instructors teach to play everything off the middle. I think the method where you see where the club brushes the ground and play to that is best.

[alomar123]

Whenever I am about to use a long iron I say to myself, get your weight forward. I always do, but I try swinging harder with the long ones and transferring weight will be harder. Alot of people hang back with them.

[sean_miller]

First, your long irons will be gaining a faster club-head speed due to the longer shaft. You don't have to consciously add speed to them. If you think of your 6-iron as a longer 9-iron, and make a few swings, you'll see what I mean.

What shindig said - let the club and the swing determine ball position.

[jamo]

Swinging too hard leads to swinging too long, past parallel. Shorten that swing up a little with the long irons would be my advice.

[max power]

Well, usually the problem is not swinging hard, but swinging hard too early. Swing soft, hit hard. Let the club do the work.

This all good advice. My friend always tries to swing too hard with his 3, 4, or 5 iron. When he asks what he should do, I say "swing like it's a lob wedge, don't try to kill it." He always hits it better with a smooth swing.

[CalBoomer]

You definitely do not want to hits your long irons "like a lob wedge." A lob wedge is best hit with a more vertical swing plane. The longer irons are best hit with a flatter swing plane. Stance and length of club do not always create the optimal swing plane. Many amateurs use too vertical a plane. Try using a mirror to make your swing plane with these clubs more horizontal.

[Paradox]

why must everyone take someone elses advice as literal. Not only did the guy add "don't try to kill it", he went on to add that it was in reference to a smooth swing and not swinging out of your shoes. He didn't say "use the same technique that you use with a lob wedge".

Anyway, the best swing thought for me when it comes to long irons is "trust the club to do what it does" meaning..its designed to hit further than my other irons, I don't have to swing harder to make it go farther.

As for divots. Some people take divots with every iron, others take no divots with their longer irons(a 6 iron is not a long iron and should have a divot accompany the swing, IMO)

[max power]

why must everyone take someone elses advice as literal. Not only did the guy add "don't try to kill it", he went on to add that it was in reference to a smooth swing and not swinging out of your shoes. He didn't say "use the same technique that you use with a lob wedge".

Thank you-I thought it was clear that I was reinforcing a

smooth swing , so I appreciate the support.

[CalBoomer]

why must everyone take someone elses advice as literal. Not only did the guy add "don't try to kill it", he went on to add that it was in reference to a smooth swing and not swinging out of your shoes. He didn't say "use the same technique that you use with a lob wedge".

The reason I made my comment had nothing to do with literality. Whether you swing smooth or hard, you cannot successfully hit a 3 iron with the same swing plane as a lob wedge. So my concern was that the originator of the post would copy the swing plane of a lob wedge and not just the tempo.

[AdamsGolfer]

there was a reference to Hogan earlier IMO the greatest ball striker ever, and in both of his books he does suggest playing the ball just inside the left foot, and just further out for the longer clubs, but that was because he didnt really use a hip rotation it was a slide so his weight would be forward so his swing would bottom out forward. The advice to find your swings bottom, and work off that is very good. If you do use a rotational movement having a ball too forward can hurt, by either causing a pull or a slice depending on the relation of the clubface to the line of the target.

I rotate and move laterally, so I put the ball more left middle, than left when I want to hit straight ,and further forward when I want a cut, and further back when i need a fade.  But also for in between or 80% shots I play left middle stance and cut rotation out. so know your swing and work out the one stance and swing that will hit all the clubs. If you think Im nuts watch tour players hit full straight shots, they stand the same every time the forearm and club shaft angle is constant or very very close. and if you still think im full of it take all your clubs from your bag and lay them up against a wall at the point the sole of the club is flush and unless there is something wrong the shafts will be parallel to each other.   Only after you have the one swing you can count on to do what you want 70% of the time can you work out all the other stuff.

When I practice at the range I get 100 balls and hit a D 3w 3h 4h 5h 6i 7i 8i 9i Pw 10 balls each and want at least half of the shots with each club to do the same thing and until you can set up the same for every club and swing the same youll never be consistent

As for hitting too hard  its very easy to tell yourself you need a real good 9 iron to get over a hazard or to reach a green, and then you speed up your tempo and try to kill it dont! ive wasted so much time, strokes, and energy trying to squeeze distance out of a club when I could pull the shot off 80% of the time clubbing down and hitting normally  , have 1 swing and the only difference is shaft length therefore how far the ball is, thats what Hogan has 100% right for everyone, I struggled with my driver for a long time because I set up differently and instead of taking a stance and having your arms hang and then grip I would reach for the ball and have controll and contact issues, Now I take one stance and can hit any club because the angle of my hands in relation to the shaft doesnt change the longer shafts require the ball to be further away, and I make the same swing every time I hit 100%. after that then you can learn to cut and fade, but if you set up differently for different clubs your learning 5 swings not one and you will never be consistent. Trust your one swing and it will payoff  almost every bad shot i make is because I want a little extra out of my club, I drive 240 maybe 260 so Im pretty short and that gets to you but when i just do my thing I may be 20-40 yds shorter but am 20-40yds STRAIGHTER and that saves strokes

After you have that one swing that the only change is ball position then you can add to it but If you want to hit straight a fade and a cut with 13 clubs using 5 swings you need to set up 15 different ways to hit 3 shots instead of 3 small changes to one swing. the games hard enough youll never be perfect but you can make things much easier on yourself.

dont get me wrong im nowhere near a great golfer I used to be pretty darn good but a decade of not playing hurts your game and all this is stuff I knew or did by feel, now im older I have either lost my edge or my brain has to know how and why before it does, and Ben Hogans "5 Lessons" and "Power Golf" are great books and  give a great base to tweak for you and then build on