Clubhead traveling toward target after impact

[Kalipari]

My pro has me working on getting my clubhead to travel toward the target longer after impact. My tendency is for the clubhead to travel left of target pretty soon after impact. Does anyone have any good drills or advice to work on this?

[Neco]

My pro has me working on getting my clubhead to travel toward the target longer after impact. My tendency is for the clubhead to travel left of target pretty soon after impact. Does anyone have any good drills or advice to work on this?

I'm not sure what you mean by your clubhead is travelling left but if you are referring to the release of the club, that is a good thing.

If you are pulling the ball, a good drill is to act like you are squishing out all the water in a sponge under your left heel and exteeeeeennnddd your arms through the hitting area.

[iacas]

Just want to add one thing, too: the club should go left right after the ball. It can't go "straight" down the target line or else it's well off the plane.

[JackLee]

Like Erik said, you cannot swing the clubhead straight down the target line. That can be done only with a putting stroke. With any other swing, the clubhead travels on a path that is circular or close to circular.

Maybe your pro is trying to get you to swing slightly inside-out. With a slightly inside-out path, the center of the clubhead will be a bit outside of the target line for a short distance after impact before coming back to the inside. So, with this path, your clubhead would be traveling in the general direction of the target longer.

A slightly inside-out path can be done while using a stance that is parallel to your target line, but that is not the easy way. It is much easier to do it from a closed stance. How much closed is something you should experiment with.

[srjorion]

Maybe your pro is trying to get you to swing slightly inside-out.

My gut feeling after reading the OP's post was that his instructor was trying to get him to do that by making him "feel" as if the clubhead was moving towards the target. I've learned that what something feels like is most likely different that what is actually happening when it comes to golf.

SRJ

[Danattherock]

I am with Erik. Perhaps your pro is trying to get you to feel something and the way to do that is to have you attempt to swing more toward the target. The club head is on an arc. No straight lines of course. But a feeling of doing so may be the improvement he seeks in your swing. I got a similar tip last year with a lesson. For me it was to take the driver straight back rather than around my body. In truth, I can only take it back a small distance straight, but he wanted me to do this and it helped. I still think about going straight back from the ball, but in reality, it is an arc that is on a different line than I had been on. Either way, it works.


-Dan

[Keep It Simple]

Sounds like your pro wants you to have the clubhead pointed out towards the target but parallel to the target line a little further past impact than you are probably doing now. Butch Harmon told Tiger to "shake hands with the target" and Tiger has given this tip to his clinic audiences. I think it is better to think about where your hands are going opposed to the clubhead.

[Bullitt5339]

Yeah, it's just to get the feeling you're doing something. My Pro had me doing something similar to get me out of pulling/hooking the ball, and I just couldn't feel what he wanted me to, so he tried to dumb it down and exaggerate the movement he wanted me to do so that I could really feel the difference.

[Kalipari]

Previously I was pulling and hooking the ball. I have been working on feeling like my clubhead is traveling toward the target and it has really helped. This in addition to "shake hands with the target" have gotten my shots higher and straighter.