Proper swing for more backspin...Help please!

[RyderJ]

I was working on this today, and am trying to recall exactly what my old coach had taught me about it. If I remember correctly, weight should be forward with a slightly open stance and club face....right? The palm of my right hand should be pointed at my eyes through the entire swing, while ensuring my back swing is compact and really accelerating through the ball. This sounds about right...doesn't it? If so, I must not be accelerating through the ball with enough force because I wasn't noticing a huge difference today, other than turning what is normally a draw into a baby fade. Any thoughts or advice are appreciated!

[LankyLefty]

Backspin In my understanding really only has to do with loft of the club and hitting down on the ball. Placing the ball back in stance can help out with both of these but Im not sure these is 1 accepted "back spin swing".

[MiniBlueDragon]

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

Backspin In my understanding really only has to do with loft of the club and hitting down on the ball. Placing the ball back in stance can help out with both of these but Im not sure these is 1 accepted "back spin swing".

Placing the ball back in your stance can help with hitting down on the ball sure but regarding loft it decreases the club's loft. To increase the loft you need the ball further forward to allow the club's bounce to do the work, effectively cutting underneath the ball.

OP: The reason your draw has turned fade is because you're opening your club and stance and cutting across the ball which will impart fade spin on the ball as it's basically an out-to-in swing you're describing.

The way I add spin to my ball is to play it fractionally further forward in my stance, keep my shoulders and feet square to the target and aim to hit the ball and ground at the same time or if anything hit the ground a slit second before ball so that the club slides underneath the ball. That gives a high launch angle and plenty of spin for check shots.

[RyderJ]

Yeah, I understand why I was hitting the baby fade, and that wouldn't bother me if I was getting the spin I really wanted.  I can check the ball no problem, but am looking to really play past the hole and bring it back. I already play my irons pretty far back compared to most people...however yesterday, because I was opening my stance and club face I played the ball a bit more forward. I am still thinking that it has to do with compacting my back swing and making sure I really accelerate through the ball on impact, more so than usual. I may be way off base here, as I said in my OP, it's been a while since my high school coach taught me the shot.

I guess I just need to keep working at it, think I have a few drills in mind to help ensure I really get a substantially more amount of acceleration through impact.

Thanks for the replies.

Originally Posted by MiniBlueDragon

OP: The reason your draw has turned fade is because you're opening your club and stance and cutting across the ball which will impart fade spin on the ball as it's basically an out-to-in swing you're describing.

The way I add spin to my ball is to play it fractionally further forward in my stance, keep my shoulders and feet square to the target and aim to hit the ball and ground at the same time or if anything hit the ground a slit second before ball so that the club slides underneath the ball. That gives a high launch angle and plenty of spin for check shots.

[Shorty]

Yeah, I understand why I was hitting the baby fade, and that wouldn't bother me if I was getting the spin I really wanted.  I can check the ball no problem, but am looking to really play past the hole and bring it back.

This is not making any sense at all. If you can check the ball " no problem",then hit it short of the hole. Why do you want to hit it past the hole and spin it back? You can't control that shot and on softer greens, if you're short you'll be spining them off the front of the green, and on most greens you won't be able to do it anyway. Good players want to reduce spin on the greens, not add it. There is nothing cool about the kind of shot you are talking about and i'll guarantee it costs you shots. Nothing cool about hitting it 3 feet past the hole and it spinning 10 feet back. If you have no problem checking it,as you say, hit it 10 feet short and enjoy having shorter putts. But.......I'm guessing that you somehow think that spinning a ball back looks cool and are more interested in that than your scores. I won't even start on the term " baby fade".

[TN94z]

Originally Posted by Shorty

This is not making any sense at all.

If you can check the ball " no problem",then hit it short of the hole. Why do you want to hit it past the hole and spin it back? You can't control that shot and on softer greens, if you're short you'll be spining them off the front of the green, and on most greens you won't be able to do it anyway.

Good players want to reduce spin on the greens, not add it.

There is nothing cool about the kind of shot you are talking about and i'll guarantee it costs you shots. Nothing cool about hitting it 3 feet past the hole and it spinning 10 feet back.

If you have no problem checking it,as you say, hit it 10 feet short and enjoy having shorter putts.

But.......I'm guessing that you somehow think that spinning a ball back looks cool and are more interested in that than your scores.

I won't even start on the term " baby fade".

I have to agree with this.  I can't stand it when I hit a good shot only to see it get further and further from the hole because of back spin.  There just isn't any consistency in it.  If you can make the ball check with no problems, I wouldn't mess with that.  I would hit that shot all the way to the bank.

[RyderJ]

It's just a shot I am trying to learn...not play on a consistent basis. I have found myself in scenarios before where bringing the ball back was an appropriate shot to hit. I'm not adjusting my swing to spin the ball back 10 feet every time, it's just something I want to LEARN how to do more consistently. I'm not approaching EVERY green from the fairway thinking, "man it would be cool if I could spin this ball all the way back off the green," but in some cases, a shot with a tremendous amount of spin is useful imho. Which is why I DO in fact care more about my actual score than making a shot look cool, or like something you see the pros do. I want to have a variety of shots in my arsenal for whatever is needed for that particular hole. What is so wrong with that...I'll wait...

[mdl]

I'll agree with shorty.  If your ball checks up nicely on the green then you don't need extra spin.  If you're talking about short game shots, then yeah, the low spinner hop and stop or even hop and come back a bit is a good shot to have in the bag, but there's no need to have the ball come back 15 feet on a stock short or mid iron.

Also, as to getting spin, how far the hands are in front of the ball (hence loft differences for the same club) and coming down on the ball affect spin, but mostly it's from club head speed (assuming in all cases you hit the sweet spot).  That's why you'll see pros hit soft knockdowns to soft but fast greens where they don't want to run the ball back off the front of the green.  They have very fast club head speed, so if they hit a stock PW 150 yards that goes high and has huge spin, they might spin it back off the green.  You'll see them hit a knockdown and hold off the finish.  They're still coming down on the ball, and yes the knockdown de-lofts the club a bit so they get less spin from that, but mostly what they're doing by hitting the knock down with a held off finish is de-lofting the club but hitting it with slower club head speed so they get less spin for similar distance.

[RyderJ]

In high school, my coach finally got through to me on how to hit this shot my senior year. It helped tremendously being able to spin an 8 or nine, if only even a little, in some scenarios. I'm not talking some ridiculous amount by any stretch, however having said that, in high school I could spin both those clubs for a particular shot, under the right circumstances and score well. I am just trying to recall how I hit the ball then, vs. what I am doing now.

[TN94z]

Originally Posted by RyderJ

In high school, my coach finally got through to me on how to hit this shot my senior year. It helped tremendously being able to spin an 8 or nine, if only even a little, in some scenarios. I'm not talking some ridiculous amount by any stretch, however having said that, in high school I could spin both those clubs for a particular shot, under the right circumstances and score well. I am just trying to recall how I hit the ball then, vs. what I am doing now.

My only thing with this shot is that there is no way I could control how much it would spin.  I hit shots that have spin and they never spin the same amount...with the same clubs.   They may spin back 5 foot one time and 25 the next and this is on the same greens.  I don't fault you in any way wanting to know how to do it, because I like to know how to hit as many shots as I can.  But I would much rather be able to hit the same shot and it check up and stop.  If that's the case, then all you have to worry about is your distances.

I would think that the keys would be clean contact, downward strike, and acceleration through the ball.

[newtogolf]

It's definitely a cool shot to watch the pros hit.  Pros seem to know when to use it based on the greens and pin location they are hitting into.  Non-pros that can hit it, like to show off the shot but usually results in rolling the ball further from the cup or even off the green.  I'm just at the point where I can get it to check up when I hit it right, which is okay for me.

[LankyLefty]

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Pros seem to know when to use it based on the greens and pin location they are hitting into.

It amazed me how much much time and effort pros and their caddies put in to "scouting" a course. They in a week or so do what it took me months to do at my local course, then I moved and now Im back to square one. But yeah I think that many people who learn this are not accurate enough to effectively use it anyway.

Be real how many of you on a regular basis can say "ok im gonna fly this 10 feet past the hole and roll it back" then actually hit that 10 foot spot? Im guessing not to many.

[TN94z]

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

It amazed me how much much time and effort pros and their caddies put in to "scouting" a course. They in a week or so do what it took me months to do at my local course, then I moved and now Im back to square one. But yeah I think that many people who learn this are not accurate enough to effectively use it anyway.

Be real how many of you on a regular basis can say "ok im gonna fly this 10 feet past the hole and roll it back" then actually hit that 10 foot spot? Im guessing not to many.

They have much more time to scout courses and many of them have years of notes to go along with that.  Add that with knowing exactly where you hit your clubs, and they can pick a course apart.

Then how many can say that when they hit it 10 feet past the hole, they can consistently back it up 10 feet and not 25?

[soloredd]

Ah, the perils of 'selective golf coverage'. Any of you that have DirecTV or go on the net and watch the majors when they follow a group from first shot to last? So many times you will see bad shots, and the spin back is one of them. They will spin the ball right off the green sometimes when the ball landed hole high. Thing is, NBC/CBS/GC will 99% of the time only show the shots that end up good.