Forward Press????

[outlaw1984]

I went and played 18 holes yesterday and shot a 95 on a 76 par course.....again ive been playing for a year....anyhow my good friend on the other hand shot a 85 and was killing the ball.....i notice one thing is he has a huge forward press with the irons.....and when he hits the ball he gets great compression and sound also gets unbelievable air........i asked him how he does it and he said, he tried to get his handle back to where it was at address, forward pressed.....so im thinking hmmmm....isnt this the same concept of keeping the flying wedge...........anyhow i played the last 7 or 8 holes with him assisting me with a little info, and shot good shots.....in the past if i used the forward press i would hit line drives with no air....but yesterday i had maybe 2  that was great shots....but i had divots because the mental image is that i wanna have the handle in front of the ball and i wanna compress that ball into the ground.......

can someone tell me if my friend is right.....am i suppose to have a forward press? is the goal to try to get to where i was at address with my handle forward? is the way to get the ball up is to hit down? i mean my friend was shooting it to the moon......can someone give me advice here and let me know if hes right?

thanks so much...God Bless

[iacas]

In my experience a forward press can help, but generally it doesn't stick and then some people start to keep forward pressing even more and more and more to the point where it gets ridiculous.

Set the shaft in a decent position to start, use a moderate trigger to start the backswing if you need one, and improve the mechanics from there. Appropriate shaft lean is often a result of other things going well in the swing, not as a result of trying to specifically deliver shaft lean to the ball.

[outlaw1984]

what interest me is how much air he got on his ball even thought he was hitting down.......was he keeping his flying wedge is this the reason why he was getting such great air?

[Zeph]

Hitting down on the ball also creates more backspin. While the ball may launch a bit lower, the increased spin rate will make it climb high.