Hit The Tape Drill

[GlasgowsGreen]

I starting doing a new drill last night to improve my impact position and stop flipping/ scooping.

You place a piece of tape around 6" in front of the ball then simply try and hit the ball and the tape. Clearly its impossible to do this without impacting the ball with a forward leaning shaft. If you flip you have no chance.

At a chronic flipper and an expert at the fat shot, I was amazed at how quickly I started hitting the ball and the tape. The beauty of this drill is that it is very intuitive - I didn't try to 'hold the lag' or wrist cock, I just seemed to automatically adjust my swing to move the low point forward.

Has anyone else tried this drill? Should the tape be placed further forward (am I making it too easy for myself?).

[VegasRenegade]

I am not seeing this Do you place a piece of masking tape on the target line 6 in in front of your ball?  Do  you place it slightly outside your TL to promote and inside out swing?

[Lihu]

Looks like a good drill for mats. There are some YouTube videos that tell you to put a tee 6" in front of the ball and hit the ball and the tee, but this is better for home use where you can get the tees back. I also put painters masking tape in front of the club to see where the impact on the face is located. I peel it up and re-stick it between every shot. Works for about 20 shots or so before you need to change the tape. Just started using bladed clubs as a training aide too. That seems to be improving my swing as well. The older clubs are really hard to hit well. When I do it really feels good, and going back to my game improvement clubs is really cool. The balls go much higher, farther and straighter.

[GlasgowsGreen]

Originally Posted by VegasRenegade

I am not seeing this Do you place a piece of masking tape on the target line 6 in in front of your ball?  Do  you place it slightly outside your TL to promote and inside out swing?

I put it directly in front of the ball on the target line. The object of the drill is to promote a downward strike on the ball, so I'm not too concerned about a swing path.

[VegasRenegade]

lol  I would miss it because my divots run right to left so it might help that way as well

[GlasgowsGreen]

At the range last night I put a piece of tape 6" in front of the ball and also about 2" behind. Unfortunately I hit both! I was hoping to see evidence of a clean strike on the ball without hitting the mat first! i.e. I would only hit the tape in front of the ball!

What does this say about my swing? Should I be concerned about hitting the tape behind the ball?  Is it ok as long as I hit the tape 6" in front?

[Valleygolfer]

I'd say you are hitting it fat :-P If this is consistent either move the ball back there or you are focusing on the tape behind the ball.