How to hit 2-iron?

[mvmac]

I know that 2-iron is quickly become extinct. For mid-high handicappers, hybrid is a much better alternative indeed. However, I particularly interested in learning and mastering 2-iron. I believe that I can hit them purely, then hitting any other club shouldn't be a problem.

So, what are the fundamentals of hitting 2-iron? Grips, setup, stance, posture? Does it have to be very quick on the downswing? Comments and suggestions are appreciated.

There's 5 Keys to hitting a 2 iron solid Just backing up what others have said, weight forward at impact, flat lead wrist and you'll be fine.  To help you can set-up with the hips pushed forward so you are almost in a "reverse K" set-up.

Answer: Put the ball up on a tee.  Which is actually a useful shot that the 2-iron offers distinct advantages for if you can master it.  Also remember that today's 2-iron is equivalent to the classic 1-iron in specs, so you can still pat yourself on the back if you can master a modern 3-iron.  I have an old Northwestern "Shot Saver" (Ha!) butter-knife blade 1-iron.  Usually takes me about 3 tries before I can pure one off a tee and a few more than that to hit a good one off the turf.  It goes like a thinned 3 iron on a good strike.

The lofts may be different but the design isn't similar, even from an old Eye 2 two iron.  Lower CG, more moi, more bounce/camber on the soles.

You have to swing it slow.  It is a long club let it come around and it will do the work.

Yeah cause that's how good players swing..... slow

[birlyshirly]

For the golf police who don't think a 30 cap should get a licence to swing a 2 iron, there are some good reasons to use a 2 iron as a practice club without necessarily bagging one when you need to score.

There's some decent evidence that high quality learning occurs when you attempt a task where the level of difficulty is such that you fail on nearly half your attempts.

Compare that to the common course management advice to only take on shots that you feel you have at least a 90% chance of pulling off.

I'd estimate that there are relatively few handicap golfers who have a 90% shot at hitting a 2 iron better than some other club, be it a hybrid, lofted fw, or even a shorter iron. On the other hand, I imagine that there are tonnes of golfers who could take a 2 iron to the range and hit around half their shots decent.

Not that I think that quality of strike should always be the primary concern on the range - but I can certainly see the point of using longer, harder to hit clubs (and when necessary, easier clubs too!) to modulate the difficulty of the practice task.

[Golfingdad]

For the golf police who don't think a 30 cap should get a licence to swing a 2 iron, there are some good reasons to use a 2 iron as a practice club without necessarily bagging one when you need to score.

There's some decent evidence that high quality learning occurs when you attempt a task where the level of difficulty is such that you fail on nearly half your attempts.

Compare that to the common course management advice to only take on shots that you feel you have at least a 90% chance of pulling off.

I'd estimate that there are relatively few handicap golfers who have a 90% shot at hitting a 2 iron better than some other club, be it a hybrid, lofted fw, or even a shorter iron. On the other hand, I imagine that there are tonnes of golfers who could take a 2 iron to the range and hit around half their shots decent.

Not that I think that quality of strike should always be the primary concern on the range - but I can certainly see the point of using longer, harder to hit clubs (and when necessary, easier clubs too!) to modulate the difficulty of the practice task.

A lot of people agree with you on this, and it sounds good in theory, but I think there is another side to this.  The conscious side says "If I can hit a 2-iron good 50% of time, then I am confident that I can hit my 7 iron good 90% of the time."  Perfectly reasonable.  However, I believe that the unconscious side is thinking something different, and something a lot more basic.  Something like "I have no confidence because I only hit my irons good 50% of the time at the range."  The subconscious side isn't able to rationalize that it's the 2-irons fault, not yours.  It's the same part of your brain that fails you if you are the type of guy who comes to a shot and thinks things like "whatever you do, don't hit it in the water."  Your brain doesn't really worry about the qualifiers, it just hears "blah blah blah ... water."  That's why you should always think positive when you're on the tee.  Think about what you do want to do, not what you don't want to do.

Take that same idea and transfer it to practice, and I can certainly see where practicing well with a 7 iron will provide you with more confidence to hit a 3 or 2 iron, whereas practicing poorly, or at least mediocre-ly ( sometimes its fun to make up words) with a 2 iron might take away confidence to hit a 7 iron.

**  Also please recognize that this is my opinion, and it's not an expert opinion.  I have no qualifications whatsoever in regards to psychology, and most of my opinion on this topic comes from stuff I read in Bob Rotella books. :)

[David in FL]

For the golf police who don't think a 30 cap should get a licence to swing a 2 iron, there are some good reasons to use a 2 iron as a practice club without necessarily bagging one when you need to score.

There's some decent evidence that high quality learning occurs when you attempt a task where the level of difficulty is such that you fail on nearly half your attempts.

Compare that to the common course management advice to only take on shots that you feel you have at least a 90% chance of pulling off.

I'd estimate that there are relatively few handicap golfers who have a 90% shot at hitting a 2 iron better than some other club, be it a hybrid, lofted fw, or even a shorter iron. On the other hand, I imagine that there are tonnes of golfers who could take a 2 iron to the range and hit around half their shots decent.

Not that I think that quality of strike should always be the primary concern on the range - but I can certainly see the point of using longer, harder to hit clubs (and when necessary, easier clubs too!) to modulate the difficulty of the practice task.

I'd argue that a 30 hcp doesn't hit any club well more than 50% of the time.  Until someone, anyone, has some basis for relatively consistent ball-striking with any iron, I just think that that they're spinning their wheels and adding a lot of unnecessary frustration to a game that's already awfully damn frustrating.

I agree with GD.  Learn to hit a mid-iron well.  The positive feedback will be a lot more rewarding and ultimately beneficial to improvement.  Just my .02 worth.....

[Valleygolfer]

Maybe you should just get this and practice instead....

[Ernest Jones]

I'd argue that a 30 hcp doesn't hit any club well more than 50% of the time.

I was gonna take offence but then I remembered, "hey I'm a 25 now!"

[Golfingdad]

Until someone, anyone, has some basis for relatively consistent ball-striking with any iron, I just think that that they're spinning their wheels and adding a lot of unnecessary frustration to a game that's already awfully damn frustrating.

Perfectly put. :)

And ... lol Ernest!

[c peterich]

Just swing the damn thing,,, all this thinking

[c peterich]

Maybe you should just get this and practice instead.... [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/84301/] [/URL]

Those tour strikers are a damn joke...you can cheat those all day. Another marketing ploy by a group taking advantage of golfers seeking the so called secret.

[birlyshirly]

I'd argue that a 30 hcp doesn't hit any club well more than 50% of the time.  Until someone, anyone, has some basis for relatively consistent ball-striking with any iron, I just think that that they're spinning their wheels and adding a lot of unnecessary frustration to a game that's already awfully damn frustrating.

I agree with GD.  Learn to hit a mid-iron well.  The positive feedback will be a lot more rewarding and ultimately beneficial to improvement.  Just my .02 worth.....

I'm not saying break out the 2 iron to start a session. But I see the sense of having a 2 or 3 iron available at the hard end of the range of clubs that you practice with. I'm not a fan of hitting only one club as a swing builder. Unless you're extremely disciplined, and probably supported by a video camera and/or a second pair of eyes, I think it's too easy to hit a string of decent shots and think you're progressing. I prefer, if 4 or 5 shots come off well and as planned, to move up a club or two and repeat with a harder shot. I wouldn't like to say that a 30 handicap isn't good enough to practice and learn like that. But by the same rules, if you can't hit 2 out of 5 shots decently, then I think you need to go back a step and build from there.

A lot of people agree with you on this, and it sounds good in theory, but I think there is another side to this.  The conscious side says "If I can hit a 2-iron good 50% of time, then I am confident that I can hit my 7 iron good 90% of the time."  Perfectly reasonable.  However, I believe that the unconscious side is thinking something different, and something a lot more basic.  Something like "I have no confidence because I only hit my irons good 50% of the time at the range."  The subconscious side isn't able to rationalize that it's the 2-irons fault, not yours.  It's the same part of your brain that fails you if you are the type of guy who comes to a shot and thinks things like "whatever you do, don't hit it in the water."  Your brain doesn't really worry about the qualifiers, it just hears "blah blah blah ... water."  That's why you should always think positive when you're on the tee.  Think about what you do want to do, not what you don't want to do.

Take that same idea and transfer it to practice, and I can certainly see where practicing well with a 7 iron will provide you with more confidence to hit a 3 or 2 iron, whereas practicing poorly, or at least mediocre-ly (  sometimes its fun to make up words) with a 2 iron might take away confidence to hit a 7 iron.

**  Also please recognize that this is my opinion, and it's not an expert opinion.  I have no qualifications whatsoever in regards to psychology, and most of my opinion on this topic comes from stuff I read in Bob Rotella books. :)

I hear you. But in my equally non-expert opinion I'd respond that confidence, and Bob Rotella, are overrated. I'm on the "develop the skills, and confidence will follow" end of the spectrum.

[Golfingdad]

I'm not saying break out the 2 iron to start a session. But I see the sense of having a 2 or 3 iron available at the hard end of the range of clubs that you practice with. I'm not a fan of hitting only one club as a swing builder. Unless you're extremely disciplined, and probably supported by a video camera and/or a second pair of eyes, I think it's too easy to hit a string of decent shots and think you're progressing. I prefer, if 4 or 5 shots come off well and as planned, to move up a club or two and repeat with a harder shot. I wouldn't like to say that a 30 handicap isn't good enough to practice and learn like that. But by the same rules, if you can't hit 2 out of 5 shots decently, then I think you need to go back a step and build from there.

I hear you. But in my equally non-expert opinion I'd respond that confidence, and Bob Rotella, are overrated. I'm on the "develop the skills, and confidence will follow" end of the spectrum.

Yeah, I get that.  This is kind of a chicken-egg thing, I guess.  And I think that we probably agree more than we are letting on.  Certainly I wouldn't suggest that a person should only practice with their 7 or 8 iron to build up confidence and then expect that they would automatically be able to hit a 2-iron well.  But at the same time, I think you agree (based on the last sentence in your first paragraph above) that it can be detrimental for somebody to spend too much time beating their head against a wall with a 2-iron on the range if they can't hit it.  Like most things in life, somewhere in the middle is probably the right place to be. :)

[birlyshirly]

Oh absolutely Golfingdad. I think there's a sweetspot for practice - somewhere between "too easy to be challenging" and "too challenging to get anything right". My understanding is that the middle ground is where you're successful with around 50% of your efforts.

Personally, I think that there's a general tendency to get carried away with hitting good shots on the range, so I'm more conscious of emphasising the opposite. But yeah - topping 20 2 irons in a row isn't going to lead to much learning.

What I would add though is that "success" has to be relative. Let's face it, few of us would progress past the wedge if first we had to hit more than half our shots "tour pro" quality. By the same token, a high handicapper who wants to challenge himself with a long iron doesn't need to stripe it out of a tight lie. They could be teeing it up and hitting half swings and still, I think, learning something useful.

[Golfingdad]

Personally, I think that there's a general tendency to get carried away with hitting good shots on the range, so I'm more conscious of emphasising the opposite.

Another solid point.  You definitely don't want to go to the practice range and "practice" what you already do well.  We should be practicing our weaknesses more.  If you carry a 2-iron and don't hit it well, then yes, you should spend some time practicing with it ... but whether or not that practice with a 2-iron will carry over to your short irons is another story.  Jury's still out.

P.S.  After proof-reading this post, I now have this stuck in my head:

I love this video!!

[inthecup]

Yeah cause that's how good players swing..... slow

I am not sure how to interpret that.  I am guessing sarcasm.  I found that the average person with a long club thinks "I have to hit this hard" and over swings.  Thinking slow down is what helps me not overswing.

[mvmac]

I am not sure how to interpret that.  I am guessing sarcasm.  I found that the average person with a long club thinks "I have to hit this hard" and over swings.  Thinking slow down is what helps me not overswing.

Just one of my pet peeves, like when I give advice to golfers and they say they'll "try" it.  I basically get what you are saying, I'll try and clarify what I mean.

Good players swing the clubhead fast, there is no player on any tour that hits it 220 off the tee.  Players can feel like they "swing too fast" because a couple things are out of sequence.  What they are actually feeling is the overtaking rate of the clubhead because they flip it.  Players don't over swing because they're trying to swing too hard, they over swing because the backswing sequence is off.

Hit it as hard as you want with this drill

[Golfingdad]

I am not sure how to interpret that.  I am guessing sarcasm.  I found that the average person with a long club thinks "I have to hit this hard" and over swings.  Thinking slow down is what helps me not overswing.

I think that is because the average person interprets "swing hard" or "swing fast" often as starting at the beginning of the swing.  If I tell myself to slow down, it just means that I know I got too quick with my backswing and in the transition (from back to down) but I am NEVER swinging too hard or fast at impact.

I'm going to guess that you are similar ... and what you perceive as "slowing down" is probably something more like "swing like Ernie Els, not Nick Price."  But, as Mike is illustrating below ... both of those guys swing hard.

Just one of my pet peeves, like when I give advice to golfers and they say they'll "try" it.  I basically get what you are saying, I'll try and clarify what I mean.

Good players swing the clubhead fast, there is no player on any tour that hits it 220 off the tee.  Players can feel like they "swing too fast" because a couple things are out of sequence.  What they are actually feeling is the overtaking rate of the clubhead because they flip it.  Players don't over swing because they're trying to swing too hard, they over swing because the backswing sequence is off.

Hit it as hard as you want with this drill

I like this drill.  It was one of the first ones I tried after I joined this site, but before I joined Evolvr, and it helped a lot.  I need to start doing it again. :)

P.S.  Each time I watch one of these videos with the two of you, I'm half expecting/hoping it to be the "What are you? 80 years old?" one.  Was dissappointed. :(

[inthecup]

Just one of my pet peeves, like when I give advice to golfers and they say they'll "try" it.  I basically get what you are saying, I'll try and clarify what I mean.

Good players swing the clubhead fast, there is no player on any tour that hits it 220 off the tee.  Players can feel like they "swing too fast" because a couple things are out of sequence.  What they are actually feeling is the overtaking rate of the clubhead because they flip it.  Players don't over swing because they're trying to swing too hard, they over swing because the backswing sequence is off.

Hit it as hard as you want with this drill

Mvmac, sarcasm does not play well on the internet and I would think mocking someone who is trying to participate would be an odd behavior for a moderator .  Golfingdad understood what I was trying to convey and I believe my point is very valid.  The average person trying to hit a long shot tends to rip from the top and give away all their lag.  Swinging hard is not swinging fast.  I was sharing my swing thought when trying to hit a long iron.

[David in FL]

Mvmac, sarcasm does not play well on the internet and I would think mocking someone who is trying to participate would be an odd behavior for a moderator .  Golfingdad understood what I was trying to convey and I believe my point is very valid.  The average person trying to hit a long shot tends to rip from the top and give away all their lag.  Swinging hard is not swinging fast.  I was sharing my swing thought when trying to hit a long iron.

Except, that's not what you said in the original post.  You specifically told the OP to ....."swing it slow".   If that's not what you meant, that's fine, but then you might want to take a little more care to explain exactly what you mean when offering swing advice or risk being misunderstood.