Striking Down on the Ball

[Mark Robertson]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone had any good drills to implement striking down on the ball. My problem is I scoop the ball thus losing distance.

My backswing is ok but its grasping the downswing suppose I just cant mentally picture it happening.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[boogielicious]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone had any good drills to implement striking down on the ball. My problem is I scoop the ball thus losing distance.

My backswing is ok but its grasping the downswing suppose I just cant mentally picture it happening.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Mark,

Striking down on the ball is related to Key 3, Flat left wrist at impact.  The threads and video below explain this. The video thread has several drills to improve this and reduce flipping.

Another drill I have done is striking the ground and creating a divot without a ball. When I first started playing, I was a bit hesitant to strike down because my divot were huge.  I went to a nearby field and just practiced taking my stance without a ball and swinging at a spot on the ground and intentionally taking divots. I focused on getting that divot after the spot repeatably. This equates to striking the ball first. Doing this with other proper swing technique work really helped me get the flat left wrist at impact.

It is very important not to do this in your own yard by the way!!

[Mark Robertson]

Thanks Boogie,

I'll give it a watch and try the drill you said and hopefully I'll grasp it. Think its more a mental thing than physical lol.

A guy I know a 3 handicap player told me to feel like im pushing right but I think that just confused me more lol.

[Hatchman]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone had any good drills to implement striking down on the ball. My problem is I scoop the ball thus losing distance. My backswing is ok but its grasping the downswing suppose I just cant mentally picture it happening. Any help would be much appreciated.

I like that video too. Thanks. I went around with a my practice PW for about six months hitting leaves, butts, weeds, from various surfaces and textures until it became more fundamental to me. Do it just about anywhere.

[saevel25]

Thanks Boogie,

I'll give it a watch and try the drill you said and hopefully I'll grasp it. Think its more a mental thing than physical lol.

A guy I know a 3 handicap player told me to feel like im pushing right but I think that just confused me more lol.

That drill is fantastic for a lot of different aspects of the golf swing. Note how Erik takes a shorter backswing and swings slower. He still hits it with some pop, but it's NOT a full swing. Like a lot of drills, do it at a speed so it is functional .

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A similar drill for this,

Thanks Boogie,

I'll give it a watch and try the drill you said and hopefully I'll grasp it. Think its more a mental thing than physical lol.

I think that this can be true for some people. I played golf with a scratch golfer before and he hit about every iron shot "tour thin". Basically one or two grooves thin, picking the ball clean off the ground. Final few holes he finally decided to really try to hit down and take a divot, which he did. For him that day his swing just wanted to pick the ball clean off the turf.

[Mark Robertson]

Cheers Guys,

I've seen a few clips on youtube using 2 balls and missing the back one and striking down on the front one. One part of this also has the guy set up to the back ball and strike the front ball anyone tried this before. The position of the back ball is on the back ankle.

[arturo28mx]

Butch Harmon had a tip that helped me a lot. At address hover the club above the ground. Say, the bottom edge of the club in line with the top of the ball. This will force you to hit down on the ball. Worked for me.

[mvmac]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone had any good drills to implement striking down on the ball. My problem is I scoop the ball thus losing distance.

My backswing is ok but its grasping the downswing suppose I just cant mentally picture it happening.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Here ya go. Good luck!

[Mark Robertson]

Thanks again guys for the help and support I'm gonna head to the range and try these out.

[Mark Robertson]

Mike is that a good drill to practice I take it you get the feeling of driving down on the ball with this am I right to think that.

I'm sure I seen someone at the range last night doing exactly this but I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

[Mark Robertson]

Just back from the range and I've found my problem. Sorry for the posts but I'm in Scotland and its midday here.

Ok so my problem is I'm hitting under the ball with the odd shot being a fat shot. I get plenty of height and pretty straight but lacking a LOT in distance.

Being pretty newish to golf I really dont know of much drills to fix this or at least cut back on silly shots. I enjoy my golf and things like this will only make me determined to fix them.

[RayG]

A simple tip is to look at either a spot *just* in front of the ball or the front of the ball itself on the target side. IF you're hitting a LOT of them fat or scooping too many, look at a spot in front. As you improve you should be able to look at the front of the ball itself. It becomes a natural thing eventually and doesn't take a lot of extra swing thoughts to push out any others that could screw up the swing.

[mvmac]

Ok so my problem is I'm hitting under the ball with the odd shot being a fat shot. I get plenty of height and pretty straight but lacking a LOT in distance.

Right, good chance the weight isn't forward enough and/or the hands aren't forward at impact.

[Jeremie Boop]

Just back from the range and I've found my problem. Sorry for the posts but I'm in Scotland and its midday here.

Ok so my problem is I'm hitting under the ball with the odd shot being a fat shot. I get plenty of height and pretty straight but lacking a LOT in distance.

Being pretty newish to golf I really dont know of much drills to fix this or at least cut back on silly shots. I enjoy my golf and things like this will only make me determined to fix them.

You will definitely notice an increase in distance when you get the angle of attack more downward. I fight the flip myself, though I still have plenty of distance on my shots. Last night was especially bad for me blading a lot of shots. I chose a short par 3, playing about 155 but downhill, to practice. At first I was hitting 9 iron and the distance was good but ball flight was crazy high with very little spin. Once I started catching the ball on the way down I had to switch to PW for the same distance and the ball lost a little height and also stopped much quicker once it landed. One thing I noticed was that when I worked on hitting downward my miss ended up being a push to the right instead of a pull or over draw left. I'm not sure if this is natural when working on this or not, but if it is maybe it's something you can look for as indication that you are on the right track.

[TimS65]

[VIDEO]https://youtu.be/uG03K-BqVII[/VIDEO] This is another good tip to help hitting down on ball then taking a divot after...

[dchoye]

Good replies. What also helps me is feeling like my hands are leading the club head when I swing This ensures I have shaft lean at impact and I'm swinging the shaft more from the handle than lower portion of the shaft

[arturo28mx]

Good replies.

What also helps me is feeling like my hands are leading the club head when I swing This ensures I have shaft lean at impact and I'm swinging the shaft more from the handle than lower portion of the shaft

This is great but don't forget there has to be some weight shift to your left leg. From the address position to impact the bottom of your arc has to move slightly forward and down.

[JazzFatCat]

Get a Tour Striker 7 iron maybe?

I just got one today. I think it is interesting how weight shift, lag, low point of the swing, path, and timing are all interconnected to hit that club.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/31339/tour-striker-training-aid