Can't hit my irons!!

[Codygould]

Hello all

i just started golfing a little over a month ago so I am still very new and very much learning. I have learned to hit my driver fairly well but for the life of me I cannot hit my irons. All of my swings send the balls either on the ground completely or slightly in the air and only 30-40 yards with a 7. I can't quite figure out what I am doing wrong. 

I posted a link of a video of my swing below. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

http://sendvid.com/ehypy0th

[chspeed]

Hi! Welcome to the site!

I think the first thing to check is your hip turn. You sway back, which makes it a lot harder to hit the ball.

See this: http://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/76114-how-to-make-a-centered-hip-turn/#comment-760359

 

[colin007]

Hey Cody, welcome to the site! I would recommend making a member swing thread over here  http://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

 You'll find lots of smart people there who can help. From what I can see, the weight you transfer is going backwards and then barely returning to the original spot, instead of moving forward towards the target.

[vangator]

I agree with the posts above.  Way too much swaying.  By moving your head like that, you basically are making the stationary ball a moving target.  Head must stay still.  In the future, after you've learned to hit the ball, if you start hitting the ball lousy, the first thing to look at is if your head is moving.  That's why it's key numero uno.

To hit the ball, you must make solid contact.  At this point, you can't do that at full speed.  Take half swings at half speed until you learn to keep the head still and make solid contact.  Then you can build up your speed.  It's not a quick process, but if you work at it right, you'll be there before you know it. 

I think an impact bag is a great aid for working on the swing.  Plus, you save the price of balls.

[boogielicious]

15 hours ago, Codygould said:

Hello all

i just started golfing a little over a month ago so I am still very new and very much learning. I have learned to hit my driver fairly well but for the life of me I cannot hit my irons. All of my swings send the balls either on the ground completely or slightly in the air and only 30-40 yards with a 7. I can't quite figure out what I am doing wrong. 

I posted a link of a video of my swing below. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

http://sendvid.com/ehypy0th

Please start a My Swing thread in this section. You will get lots of help there.

http://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

 

[MiniJeffrey]

22 hours ago, Codygould said:

Hello all

i just started golfing a little over a month ago so I am still very new and very much learning. I have learned to hit my driver fairly well but for the life of me I cannot hit my irons. All of my swings send the balls either on the ground completely or slightly in the air and only 30-40 yards with a 7. I can't quite figure out what I am doing wrong. 

I posted a link of a video of my swing below. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

http://sendvid.com/ehypy0th

Although some think my vision is old dated I will say it anyway:

DO NOT start with your driver, you should start playing golf with irons. In my club we start by learning a pitching wedge on our compact course, then we move up to 9-8-7-6-5, 5 wood, 3 wood, driver. I have been playing for two years now and haven't touched a driver yet.

You say you hit balls that just runs over the ground (topping) or that flies only 40 yards with 7 iron (probably very fat). Both are due to poor contact and club position at impact.

 

Now, what I see in your video

* looking at the length of the club this seems to be a low iron (5 or something?), which is a lot more difficult to hit than an 7 or 8. Start with the easy irons (7-8-9-PW) and move up as you advance

* First part of your backswing looks good, however as soon as your club gets higher than 90 degrees, you start bending your left arm. Try to keep a straight left arm in the backswing.

* You seem to only turn a little more than 45 degrees with your upper body? Try to make a full 90 degree turn and keep that left arm straight.

* You overswing a bit, but I do that too. It makes it harder to get back to a good impact position, some people (like me) have few problems with that, others have severe troubles doing this.

*  This is a major problem: During the backswing you are moving your body behind your ball, you can see this very clearly looking at your head. Your body should stay in the same position, the axis in your back does the turning, you should not strafe to the right. Because of this fault you can never bring the club back in the same position so it gets impossible to get a clean contact unless you start compensating. To prevent this, try to turn around your axis, you can feel how this works by doing this without a club in your hand. You should feel how your hips are actually turning towards the target. What you do is sliding your hips away from the target. Look at this picture (https://www.jamesparkergolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/20130311_083948_Struve_0138.jpg), here you can see how his hips are turned (not slided!) towards the target, this means he turned around his spine axis. From this point, he can start turning the hips again and bring the club back to a perfect impact position.

* You might be a bit too upright, making it harder to get a good contact, resulting in topped or fat shots. Try to bend a little more through your knees.

[dchoye]

I find that using irons I hit it better when I employ more of a "pulling" action on the shaft 

conversely for fairway woods/driver if I think "push " I tend to hit those clubs better than "pull"

[imsys0042]

Lot of good advice in this thread.   I'm not as technical as others with the golf swing but I had problems getting the ball in the air for months when I started to play.   It'll come.  I didn't have any help then.   Lots of good help here 

[Codygould]

Thanks for all the advice! Went back to the range today and am still hitting them pretty badly. I got my last two balls in the air after moving the ball back in my stance a little bit but they weren't anything impressive. My buddies think that I'm using too much arms rather than focusing on hip rotation

[MiniJeffrey]

7 hours ago, Codygould said:

Thanks for all the advice! Went back to the range today and am still hitting them pretty badly. I got my last two balls in the air after moving the ball back in my stance a little bit but they weren't anything impressive. My buddies think that I'm using too much arms rather than focusing on hip rotation

Dont worry, practice makes perfect. Now, when you are struggling, how does it feel to you? Do you feel like you are hitting very heavy? Do you hear you club hitting the practice mat or not? If it does, is it before or after you have hit the ball? If the sounds comes way before the ball, then you are hitting it fat, if the sound comes after you have hit the ball, that's a good sound but you may be hitting too much down and with your arms in this point.

From my opinion I think you are having severe issues with hitting it fat, which would explain why you are having no distance at all. With a 7 iron you should be able to get easily 120 yards as a beginner. And yes, you are not rotating in a correct way which gives you an arm-swing, instead of a body swing.