Practicing with Long Irons

[Foot Wedge]

When I practice at home into the net, I generally use the mid irons (6, 7).  The thought here is that both longer and shorter irons only require a small adjustment.  Is there benefit to practicing ballstriking with the long irons since they're harder to hit?  I'd throw in a few short iron swings so they don't feel weird to swing, but the majority of my swings would be with a long iron.  Thoughts?

[Piz]

I like to start in the middle of the iron set and work from there.  I'll go odds or evens 7-5-7-9, or 8-6-8-PW...the idea being to pay attention to the swing and not the number on the club.  The 5 and 6 iron don't see much action, on the course, and need the exercise.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Patch]

My thought is that any club in my bag, that is harder to hit, gets practice time. Not necessarily more practice time, but at least enough to prevent any surprises later on. 

The longest iron in my bag is a 5I. My next longer club is a 7W. My 5W gets the most practice time of all my longer clubs, because I have the least amount of confidence in it. 

 

[Pullhook]

Iron play has been my strenght the 3 years I have played the game. And I think reason to that is I wanted to get good with long irons right away. I give always plenty of time to 5i and 4i. For me, if I can hit pure long irons, its childs play with other irons. I think my ball shaping has came from that too.

[Foot Wedge]

13 hours ago, Piz said:

I'll go odds or evens 7-5-7-9, or 8-6-8-PW...the idea being to pay attention to the swing and not the number on the club

I like the thought of this.  maybe I'd do more reps with the long irons.

 

4 hours ago, Pullhook said:

Iron play has been my strenght the 3 years I have played the game. And I think reason to that is I wanted to get good with long irons right away.

Interesting that it worked out for you.  I haven't given them too much time since I have been taking lessons and have been more focused on doing what I'm working on correctly.  But I've felt more comfortable with the 6i and started giving 5i more reps, which is what brought up my thought to post here.

[JonMA1]

 

On 2/20/2018 at 5:45 PM, Foot Wedge said:

The thought here is that both longer and shorter irons only require a small adjustment.  Is there benefit to practicing ballstriking with the long irons since they're harder to hit?

For the last several years, I used the most difficult iron I own to practice in the off-season - a 3i from an old 80's set of hogan radials.

My inability to improve much might be a clue as how effective that strategy has been.

This year I'm taking a different approach to my winter practice. I've replaced the 3i with the 5i from that same set. It's about as long as the 6i from my GI set but with a much smaller head.

On 2/20/2018 at 5:45 PM, Foot Wedge said:

I'd throw in a few short iron swings so they don't feel weird to swing, but the majority of my swings would be with a long iron.  Thoughts?

I do the same thing. I've busted out the short irons a couple of times, but since those clubs seem to be easier to re-learn every year, I don't practice with them nearly as much until the season gets closer.

[Foot Wedge]

12 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

For the last several years, I used the most difficult iron I own to practice in the off-season - a 3i from an old 80's set of hogan radials.

Well I have no business hitting a 3i.  It's too hard for me to hit cleanly so I wouldn't practice with it, otherwise I'd just be wasting reps on bad strikes.  Going from practicing with a 7i to a 3i seems like a drastic jump.  I've grown more comfortable with the 6i so going to a 5i is more incremental in difficulty.

Hopefully you have more success practicing with the 5.

[Groucho Valentine]

I think there is a tempo benefit to practicing with long irons. Whenever i felt like my swing got short and quick i would practice with a 4 iron. You cant really get stabby with the long irons. But on general swing work, a shorter iron is probably better. 

[NM Golf]

I don't hit a great deal of long irons when I play. I only have three rounds on Game Golf, but I have only hit my 5 iron once and have no stats with my 4 iron. I tend to practice the most with the clubs I hit the most unless there is a glaring weakness. I don't hit a lot of range balls anymore so when I do, I don't want to spend a great deal of time on a club I will only hit 1 time a round at the most. Plus, I have always hit my long irons pretty well.

 

[JonMA1]

5 hours ago, Foot Wedge said:

Well I have no business hitting a 3i.  It's too hard for me to hit cleanly so I wouldn't practice with it, otherwise I'd just be wasting reps on bad strikes.  Going from practicing with a 7i to a 3i seems like a drastic jump.  I've grown more comfortable with the 6i so going to a 5i is more incremental in difficulty.

Hopefully you have more success practicing with the 5.

I never claimed it to be a good idea. Lol.

It depends on how I'd be swinging on a given day. I can hit it cleanly, just not a very high percentage of the time. My theory was that if I could get to the point of hitting that club well, all the other clubs would be easy. As I said, it didn't seem to work out very well.

I think your idea of hitting something in the middle of the lineup is logical... minimize the difference.

[Lihu]

47 minutes ago, JonMA1 said:

I never claimed it to be a good idea. Lol.

It depends on how I'd be swinging on a given day. I can hit it cleanly, just not a very high percentage of the time. My theory was that if I could get to the point of hitting that club well, all the other clubs would be easy. As I said, it didn't seem to work out very well.

You might try a 6i or 5i instead? 3i is lower loft as well so it helps to have a higher swing speed.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Lihu

[JonMA1]

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

You might try a 6i or 5i instead?

I agree. I think that's what @Foot Wedge was saying. I've actually made the switch this year to practicing with the 5i from that old set.

1 hour ago, Lihu said:

3i is lower loft as well so it helps to have a higher swing speed.

Absolutely. Even on clean hits, it's hard to get the same height I get from even the 5i. Every so often, I'll catch one that climbs, but yeah, I don't have the SS.