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Changing Strike Point on Irons?


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so, I've been hearing lately about how the sweet spot on irons is more towards the heel than the center.  I would say my strike point is towards the center, because thats where I, like many other people probably, were trying to hit it.  So, I guess my question is, if I want to start striking the ball more towards the heel, whats the best way to go about this?  move closer to the ball? line up the face and ball closer to the heel side and hope i don't shank it? both?  I don't want to mess around too much without hearing some thoughts otherwise shit could hit the fan

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I don’t think the sweet spot is more towards the heel. The sweet spot in GI/SGI irons is a bit larger but I don’t think trying to hit closer to the heel is something you should do? Have you used a monitor? Do you know your average Smash Factor? I’m not an expert on face technology but I’m pretty sure hitting more toward the heel isn’t something to strive for.

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Kareck me if I'm wrong but isn't a "sweet spot" closer to the heel an indication that the lie angle is too upright?

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5 hours ago, downbylaw11 said:

so, I've been hearing lately about how the sweet spot on irons is more towards the heel than the center.  I would say my strike point is towards the center, because thats where I, like many other people probably, were trying to hit it.  So, I guess my question is, if I want to start striking the ball more towards the heel, whats the best way to go about this?  move closer to the ball? line up the face and ball closer to the heel side and hope i don't shank it? both?  I don't want to mess around too much without hearing some thoughts otherwise shit could hit the fan

You would need to figure out where the center of gravity of the club is. Unfortunately that would mean removing the club head from the shaft. The good part is that for the most part the CoG is in the same place for most irons within a set of clubs.  I actually found the CoG of my clubs by balancing the club head on a golf tee on a table. The CoG of most irons is towards the heel simply because of the hosel.  I found that it took moving at least 25% of the weight of the club head to move the CoG even a couple millimeters, however those millimeters make a huge difference in how the club will play for the individual.  The CoG directly affects a golfers ability to "feel" for the center of mass of the club head which is likely not the physical center of the club face.  

A lot of hollow irons can be toe weighted to bring the CoG to the actual middle of the face. Your goal should be to hit the ball inline with the CoG of the club no matter where it is on the face with an iron.  Striking it anywhere else on the face will create gear effect and really the only club that this can be an advantage with is the driver.  If you don't like that strike location then you have to move it by moving weight around the club head and lead tape isn't going to be enough.  That's why I play hollow head irons because cause you can easily hotmelt them and manipulate CoG and swingweight at the same time with is a double bonus for me.  Hybrids, irons, and fairway woods are really easy to work with because they have weight ports or hotmelt ports.

If you try to override it you will likely find it difficult to do because you basically have to ignore the ball, or where you tend to look at at address, and literally shift it away from the ball. Say you want to hit a ball off the toe and you normally look at the back of the ball. You would not only need to shift your whole body a few millimeters away from the ball, you would have to move your focus point from the back of the ball to the inside edge of the ball to try to override the CoG. Is that making sense?   

8 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

I don’t think the sweet spot is more towards the heel. The sweet spot in GI/SGI irons is a bit larger but I don’t think trying to hit closer to the heel is something you should do? Have you used a monitor? Do you know your average Smash Factor? I’m not an expert on face technology but I’m pretty sure hitting more toward the heel isn’t something to strive for.

The "sweet spot" or CoG could be anywhere on the club face depending on how the weight is distributed. The sweet spot is not any larger on any given club as it is still a point that the club face will balance on....it's just that GI/SGI clubs tend to have bigger club faces and thus the distance from the CoG to the outer edges of the club are spread further apart thus making the club head more forgiving on shots struck away from the CoG. The goal should be to hit the ball where the CoG is...no matter where it is on the club face with all clubs except the driver in certain instances. 

44 minutes ago, Piz said:

Kareck me if I'm wrong but isn't a "sweet spot" closer to the heel an indication that the lie angle is too upright?

Sweet spot or center of gravity doesn't care about the lie angle of the club.  The sweet spot is an indication of how the mass of the club is distributed.  

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By "sweet spot" I mean impact location on average: hence the quotation marks.  The actual sweet spot is the fundamental node.  That's where the expression "Hit it right on the node" comes from.  I agree that the CoG is the CoG...no matter how big or small the club face is; but that doesn't mean that it always lines up with the center of percussion.  That's all for now...I have to log out and look up more science...umm...stuff.

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15 minutes ago, Piz said:

By "sweet spot" I mean impact location on average: hence the quotation marks.  The actual sweet spot is the fundamental node.  That's where the expression "Hit it right on the node" comes from.  I agree that the CoG is the CoG...no matter how big or small the club face is; but that doesn't mean that it always lines up with the center of percussion.  That's all for now...I have to log out and look up more science...umm...stuff.

I agree...if you want to the sweetspot to be the center of percussion then the club must be designed as such, or you have to manipulate the weighting of the club to put it there. A lot of clubs nowadays are toe weighted or in the past had shorter hosels to do just that.  If the CoG is not inline with where you strike the shot then the club will feel like garbage because the face will twist at impact.  That is why strike should be monitored on EVERY shot that a golfer hits because you will eventually figure out where the CoG is of any given club because the shot will feel solid in a certain location on the club face. 

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2 hours ago, Vinsk said:

I don’t think the sweet spot is more towards the heel. The sweet spot in GI/SGI irons is a bit larger but I don’t think trying to hit closer to the heel is something you should do? Have you used a monitor? Do you know your average Smash Factor? I’m not an expert on face technology but I’m pretty sure hitting more toward the heel isn’t something to strive for.

2 hours ago, Piz said:

Kareck me if I'm wrong but isn't a "sweet spot" closer to the heel an indication that the lie angle is too upright?

Katsuhiro Miura (founder of Miura Golf) tends to agree with the idea that the sweet spot is more towards the heel and he talks about it briefly in the video below (it will start right at the spot where he talks about the sweet spot when you click play)

 

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26 minutes ago, klineka said:

Katsuhiro Miura (founder of Miura Golf) tends to agree with the idea that the sweet spot is more towards the heel and he talks about it briefly in the video below (it will start right at the spot where he talks about the sweet spot when you click play)

 

Won’t play for me but I’ll try it later. Isn’t this something that can be tested with an Iron Byron? I’m sure there’s a definite answer for any iron as to where the ‘sweet spot’ actually is?

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7 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Won’t play for me but I’ll try it later. Isn’t this something that can be tested with an Iron Byron? I’m sure there’s a definite answer for any iron as to where the ‘sweet spot’ actually is?

This thread talks about it some, and the general consensus from that thread is that the sweet spot is towards the bottom of the clubface, and more people felt it was towards the heel than the toe. The initial pictures look pretty centered, but there is another picture on the second page of the thread that shows a wear pattern higher on the face and more towards the heel. I'm sure it varies slightly for different models of irons but it seems like most people including Hogan felt it was more towards the heel (obviously a different era in clubs and golf balls back then)

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45 minutes ago, klineka said:

Katsuhiro Miura (founder of Miura Golf) tends to agree with the idea that the sweet spot is more towards the heel and he talks about it briefly in the video below (it will start right at the spot where he talks about the sweet spot when you click play)

For those irons. Many irons have the SS toward the center of the face.

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not something I would worry about. I doubt if many people are consistent enough to hit with precision. It has been said that the older clubs had the sweet spot more towards the heel and cite photos of Hogan's iron (and others) showing worn contact points (very small) towards the heel. It has also been stated that with modern technology, the ability to move the COG towards the center of the face. That being said, why would someone want to attempt to strike the face near the heel ( or toe for that manner)  with less room for error? 

You might wish to contact Tom Wishon about this. He is usually pretty good about responding. 

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52 minutes ago, iacas said:

For those irons. Many irons have the SS toward the center of the face.

Is there a way to know where the SS should be on your iron set? 

After not playing much for the past few years I'm rededicating myself and bought some dry erase markers as you suggest in LSW.  I found that the shots that felt really good on contact seemed to be a bit on the toe side of center.   I was wondering whether my i20s are just made that way or whether its something I should focus on fixing.  

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14 hours ago, downbylaw11 said:

so, I've been hearing lately about how the sweet spot on irons is more towards the heel than the center.

It's more prevalent on vintage blades and other clubs that are designed in a similar fashion. Today's irons don't really have that problem. Even modern blades are designed with computers and engineers are able to control where the sweet spot on the club is.

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a lot of interesting information here, but I don't think anyone even attempted to answer my question lol.  

3-pw 2007 callaway x-forged
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60 cleveland 
Driver - Callaway xr16
3w - Callaway xr16
Shoes - Etonic stabilite sport

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1 minute ago, downbylaw11 said:

a lot of interesting information here, but I don't think anyone even attempted to answer my question lol.  

You just do. You’re talking about a quarter inch or something.

You don’t really change anything.

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Just now, downbylaw11 said:

a lot of interesting information here, but I don't think anyone even attempted to answer my question lol.  

I think the question becomes, why? The sweet spot of your irons is likely in the center of the face, so why do you want to move your strike center away from it?

Your original line of thinking is based on wrong or outdated information IMO.

Bill

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1 hour ago, billchao said:

I think the question becomes, why? The sweet spot of your irons is likely in the center of the face, so why do you want to move your strike center away from it?

Your original line of thinking is based on wrong or outdated information IMO.

Right.

If you feel like the clubhead is twisting because it's being hit not on the sweet spot… that'd be a reason to adjust your strike location.

Most clubs put the SS toward the center, not near the hosel, these days, as @billchao and others have pointed out.

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On 12/20/2018 at 9:45 AM, iacas said:

For those irons. Many irons have the SS toward the center of the face.

 

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Right.

If you feel like the clubhead is twisting because it's being hit not on the sweet spot… that'd be a reason to adjust your strike location.

Most clubs put the SS toward the center, not near the hosel, these days, as @billchao and others have pointed out.

Exactly! It's obvious that Miura designs his iron to have the SS nearer the hosel.

iacas, remember the experiment you asked us to do maybe a couple/three years ago? We'd put a dime sized spot with a Sharpie on the back of the ball, and hit 5 balls like that with a 6 or 7 iron. My first shot was very near Miura's SS, It kind of fluttered out there weakly and drifted right.

I looked at the spot on the clubface and remembered that I have a tendency to swing out at the ball. I set up with the ball nearer the toe for the next 4 shots, and nailed them all on the button! The ball flew straight and far. 

Maybe the OP would benefit from that experiment as well.

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Note: This thread is 1921 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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