Hit OUT on the golf ball!
In this article we’ll continue to explore the mechanics of the golf stroke: In a previous post, we understood why hitting down on the ball was mandatory for a geometrically sound stroke. Now, we’ll see that hitting out on the golf ball is also important to achieve a three dimensional impact: forward, downward and outward.
Using the same principle as the drawing on the downward impact, we can geometrically represent the golf swing from a top view (above the player’s head) like this:
Although many players understand why it is geometrically correct to hit down on the ball, very few realize that the very same principle applies to the outward component of the stroke.
The outmost point of the club-head orbit is exactly in front of the leading shoulder as it is the center of the swing circle. As the ball is positioned before this point (with the exception of the driver where the ball may be positioned an inch before this point), you will strike the ball first then take a divot down but also OUT until you reach the outmost point of the radius of the swing.
This is what is called a “three dimensional impact”, forward, downward and outward, and is mandatory to strike a golf ball with maximum compression.
Of course, including Lag in your golf swing is an easy way to achieve this proper impact: To create Lag, you apply pressure on your golf shaft. But that pressure has to be directed in a very precise direction. Previously, we talked about a tip named “drag the wet mop”; this tip helps to feel Lag as a pressure against the shaft in the trigger finger of you trailing hand. But if you think about it, dragging a wet mop directs the pressure mainly forward as we can’t drive the mop under the ground.
But you know understand that you need to direct that pressure not only forward but also downward and outward.
Try it and you’ll know what compression on a golf ball means!
Was looking for some tips to improve my stroke and just happened to find your site in Google. Thanks for sharing these tips.
Thanks, we’re passionate about the game of golf and happy to share tips that are rarely covered in today’s instruction!
JOhn you are right on when you talk about the need to hit “out”. All too many players steer to the left, for fear of going right, and this means they don’t properly swing from inside to out. Good work.
Clive.
Great site, your explaining the TGM in layman terms and great visuals.
Can you explain the “impact point” in the image above? I’m a bit confused at it.
Thanks,
Mike
Thanks Wojo, this is exactly my intent: to respect the TGM spririt while keeping things practical and accessible!
To Mike:
Snipped from above:
“The outmost point of the club-head orbit is exactly in front of the leading shoulder as it is the center of the swing circle. As the ball is positioned before this point (with the exception of the driver where the ball may be positioned an inch before this point), you will strike the ball first then take a divot down but also OUT until you reach the outmost point of the radius of the swing.”
Impact point is where you place the ball on the circle. If you place the ball in the middle of your stance you’ll srike the ball first but then your clubhead will continue to go down and out until it arrives in front of your left shoulder. The impact point is only on the clubheads way. This is not the final target.
Low point is the target.
I feel bad John! I’m keeping you busy on a Sunday morning LOL. Totally makes sense. Now getting the ball position right is key
You know it’s kind of strange. I always thought swing path was in to in, where you come into the ball, then immediately the club goes back in on the circle.
No wonder I can’t hit a draw to save my life. If I’m correct, you are saying the clubface hits the ball, the low point is what I would say farther out to the right on the circle, then after low point, the club comes back in.
So in a sense, my feeling of circle was either too confined or tight, meaning, I kept thinking the club hit the ball, then immediately should be back inside.
I’m going to try to think about the whole circle being shifted to my left at address. Does that make sense?
Thanks as always,
Mike
Absolutely right Mike.
It’s a huge difference isn’t it?
A lot of Golfers have never paid attention to the geometry of the stroke and intuitively think that the ball is low point.
This could be true with the driver as low point and ball position coincide but this is no longer the case with the other sticks in the bag!
As a consequence, if you think of going IN after impact on a 7 iron, you will probably cast the club, not use the full leverage of the left arm + shaft and instead use a shaft only lever with a center of the circle located at the wrists!
Shorter radius = Shorter leverage = huge loss of mass = loss of distance (without speaking of consistency)!
Keep going, you’re on the right track!
I’ve read your various articles and I understand the concepts, but I’m having difficulty putting it into practice. From your pressure point article, I got the index finger feeling the pressure and I feel my left arm pressed against my chest (I’m a righty). My ball is going straight (I found I was hitting draws/hooks and realized I was closing the head at address – probably to compensate to my prior swing’s slicing).
I am trying this out with using just my 6 iron on the range.
It does not feel like I am hitting the ball solid (it feels to me like I am getting the bottom half of the club or something similar). My ball is flying about 140 and rolling to 150 (tough to fully tell on range) which I think is too short for the 6 iron. Once I cleared the 150 in the air (possibly 160) and the hit felt different, but I have no idea what I did differently.
I also do not see much of a divot. If I do get one, it is right at the ball or just an inch beyond and it is not deep at all (just scraping the grass).
Any thoughts on drills that would allow me to get the “feel” correct? Possibly a pressure point I’m missing?
It seems that while searching for the OUT you forfait the DOWN…!
Try this hammer drill: hold your club in your left hand only and to your left side.
From then, raise it up in front of you and hammer the ground.
Repeat a few times to get a feel for hit – you can hammer it pretty hard isn’t it?
Have you noticed that while doing that you fell pressure in you last 3 fingers of your left hand?
This is pressure point #2. It’s related to the uncoking of your left wrist.
Now, do the exact same move but hammer SIDEWAYS on the plane of the swing… this will help you feel the Throw out action is refer to in the Swinging article: http://www.golflagtips.com/hitting-vs-swinging-part-2-the-swing/
Hammer it strongly DOWN and OUT, sideways and you should have a great amount of compression and power.
[...] regardless of what direction the swing is relative to the target. Here’s a pic that should help: Golf Lag Tips*
So does that mean that we should be ALWAYS attacking the inside back quandrant of the ball. i.e if the below cross represents the ball we should hit down at bottom right ??
¦
¦
——
¦ x
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Hi Pete, this one is very interesting!
Get ready for an unexepected explanation!
Attacking the inside aft quadrant of the ball is not a bad thing but it is not exactly right.
Knowing what REALLY happens is important because with swing according to our concepts!
Imagine replace your Golf club with a tennis racket.
Have a look again at the drawing above:
- every ball placed prior to the Outmost Point/Low Point will be contacted by the racket in its inside aft quadrant.
- a ball placed AT the Outmost Point/Low Point will be contacted exactly at the aft.
But this is most interesting:
- every ball placed prior to the Outmost Point/Low Point and hit by the racket will go to right field – tangentially to the arc.
- only a ball placed at the Outmost Point/Low Point will go straight to the target!!!
Under those conditions, how can we possibly hit it straight to the target and not straight right with a wedge???
This is because the club manufacturers have hooked the clubface to make it look square to the target!!!
Imagine a weird tennis racket with a hooked face: instead of going right, the hooked face allows for a straight shot!!!
This tells you another important thing: Thanks to the manufacturers ALL your clubs are more or less hooked (Driver = no hooked face!) – this means that you will contact the ball ALWAYS AFT with the CLUBFACE (and not inside AFT) even if your CLUBHEAD is travelling out!!!
Thus, the purpose of the recommendation of hitting the inside aft quadrant is more to make you go to the Outmost Point/Low Point for every shot than to really touch the ball in the inside/aft quadrant.
Hi John,
Thanks for the excellent reply. Makes sense to me.
great website keep up the great work making the TGM easy for us all…
Dear John,
Absolutely fascinated by your golflag website. I have definitely been a swinger of the ball and as such have developed a long,wristy swing with a kind of loop or kink at the top. I am really looking forward to putting your teachings into practice tomorrow. From the several practice swings I have so far been attempting indoors it feels to me that there is hardly any wristcock in this method.Am I right?
Regards
Robin Woolf
Welcome Robin
There is a Wristcock but it is not deliberately provoked.
Let’s do two drills:
First: The right arm cocks the left wrist
Bending and straightening the right arm AUTOMATICALLY cocks the left wrist!!!!!!
Wanna see?
- Hold you club normally but split your grip: hold the shaft with your right hand on the metal.
- Just bend your right arm and watch your left wrist cock automatically
- Straighten your right arm and watch your left wrist uncock automatically
Second: Let’s mess things up so you can differentiate the two things: Cocking the right wrist puts your right forearm off plane!
If you deliberately overdo the cocking of your wrists, you’ll certainly cock your right wrist this way:
- Again, hold you club normally and split your grip: hold the shaft with your right hand on the metal.
- Instead of bending your right arm, keep it straight and cock both wrists up
- Your left wrist is cocked all right like previously BUT your right wrist too and your right arm is now OUT OF LINE with your shaft.
You are now in a bad condition to provide support to your clubshaft through the shot with your right arm.
The use of the pressure in your index finger will also be more complicated.
So, what you consider as “hardly any wristcock” in regard to your own FEEL might be in fact the correct amount of wristcock.
This could explain your current loop/kink wristy swing.
Dear John,
Thank you very much for putting this excellent website together. The drills are really helpful and on the range I get a lot of benefit from feeling the lag.
I assume that in the picture above, the figure should be moved to the right in reality as his head should be in front of the ball?
Regards,
John K.
I meant head behind the ball of course!
To John
Read here first: http://www.golflagtips.com/hit-down-on-the-golf-ball-dammit/#comment-254
The drawing is not at scale, but despite common belief, head position has no incidence at all: For example, we’ve all see PGA tour players on TV play chip shots with the ball outside of their right foot – in such shots, the head is on the left of the ball!!!
Now, place the ball at low point – Driver stroke for example – and the head will appear to be right of the ball…
Nothing changes between those two shots except ball position in the circle!
The drawing is very accurate but if that guy was to really hit a perfect golf shot, he would have to dig hard into the ground to go to low point – ouch!
John,
I’m using the swinging technique and it’s working well with the irons but I can’t find low point with the woods and driver.
Is it the smae as the ball or BEFORE the ball?
Cheers,
Damian.
Hi Damian
The aiming point is a point on the base of the plane line that you direct (aim) your hands at on the downstroke.
Its location varies from the longest to the shortest clubs.
For the same hand speed, it takes longer for the longest clubs to release (to square up).
For that reason, with the driver you must aim your hands behind the ball to give it enough time to release – it could be as far back as in front of your right foot!
And the reverse goes with the wedges: you aim in front of the ball – it could be as far forward as in front of your left foot!
To find your aiming point with your driver, start with an extreme right aiming point (in front of your right foot) and experiment aiming your hands closer to the ball until you get it.
Good golf!
So do I make an “air divot” in front of the ball?
Won’t that mean I release the pressure on my right trigger finger before the ball and throw the clubhead away?
Or have I misunderstood?
This is a very confusing concept but I’m determind to get it!
I refuse to pay any more cash to teaching pros that refuse to discuss lag and how to do it.
The amount of lessons I’ve wasted money on is frightening!
Cheers,
Damian.
John, your lag tips & swing geometry explanation lit a fire in my game! I can’t begin to tell you how much it helps me to turn away from years of mechanical/position related swing advice and to tune into lag pressure as my sole swing thought. It is thrilling to free my mind and body on the course and trust in a repeatable reliable feel in my hands. I had lost all confidence in my longer irons, fairway woods and especially the driver. I’m loving them again after putting your advice into action.
Two questions:
1) Ironically, my short irons/wedge shots are suffering now that I am moving away from steering the club. They used to be the only reliable aspect of my game but in the last couple of rounds I am hitting them FAT. Perhaps I’m still trying to steer these shorter clubs instead of going down&out? I especially could use any tips on lag pressure as it relates to partial wedge shots.
2) Geometry Confusion w/ the swing plane board: TGM related thoughts of hitting out towards first base are very helpful to letting the club go and stop my manipulating habits. How does the “out” portion work in the link to youtube video example of the 9-3 drill w/ a plane board (http://www.youtube.com/user/PureBallStriker#p/a/u/2/9RSkJr5MJH0)? The swing low pt. is clearly shown (along with the ball positioned aft), but the shaft of the club appears to me to ride on the plane board thru impact to the 3 o’clock position. If the plane board is parallel to target line should’nt the clubhead move out after impact, losing contact with the plane board? (I know its not your site info but the pureballstriker stuff seems to support and reinforce your good work)
Thanks again!
This advise is spot on. I am taking golf instructions from a pro right now, and he has been trying to get that concept through to me for 2 months – well, I think it finally sunk in.
Here is something that helps me – my preshot routine is to get in my stance and bring the club back with my left arm only, in an in-out track (repeat several times) – make sure you hear the swoosh and feel the snap around the ball impact area, when you bring the club down.
Then I get in my address position, cock my right knee toward the target – feeling the tension that I am about to build, and just repeat what I did in my preshot routine – just add the right hand/arm. Keep the head down through impact and the ball flys off the iron like a pro -it is a beautiful thing.