If there was one fundamental golf iron swing tip what would it be?
Well without a doubt one facet of the game of golf that may cause the most frustration is difficulty hitting solid iron shots. Sure you might hit more wayward shots with your driver and you may lose more strokes due to poor play around and on the green but is there anything more frustrating than hitting fat, thin and topped iron shots – sometimes one right after the other?
For those new to the game a fat shot is when you hit the ground before contacting the ball, a thin shot is when you make contact with the ball near its equator or maybe a little lower, while a topped shot is basically an extreme version of a thin shot where only the very top of the ball is contacted and the ball usually just dribbles a few feet along the ground.
There are a few factors that can contribute to inconsistent iron play. Two basic causes can be ball position and swaying back from the ball on your backswing. Remember what you’re after is to have the bottom of your swing arc be in the same place every time – where the ball is.
However, if you have the correct ball position and stay fairly centered over the ball during your swing and you are still having difficulty hitting the ball solid the most likely cause is that you are breaking your wrists before impact.
This is tied into the idea of letting the club do what it was designed to do as discussed in You Will See Results With This Golf Swing Tip . One of the most common faults among all golfers is trying to help get the ball in the air. As a result their swing develops a “scooping” motion and they feel they need to flip their wrists to get the ball airborne.
Once this feeling becomes ingrained it can be very difficult to change so if you are a beginner you will certainly be ahead of the game if you can learn it early. A common description of what you are looking for is a “firm left wrist”. Ok, so that’s nice – how do you achieve it?
There are many drills for this. One of the best ways is to learn what this position should feel like at impact by starting small with a chipping motion:
1 – Take your normal address position with say a 7 iron
2 – Assuming you golf right-handed, press your hands forward until they are just in front of your left leg (you should basically have a straight line from your left shoulder to the club head)
3 – At the same time draw your right knee in towards your left and put most of your weight on your left side – this is the “impact position” you want to return to
4 – Finally, remove your right-hand from the grip and hit chip shots focussing on just one thing – not breaking your wrist (don’t worry about how well you hit the ball at first just concentrate on keeping your left hand ahead of the club head throughout the entire chipping motion)
When you are comfortable with this you can try making half-swings then finally work your way up to a full swing with both hands on the grip. Remember it is the feel of solid contact you are after. Don’t worry about where the ball goes until you start to get this feeling. This drill will also benefit you in two other ways. First as you can imagine it will help with your chipping and second it will strengthen your wrists (you will likely not be able to make many one-handed swings at first without your wrist tiring).