Compressing the ball...

[GMAC88]

Ya, know I mean to put 18" and missed the '1'

I should probably re-read my posts before hitting 'post' :rofl:

Cheers Gareth.

 

[the_coach]

Been struggling to compress the ball since playing again this year, does anyone have any drills that I could try to help with this problem?

There's a couple drills you can do on range mats, first one is a little easier to do, second can be a struggle to do absolutely correctly but worth it.
What your struggling with is really all about where the lowest point of your swing arc is in relation to dynamic loft & currently in your strike the loft your presenting is nearer the static loft of whatever iron your using, 'compression' has just become a teaching short hand for striking your irons with a forward leaning shaft, the ball just deforms on the face during the transfer of energy from club to ball in the strike, then you just take a bunch of ground.

Does boil down in the end to getting your hands further forward opposite lead thigh some coming into & through impact as you want the lowest point of your swing arc some 3" or more target side of the ball.

In the better players I help coach that I sometimes find struggling with this, it's about getting in position through impact that allows your hands & arms to lead the forward leaning shaft, the issue in these good players with it usually starts from transition. (Assuming the back swing to the top has given you a 90º angle between lead arm & shaft & the trail arm angle of the elbow is no less than 90º)
The cure is about starting weight on the lead leg, leading transition move, having the trail elbow hug the trail hip at delivery position still maintaining angle in trail hand & very importantly having the hips clear properly with weight at least 80-85% on lead leg. Weight on lead leg & hips have to clear to provide that space for the arms & hands to be in the correct place.

Even good golfers can get a tad lazy & leave some weight on the trail leg, do this & you can't clear hips properly so then there's no room for the arms & hands to get up through level with the lead thigh which is what gives you the optimum 6º to 10º forward leaning shaft, & low point of the arc the 3" target side. So optimum negative AoA for best dynamic loft through the strike for the proper penetrating traj & distance.

To get the shot flight your looking for you've got to get the weight left just before the strike, your swinging past a really firm posted leg & the lead hip has to have cleared to give the arms & hands the room to get forward.

If you're late with your weight, hip not cleared enough then the path for the arms & hands will be blocked so you arrive at impact with a shaft that's a tad more vertical (club head to grip) & this puts more loft at impact, so too high a flight lack of forward travel for the effort expended but as the ball is still coming out of the middle of the face it can still seem like a pretty good strike, but from the sound & what happens to the ball you can tell it's not quite there & do this is the wind & it's real bad news.

First easier drill, I'd start with an 8i (but you could use 6i straight away but slightly harder straight off to do)
Take a folded ball towel & as your a Cat 1 player place it 3" behind the ball, then start at 75% speed & strike some shots.

The only way you can miss the towel, strike the ball then matt is if you have weight forward, hip cleared, with head still behind ball & you still in posture, so get the hands to the lead thigh for the downward AoA.
Also if you have an sort of 'early release' of the hips, coming into impact, up & out to your ball/target line you're going to hit the towel, if your weight not firmly on lead leg, hip cleared, hands to lead thigh you're going to hit the towel.
Get so you can do this with a 6i with 100% success, then move the towel to 2" behind the ball.

This other drill a mite more difficult straight off, with an 8i to start (no towel), just address the ball as you normally would, stance posture as you would, ball position somewhere just in front center as you would normally.

Then without changing any of your posture, address position just push the ball until it's opposite you lead foot's little toe (so ways out in front to target) then bring your club head back to where you'd normally address the ball from. So your starting takeaaway & the swing from a good ways behind this 'new' drill ball position.

You now make your normal back swing & the objective is to have your weight forward hip cleared to strike the ball that's a way out in front of where it would normally be, wouldn't go normal speed at first though! Not that easy to do, but a really good drill to help achieve what you are looking to do, move the low point of your swing arc with your irons to 3" target side of the ball so you get the forward leaning shaft, negative AoA & real solid strikes with a good piercing traj.
When you get the 8i down do same with 6i.

Get both these drills down, the strike, flight of the shot will be what you're looking for, maybe the drills something you'll have to revisit during the season until it really becomes grooved in.

 

[markgs]

hit the ball hard

 

[GMAC88]

There's a couple drills you can do on range mats, first one is a little easier to do, second can be a struggle to do absolutely correctly but worth it.
What your struggling with is really all about where the lowest point of your swing arc is in relation to dynamic loft & currently in your strike the loft your presenting is nearer the static loft of whatever iron your using, 'compression' has just become a teaching short hand for striking your irons with a forward leaning shaft, the ball just deforms on the face during the transfer of energy from club to ball in the strike, then you just take a bunch of ground.

Does boil down in the end to getting your hands further forward opposite lead thigh some coming into & through impact as you want the lowest point of your swing arc some 3" or more target side of the ball.

In the better players I help coach that I sometimes find struggling with this, it's about getting in position through impact that allows your hands & arms to lead the forward leaning shaft, the issue in these good players with it usually starts from transition. (Assuming the back swing to the top has given you a 90º angle between lead arm & shaft & the trail arm angle of the elbow is no less than 90º)
The cure is about starting weight on the lead leg, leading transition move, having the trail elbow hug the trail hip at delivery position still maintaining angle in trail hand & very importantly having the hips clear properly with weight at least 80-85% on lead leg. Weight on lead leg & hips have to clear to provide that space for the arms & hands to be in the correct place.

Even good golfers can get a tad lazy & leave some weight on the trail leg, do this & you can't clear hips properly so then there's no room for the arms & hands to get up through level with the lead thigh which is what gives you the optimum 6º to 10º forward leaning shaft, & low point of the arc the 3" target side. So optimum negative AoA for best dynamic loft through the strike for the proper penetrating traj & distance.

To get the shot flight your looking for you've got to get the weight left just before the strike, your swinging past a really firm posted leg & the lead hip has to have cleared to give the arms & hands the room to get forward.

If you're late with your weight, hip not cleared enough then the path for the arms & hands will be blocked so you arrive at impact with a shaft that's a tad more vertical (club head to grip) & this puts more loft at impact, so too high a flight lack of forward travel for the effort expended but as the ball is still coming out of the middle of the face it can still seem like a pretty good strike, but from the sound & what happens to the ball you can tell it's not quite there & do this is the wind & it's real bad news.

First easier drill, I'd start with an 8i (but you could use 6i straight away but slightly harder straight off to do)
Take a folded ball towel & as your a Cat 1 player place it 3" behind the ball, then start at 75% speed & strike some shots.

The only way you can miss the towel, strike the ball then matt is if you have weight forward, hip cleared, with head still behind ball & you still in posture, so get the hands to the lead thigh for the downward AoA.
Also if you have an sort of 'early release' of the hips, coming into impact, up & out to your ball/target line you're going to hit the towel, if your weight not firmly on lead leg, hip cleared, hands to lead thigh you're going to hit the towel.
Get so you can do this with a 6i with 100% success, then move the towel to 2" behind the ball.

This other drill a mite more difficult straight off, with an 8i to start (no towel), just address the ball as you normally would, stance posture as you would, ball position somewhere just in front center as you would normally.

Then without changing any of your posture, address position just push the ball until it's opposite you lead foot's little toe (so ways out in front to target) then bring your club head back to where you'd normally address the ball from. So your starting takeaaway & the swing from a good ways behind this 'new' drill ball position.

You now make your normal back swing & the objective is to have your weight forward hip cleared to strike the ball that's a way out in front of where it would normally be, wouldn't go normal speed at first though! Not that easy to do, but a really good drill to help achieve what you are looking to do, move the low point of your swing arc with your irons to 3" target side of the ball so you get the forward leaning shaft, negative AoA & real solid strikes with a good piercing traj.
When you get the 8i down do same with 6i.

Get both these drills down, the strike, flight of the shot will be what you're looking for, maybe the drills something you'll have to revisit during the season until it really becomes grooved in.

Perfect mate. Thanks! Tried this in the net at the club earlier, was getting better toward the end of the bag of balls, I should have continued practicing over the winter, but as I do most years, golf clubs go away and the goalie gloves come out.

 

[stevelev]

If you are ever practising at the range off mats, take a piece of chalk with you and put a thick line behind the ball if there is a puff of chalk its a fatt shot, after a few of these put the ball so the chalk line is target side, and aim to hit the ball but get a puff of chalk, that means you would be taking a divot. So gives you instant feedback even though not on grass.

You can also use some wide masking tape on your club face for a couple of shots to see where on the face you're striking the ball

Good luck

 

[dsanders9944]

Try this drill, it worked quite well for me and wasn't too complicated[video=youtube_share;oxizfvsJAeI]http://youtu.be/oxizfvsJAeI[/video]

 

[Albanach]

There's a couple drills you can do on range mats, first one is a little easier to do, second can be a struggle to do absolutely correctly but worth it.
What your struggling with is really all about where the lowest point of your swing arc is in relation to dynamic loft & currently in your strike the loft your presenting is nearer the static loft of whatever iron your using, 'compression' has just become a teaching short hand for striking your irons with a forward leaning shaft, the ball just deforms on the face during the transfer of energy from club to ball in the strike, then you just take a bunch of ground.

Does boil down in the end to getting your hands further forward opposite lead thigh some coming into & through impact as you want the lowest point of your swing arc some 3" or more target side of the ball.

In the better players I help coach that I sometimes find struggling with this, it's about getting in position through impact that allows your hands & arms to lead the forward leaning shaft, the issue in these good players with it usually starts from transition. (Assuming the back swing to the top has given you a 90º angle between lead arm & shaft & the trail arm angle of the elbow is no less than 90º)
The cure is about starting weight on the lead leg, leading transition move, having the trail elbow hug the trail hip at delivery position still maintaining angle in trail hand & very importantly having the hips clear properly with weight at least 80-85% on lead leg. Weight on lead leg & hips have to clear to provide that space for the arms & hands to be in the correct place.

Even good golfers can get a tad lazy & leave some weight on the trail leg, do this & you can't clear hips properly so then there's no room for the arms & hands to get up through level with the lead thigh which is what gives you the optimum 6º to 10º forward leaning shaft, & low point of the arc the 3" target side. So optimum negative AoA for best dynamic loft through the strike for the proper penetrating traj & distance.

To get the shot flight your looking for you've got to get the weight left just before the strike, your swinging past a really firm posted leg & the lead hip has to have cleared to give the arms & hands the room to get forward.

If you're late with your weight, hip not cleared enough then the path for the arms & hands will be blocked so you arrive at impact with a shaft that's a tad more vertical (club head to grip) & this puts more loft at impact, so too high a flight lack of forward travel for the effort expended but as the ball is still coming out of the middle of the face it can still seem like a pretty good strike, but from the sound & what happens to the ball you can tell it's not quite there & do this is the wind & it's real bad news.

First easier drill, I'd start with an 8i (but you could use 6i straight away but slightly harder straight off to do)
Take a folded ball towel & as your a Cat 1 player place it 3" behind the ball, then start at 75% speed & strike some shots.

The only way you can miss the towel, strike the ball then matt is if you have weight forward, hip cleared, with head still behind ball & you still in posture, so get the hands to the lead thigh for the downward AoA.
Also if you have an sort of 'early release' of the hips, coming into impact, up & out to your ball/target line you're going to hit the towel, if your weight not firmly on lead leg, hip cleared, hands to lead thigh you're going to hit the towel.
Get so you can do this with a 6i with 100% success, then move the towel to 2" behind the ball.

This other drill a mite more difficult straight off, with an 8i to start (no towel), just address the ball as you normally would, stance posture as you would, ball position somewhere just in front center as you would normally.

Then without changing any of your posture, address position just push the ball until it's opposite you lead foot's little toe (so ways out in front to target) then bring your club head back to where you'd normally address the ball from. So your starting takeaaway & the swing from a good ways behind this 'new' drill ball position.

You now make your normal back swing & the objective is to have your weight forward hip cleared to strike the ball that's a way out in front of where it would normally be, wouldn't go normal speed at first though! Not that easy to do, but a really good drill to help achieve what you are looking to do, move the low point of your swing arc with your irons to 3" target side of the ball so you get the forward leaning shaft, negative AoA & real solid strikes with a good piercing traj.
When you get the 8i down do same with 6i.

Get both these drills down, the strike, flight of the shot will be what you're looking for, maybe the drills something you'll have to revisit during the season until it really becomes grooved in.

Without sounding stupid...how do you avoid the towel on the way back with only a 3" gap?

 

[the_coach]

Without sounding stupid...how do you avoid the towel on the way back with only a 3" gap?

The advice to the OP tailored to him being a Cat 1 golfer, working with a lot of Cat 1 players, I knew from experience this wouldn't be an issue for him, doubt it crossed his mind as the focus would be on the actions needed the drill helps to highlight to get the better impact conditions he was looking for. It's just a towel folded so flat less than 1/4" all in.

If giving this advice to someone not having the same skill set, I'd advise using a small tee (but ball teed down) having the folded towel 4" to 5" away from back of ball. As the towel placed there for them still of use as they will have much more weight on the back leg so the 'flip'/'collapse' of the left wrist is going to be back opposite the trail thigh.

The only way to get rid of the dreaded 'scoop/flip action' is to start the transition & downswing with the weight on the lead leg & clearing the lead hip properly, head remaining behind the ball though, to give the arms, hands the space to come through so they 'pass' the ball's position with the club shaft having a good forward lean to bring the club head into impact with the lowest point of the swing arc some 3" target side of ball. As with all these drills you should approach them with a 70% ish swing speed to give yourself the time needed to get used to the changes needed to be able to do it properly, once you can do this 100% of the time at the slower speed then just up the ante a tad to 80% effort, you never want to do these drills 'flat out' it defeats the objective of them.
Here's a guy doing it with a 'lie board' which is only a club heads width away from the ball, but a towel lot more 'hand & wrist friendly' as you're learning to do it!!

[video=youtube_share;9LwME9mU3Hs]http://youtu.be/9LwME9mU3Hs[/video]

 

[Albanach]

Cheers coach!