Hands in front of ball (impact) drill - Help!

[RGDave]

Has anyone got a good one or seen one on youtube?

I've been working SO hard to keep my head behind the ball (lessons and all) that my strike is just awful.

Only three outcomes. 1) Fat 2) Thin 3) out the middle, straight up in the air!!

Welcome to the 158 yard 5 wood!! Ouch.

 

[the_coach]

Start with the little shots as shown here (sound not great)

The premise is the same for full shots, from the top of the backswing (assuming grip, backswing, turn (not sway off right), weight transference, wrist set, are all in good order, gold swing a chain reaction, get any of the early stuff wrong you don't get good impact conditions) so you're at transition first thing you need is weight on the lead leg, the lower body has to lead, you don't start down with hands arms shoulders this leaves the weight on the trail side so chunks, fats, thins club head getting to the ball before the hands = misery.

Lower body leads & the hips have to clear so there's the space fo the arm & hands to lead the club, forward leaning shaft, contact ball then ground, lowest point of your swing arc 2" to 4" inches target side of the ball. (with an iron)

But boringly to be able to do this your grip, aim. alignment, posture, ball position has to be all in good order.

Start with the little shots as here, copy the weight transference, hip clearing you can see.
When you can do it comfortably just apply the same principal to any shot, bar the driver off a tee as through ball position you swing upwards through impact but the weight transference lower body leads is the same principal.
The ball position which differs for driver off lead heel, 3 to 5 metal one ball back lead heel, irons 2 balls back lead heel give you from the swing the angle of attack you need for all these shots.

[video=youtube_share;xOA5VZlZAXk]http://youtu.be/xOA5VZlZAXk[/video]

 

[the_coach]

[video=youtube_share;p_ZWt38d2Vc]http://youtu.be/p_ZWt38d2Vc[/video]

 

[RGDave]

Thank you SO much for taking the time.

Yes... I have number 1. and number 3.

Last weekend (fri,sat,sun) I did a load of drills to get my hips turning better (downswing) and that was great. I tried some towel stuff about on Tuesday, but couldn't get the feel of it at all. I'm thinking the towel was too close, having seen the distance in the video.

I'll start small and work up. (Driver is fine, just a little high....) it was the fairways and hybrids off a tee. Terrible.....sounded great (sweet noise) but the flight of a 5 or 6 iron.

 

[RGDave]

Is this one more or less the same...

Derek Hooper, again?

http://youtu.be/9jLLG8SKhY0

 

[the_coach]

The ball with metals, hybrids off of a tee, needs to be teed down, so a small tee pushed in the ground right down to the cup, as you should for an iron, don't want to see any of the 'stalk' of the tee above the ground at all.

The swing with a 3 metal hybrid is still downwards, down & through, the lowest point of the swing arc still target side of the ball.

To achieve this you need weight left hips turned left into & through impact.

These small shot drills may seem to be nothing to do with the shot you're having trouble with, but they really are crucial to getting your full swing motion functioning correctly, so they'd be a good thing to do.

You'll actually will be doing the same thing with all your clubs but the higher lofted clubs disguise the problem to some extent so you're more likely to get away with a functioning result with these clubs, if you get my drift.
The fact too that the driver is high is still all part of the same swing technique problem.

What you are likely to be doing given your description of what's happening to your shots, is you're leaving too much weight trail side, on the right leg if you RH player & starting the move down with your upper body & arms.

So if you then just carry on & take no evasive move you'd dump the club in the ground before it gets to the ball.

Sensing you're going to hit ground first what tends to happen next is with weight still too much on the right, the player stands up a bit, so out of the spine address posture & realizing the club head & arms are too far behind them, they flip the club head upwards, this can still cause fats, if you've not stood up enough or flipped hands enough.

Or the player does both stand up out of posture weight is still mostly right & flip but in fact too much so the leading edge of the club strikes the ball & you get thins & tops.

Or the player manages a combination that just about gets the top or bottom of the face on the ball but because of all of this it still gets the club head to the ball a ways first, with the hands behind, so the club shaft is actually leaning backwards away from at impact which is adding extra loft to all the shots, which is why they are all going a ways too high.

So all these 'little' drills really important, that going back your weight is on the inside of your right foot, you stay in posture, then the weight moves forward & this starts the forward swing, the hip clears left which allows the space for you to get the arms & hands through leading the a forward leaning shaft, so you get ball first, & ground, divot second with irons or solid contact with 3 metal, hybrids & also with the driver which because of the forward ball position on a high tee, still with weight left starting the driver downswing the lowest point of the swing arc is a couple inches before contact which with driver is on the up, but that's taken care of by address posture spine tilting away from target & ball position forwards off lead heel.

So these drills may not seem relevant to your driver, 3 metal, hybrid etc, but they truly really are crucial for you to get proper impact conditions with all your shots.

 

[the_coach]

Here's the start of a series of vid that takes you through the complete swing sequence if you follow it through his youtube site. John Aasen.
His delivery is a tad slow & deliberate but if you can stick with it through them all, it's good sound instruction that should help you some.

[video=youtube_share;-lFYb-9lfhc]http://youtu.be/-lFYb-9lfhc[/video]

 

[RGDave]

Thanks for all you help Coach.

I spent a lot of time today watching, thinking and trying. The experiments with the 1,2,3 of John Aasen were most helpful.

Glad to have spent some time on that aspect. More to come.

 

[guest100718]

I have been using an impact bag in the garden. I have found it useful for getting the correct impact feeling. Makes a racket though.

 

[dsanders9944]

Has anyone got a good one or seen one on youtube?

I've been working SO hard to keep my head behind the ball (lessons and all) that my strike is just awful.

Only three outcomes. 1) Fat 2) Thin 3) out the middle, straight up in the air!!

Welcome to the 158 yard 5 wood!! Ouch.

Take a look at this video, pretty intuitive non technical task lead coaching style that should fix your problem

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