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Unlock All Practice PlansTranscript Summary- So, you find yourself in the fairway, and it's time to choose between an iron, a hybrid, or a fairway wood. You might start feeling a bit anxious because of inconsistent contact—maybe you've fatted a few shots or topped a few. Don't worry, you're not alone. I had a student this week, Sophia, who was in the exact same position for two reasons. First, she had a complete misunderstanding of what a good strike is. She was told to have a lot of shaft lean, to hit down on the ball, and to get her weight forward. All of that was actually ruining her strike.
In today's session, I shared a simple drill with Sophia to master her downswing and eliminate one of the biggest misconceptions in golf. I'm going to share that drill with you today because I know it will help. But before I do, if you're new to the channel and this is your first lesson with me, please consider subscribing. I release videos every week to help you improve your game. Plus, you don't have to remember everything because I always include a free downloadable practice guide in the description box below.
Now, before I get into the two steps I gave Sophia to help her strike consistently, let's debunk a common misconception. To strike a ball off the fairway, you only need about four degrees of the clubhead coming down—just four degrees, not ten or eleven. The shaft at impact should only lean forward about ten degrees, not massively ahead. Sophia was exaggerating this because that’s what she’d been told to do. It's a minute adjustment.
Here’s how I helped Sophia consistently deliver the perfect strike with every club off the ground. First, I explained how the arms work in the swing. The arms are responsible for the upward motion. If you move your arms up, the body takes the club around. I want you to feel this with me now. Grab a golf club and, with your trail hand, let the elbow fold a bit, let the wrist hinge back, and let the club fall backwards. This is the downswing—your elbow reconnects to your body, the arm straightens, and the club naturally gets thrown.
From this angle, notice that the elbow reconnects to the chest, the arm straightens, and the club falls into impact. In the golf stance, the elbow reconnects, the arm straightens, and the club gets thrown back to impact. So, learning this simple sensation, hold the club with both hands. The arms bend upward, the elbow reconnects, and the club gets thrown as the arm naturally straightens.
Here’s what I did with Sophia to blend this into her swing. She had a good turn already, so I got her to make a nice simple turn in her backswing, moving her trail shoulder behind her. Sophia often tried to hit down too much on the golf ball, causing her body to turn too soon, making her steep. This led to slices, chunks, and topped shots. I told her to let her right arm straighten, reconnect the elbow, and throw the club. This is impact—no need to drive the handle forward excessively.
We made a turn, the arms straightened, the club got thrown, and all I had to do was turn my right side onto the golf ball. There’s no need to drive the handle forward excessively. It's that simple. So, I had Sophia feel this motion. The elbow folds, the club falls back, and then the club follows the arms. It’s like pulling an arrow out of a quiver—straighten the arm and throw it down.
To help Sophia, I had her sense this motion, then gradually blend it into her swing. She got to the top, then went down and around. It’s not a sudden down and around; it’s blended. We started with small swings, just tapping the ball, building the sensation. She needed to get into rhythm and feel the motion.
Lastly, I adjusted her grip. Sophia was holding the club too high in the palms, making it hard to hinge properly. I showed her to hold the club at a 45-degree angle, in the fingers, with the pad on top. This grip allows for proper hinging and effective strikes.
In summary, striking the ball off the fairway requires only a slight downward angle and minimal shaft lean. Feel the motion of the trail arm straightening and turning into the shot. Practice this gradually with small swings and a proper grip. This will improve your consistency and accuracy with every club in your bag.
If you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up, share it with friends, and subscribe to the channel. For more tips, including how this works with a driver, check out the next video. And remember, there's a free downloadable practice guide in the description box below. Have a wonderful golfing week!
Full Transcript-so you found yourself in the Fairway and it's now time to grab either an iron a hybrid or a fairywood and you can start to feel a little bit anxious because maybe you've got inconsistent contact you've fatted a few you've topped a few don't worry you're not alone I had a student come and see me this week sfia who's in exactly the same position for two reasons the first reason is she's got a complete misunderstanding of what strike is she's been told that she's got to have lots of shuffling she's got to hit down on the ball she's got to get her weight forward all of that was actually ruining her strike so what I did in this session I'm going to today is I gave her a real simple drill to really Master this downswing and get rid of one of the biggest Mis misconceptions in the world of golf I'm going to share with you what that is today because I just know it's going to help but before I do if if you're new to the channel your first lessons of mine please consider subscribing I release videos just like this every single week to try and help you improve your game plus you never have to remember a thing I'll always put a free download practice guide in the description box below so before I get into the two steps that I give sfia to help her strike it consistently let me just kind of debunk a misconception okay to strike a ball off the Fairway all you need is roughly about four degrees of the the club head coming down four degrees not 10 not 11 just four degrees the shaft to strike the ball then the ground needs to be no more than about 10° this way not massively ahead you don't have to exaggerate this this is what sofhia was doing because that's what she''s been told to do it is minute right so what I'm going to show you now is is I'm going to show you how I got safia consistently delivering the just the perfect amount to strike every single Club off the ground much much more solid and effectively now the first thing we did was explain ultimately how the arms work the arms are responsible for the up Motion in the golf swing look like this if I do this my arms are working up and the body look takes the club around all right so the simple thing I want you to feel and if you can do this with me now that' be amazing grab a golf club and all I want you to do is this take a club and mean Trail hand to start with and simply do this and let the elbow fold a little bit let the wrist come back and let the club almost kind of fall backwards here right now all we're doing in a golf swing is this this is your down swing your elbow reconnects to your body the arm straightens and the club naturally as a byproduct gets thrown this is your downswing so your elbows off your chest hits onto your chest arm it straightens Club falls down from this angle look at this arms elbows off the chest here goes around elbow reconnects but does not hang on it um straightens and that then throws the club from here look in the golfing stance we're back here look first thing that happens elbow reconnects arm straightening and that gets the club thrown back into impact so learning that simple sensation hold it in two hands now we simply take the club out like this the arms Bend upwards here the elbow reconnects to the side as the club looks and gets thrown as the arm naturally straightens so here's what I did with sfia to kind of blend this into uh the first start of her really starting to compress uh every shot of the Fairway so we got her to make a nice simple turn in the backs and she had a pretty good turn already so we got to make TI his Trail shoulder move it behind her here and then all I did was this right sfia most of the time what you're doing is this you're trying to hit so far down on the golf ball that your body's turning like this you're turning too soon and that's getting you very very steep that's why you're slicing sometimes you driving you're taking big chunks sometimes topping the golf ball okay what we want to do here this is all you need to do from here the right arm is straightening the elbow can reconnects to the side the right arm straightens the club gets thrown this by the way right there is impact look at this this is impact because all you do now watch this I'm w't gonna do anything now with my arms boom there we are I've got enough shaing I've got I'm gonna I've got hit enough down on that golf ball I'm going to strike a beautiful shot look how simple that is so we've made a turn our arms here are straightening the club gets thrown and all I'm going to do now look at this turn my right side onto the golf ball I don't do anything I'm not trying to drive my handle forward in any shape or form it is as simple as that so the way I did this with Sophia was simply just to get her initially just to kind of sense this motion of the elbow folding the club back here and then look the club is always following the arms it's almost like if you look at this it's like imagine getting pulling an arrow out of a quiver okay I'm my arm is straightening here like this and I'm throwing it down so I got an initially just to kind of feel this motion because like a lot of golfers you know sometimes what she' do is she would flick the wrists okay that would break you know the quiver what we're doing in reality here look is is we are pulling it out of the quicker the arm is straightening and the final thing the club naturally gets thrown I'm not hanging on to those angles the club gets thrown so I just got to kind of sensing this beautiful motion and then look naturally then just turning onto the shot so it goes down here and turn onto the shot so once she's got the feeling I then needed to develop the pattern her pattern as we said she get to the top she turn here so said Sophia it's down and around down and around so you're swinging out you got to the top and you're going to go down and around and of course you need to blend those motion it's not down and around we tried to then gradually blend it it's down and around and at no stage if she trying to hit down on the golf ball or compress it this is now naturally happening so let's look at this in action so we get to do a few swings up down and around let's have a look at this so get ourselves set up down and around absolutely beautifully compressed now I've actually on that last one there I compressed it but I as a good player have turned that over slightly and I see this a lot sometimes so what I've done there is is as opposed to straightening my arm I have dragged it a little bit in here when it's dragged I have to excessively flick so different to Sophia who was doing this good players to drive too much so when you want compression and accuracy letting this arm straighten here to create this beautiful low or bottom to the swing that is how we're going to get not only just consistent strike but also consistent Direction so we're working up down and
around beautiful okay so now do you think Sophia got this straight away of course she didn't so what we did is is there two things one she used to was rushing her down swing a little bit and two her grip wasn't quite right so I'm going to cover those two things so they're hugely hugely important but what we did initially was is get it to get in Rhythm we got to repeat this process of just letting that sensation comeing here look I'm coming in here and then I'm turning it's kind of that's the pattern as opposed to turn down she would go then down and then around from here it's down and around building that and then gradually blending that in and I would start certainly with her cly on the Range we just start to do some small shots where I kind of back here and I just did that I really just start to tap a few down there initially just getting that sensation of going down then around now because she was rushing it all I did was this a lot of times when people are doing this motion here they are snatching really from the top what I did with here so sfia just kind of just sense that motion look the the elbows reconnects the arms straighten and then the club gets round feel that motion the arrows coming out of the quiver and then gradually build that in look the aror is coming out it's not being flicked it's coming out of the quiver there we go right we know we're not trying to hit down we're just literally that's going to happen naturally yeah now the final thing in this process now I gave sfia this uh right at the beginning um which is basically grip if you don't have the right grip with this none of it actually works so when sfia was holding the club initially it was way too look high in the Palms so what I did was heal it's way too high up here all I want you to do to get a perfect grip with your lead hand particularly is to put the club out at 45° you can even see the max look on my on my glove here where I'm gripping it hold the club look in the finger fingers here across the base finger and underneath the pad now what this allowed me to do look is get this pad right on top of the grip why is that important well this allows you look to get that hinging motion to throw the club when Sophia had it like this she had no chance of really hinging therefore she would always kind of strike it poorly so very very important 45 degrees simple that put it at the crooks of your hand base of your middle F little finger here so your pad's on top and you're ready to go all right so in summary it's very very simple we strike the ball in the ground yes but it's minute tiny 4 degrees down slight shaft Le not much the way you achieve this get a sense of this Trail arm or the arms here the trail arm is straight turn this is an arrow pulling out the quiba that lets the club fall and then look you're simply just turning onto the shot and you've got more than you need to strike consistent contact every single time feel that rhythm one and then turn onto that shot Build It Up gradually and this will work with every single Club in your bag simple as that hope you enjoyed the video if you did give it a thumbs up maybe share it with one of your friends and of course look if you're new to the channel press that subscribe button and the bell if you'd like to see how this works with driver click this video right here and remember there's a free downal practice guide in the description box below but until next week have a wonderful golfing week.
