hitting donw on the ball

[paterick]

i am so confused. i have been working on hitting down on the ball and found if i assume correctly, i can only do this by hitting with the leading edge of my club by hitting the ball at about 2 oclock. this obviously pinches the ball into the ground and makes a crisp sound. but at no time does the ball ever hit the face of the club. i saw some pro/s iron face the other day and all the lines were worn away in then center of the face where he has been making contact with his wedge. 'so i am like how in the heck do i hit down on the ball, hit it at 2oclock with the face of the club.

thus is this concept, a wrong statement or incorrectly discribed?

[GoNavy]

Re: hitting down on the ball

This has been covered in a few other threads, but probably bares repeating, your not the only one confused.

First - you don't hit the top of the ball and you most certainly do not hit it on the edge of the club. Hitting down simply means to catch the ball, prior to the bottom of the swing arc, in other words the bottom of the swing is on the target side of the ball.

Second - to get to the face of the club, you must have a forward lean to the shaft at impact. If you look at your clubs, pick them up and place them on a table, you will see, when soled correctly the shaft leans forward (towards the target), all clubs have this lean, PW just leans more then say a 6 iron. The correct lean is needed to provide the correct loft, without the lean you are turning your nine iron into a PW or your 6 iron into a 7 or 8 iron etc... Hope this helps.

[paterick]

Re: hitting donw on the ball

OHHHHHHHH!
gads, time to start over!
and thanks.

[mikeshr2]

Re: hitting donw on the ball

The easy way to practice this is, pick a clump of grass on the ground and knock off the grass and a THIN layer of dirt just in front of the clump, but no further than one ball diameter in front of it. Behind the clump is no good, too far in front is no good either. I am talking about the point at which the divot begins. When you can do it consistently step up to the ball and hit it exactly the same way. BTW if you divot ends up pointing to the left of the target, you'll probably slice, so try to make a divot that starts out to the right and then lines up with the target. Do it on the driving range. DO NOT take divots with your practice swings on the golf course.

[paterick]

Re: hitting donw on the ball

ok, after being so stupid and literally taking a golf phrase and interpreting it i think i see. obviously the club swings in an arch. the downward trajectory is the down path considered here. where it meets or strikes is the imporant part. thus, if the ball is siting on a flat surface like a board for the purposes of imagination it makes contact at one point with the board. when passing through he ball the leading edge of the club attempts to move toward the contact point where the ball is making contact with the floor. if successfull, the club face will strike the ball first as the leading edge is on target to the contact point. if this was on grass the leading edge would then begin striking the ground at the contact point leaving divot that would appear to begin after the ball but in fact its directly under the ball. the bottom of the arch would be reached following this unless it was aimed to occur at the contact point. in order to get the best results the bottom of the arch should be just past the contact point of the ball and the ground. HOW ABOUT THAT?

[pnearn]

Re: hitting donw on the ball

ok, after being so stupid and literally taking a golf phrase and interpreting it i think i see. obviously the club swings in an arch. the downward trajectory is the down path considered here. where it meets or strikes is the imporant part. thus, if the ball is siting on a flat surface like a board for the purposes of imagination it makes contact at one point with the board. when passing through he ball the leading edge of the club attempts to move toward the contact point where the ball is making contact with the floor. if successfull, the club face will strike the ball first as the leading edge is on target to the contact point. if this was on grass the leading edge would then begin striking the ground at the contact point leaving divot that would appear to begin after the ball but in fact its directly under the ball. the bottom of the arch would be reached following this unless it was aimed to occur at the contact point. in order to get the best results the bottom of the arch should be just past the contact point of the ball and the ground. HOW ABOUT THAT?

Thats about it with one important component missing. On the downswing your 'centre' will move forward a little (only a little) as your bofy truns and weight moves onto the left side, so that the bottom of the arc will be a little bit forward of where you were to start with. In other words the downswing arc iis narrower than the backswing arc. So the club would now bottom out just in front of the ball and this is where the divot would start. Now if you can do this and keep your hands in front of the clubhead at impact the shaft will be leaning into the ball (with a cupped right wrists .. see gregs impact drill). This is how you hit down on the ball and compress it

This should all happen very naturally with the proper sequence of motion

[mikeshr2]

Re: hitting donw on the ball

Thats about it with one important component missing. On the downswing your 'centre' will move forward a little (only a little) as your bofy truns and weight moves onto the left side, so that the bottom of the arc will be a little bit forward of where you were to start with. In other words the downswing arc iis narrower than the backswing arc. So the club would now bottom out just in front of the ball and this is where the divot would start. Now if you can do this and keep your hands in front of the clubhead at impact the shaft will be leaning into the ball (with a cupped right wrists .. see gregs impact drill). This is how you hit down on the ball and compress it

This should all happen very naturally with the proper sequence of motion

and just to make it absolutely clear - 'your 'centre' will move forward' means forward toward the target, not toward the front of your body.

[JohnP]

Re: Tiger - hitting down on the ball

Here's a pic of Tiger hitting 'down' on a 7 iron - with the angle that club is hitting the ball at, no wonder it goes so far! - this is probably the same angle I am hitting with my 4 iron, anyway, it goes to prove that his hands are way ahead of the ball at impact, and that he is indeed, hitting down.

http://newmexiken.com/images/2004/08/TigerShot.jpg