Should I Lean The Shaft Forward On My Golf Shots? (Video) - by Natalie Adams
Should I Lean The Shaft Forward On My Golf Shots? (Video) - by Natalie Adams

Should I lean the shaft forward on my golf iron shots? Well the way your golf club is designed to work with an iron, is that it does need a forward leaning shaft. It needs the club to be at impact in this position with the shaft leaning forward. So if you set the club in that position to start with it, its going to give you a really good chance to bring the club back in to that forward leaning position. So what you want to do is that you address the ball, make sure you fit your shoulder with the par and you’ve got the correct ball position. Take it your posture, and then work on leaning the shaft forward so the handle of the golf club is closer to the target than the club head is. And a really good tip is just make sure that you creating a straight line, from your left shoulder, down your left arm, and then extend that down in to the shaft of the golf club because that will then have, your hands set forward and it will have this forward lean in the shaft.

As you swing back and come back into impact, you want to be rotating your lower body, and then really driving in with this forward lean in the shaft. And that will now allow you to release the club and you will make a downward strike as you release the club in to the ball. And it’s that downward strike that we’re really interested in, because if you have the club leaning back, so you got a rather than a forward lean, we’ve got a backward lean in the club shaft, you will tend to find that the club strikes the ball on the up swing, and then you catch the upper part of the ball. So if we make sure we’ve got the shaft leaning forward, then the club head will make a downward action in to the ball, the club head will get to the bottom of the ball as it strikes the ground under the ball, and the ball will be forced off the loft, and you will hit a lovely high shot. So to ensure that you get that forward lean, what you could do, is take an impact bag, if you don’t have an impact bag, you could just get a very strong tough industrial bag, just fill it full of old bed sheets or towels, duvets, clothes, something that is going to absorb the impact. Sand isn’t a great idea because it gets a bit solid, and when you hit in to it, you will start to find it hurts your wrists. So make sure it’s full of soft material, and then set up so that the impact bag is opposite your left foot, if you are a right handed golfer. What you want to do now, is set the club head so it’s on the right hand side of where the golf ball would be, and that your hands are over the impact bag. And we’re just want to practice hitting in to that impact bag, so that I can hit in, you’re hitting in with the shaft hitting the bag. And that will make sure that you’ve got that forward lean in the shaft. If you find you’re hitting the bag with the club head, then you will have more of a backward lean in the shaft. So use the impact bag because that will really help you get that forward lean position with the shaft as you go in through impact. And you will start to strike your irons a lot more crisply and with a lot more distance. 2014-05-22

Should I lean the shaft forward on my golf iron shots? Well the way your golf club is designed to work with an iron, is that it does need a forward leaning shaft. It needs the club to be at impact in this position with the shaft leaning forward. So if you set the club in that position to start with it, its going to give you a really good chance to bring the club back in to that forward leaning position. So what you want to do is that you address the ball, make sure you fit your shoulder with the par and you’ve got the correct ball position. Take it your posture, and then work on leaning the shaft forward so the handle of the golf club is closer to the target than the club head is. And a really good tip is just make sure that you creating a straight line, from your left shoulder, down your left arm, and then extend that down in to the shaft of the golf club because that will then have, your hands set forward and it will have this forward lean in the shaft.

As you swing back and come back into impact, you want to be rotating your lower body, and then really driving in with this forward lean in the shaft. And that will now allow you to release the club and you will make a downward strike as you release the club in to the ball. And it’s that downward strike that we’re really interested in, because if you have the club leaning back, so you got a rather than a forward lean, we’ve got a backward lean in the club shaft, you will tend to find that the club strikes the ball on the up swing, and then you catch the upper part of the ball. So if we make sure we’ve got the shaft leaning forward, then the club head will make a downward action in to the ball, the club head will get to the bottom of the ball as it strikes the ground under the ball, and the ball will be forced off the loft, and you will hit a lovely high shot.

So to ensure that you get that forward lean, what you could do, is take an impact bag, if you don’t have an impact bag, you could just get a very strong tough industrial bag, just fill it full of old bed sheets or towels, duvets, clothes, something that is going to absorb the impact. Sand isn’t a great idea because it gets a bit solid, and when you hit in to it, you will start to find it hurts your wrists. So make sure it’s full of soft material, and then set up so that the impact bag is opposite your left foot, if you are a right handed golfer. What you want to do now, is set the club head so it’s on the right hand side of where the golf ball would be, and that your hands are over the impact bag. And we’re just want to practice hitting in to that impact bag, so that I can hit in, you’re hitting in with the shaft hitting the bag. And that will make sure that you’ve got that forward lean in the shaft. If you find you’re hitting the bag with the club head, then you will have more of a backward lean in the shaft. So use the impact bag because that will really help you get that forward lean position with the shaft as you go in through impact. And you will start to strike your irons a lot more crisply and with a lot more distance.