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When practicing with wedges and irons, the best practice drill to use is one which encourages a descending blow on to the ball.

A descending blow where the hands return at impact slightly ahead of the ball is one of the most important swing positions to achieve. This is because a descending blow to the ball will encourage back spin to be produced giving a player control over the ball. One drill which players can use is called a pump drill.

Pump Drill

• Take your address position over the ball swing to the top of your back swing. You should see a 90 degree angle created between the left arm (for a right handed golfer) and club shaft at the top the back swing
• Pause for a moment at the top of the swing focusing on the maintaining the angle between the left arm and club shaft
• Bring the club down slowly, rehearsing the first move in the down swing where the hips rotate and the arms drop. Pause halfway down where the left arm should be pointing down at the ground with the club shaft parallel to the ground. The angle created by the left arm and club is still 90 degrees
• Hold this position for a moment before returning to the top of the back swing position
• Now swing through at full speed and try to repeat the same position just practiced during the down swing, return the hands ahead of the ball and strike down on the ball
• This should help you to understand the feeling of maintaining the angle between the shaft, wrists and arms

To improve the consistency of strikes with irons and wedges hit the ball with a slightly descending blow.

When working on a drill to improve strike, the path a club travels into the ball is important. However, path is more prevalent and should be practiced more when golfers are looking to improve the accuracy of their shots.

Speed is very important to golfers who are looking to increase the overall distance they hit the ball. Speed drills will not help golfers looking to improve the consistency of their ball striking.

When people get to the driving range, the first thing many players want to do is pull out the driver and smash balls away. This will not generally help the ball striking with most other clubs and probably not much with the driver itself!