Thin Golf Shot Drill 4: Club over shoulders handle and club face to ball (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Thin Golf Shot Drill 4: Club over shoulders handle and club face to ball (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

A really key element in good quality ball striking is making sure that your vertical height doesn't change too much. So that’s up and down with the body but also up and down with the spine angle. So starting off in a good position, the head and the spine is tilted forwards. If my spine raises this and lowers during my swing I'm going to be contacting the ball badly. Sometimes fat but more importantly standing up, staying up and thinning the golf ball is going to be quite an issue. If you feel that you struggle with thin shots because of the standing up action try this exercise.

Take the golf club and place it over your shoulders and hold on to it. So it’s perfectly levels to your shoulder line and pointing at the target. I'm going to turn around for this stage. You can see me from this side on. There is pointing target and is pointing horizontal as well. I now make my top force to the golf ball and start my back swing. And as I turn back, the club points down towards the ball. Now in reality, it will probably point slightly in front of the golf ball around about two feet ahead of the golf ball. But I want you to think about you pointing at it to really emphasize this drill and over exaggerate the drill slightly. So it’s a good posture position, nicely tilted forwards and now point the club at the ball, and now point the handle at the ball in the follow through. Sorry, the club head at the ball. So it’s handle first, then club head. Handle first, then club head. And I get the feeling that I'm already tilted as I'm rotated and I'm not allowing myself to stand up away from the ball at all. Anytime I was standing up here, my spine angle is altered, my club point across the room here, points horizontal which I don't want. So I tilt forwards and turn on play and my spine angle there, it’s the same spine angle as I started with.

And if you can practice that exercise, a really good warming up exercise actually, helps you rotate, helps you get the freedom of movement going in your back and it keeps you on the tilted plane, stops you standing up and hitting over the top of the golf ball. Club over the shoulders pointed at the flag. Tilt forwards, handle to golf ball, club head to golf ball. Warm up with that exercise. That will stop to eradicate your tops and your thins as well.

 2012-11-28

A really key element in good quality ball striking is making sure that your vertical height doesn't change too much. So that’s up and down with the body but also up and down with the spine angle. So starting off in a good position, the head and the spine is tilted forwards. If my spine raises this and lowers during my swing I'm going to be contacting the ball badly. Sometimes fat but more importantly standing up, staying up and thinning the golf ball is going to be quite an issue. If you feel that you struggle with thin shots because of the standing up action try this exercise.

Take the golf club and place it over your shoulders and hold on to it. So it’s perfectly levels to your shoulder line and pointing at the target. I'm going to turn around for this stage. You can see me from this side on. There is pointing target and is pointing horizontal as well. I now make my top force to the golf ball and start my back swing. And as I turn back, the club points down towards the ball. Now in reality, it will probably point slightly in front of the golf ball around about two feet ahead of the golf ball. But I want you to think about you pointing at it to really emphasize this drill and over exaggerate the drill slightly. So it’s a good posture position, nicely tilted forwards and now point the club at the ball, and now point the handle at the ball in the follow through. Sorry, the club head at the ball. So it’s handle first, then club head. Handle first, then club head. And I get the feeling that I'm already tilted as I'm rotated and I'm not allowing myself to stand up away from the ball at all. Anytime I was standing up here, my spine angle is altered, my club point across the room here, points horizontal which I don't want. So I tilt forwards and turn on play and my spine angle there, it’s the same spine angle as I started with.

And if you can practice that exercise, a really good warming up exercise actually, helps you rotate, helps you get the freedom of movement going in your back and it keeps you on the tilted plane, stops you standing up and hitting over the top of the golf ball. Club over the shoulders pointed at the flag. Tilt forwards, handle to golf ball, club head to golf ball. Warm up with that exercise. That will stop to eradicate your tops and your thins as well.