Causes and Cures: Thin Shots, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Causes and Cures: Thin Shots, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

I often think of a thin shot as the shot that probably most beginners start of with and it's their bad shot. It’s the shot that skids in across the floor and doesn't rise up into the air. It's the shot that sends the tingle through the fingers and possibly just catching the top of the golf ball scooting across the floor. It's the shot that most people would want to strike out of their game. If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of one shot, it would be that top shot. And it actually leaves and probably the most misleading and misguiding piece of advice that everybody would have heard in their life is, you lifted your head on that one. And people feel it when they top the golf ball, they must have lifted their head, and that's very, very rarely in my experience. It's very rarely ever the case of why you did actually top the golf ball.

So why do people top it? Why is it such a common shot? There's 3 main factors. One of the issues could be ball position. If the golf ball is too far forward in the stance, the club would bottom out on its arc early in the middle of the stunts and then lift up and hit the ball on its way over the top of the ball and top the ball into the ground or fin the ball into the ground. So you check that your golf ball is in position too far forward particularly with your short irons.

Secondly, and probably the more important reason for why people top the golf ball is bending the left arm as they hit the golf ball for the right hander and effectively trying to scoop the ball into the air. We see a lot of people who, as they swing, they lean back, they lift their arms up, try and hinge their wrist underneath their left arm to effectively trying to scoop the ball and hit it up into the air. That simply can't happen. The golf ball is on the floor. You can't come from underneath the golf ball unless you're prepared to hit it fat which is another bad shot. You don't hit it fat, therefore, you hit it thin when you top the golf ball. So lifting up, trying to scoop the ball into the air, massive problem with topping the ball.

One of the other main issues is changing your posture. Now, this is maybe linked to the idea that, oh, you've lifted your head. So this fact, that when you set up to the golf ball, you've got some posture angle at the point of impact, the posture has changed, the posture angle has come up. So we see people that stand up with their posture during that swing, and it might look like the head is actually lifting. The reason I have a problem with that I advice if you've lifted your head, is nobody intentionally lifts their head up. That's not something we see people doing. We see people lifting their posture up, because they're trying to get into their follow through position a little bit too early.

So telling someone to keep their head down is never good advice because all they'll do is they'll jam their head down here. The shoulders will try and come up and will just restrict their follow through because they get stuck. So avoid ever thinking about keeping your head down. It's much more important to think about keeping your chest down or keeping your bottoms down. So keep your bottoms down, keep the ball position in the right place, keep your arms straight and strong and trying to hit down into the golf ball and that will help you get a better more solid impact position rather than letting the chest lift, letting the hands and arms lift and having the ball too far forwards that would give you this top shot where you just hit over the top of the ball like this and it just goes straight down into the floor. Try and feel like you hit down. Hitting down will help the ball go up.

2012-08-07

I often think of a thin shot as the shot that probably most beginners start of with and it's their bad shot. It’s the shot that skids in across the floor and doesn't rise up into the air. It's the shot that sends the tingle through the fingers and possibly just catching the top of the golf ball scooting across the floor. It's the shot that most people would want to strike out of their game. If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of one shot, it would be that top shot. And it actually leaves and probably the most misleading and misguiding piece of advice that everybody would have heard in their life is, you lifted your head on that one. And people feel it when they top the golf ball, they must have lifted their head, and that's very, very rarely in my experience. It's very rarely ever the case of why you did actually top the golf ball.

So why do people top it? Why is it such a common shot? There's 3 main factors. One of the issues could be ball position. If the golf ball is too far forward in the stance, the club would bottom out on its arc early in the middle of the stunts and then lift up and hit the ball on its way over the top of the ball and top the ball into the ground or fin the ball into the ground. So you check that your golf ball is in position too far forward particularly with your short irons.

Secondly, and probably the more important reason for why people top the golf ball is bending the left arm as they hit the golf ball for the right hander and effectively trying to scoop the ball into the air. We see a lot of people who, as they swing, they lean back, they lift their arms up, try and hinge their wrist underneath their left arm to effectively trying to scoop the ball and hit it up into the air. That simply can't happen. The golf ball is on the floor. You can't come from underneath the golf ball unless you're prepared to hit it fat which is another bad shot. You don't hit it fat, therefore, you hit it thin when you top the golf ball. So lifting up, trying to scoop the ball into the air, massive problem with topping the ball.

One of the other main issues is changing your posture. Now, this is maybe linked to the idea that, oh, you've lifted your head. So this fact, that when you set up to the golf ball, you've got some posture angle at the point of impact, the posture has changed, the posture angle has come up. So we see people that stand up with their posture during that swing, and it might look like the head is actually lifting. The reason I have a problem with that I advice if you've lifted your head, is nobody intentionally lifts their head up. That's not something we see people doing. We see people lifting their posture up, because they're trying to get into their follow through position a little bit too early.

So telling someone to keep their head down is never good advice because all they'll do is they'll jam their head down here. The shoulders will try and come up and will just restrict their follow through because they get stuck. So avoid ever thinking about keeping your head down. It's much more important to think about keeping your chest down or keeping your bottoms down. So keep your bottoms down, keep the ball position in the right place, keep your arms straight and strong and trying to hit down into the golf ball and that will help you get a better more solid impact position rather than letting the chest lift, letting the hands and arms lift and having the ball too far forwards that would give you this top shot where you just hit over the top of the ball like this and it just goes straight down into the floor. Try and feel like you hit down. Hitting down will help the ball go up.