Golf Drill Tips: Ball above feet – What the ball does (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Drill Tips: Ball above feet – What the ball does (Video) - by Pete Styles

As I have the ball above my feet now as I was set up, I have to appreciate that the ball is not going to fly in it normal way, it will fly with a definite curve to it and the curve will be from right to left and now if you are ever struggling to remember which way round we talked about this and whether it was left or right or whatever, just imagine that if I threw a ball down at fairway, it would go from right to left and the ball will do exactly the same as that in flight, it will always follow the curvature of the hill, it is already starting to move as I stand on the mat. So as I set up to it here, I know the ball is going to draw a hook but I have to question why would it draw a hook from this slide?

To start with, we look at the club, here when I have got my 7 iron aiming straight to target the loft on the club points straight as well but if I was to angle a club very severely backwards like this, the loft on that face now points way left of the camera, so if I was to hit that ball, it would propel…be propelled that way. So as I stand on a sloping lie, there is a little bit of that, so as you set up to the golf ball, the loft on the golf club no longer aims straight, actually aims quite to the long way left. We then talked about how the swing would generally be a little bit flatter, more around the body, that's much more of a rotational movement with the hands and the arms through the ball as well which can cause the ball to turn over from right to left also.

The other consideration I might have with my golf ball here is it because of the rotation and the closing nature of the club face, it will be much lower flight, it will turn from right to left on a lower flight and that probably would release more and roll a little bit more. All these sorts of things that might compensate for in my shots, in my setup but if I play a normal straight shot from here and watch what happens, it will turn right to left in the air, its quite a big pull down the left-hand side here. I have let my hands turnover, I have left the club face close down far too much and the ball has finished a long way down the left hand side. So in this next video we will look at how you can compensate and keep that ball straighter.

 2013-03-26

As I have the ball above my feet now as I was set up, I have to appreciate that the ball is not going to fly in it normal way, it will fly with a definite curve to it and the curve will be from right to left and now if you are ever struggling to remember which way round we talked about this and whether it was left or right or whatever, just imagine that if I threw a ball down at fairway, it would go from right to left and the ball will do exactly the same as that in flight, it will always follow the curvature of the hill, it is already starting to move as I stand on the mat. So as I set up to it here, I know the ball is going to draw a hook but I have to question why would it draw a hook from this slide?

To start with, we look at the club, here when I have got my 7 iron aiming straight to target the loft on the club points straight as well but if I was to angle a club very severely backwards like this, the loft on that face now points way left of the camera, so if I was to hit that ball, it would propel…be propelled that way. So as I stand on a sloping lie, there is a little bit of that, so as you set up to the golf ball, the loft on the golf club no longer aims straight, actually aims quite to the long way left. We then talked about how the swing would generally be a little bit flatter, more around the body, that's much more of a rotational movement with the hands and the arms through the ball as well which can cause the ball to turn over from right to left also.

The other consideration I might have with my golf ball here is it because of the rotation and the closing nature of the club face, it will be much lower flight, it will turn from right to left on a lower flight and that probably would release more and roll a little bit more. All these sorts of things that might compensate for in my shots, in my setup but if I play a normal straight shot from here and watch what happens, it will turn right to left in the air, its quite a big pull down the left-hand side here. I have let my hands turnover, I have left the club face close down far too much and the ball has finished a long way down the left hand side. So in this next video we will look at how you can compensate and keep that ball straighter.