Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
When we are looking at why you hit inconsistent golf shot, the main reason is going to be that you are not always hitting the golf ball from the sweet spot, from the center, the middle of that clubface. And the more you move away from the center of that clubface, the more inconsistency you are going to get. So for example, if the golf ball is hit more from the toe end of the club, so this far end of the club, as the club impacts with the ball here, slow this area of the club down, but not the heel area and the clubface will twist. And the same is true, if you are hitting off the wheel, if you hit the ball from this area, this area of the heel will slow down, but the toe won’t. And again the clubface will twist, so you will start to see that you are not hitting consistently with direction. Also you will start to notice that your distance drops off, because for every half centimeter that you move away from the center of that golf club, you are going to lose 10% of your distance.
This is where the center of the club is where maximum distance comes from. So hitting from the center allows the clubface to stay square to the ball as you connect with it, it doesn’t give it any gear effect, any twisting effect, and also it allows you to live a maximum power. If you start to hitting from lower down on that clubface, you are going to start hitting further up on the ball and starting to top or thin the shot. And again that’s going to alter the trajectory that you hit, so not hitting from the center of the clubface causes you a lot of problems and a lot of inconsistencies with the ball flight, you will see, so this a great tip to do. Try to imagine, you have got a bull’s eye on that clubface. So if I draw onto the clubface across to represent where the sweet spot is right in the middle of that clubface. What I am looking to do is get the ball to strike on that sweet spot on that cross. You can also do this with clubface tape, so if we put the clubface sticker on to that clubface and you hit your shot, it will leave a black impact mark of where the ball hit. And then you can start to see, where you are actually connecting from. So what you need to do is imagine on that clubface, that, that sweet spot is worth a ten, it’s worth a ten for its – its vertical height that you have hit. And also a ten, for the lateral height that you have hit, whether it was towards the toe or the heel or dead centered. So as you start to hit golf balls, think about where that sweet spot is, think about where that ten is on the clubface, hit the shot. And work on getting it from the center off the club, where that ten is. If you then think about that shot afterwards and go, oh that fell a little bit towards the bottom of the club there, the number is going to drop away until it gets to zero, that you are totally at the bottom of the club, zero totally on the toe, or zero totally on the heel. So I might think of that shot and go, well, it felt quite centered laterally, so it will score as a ten, but it did feel a little bit thin, so I will drop it down to an 8. So now I know the correction I have got to make, I was okay for where it came off toe to heel, but I was a little bit high with the club head, the connection was a little bit low down. And I know I have got to correct it by two, to get it 10 out of 10. So now I can hit the shot again, working on where the ten out of ten is and I will hit a much sweeter shot, because I know that correction I have got to make. And that’s going to help me get a lot more consistent. If initially, you are not sure where the ball is coming from, use the face tape so that you can actually see that once you have given it a number, oh it felt like a nine towards the toe, only just towards the toe. And a seven towards the leading edge of the club, the bottom of the club, then you can check your face tape, to go, oh yeah, that is where I thought it was. You know that now needs to be made to hit the middle of the club and you will start to see it hit straighter, longer shots that have gotten a much higher trajectory. 2013-10-16 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
When we are looking at why you hit inconsistent golf shot, the main reason is going to be that you are not always hitting the golf ball from the sweet spot, from the center, the middle of that clubface. And the more you move away from the center of that clubface, the more inconsistency you are going to get. So for example, if the golf ball is hit more from the toe end of the club, so this far end of the club, as the club impacts with the ball here, slow this area of the club down, but not the heel area and the clubface will twist. And the same is true, if you are hitting off the wheel, if you hit the ball from this area, this area of the heel will slow down, but the toe won’t. And again the clubface will twist, so you will start to see that you are not hitting consistently with direction. Also you will start to notice that your distance drops off, because for every half centimeter that you move away from the center of that golf club, you are going to lose 10% of your distance.
This is where the center of the club is where maximum distance comes from. So hitting from the center allows the clubface to stay square to the ball as you connect with it, it doesn’t give it any gear effect, any twisting effect, and also it allows you to live a maximum power. If you start to hitting from lower down on that clubface, you are going to start hitting further up on the ball and starting to top or thin the shot. And again that’s going to alter the trajectory that you hit, so not hitting from the center of the clubface causes you a lot of problems and a lot of inconsistencies with the ball flight, you will see, so this a great tip to do.
Try to imagine, you have got a bull’s eye on that clubface. So if I draw onto the clubface across to represent where the sweet spot is right in the middle of that clubface. What I am looking to do is get the ball to strike on that sweet spot on that cross. You can also do this with clubface tape, so if we put the clubface sticker on to that clubface and you hit your shot, it will leave a black impact mark of where the ball hit. And then you can start to see, where you are actually connecting from. So what you need to do is imagine on that clubface, that, that sweet spot is worth a ten, it’s worth a ten for its – its vertical height that you have hit. And also a ten, for the lateral height that you have hit, whether it was towards the toe or the heel or dead centered. So as you start to hit golf balls, think about where that sweet spot is, think about where that ten is on the clubface, hit the shot. And work on getting it from the center off the club, where that ten is.
If you then think about that shot afterwards and go, oh that fell a little bit towards the bottom of the club there, the number is going to drop away until it gets to zero, that you are totally at the bottom of the club, zero totally on the toe, or zero totally on the heel. So I might think of that shot and go, well, it felt quite centered laterally, so it will score as a ten, but it did feel a little bit thin, so I will drop it down to an 8. So now I know the correction I have got to make, I was okay for where it came off toe to heel, but I was a little bit high with the club head, the connection was a little bit low down. And I know I have got to correct it by two, to get it 10 out of 10.
So now I can hit the shot again, working on where the ten out of ten is and I will hit a much sweeter shot, because I know that correction I have got to make. And that’s going to help me get a lot more consistent. If initially, you are not sure where the ball is coming from, use the face tape so that you can actually see that once you have given it a number, oh it felt like a nine towards the toe, only just towards the toe. And a seven towards the leading edge of the club, the bottom of the club, then you can check your face tape, to go, oh yeah, that is where I thought it was. You know that now needs to be made to hit the middle of the club and you will start to see it hit straighter, longer shots that have gotten a much higher trajectory.
