Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
During this swing tip, we’re going to have a look at whether it’s better to make a sweeping swing at the golf ball, or whether you should hit down and take a divot. Now in order to answer that question, I think we’ve got to look at which club we’re actually using to actually make the swing with. If we’re looking at irons, I’d definitely say it’s much better to hit down and take a divot. Your irons are set up in a way that they need you to strike downwards. They’ve got plenty of loft, plenty of face angle and if you swing down with that club head, and you connect with the bottom of the ball you’re going to generate a really high flight. And in order to hit down you’d want to catch the ball on the downswing, and then hit the ground once you’ve stroke the ball, which would lead you to take a divot. If you then take the divot before you hit the ball, that isn’t a good swing.
If you hitting the ground first, number one the club is going to slow down you’re going to lose club head speed, and then strike the ball. So you won’t be putting all of your full speed all of your full power into the ball and generate the maximum distance that you could and you’ll catch the ball on the upswing, and again that’s going to lead to inconsistency. So certainly with your irons you want to make a swing where you hit down and you take the divot. We’d see that kind of set up position, if you’re hitting your iron, would allow you to do that. So we’d have a more centered or just left to center position with an iron for a right-handed golfer. We’ve set--so the hands are ahead we’ve got this full with lean look in the shaft. We’re going to hinge the wrist on the backswing, so that as we swing down, we can strike down and catch the ball and then the tuft to take the ball, then divot.
However if we swap in onto the woods, I would suggest it’s better to play more of a sweeping swing. If we look at your woods then we’ll go to the driver here, the club face is extremely straight. There’s not a lot of angle to help get the ball up into the air, as we’re trying to hit a lower flight hit still gets air borne, but once the ball lands it’s really going to roll on a lot more to generate a lot of distance for us. So one reason that we put the ball up on the tee pack with the driver, is so that we can actually sweep in towards the ball, and the driver is the only short way you’re going to catch the ball slightly on the upswing to help the ball go up into the air.
If we look at how you’re going to set up for your driver, we’re going to notice that the ball position is much more forward. So ball position with the driver is now opposite the left big toe, if you’re playing any fairway woods, we’d want to see that the ball position becomes more inside the left heel. And again what that’s going to allow you to do is you’re going to get the bottom point of your swing where your center of gravity is, which is the middle of your feet. And then the club will be just sweeping in and starting to rise onto the up swing to help you get an upward trajectory with these straighter face clubs.
We’d also see hand position is not so aggressively forward here to allow you to use more of a sweeping action, and your weight is slightly more on the right foot than it would be for the irons. Slightly more to the left with the irons, slightly more to the right with the woods. This set up will allow you to keep the club head low to floor as you take the club away, so you’re setting your wrist less and lighter and you’re making more of a rotational movement, a lower golf swing turning back in and you’ll sweep in with the club head above the floor and take the golf ball quite cleanly. So seeing a divot being taken with a wood isn’t a good indicator of a good swing. So it’s better to have a sweeping swing or to take a divot, I think it depends really what club you’re using. If you’re using a wood, I certainly encourage you to use a sweeping swing to take the ball cleanly off the turf, and to help get the ball airborne. But if you’re taking an iron swing, then definitely you take a divot when you’re using this club, because that’ll allow to hit down onto the ball, you’ll take ball then the turf and that’s going to generate a lot of upward spin in the ball and the ball will become airborne.
2013-08-12 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
During this swing tip, we’re going to have a look at whether it’s better to make a sweeping swing at the golf ball, or whether you should hit down and take a divot. Now in order to answer that question, I think we’ve got to look at which club we’re actually using to actually make the swing with. If we’re looking at irons, I’d definitely say it’s much better to hit down and take a divot. Your irons are set up in a way that they need you to strike downwards. They’ve got plenty of loft, plenty of face angle and if you swing down with that club head, and you connect with the bottom of the ball you’re going to generate a really high flight. And in order to hit down you’d want to catch the ball on the downswing, and then hit the ground once you’ve stroke the ball, which would lead you to take a divot. If you then take the divot before you hit the ball, that isn’t a good swing.
If you hitting the ground first, number one the club is going to slow down you’re going to lose club head speed, and then strike the ball. So you won’t be putting all of your full speed all of your full power into the ball and generate the maximum distance that you could and you’ll catch the ball on the upswing, and again that’s going to lead to inconsistency. So certainly with your irons you want to make a swing where you hit down and you take the divot. We’d see that kind of set up position, if you’re hitting your iron, would allow you to do that. So we’d have a more centered or just left to center position with an iron for a right-handed golfer. We’ve set–so the hands are ahead we’ve got this full with lean look in the shaft. We’re going to hinge the wrist on the backswing, so that as we swing down, we can strike down and catch the ball and then the tuft to take the ball, then divot.
However if we swap in onto the woods, I would suggest it’s better to play more of a sweeping swing. If we look at your woods then we’ll go to the driver here, the club face is extremely straight. There’s not a lot of angle to help get the ball up into the air, as we’re trying to hit a lower flight hit still gets air borne, but once the ball lands it’s really going to roll on a lot more to generate a lot of distance for us. So one reason that we put the ball up on the tee pack with the driver, is so that we can actually sweep in towards the ball, and the driver is the only short way you’re going to catch the ball slightly on the upswing to help the ball go up into the air.
If we look at how you’re going to set up for your driver, we’re going to notice that the ball position is much more forward. So ball position with the driver is now opposite the left big toe, if you’re playing any fairway woods, we’d want to see that the ball position becomes more inside the left heel. And again what that’s going to allow you to do is you’re going to get the bottom point of your swing where your center of gravity is, which is the middle of your feet. And then the club will be just sweeping in and starting to rise onto the up swing to help you get an upward trajectory with these straighter face clubs.
We’d also see hand position is not so aggressively forward here to allow you to use more of a sweeping action, and your weight is slightly more on the right foot than it would be for the irons. Slightly more to the left with the irons, slightly more to the right with the woods. This set up will allow you to keep the club head low to floor as you take the club away, so you’re setting your wrist less and lighter and you’re making more of a rotational movement, a lower golf swing turning back in and you’ll sweep in with the club head above the floor and take the golf ball quite cleanly. So seeing a divot being taken with a wood isn’t a good indicator of a good swing. So it’s better to have a sweeping swing or to take a divot, I think it depends really what club you’re using. If you’re using a wood, I certainly encourage you to use a sweeping swing to take the ball cleanly off the turf, and to help get the ball airborne. But if you’re taking an iron swing, then definitely you take a divot when you’re using this club, because that’ll allow to hit down onto the ball, you’ll take ball then the turf and that’s going to generate a lot of upward spin in the ball and the ball will become airborne.
