Why Hitting Down On The Golf Ball Gives Height To Shots (Video) - by Peter Finch
Why Hitting Down On The Golf Ball Gives Height To Shots (Video) - by Peter Finch

Golf is a wonderfully counterintuitive sport at times. It's the only sport that I know of that you're required to hit the ball up in the air when the ball is down on the ground. Now for most logical people if you aren’t a golfer and you want to come into the game of golf what you would do is you would look at the ball on the ground, you would look at the sky, and you go okay what I need to do is do back. I need to hit up on the ball to get it up in the air.

Unfortunately, the golfing guards don’t look like that and to actually get the ball lifted up into the air with the wedges and with the irons successfully and consistently, your angle of attack needs to be moving down through our impact and what that means is that you need to be striking down on the ball. You'll have heard it many, many times strike down to hit up and it is a very counterintuitive message. However, it's not quite as simple as that and a lot of people don’t understand why hitting down on the ball will lift the ball up into the air. The secret here and the key is loft. Loft on the irons help the ball up in the air. The downward strike on to the ball will help generate backspin and will help generate control. If you’ve to simply strike down on the ball with a driver when the ball is on the ground it won’t get up in the air very high at all. Loft is the key factor, so as this club is moving down through the point of impact because that clubface is angled backwards up towards the sky, you will strike the ball first and then the turf, club and ball will interact, impart backspin and the loft will launch the ball upwards. The more you hit down, the lower the initial starting trajectory. However, that’s where the loft and the spin come into play and as it goes throughout its fly it will lift up to its natural trajectory. That’s why you see really good ball strikers, tall players, their ball flight with their iron starts off low, but then raises upwards to its peak. That’s because they’re striking down with loft generating backspin and generating that lift on the overall ball. So, if you're looking to generate spin, you're looking to generate consistency and get the ball up in the air hitting down on the ball is important. Making sure you have appropriate loft is also important and now we’re going to look exactly how you can do that. Some drills that you can use to help you strike down and hopefully improve the launch on that shot. 2016-10-26

Golf is a wonderfully counterintuitive sport at times. It's the only sport that I know of that you're required to hit the ball up in the air when the ball is down on the ground. Now for most logical people if you aren’t a golfer and you want to come into the game of golf what you would do is you would look at the ball on the ground, you would look at the sky, and you go okay what I need to do is do back. I need to hit up on the ball to get it up in the air.

Unfortunately, the golfing guards don’t look like that and to actually get the ball lifted up into the air with the wedges and with the irons successfully and consistently, your angle of attack needs to be moving down through our impact and what that means is that you need to be striking down on the ball. You'll have heard it many, many times strike down to hit up and it is a very counterintuitive message. However, it's not quite as simple as that and a lot of people don’t understand why hitting down on the ball will lift the ball up into the air. The secret here and the key is loft.

Loft on the irons help the ball up in the air. The downward strike on to the ball will help generate backspin and will help generate control. If you’ve to simply strike down on the ball with a driver when the ball is on the ground it won’t get up in the air very high at all. Loft is the key factor, so as this club is moving down through the point of impact because that clubface is angled backwards up towards the sky, you will strike the ball first and then the turf, club and ball will interact, impart backspin and the loft will launch the ball upwards. The more you hit down, the lower the initial starting trajectory.

However, that’s where the loft and the spin come into play and as it goes throughout its fly it will lift up to its natural trajectory. That’s why you see really good ball strikers, tall players, their ball flight with their iron starts off low, but then raises upwards to its peak. That’s because they’re striking down with loft generating backspin and generating that lift on the overall ball. So, if you're looking to generate spin, you're looking to generate consistency and get the ball up in the air hitting down on the ball is important. Making sure you have appropriate loft is also important and now we’re going to look exactly how you can do that. Some drills that you can use to help you strike down and hopefully improve the launch on that shot.