How to Stop Blocking Golf Shots: Simple Fixes & Proven Drills
The blocked shot can sometimes feel solid coming off the face of the golf club, but it heads so far right of the target that you’ll soon forget how great it felt.
If you have been known to block a few shots, there are some simple adjustments you can make to your swing to help ensure this doesn’t happen again.
We’ll break down the best ways to stop blocking shots and provide some great drills to work on at the driving range.
Stop Blocking Golf Shots (Key Takeaways)
Here are the most important points on how to stop blocking shots in golf. If you’re ready to start fixing this issue, keep these in mind:
- A blocked shot often makes golfers feel as though the club got stuck behind them. At impact, the clubface is left open, and the shot blocks to the right.
- To control the angle of the clubface in a golf swing, you need to analyze your wrist position.
- There are various reasons you could be hitting a block in golf, but if it’s happening consistently, you need to learn to close the clubface before you get to the impact position.
- Wearing HackMotion is like having a coach on your wrist. You’ll see exactly why your clubface is open and identify which part of your swing needs fixing.
Contents
1. What do you want to improve in your full swing?
6 Proven Steps to Stop Blocking Your Golf Shots
The blocked and pushed golf shots often have the same result.
If you are working on drills and exercises to fix the block, you can benefit from instruction on how to fix the push shot as well.
1. Fix Your Grip
Before we look at swing flaws that cause the block, we have to start with your only connection to the golf clubs: the grip.
The position of your hands on the golf club can impact your ability to open or close the clubface through impact.
For golfers that block a shot, the grip is often too weak. This weak grip allows the clubface to stay open through the impact position.
If you struggle to square the club, strengthen the grip just a bit. For a right-handed golfer, turn the left hand to the left, and the right hand will follow. The right hand will feel a little more under the club in a position where it can rotate closed through impact.
2. Check the Wrist Position at the Top (It May be Cupped)
If your clubface is open at impact (causing the blocked shot), chances are it was open at the top of your backswing as well.
It’s a very common mistake for amateur players to have the lead wrist extended and the clubface open at the top of the backswing.
The goal here is to get to a flat or slightly flexed lead wrist position at the top of the backswing. From this position, swinging through to impact leaves very little work to do to square the clubface.
Use HackMotion to work on flattening the lead wrist. You can benefit from audio and tactile feedback that makes you more aware of the club at the top of your backswing.
3. Don’t Exaggerate the In-to-Out Swing Path
Great ball strikers are always looking for that slight in-to-out swing path. The problem comes when this gets exaggerated.
The in-to-out swing path is not all that much different than the neutral swing path. Amateur golfers tend to exaggerate this movement, taking the club too far from the inside and trying to swing too far out on the downswing.
You can fix your swing path by using alignment sticks to help you visualize. Another great idea is placing a towel behind the golf ball on that inside path. Your goal is to miss the towel when you strike the shot and only make contact with the ball itself.
4. Improve Wrist Timing and Rotation in the Downswing
The traditional or textbook pattern for wrist position in the backswing is as follows:
- Start with a relatively neutral lead wrist (slightly flexed or extended based on grip position).
- Do not add extension as the club gets to the top of the backswing.
- Keep a flat to slightly flexed position at the top.
- Quickly move towards flexion in the first part of the downswing.
- At impact, maintain a flat or slightly flexed lead wrist.
For this to happen, the lead wrist and forearm will rotate on the downswing from a flat to a position of flexion. With blocked shots, you may not rotate your wrists through impact, leaving the clubface open.
Focus on rotating the forearm so that the clubface can square as part of the downswing.
Wearing your HackMotion and paying close attention to the rotation metric can help you see if you are rotating but just a little too late.
5. Focus on Body Rotation and Weight Transfer
Many golfers describe the feeling of a blocked shot as if they were stuck. They get to impact, and the club just feels stuck behind them. If this is what your blocked shot feels like, it could be because your upper body is not rotating through the shot.
You are on the right track if you started your downswing with the lead hip turning and the weight transferring to your lead side.
However, the hips and shoulders should rotate together in an effort to get all that weight to the lead side.
Work on drills that help incorporate the body and ensure that the upper and lower body work together. Some great players find that the lower body works well on that blocked shot, but the upper body lags behind.
6. Fine Tune Your Ball Position
If you feel like you are making progress on your blocked golf shots, but it still happens from time to time, make sure the ball is not too far back in your stance. Sometimes this ball position causes an open clubface at impact.
For longer clubs, the ball should be just inside your lead heel, and for most iron shots, placing the ball in the middle is smart.
Even professionals tweak their ball position from time to time.
1. What do you want to improve in your full swing?
Additional Drills to Stop Blocking Golf Shots
Some of the best ways to work on fixing a blocked shot include practicing with alignment sticks. However, you can also wear the HackMotion to keep a closer eye on your wrist position throughout the golf swing.
If you want some additional options for practice, try these:
Drag the Alignment Stick Drill
This alignment stick drill from Rob Cheney will help with more than just a blocked shot here and there. If you want to learn what it feels like to get the lead wrist flexed at impact, this drill will do it.
Simply place the alignment stick behind you and then drag it along the ground as if swinging through impact.
You’ll have no choice but to keep the lead wrist flexed and your hands ahead of the clubhead. It’s a great way to synchronize the body and the hands.
Preset the Impact Position
In this drill, you’ll work on what it feels like to have a square clubface at impact. By presetting the impact position, you’ll see what that square clubface looks like.
Practice with some half swings and then add length to the backswing.
Final Thoughts
At this point, you should have the general concept that a blocked shot is caused by an open clubface at impact. This open clubface is caused by a lack of wrist control throughout the swing.
HackMotion does more than just square your clubface; it gives you a chance at straight shots that fly high and are easy to repeat. Most importantly, the HackMotion is like having a coach that goes with you wherever you go!
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