Why You Should Stop Hitting Down on the Golf Ball (and What to Do Instead)
Have you ever hit a few poor golf shots, and your friend tells you that you just need to hit down on the golf ball?
Hitting down on the golf ball is something that people say, and they mean well by it. The problem is that the average golfer usually misconstrues the concept of hitting down on the golf ball, and the angle of attack becomes much too steep.
There are better ways to understand the concept of hitting down on the golf ball while still achieving a well-compressed shot.
Stop Hitting Down on the Golf Ball (Key Takeaways)
If you don’t have time to head to the range and work on this issue, here are a few of the most important points to take with you:
- Hitting down on the golf ball can cause you to lose distance and experience inconsistent ball flight.
- Golfers with slower swing speeds struggle to hit down on the ball while still keeping the club swinging through impact.
- You’ll need correct wrist angles and proper weight transfer for the club to travel through impact instead of swinging straight down into the ground.
- Practice with HackMotion on your lead wrist to shallow your plane just enough to make ball-first contact.
Contents
1. What do you want to improve in your full swing?
Understand the Hit Down Concept
Compressing the golf ball leads to better distance and control. That is how this hitting down concept came about.
However, the motion itself is not just down, there is more to it than that.
Without the swing speed, path, and angle of descent needed, trying to hit down on the ball may cause you to hit behind it or have a lower shot trajectory. Golfers with a shallow angle of attack can still hit down and through their shot and properly compress it.
This hitting down concept can cause you to lose distance, and some people have even noticed that it causes injury.
5 Reasons to Stop Hitting Down on the Ball (And What to Do Instead)
If you want to compress your golf shots but have a hard time figuring out how to do that without focusing on hitting down on the ball, here are some of the reasons not to hit down on the ball, and what to do instead.
1. Too Steep of a Swing Plane
When you swing the club too steeply, you’ll hit the ground before you strike the golf ball. A slightly more steep angle of attack is not a bad thing for shorter iron shots, wedge shots, and even bunker shots.
However, for the majority of your golf swings, you need a more shallow angle of attack that still allows you to compress the ball.
Check your wrist angle at the top of the backswing to help avoid hitting too far down and creating this steeper plane.
If the wrist angle is too extended (cupped), it causes a steeper angle of attack. If you get the wrist a little more towards flat, you’ll notice it’s easy to swing the club on the proper plane.
2. Loss of Distance
Consciously hitting down on the golf ball with a steeper angle may reduce distance. For golfers with slower swing speeds, this becomes an even bigger problem.
With no speed to pull the club through impact, all of your momentum gets pushed into the ground instead of the ball.
To prevent this, start thinking about weight transferring to the lead side and continuing your finish until all the weight is on the lead side.
Energy transfer is important in the swing, but you don’t want to transfer it all into the ground.
3. Inconsistency in Strike
Focusing on the steeper swing where you hit down on the golf ball can shift your low point too far behind the golf ball. This leads to inconsistent strikes. You may hit an inch behind one time, half an inch the next, and never get what you need out of a shot.
Instead, you want your golf club to strike the ball first and then take a divot as it continues through the low point.
Working on finding the low point in your swing and ensuring you are lining yourself up to make a consistent strike should fix that.
This video from Tyler Ferrell will help you with some drills to find that low point.
4. Incorrect Club Face Angle (No Control)
The wrists control the position of your clubface in the golf swing.
Hitting too steeply and trying to hit down on the ball can lead to an open clubface at impact. Instead, you’ll want to shallow the plane and learn to rotate the clubface to a square position at impact.
Start with a neutral grip, check the clubface angle at the top of your swing, and then initiate the downswing with a weight shift and turn of your lower body.
Many golfers who try to hit down on the ball initiate the downswing with their arms trying to strike the ground.
It results in an open clubface with a cupped lead wrist. Wearing your HackMotion while you work on controlling the clubface can help you get to the correct position without having to make large adjustments.
5. Loss of Swing Efficiency
The best golfers are those that can efficiently swing a golf club.
Think about your swing as more of a circular motion because of the rotation of your body and shoulders. You don’t swing the club up and then down into the ground.
Golfers trying to play the game like that are not efficient in their ball striking.
1. What do you want to improve in your full swing?
Drills for Better Ball Striking
If you are still working on improving your ball striking, here are a few drills that could help you.
Set the Impact Position Drill
Presetting the impact position will help you better understand what it feels like to hit through the ball instead of down on it.
The drill involves getting yourself set up like you are in the perfect impact position and then trying to recreate it with some half swings.
Right Arm Drill
For some golfers, finding the perfect position for the right arm helps to shallow out the downswing.
If your right arm tends to get a little too far away from your body, try the right arm drill from Rob Cheney to get it in the right spot.
Drag the Alignment Stick Drill
If you thought your alignment sticks were simply for alignment, think again. This alignment stick drill helps you feel exactly what hitting down and through a golf ball should be like.
You’ll quickly realize how to stop hitting down and how to hit through the ball, compressing it, and getting a great result.
Final Thoughts
If you have been trying to hit down on the golf ball with very little luck and inconsistent results, it could be because you have exaggerated this concept.
Use your HackMotion to correct the wrist angles at the top of your backswing and again at impact to ensure you are getting the club on the right path instead of hitting it down into the ground.
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