hitting down

[MOEKNOWS]

I am new to this site so I hope this is the right section to post my question.Does anyone have any drills,suggestions or mental images that will help me correct my tendency to pick the ball instead on pinhing it against the earth?

[DaveE]

This drill seems too simple but if you do it enough times you'll improve your swing path and pick up some power too. Anytime I'm having trouble I go back to it. Welcome to the forum.

http://www.golfonline.com/golfonline...064587,00.html

[longiron]

Welcome hope you have fun. Harvey Penick liked to tell his pupils clip the tee. Meaning tee up the ball with an iron ( he liked 7 iron) and try to clip the tee. I have done this for awile and i realy has helped my ball stricking. Hope this helps you.

[Chas]

Crazy, isn't it? One of the paradoxes of the game. Even though we know to hit down when we swing, sometimes "logic" takes over in our brain at the last split second and makes us want to "help" the ball up. The "logic", of course, is wrong, as the physics are that hitting down makes the ball go up. Try this: Keep the hands in front of the ball/club face (left arm and club shaft in one straight angle across) and keep the left wrist braced straight, don't let the wrist break down or flex forward. Think of sweeping the ball forward, or, as Harvey Penick liked to teach, imagine you have a weed cutter in your hands and are sweeping across the top of the grass. Anyway, it's good for starters. Begin with very slow three-quarter swings, don't go more than 70%. Better yet, hang out just off the practice green with your pitching wedge and stick with it.

[Eracer]

One of my instructors had me concentrate on pulling the handle of the club straight at the ball on the downswing (I had to slow down my swing). He wanted me to over-exaggerate the motion. At first I hit some wicked slices, as my overall swingplane was out-to-in. Soon, though, my brain figured out that to make the ball go straight while pulling the handle down, I had to swing from the inside. So his drill served two good purposes.

Once I got it, I started really trapping the ball much better. You have to really work at pulling the handle straight down towards the earth and trusting that centrifigal force WILL cause the clubhead to contact the ball.