Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
When a pro makes contact with the ball with an iron or wedge, you’ll notice they always have some forward lean in the shaft. This is a product of getting their hands in front of the ball at impact, allowing them to make ball-first contact.
This is something that all recreational golfers should strive for. If you want to get the most out of your ball striking, you’ve got to be able to produce forward shaft lean — which reduces your dynamic loft — and hit down on the ball.
In the quest for this “hands-forward” look at impact, though, many recreational golfers make a major mistake that actually hurts their ball-striking in the long run. GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joe Plecker explains more in the video below.
What you’re getting wrong about shaft lean
Getting forward shaft lean at impact is great, but you can’t get too obsessed with feeling like your hands are pressed toward the target through impact. If you do, it will hurt your release pattern and create poor contact.
To properly create forward shaft lean, your hands don’t just need to work toward the target, but they also need to work up and around your body.
“[The handle] is moving in as well as forward,” Plecker says. “And that’s so important for getting shaft lean.”
That’s not to say getting your hands forward at impact isn’t important, but it’s only one part of the equation. As you go through impact, you have to also allow the handle of the club to work up and around your body to produce a proper release pattern.
“That has a major influence on maintaining the shaft lean and on reducing the loft of the golf club,” Plecker says.
So, next time you feel like you’re not getting enough forward shaft lean at impact, don’t just think about getting your hands pressed more toward the target. If you want to de-loft the club properly, you also need to allow your hands to work up and around your body as you turn through the ball.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: golf.com
