- Welcome back to Naples, Florida.
I am Adam Bazalgette,
Two-Time PGA Teacher Of The Year award,
and today's subject: How to Stop Hitting Thin Shots.
Stay tuned.
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So, how to stop hitting thin shots?
We'll look at a couple
of the most common causes of thin shots.
We'll look at a little detail
of just what is required at impact,
what would you need to do to avoid a thin shot,
and how much is the correct amount to hit down.
And of course, we'll look at some of the things you can do
to work on the correct impact position.
If you liked the video, please subscribe to the channel.
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and ScratchGolfAcademy.com is my website.
I have full courses in every aspect,
including one-on-one internet lessons with me.
Okay, let's get started.
So, as we get started here,
let's just say there can be pre-determining factors
that would encourage you to hit thin shots,
and certainly in this video,
we're not gonna get into the backswing
'cause things can certainly crop up there
that would lead to it, but two of the most common things
that often lead to thin shots
would be excessive steepness towards the ball
and of course what happens then,
you're either gonna jam the club in the ground
or much more likely, your body reacts to that,
hikes up a little bit,
either pull the arms up or the body up,
and kind of rescues the shot
but often, you'll do it too much and thin it.
The other one, and really just as common,
is a golfer that's too far back
and is going to bottom out or hit the ground too early,
and the mind just isn't gonna let that happen consistently,
so there'll be a tendency either to hit up
or hike up a little bit just to avoid hitting the ground.
And again, often leads to thin shots.
So let's have a look close up for just a moment
what is really required,
what are we trying to do with this downward hit.
Once you see the geometry, it's very simple.
We can look at how to fix it.
Okay, so a thin shot is when the bottom edge of the club
is too much against the ball
or up high on the ball like that.
That's what that is.
Now, listen, there's no innate benefit
to hitting way down on the ball.
There's two things you have to do though.
You have to get that sweet spot
that's about there tilted on to the golf ball.
As you see, that requires a slight downward hit
when you have a lofted club with no cushion under the ball.
And of course also, you wanna be able to hit the ball
before you hit the ground,
so you need a little bit of downward hit
but there's no magic property to hitting down
other than creating solid hit.
And of course, if you're in a lie
that has a lot more cushion,
let's put the ball up a little bit,
you hardly need any downward hit to hit that solidly.
There's room under the ball
to push the sweet spot against the ball.
Just a slight, slight downward hit
is enough for solid contact.
Okay, so we know under normal conditions,
as we've just shown,
you got to hit a little bit down on irons
but most people's concept of that
is very poor and isn't correct.
And that is to say there's too much downward hit.
Great players really don't do that.
They're hitting much more level.
If anything,
there's more of an upward trend through the shot.
What gives the club its downward blow
isn't downward hitting, it's the shaft being forward.
Any time the handle is past the ball
and the shaft is leaning forward, it creates downward hit,
but that's tempered by this kind of sweeping motion.
Let me briefly show you a great player in action,
then we'll talk about how you can do it
and how you can work on it.
So here's Adam Scott hitting a shorter.
Let's just have a look.
You can see here, the handle of the club passes the ball,
the divot is past the ball,
so there's definitely downward hit,
but if you look at him there, let's say,
let's put a line on the shaft there,
and let's look at him after impact,
when the club is about parallel to that,
and you'll see there is an element of a rise to the swing.
Just watch that again and you'll notice
that the left side of his body is getting longer
and there is a little bit of an upward trend
that tempers that forward lean and that downward hit,
so it doesn't pound into the ground.
So it's the forward lean that gives the downward hit,
not an overall downward lash at the ball.
Okay, so one of the simplest examples
I know of is the little broom.
I've got this one cut off slightly.
If you had to brush the floor and flick the dust forward,
you have to have some forward lean.
You have to have some pressure on the bristles.
You can't brush this way
and you can't brush when you're above the ground.
But you wouldn't add to that such a downward hit
that you push the bristles into the ground
or bend the stick or something like that.
So, that's exactly what we're trying to do.
Brush, handle forward, pressure on the bristles,
but more of this sweeping trend.
You can imagine, that's pretty easy to do.
Most people, if you handed them a broom, wouldn't think,
geez, I'm gonna need a lesson on hip turn
before I can brush the floor here.
You just feel it,
and that's what you've got to do with a club.
Now, let me just say to you the difference
between hitting down, say, five or six degrees
and not hitting down at all.
Six degrees is the single stroke
of a second hand on the clock.
It is very small.
That's why someone can't just give you a tip and say,
keep this knee straight or don't bend that
or whatever it is, tuck your elbow in,
and magically, you have control
over the club at that level of precision.
You've got to get the club in your hand and feel it out.
I promise you, it's as easy as brushing the floor.
Just takes a little bit of practice.
This is something you can really practice at home too.
Picture this as the carpet or a little rug.
Just little swings.
Can you get the handle forward
and can you just tick or scuff the ground a little bit,
enough to get the sweet spot on the ball?
And just keep practicing that,
you can hear that little tick mark,
that little brush mark, till you get the correct feel.
Now, if you're at the driving range doing it,
of course you're gonna wanna hit a few balls.
This is a 7-iron, so I'm gonna do a little small one here.
Just about right.
That was a solid hit.
And just practice it on that small scale
till it feels like the broom,
and just till I feel like I can repeat it.
Try it again.
Just picked it off the ground.
Then just add some speed in.
If you struggle, come back to the small ones.
This isn't that difficult when you get the geometry right,
when you get the correct amount of brush
and the correct amount of forward lean.
You can really, really attain consistency once you do that.
If it's, again, if it's a combination
of the wrong angle of attack and a bailout or something,
I don't care how much you practice,
you're just not gonna get
the consistent type of downward hit
that would avoid hitting thin shots going forward.
So, I hope this helps.
So I hope that helps you
with how to stop hitting thin shots.
If you liked the video, leave a comment,
subscribe to the channel,
I would love to get you more free content.
ScratchGolfAcademy.com is my website.
I have a full course in iron play there,
a lot of detail on this stuff,
and one-on-one internet lessons with me.
Thank you.
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