Why You Need This: In this video, you’ll discover how to hit solid golf shots.

This is a great video for you if you’re struggling to get the dead solid feel at contact that comes with compressing the ball correctly in your golf swing.

First thing you need to work on is swinging with a shallow angle of attack and taking a really thin divot, almost like you’re taking a razor blade and slicing the top layer of turf off the ground.

If you’re taking those deep divots that scare the worms, you’re doing it wrong :)

Next, you’re going to need forward shaft lean as you come through contact.

Most PGA Tour players have a forward shaft lean of around 10 degrees with their irons.

In this video, you’ll discover the "missing link" to getting more forward shaft lean.

A lot of golfers try to force forward shaft lean in their swing, but end up opening their club face and hitting weak shots.

Watch this video now to get the forward shaft lean “missing link”...

And hit solid golf shots!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 7:06

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, and welcome back. I know a lot of you out there are struggling compressing the golf ball. You’re not getting that dead solid feel, the ball doesn’t feel like it’s smashing into the face and almost grabbing into the face for a good four or five inches through contact.

That’s not actually happening, but that should be the feeling that we’re getting. In order to do this, we have to come in with a nice, shallow angle of attack, meaning that our club is coming down into the ground.

Nice and shallow, taking a thin divot, almost like we’re taking a razor blade and just slicing the top layer of turf off the ground, not getting deep down into the roots, that’s what you see all the top players doing when they’re really pure in the ball.

The second piece of that, is we have to get some forward shaft lean. So as I’m coming into this golf shot, I’ve got to be coming in with some forward shaft lean and getting this shaft lean forward.

You know, most PGA Tour pros are having the shaft lean forward at least 10° with a lot of their iron shots, and that takes loft off the face and now where it has less loft it can actually transfer more energy into the golf ball, plus it’s going to stabilize the face a lot more.

As I start to get this handle leaning forward, now I can stabilize my club face and I can feel where that is if I have the handle leaning back, I’m flipping, the face becomes very unstable because our force is in front of the club head. That’s going to stabilize it a lot.

In today’s video, I’m going to go over the missing link. What is the missing key? We’ve all tried to get more forward shaft lean, but it doesn’t work. I have one thing that I see people do time and time again that really causes the trouble.

Here’s usually what I see when someone’s trying to go with more forward shaft lean, if we’re looking from down the line here. As they come into the bottom of the swing, they get a lot of forward shaft lean, they get to here, they pause, a couple swings look like this.

Well if you look first off, my club is about six, eight inches off the ground. If you look at my club face, it’s wide open. It’s pointing way out to the right.

The reason for this is, if I have my hands set up where I would be casting, and now all I do is just push my hands forward without changing the angles in my wrist, then that face is going to be wide open.

See how I’m just turning the face wide open there? Well I’ve got to rotate my wrist to square up that face. This is what’s called twisted the grip, twisting the handle. So if you’re looking at the butt end of this club like it’s a clock, I’m going to be actually twisting this handle to close the face like that.

Let me show you exactly what I mean from down the line, then we’ll jump over to face-on view and I’ll hit a couple mini shots doing this.

As I’m starting down, as soon as I start my downswing, I want to feel like my left wrist is bowing up like that. So if you’re looking at the logo of my glove, it’s kind of turning up toward the sky.

My palm of my right hand is turning out, and then as I’m coming down that’s going to allow me to shut the face a little bit more, so that as I’m coming down there I’m twisting to turn that face.

As my club gets parallel with the ground now, I want to see that toe starting to turn down, so I’m turning this wrist like this.

If I really want to exaggerate, maybe I have somebody that’s really struggling with forward shaft lean, struggling with compression on the golf ball, I’m going to feel like I get my hand turned as far as I can go, almost like the leading edge of this club is all the way down toward the turf.

You can see a huge bow in my left wrist, my right hand is down just like we talk about in the System, the Pet the Grass Drill. My right palm is down toward the ground, that’s what a lot of people call covering the golf ball. I’m getting my palm down so I can deloft the club.

I want you to go and do a few reps where you really feel that position. Now from there, instead of being wide open with forward shaft lean, now I can deliver the ball, I can deliver the club into the ball with delofted and my face is square to the target.

So we’re going to try that out for a couple reps. I’m going to go halfway don, I’m turning my hands, so the face feels like it’s way down toward the ground.

Then as I come on through, I’m going to rotate my hips on through, and I’m going to feel like I’m delofting the face and my leading edge of my club face is square with my target out in front, which would be a straight shot.

Now let’s go ahead, we’re going to bring the camera over here, and then we’ll talk about the second half of this drill.

All right, so in the first half I came down, rotated my hands, then I got to impact, my face is square, you can see how much loft I’m taking off, but that club face is square to the target this time, and it’s right behind my ball.

I don’t want to be doing one of these, because now when I get to a regular swing to be able to reach the ball, I’m going to flip, right?

So I’m going to go ahead and come down, pause at impact, and then I’m going to move this ball out of the way or I’ll step back here, there would be impact, and then I’m going to release this club to where now I’m in my straight line release where I’ve let go of all these angles.

I’m creating a big angle of forward shaft lean, forward shaft lean at the ball, and then I’m releasing the club. You can see that my hips are straightening out as I’m doing this, the butt end of the club is turning up toward my body to allow me to release that.

That’s how your pros are releasing the golf club. If you’re still struggling with this, let’s take it even to a bigger extreme. Here’s what I want you to do.

I want you to feel like as you’re coming down, logo of the glove is turning down to the ground as you’re coming through. As you release, your logo stays down to the ground. See how that’s angled back?

If I had a golf club in my hand as I’m doing this, I’m angled down and I’m releasing that club. You can see how this is staying down to the ground. My right palm, so my palm is rotating but my palm is staying down to the ground at the same time.

So it’s this kind of this motion that’s allowing you to release the golf club, this is a bit exaggerated, or quite a bit exaggerated. That’s what’s allowing you to release the golf club without flipping the club to square it up.

I’m going to put all three of these together. Halfway down, boom, big angle with the wrist. Leading edge feeling like it’s facing down to the ground. Impact, forward shaft lean delofting the club, leading edge square to the ground, my club is going to be behind the ball and my hips are nice and open at this position.

Then as I release the club, straight line release, I’ve gotten rid of all these angles so I’m not holding off. I’m letting that club go as I come on through. After I’ve done that about 50 to 100 repetitions, now I’m going to go ahead and make some nice, fluid swings doing the same thing.

I’ll do another 50 to 100 repetitions, so now I’m really getting comfortable with this, I’m going to be brushing the turf every single time that I do this.

Then finally, we’re going to go ahead and make some, let’s say three-quarter, working into full swings. I’m really going to hit those low bullet shots that I’m going to chop down into the ground.

I’m coming in nice and level with the ground, I’m just taking off so much loft that I’m really getting those bullets to go out there. Let’s go ahead and try one out now, and we’ll see how I do.

There we go. That shot came out nice and low, actually headed right for the flag. So really work those wrists down, deloft that club. You can see I’m not chopping down in the ground, I’m just taking loft off.

Work through those drills, this s going to be the missing link. If you’ve been trying to do this for years and can’t do it, it’s because that face has been wide open, and every time you make a real swing you had to flip to square it up.

Good luck to you guys, work through the drills. I’ll see you soon.