I am still hitting irons left. Solid but left of target line. I am told I am swaying on back-swing (not necessarily by anyone who would know). I notice that in the above video your feet on more or less the same distance apart. Would a more narrow stance tend to promote a more rotational swing? (I am still working on completing the back-swing closer to parallel and touching legs.)
If you are swaying you are not loaded on the back foot at the top. If you are not loaded you will not start the lower body first as come down therefore you will hit with your arms and pull it. Pulling is starting your arms first in the downswing. So anytime you are pulling it you need to immediately recognize this and start thinking about why this would be happening.
Next you need to coil back and load onto the back instep 80% of your weight as you get to the very top of the backswing. Once loaded you need to keep the arms turned of and start with your lower body. Did you not watch the video you posted this comment on? It says the body tilt affects direction. When I fire my lower body my upper body tilts back determining the path of the club. So when you start the lower body first you need to also stay behind the ball. If you do you will swing out at the ball.
Thanks for the links. I realize most of my competitive on-course errors are caused by rushing my swing and other mental disorder issues. Just what error would cause one to skull a completely easy 100 yard wedge shot after a perfect drive?
The cause of this is you guessing on how to hit the shot. If you are guessing you will look to see if you pulled off this miraculous shot. If you are using my pitching technique you would know what you are going to do before you actually do it therefore you would not be guessing. You may want to watch my pitching tips again.
Hi Paul,
Interesting tip. For the first timeI have never seen you swinging the clubs to more than parallel at the top even with the sand wedge. How come?
Niels
First I join Niels question above-just curious. Second and more important, I find that using your method of powerless arms makes the swing consistent, without having to think about anything else-it’s simply natural. I thought that having the thighs touch after the swing and being in balance is good feedback that I used my hips. If they ball goes to the right they will not touch and if I go over the top I will not be in balance. Should I really add one more swing thought about the tilt?
In the tip I said when I fire the lower body the upper body tilts back. Do I think about this. No. Should you think about this. If you need to work on it … yes. If you are hitting the ball basically on target … no. Just keep doing what you are doing. A lot of this tip was o show people the difference in the tilt per club. Where have you ever seen this before?
Paul – can you explain in more depth the turn and shift? I understand that if you turn too much your over the top and if you shift too much you are coming to far inside the line, but how does the turn and shift correlate to uncoiling as like your connection drill? Or how does this turn and shift correlate to the connection drills with the lead arm (left arm)? It seems like when I do the connection drill I get the sensation of turning and I thought keeping my head behind the ball on tilt would keep the path swing online, but if its more of a turn and shift, while my body is naturally tilted, I must have some other flaw that is keeping my ball on target. Or do you think that the shifting is just the shifting of the weight in the downswing? Please help clarify. ryan
If you do not turn and shift too fast you should be connected. The only people I see disconnecting are those sliding and those driving the legs way too hard. If you are disconnected you will be pushing it. If you are not pushing/push fading it forget it.
Next, you are not even thinking about shifting. I have sad this tons of times in the past. You are thinking about turning only. The shift will happen on its own if you get to my touch the legs position on the very tip of your back toe. You cannot get on the tip of this toe unless you shift your weight so why thing about shifting your weight?
So you are turning. You are turning slowly to keep the arms connected. You are also watching your ball. If you push/push fade it you are sliding or disconnecting. If you pull/pull hook it you did not start your lower body ahead of the arms. It is that simple. It sounds like you are making this way too complicated. If you do, this is the kiss of death.
How do I diagnose golf swings? I think of the person as Iron Byron. In doing so it is crystal clear what they are doing and what they need to be working on. I am never wrong and I get the person on track in minutes. The moral of the story is the machine is simple. See the simplicity of the swing. You turn your body as circular as you can with 2 legs. Attached to the body is a unit with a hinge at the end of the arm and a golf club attached. As it swings it does so on an angle because the ball is in the air. So you work on your coil. You keep your arms powerless and wrists loose. If you can do those 2 things the angle takes care of itself. It really is that simple. Now, as you are working on these things you watch your ball. This will tell you exactly what is happening.
Paul – your absolutely right. I’m a mechanical engineer by trade, and trying to make the swing so robotic or mechanical; overthinking every little detail. Like you said, work on coil/uncoil and keeping the wrists loose and the angle or tilt will take care of itself. Now time to go out and practice and watching where the ball goes – of course after the swing. Thanks for the wake-up call! Ryan
Hi Paul. Saw your comments about push and push fades. I do have this shot and it might come from disconnecting the arms. However I find it hard to get the arms loose and connected at the same time. Should I work on feeling the arms connected and the pressure under the left armpit?
Hi Paul
Kind of unrelated to the mechanics of a golf swing, I am wondering about the “flex” of the shaft being stiff, regular and seniors and how that affects the ball direction. I hit a 7 iron 150, 4 iron 190, driver 240 plus or minus 10 for each club and use a regular shaft. what kind of flex do you use?
This can affect your direction because if it kicks too early (shaft too weak) you will pull/pull hook it. If it is too stiff it ma not kick leaving the face open. If you are hitting a 7 iron 150 yards I would think regular shafts should the the right shafts for you but I am not a professional clubfitter. I use stiff shaft. For my swing I do not like x-stiff. I fly driver 280 plus. Right now I have increased my distance a little. I am hitting 9 iron 150. When I hit regular shafts I pull hook them fr a minute until I get the feel for it then I can get it going straight but I can really tell the shaft it too weak. If you cannot say this with confidence and you are hitting regular shafts they are most likely okay at this time.
Someone in you shoes is very close to needing stiff shaft but I do not know your circumstance. If you are young enough to increase the rotational speed of your body then you have the potential to more up in shafts. If you are 68 years old I would think you are maxed out and regulars would be a better fit.
The day you can hit 8 iron 150 is the day you switch to stiff. This is not 1 ball that you luckily hit this far. This is on average.
Senior shafts are way to weak for you. If you hit these you would experience what I feel when I hit regular shafts.
Paul ,I played yesterday 18 holes on ary long course with my son who is a scratch player .He observed me swinging and noticed that with the “Powerless Arms “technique I have adopted ,my arms were not fully extended in the throughswing and that my stroke was “flappy ” and my arms lacked speed ,therefore I was losing distance .What am I doing wrong?
Other question :I observed your swinging with the different clubs:very fine demonstration. The tilt cannot be much controlled doesn’t it ? It just happens !
But most of all I noticed that your chin always pointed towards the ball until impact and only after impact moved towards the target .
How important is it to keep the chin fixed and orientated towards the ball ?
Powerless arms does not mean your arms are flailing all over the place. It means you are not hitting or helping the shot in any way with your arms. Do my arms look like they are all over the place? No. You should be copying me. If you are not hitting the 3/4 through position then wok on the 3/4 through position. Get it then turn the arms off again. Go through each position and find out where your swing is lacking.
The different tilts should be happening as you fire the lower body. Am I controlling it? No. Most players hit with the arms though so if they are not tilting properly I would rather them manually tilt on this angle and get used to it. Some tilt is better than no tilt. So if people are not tilting I would rather them think about it and manually do it. Then they add the use of the lower body. Then they get good at firing the lower body. Then the get the different tilt angles without thinking about it.
You chin can move a little in the swing. You need to be concerned with keeping it up so your shoulder can clear and you need to keep watching the ball as you hit the ball and where it was after you hit it to the 3/4 through point at which point you can look for your shot.
Thank you for posting this video. VERY helpful for me. I’ve been paying attention to your right foot at impact compared to mine. Granted, you’re a pro and I’m…. well…. not, but my foot is not even close to that position. My heel is already up. I’ve noticed that when I watch recordings and I hit good shots, my right heel is closer to the ground. I must not be firing my hips properly. I guess I need to “load my leg” better.
This is a huge difference between pros and amateurs. You need to keep working on the leg drive and hip turn. This will get this back heel off the ground more through impact.
Paul,
It seems as though you are lowering your right shoulder rather than tilting your entire spine to get the tilt… is this just an illusion?
thanks,
Jim
Paul
I’ve watched many pros and yourself at impact your right heal is a couple inches off the ground my heal is about 8 inches off the ground and almost on my toes can you explain to me how this affects the golf swing as I feel it affects my club head speed and drive thru the ball.
This is pretty rare. 99% of all golfers I see are not off the back foot enough. Getting off of this foot too much gets too much weight shifting to the forward foot. This can send you over the top. Also, driving the lower lower body this hard can get you disconnected under the lead armpit causing pushes and push fades.
To fix this just hit about 20 shots with a flat back foot. After 20 shots just let it come up because this hip rotation is pulling the lower body around. This is simple to fix.
today I focussed on the body tilt on the range which worked out rather well. However, the shots went rather high up in the air not affecting distance, though (some 130 yards with my 7 iron which is my normal distance).
What happened was you had a great practice session. You see, you are wanting perfect shots. I am wanting you to change your swing and learn the right fundamentals. These are 2 totally different things.
By tilting behind the ball you were adding additional loft the club but who cares? So you hit it a little higher. You actually worked on staying behind it and hit some good ones. This is huge progress. Now you need to do this over and over again until you do not have to work on this anymore. Once you have got this you change your focus to using the lower body to power the swing. You get off the back foot more through impact and the flight will come down.
So keep working on the tilt until you have got it. Then work on something else etc. etc. etc. Forget the ball until you have a good swing. Once you feel your swing is pretty good then watch your ball. Watch the spin, direction and contact. Associate these 3 things with the 3 elements of your swing (body, wrists, tilt). When you see you ball go offline you instantly know which of these things you need to work on to fix it.
You really need to know how to use the site and/or dashboard in situations like this so you can instantly find the cure.
Even though this is a driver you are still hitting it fat/behind the ball. So you go to the FAT section in the DASHBOARD. The fixes are right there.
You have too much weight on your back foot at impact. If you are just drop kicking the driver you would also have too much weight on the back foot attacking it too much from the inside. As you get the weight off the back foot you will not be too tilted behind the ball through impact and the club will clear.
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33 Responses to “Impact Tilt With Different Clubs”
August 28, 2013
JuleHerbertI am still hitting irons left. Solid but left of target line. I am told I am swaying on back-swing (not necessarily by anyone who would know). I notice that in the above video your feet on more or less the same distance apart. Would a more narrow stance tend to promote a more rotational swing? (I am still working on completing the back-swing closer to parallel and touching legs.)
August 28, 2013
Paul WilsonJule,
If you are swaying you are not loaded on the back foot at the top. If you are not loaded you will not start the lower body first as come down therefore you will hit with your arms and pull it. Pulling is starting your arms first in the downswing. So anytime you are pulling it you need to immediately recognize this and start thinking about why this would be happening.
You need to stance I promote here:
Width of Stance: https://ignitiongolf.com/width-of-stance
Easy Way to Check Width of Stance: https://ignitiongolf.com/easy-check-width-stance/
Next you need to coil back and load onto the back instep 80% of your weight as you get to the very top of the backswing. Once loaded you need to keep the arms turned of and start with your lower body. Did you not watch the video you posted this comment on? It says the body tilt affects direction. When I fire my lower body my upper body tilts back determining the path of the club. So when you start the lower body first you need to also stay behind the ball. If you do you will swing out at the ball.
Here are other tips on pulling:
Pull: https://ignitiongolf.com/cure-pulled-shot
Pull 2 (expanding on it): https://ignitiongolf.com/cure-pulling
Stop Coming Over the Top: https://ignitiongolf.com/cure-stop-over-the-top/
Remembering How Cure Pulled Shots: https://ignitiongolf.com/remembering-cure-pulled-shots/
August 29, 2013
JuleHerbertThanks for the links. I realize most of my competitive on-course errors are caused by rushing my swing and other mental disorder issues. Just what error would cause one to skull a completely easy 100 yard wedge shot after a perfect drive?
August 30, 2013
Paul WilsonJule,
The cause of this is you guessing on how to hit the shot. If you are guessing you will look to see if you pulled off this miraculous shot. If you are using my pitching technique you would know what you are going to do before you actually do it therefore you would not be guessing. You may want to watch my pitching tips again.
August 28, 2013
NielsTruelsenHi Paul,
Interesting tip. For the first timeI have never seen you swinging the clubs to more than parallel at the top even with the sand wedge. How come?
Niels
August 28, 2013
Paul WilsonNiels,
I knew someone would mention this. I’m just trying it for a while.
August 29, 2013
LenKoblenzHi Paul,
I hate to be nosy but a) Why? an b) Is it working?
Thanks,
Len
August 29, 2013
Paul WilsonLen,
Not telling. That’s all I need is for people to be doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing.
August 28, 2013
DavidWeinsteinHi Paul
First I join Niels question above-just curious. Second and more important, I find that using your method of powerless arms makes the swing consistent, without having to think about anything else-it’s simply natural. I thought that having the thighs touch after the swing and being in balance is good feedback that I used my hips. If they ball goes to the right they will not touch and if I go over the top I will not be in balance. Should I really add one more swing thought about the tilt?
Best,
Davidw
August 28, 2013
Paul WilsonDavid,
Just trying it for a while.
In the tip I said when I fire the lower body the upper body tilts back. Do I think about this. No. Should you think about this. If you need to work on it … yes. If you are hitting the ball basically on target … no. Just keep doing what you are doing. A lot of this tip was o show people the difference in the tilt per club. Where have you ever seen this before?
August 28, 2013
RyanPaul – can you explain in more depth the turn and shift? I understand that if you turn too much your over the top and if you shift too much you are coming to far inside the line, but how does the turn and shift correlate to uncoiling as like your connection drill? Or how does this turn and shift correlate to the connection drills with the lead arm (left arm)? It seems like when I do the connection drill I get the sensation of turning and I thought keeping my head behind the ball on tilt would keep the path swing online, but if its more of a turn and shift, while my body is naturally tilted, I must have some other flaw that is keeping my ball on target. Or do you think that the shifting is just the shifting of the weight in the downswing? Please help clarify. ryan
August 28, 2013
Paul WilsonRyan,
If you do not turn and shift too fast you should be connected. The only people I see disconnecting are those sliding and those driving the legs way too hard. If you are disconnected you will be pushing it. If you are not pushing/push fading it forget it.
Next, you are not even thinking about shifting. I have sad this tons of times in the past. You are thinking about turning only. The shift will happen on its own if you get to my touch the legs position on the very tip of your back toe. You cannot get on the tip of this toe unless you shift your weight so why thing about shifting your weight?
So you are turning. You are turning slowly to keep the arms connected. You are also watching your ball. If you push/push fade it you are sliding or disconnecting. If you pull/pull hook it you did not start your lower body ahead of the arms. It is that simple. It sounds like you are making this way too complicated. If you do, this is the kiss of death.
How do I diagnose golf swings? I think of the person as Iron Byron. In doing so it is crystal clear what they are doing and what they need to be working on. I am never wrong and I get the person on track in minutes. The moral of the story is the machine is simple. See the simplicity of the swing. You turn your body as circular as you can with 2 legs. Attached to the body is a unit with a hinge at the end of the arm and a golf club attached. As it swings it does so on an angle because the ball is in the air. So you work on your coil. You keep your arms powerless and wrists loose. If you can do those 2 things the angle takes care of itself. It really is that simple. Now, as you are working on these things you watch your ball. This will tell you exactly what is happening.
August 29, 2013
RyanPaul – your absolutely right. I’m a mechanical engineer by trade, and trying to make the swing so robotic or mechanical; overthinking every little detail. Like you said, work on coil/uncoil and keeping the wrists loose and the angle or tilt will take care of itself. Now time to go out and practice and watching where the ball goes – of course after the swing. Thanks for the wake-up call! Ryan
February 15, 2018
StianOttersenHi Paul. Saw your comments about push and push fades. I do have this shot and it might come from disconnecting the arms. However I find it hard to get the arms loose and connected at the same time. Should I work on feeling the arms connected and the pressure under the left armpit?
February 15, 2018
Paul WilsonStian,
No you need to follow this tip:
DRILL: Golf Swing Timing For More Distance: https://ignitiongolf.com/timing-more-distance/
This is a 5 min. fix.
August 28, 2013
WaltZaluskiHi Paul
Kind of unrelated to the mechanics of a golf swing, I am wondering about the “flex” of the shaft being stiff, regular and seniors and how that affects the ball direction. I hit a 7 iron 150, 4 iron 190, driver 240 plus or minus 10 for each club and use a regular shaft. what kind of flex do you use?
August 28, 2013
Paul WilsonWalt,
This can affect your direction because if it kicks too early (shaft too weak) you will pull/pull hook it. If it is too stiff it ma not kick leaving the face open. If you are hitting a 7 iron 150 yards I would think regular shafts should the the right shafts for you but I am not a professional clubfitter. I use stiff shaft. For my swing I do not like x-stiff. I fly driver 280 plus. Right now I have increased my distance a little. I am hitting 9 iron 150. When I hit regular shafts I pull hook them fr a minute until I get the feel for it then I can get it going straight but I can really tell the shaft it too weak. If you cannot say this with confidence and you are hitting regular shafts they are most likely okay at this time.
Someone in you shoes is very close to needing stiff shaft but I do not know your circumstance. If you are young enough to increase the rotational speed of your body then you have the potential to more up in shafts. If you are 68 years old I would think you are maxed out and regulars would be a better fit.
The day you can hit 8 iron 150 is the day you switch to stiff. This is not 1 ball that you luckily hit this far. This is on average.
Senior shafts are way to weak for you. If you hit these you would experience what I feel when I hit regular shafts.
Hope this helps.
August 29, 2013
LenKoblenzHi Paul,
I’ve never heard an explanation on shafts before. Very educational and very much appreciated.
Thanks again ( and again, and again, and again…..)
Len
August 29, 2013
RaymondCHASTELPaul ,I played yesterday 18 holes on ary long course with my son who is a scratch player .He observed me swinging and noticed that with the “Powerless Arms “technique I have adopted ,my arms were not fully extended in the throughswing and that my stroke was “flappy ” and my arms lacked speed ,therefore I was losing distance .What am I doing wrong?
Other question :I observed your swinging with the different clubs:very fine demonstration. The tilt cannot be much controlled doesn’t it ? It just happens !
But most of all I noticed that your chin always pointed towards the ball until impact and only after impact moved towards the target .
How important is it to keep the chin fixed and orientated towards the ball ?
August 30, 2013
Paul WilsonRaymond,
Powerless arms does not mean your arms are flailing all over the place. It means you are not hitting or helping the shot in any way with your arms. Do my arms look like they are all over the place? No. You should be copying me. If you are not hitting the 3/4 through position then wok on the 3/4 through position. Get it then turn the arms off again. Go through each position and find out where your swing is lacking.
The different tilts should be happening as you fire the lower body. Am I controlling it? No. Most players hit with the arms though so if they are not tilting properly I would rather them manually tilt on this angle and get used to it. Some tilt is better than no tilt. So if people are not tilting I would rather them think about it and manually do it. Then they add the use of the lower body. Then they get good at firing the lower body. Then the get the different tilt angles without thinking about it.
You chin can move a little in the swing. You need to be concerned with keeping it up so your shoulder can clear and you need to keep watching the ball as you hit the ball and where it was after you hit it to the 3/4 through point at which point you can look for your shot.
August 29, 2013
LANCEThank you for posting this video. VERY helpful for me. I’ve been paying attention to your right foot at impact compared to mine. Granted, you’re a pro and I’m…. well…. not, but my foot is not even close to that position. My heel is already up. I’ve noticed that when I watch recordings and I hit good shots, my right heel is closer to the ground. I must not be firing my hips properly. I guess I need to “load my leg” better.
Still swingin’,
Lance
August 30, 2013
Paul WilsonLance,
This is a huge difference between pros and amateurs. You need to keep working on the leg drive and hip turn. This will get this back heel off the ground more through impact.
Watch:
Impact Back Heel Off Ground: https://ignitiongolf.com/impact-back-foot
August 29, 2013
MichaelSkeelsGreat explanation Thanks!!!
August 30, 2013
Paul WilsonMichael,
Glad you liked it. Thanks.
August 30, 2013
JimChristianPaul,
It seems as though you are lowering your right shoulder rather than tilting your entire spine to get the tilt… is this just an illusion?
thanks,
Jim
August 30, 2013
Paul WilsonJim,
I don’t even see it as an illusion. It’s pretty crystal clear my spine is tilting. I purposely drew the line through my head to my belt buckle.
August 30, 2013
JimChristianPaul,
In the setup description , it seems as though you are lowering your right shoulder rather than tilting your entire spine to get the tilt
August 30, 2013
RALPHBARBIERIPaul
I’ve watched many pros and yourself at impact your right heal is a couple inches off the ground my heal is about 8 inches off the ground and almost on my toes can you explain to me how this affects the golf swing as I feel it affects my club head speed and drive thru the ball.
Thanks
Ralph
August 30, 2013
Paul WilsonRalph,
This is pretty rare. 99% of all golfers I see are not off the back foot enough. Getting off of this foot too much gets too much weight shifting to the forward foot. This can send you over the top. Also, driving the lower lower body this hard can get you disconnected under the lead armpit causing pushes and push fades.
To fix this just hit about 20 shots with a flat back foot. After 20 shots just let it come up because this hip rotation is pulling the lower body around. This is simple to fix.
September 8, 2013
ChristophNerlichHi Paul,
today I focussed on the body tilt on the range which worked out rather well. However, the shots went rather high up in the air not affecting distance, though (some 130 yards with my 7 iron which is my normal distance).
What happened?
Thanks,
Christoph
September 8, 2013
Paul WilsonChristopher,
What happened was you had a great practice session. You see, you are wanting perfect shots. I am wanting you to change your swing and learn the right fundamentals. These are 2 totally different things.
By tilting behind the ball you were adding additional loft the club but who cares? So you hit it a little higher. You actually worked on staying behind it and hit some good ones. This is huge progress. Now you need to do this over and over again until you do not have to work on this anymore. Once you have got this you change your focus to using the lower body to power the swing. You get off the back foot more through impact and the flight will come down.
I did tips on lowering your trajectory here:
Easy Ways To Lower Trajectory: https://ignitiongolf.com/hit-lower-easy-ways
Lower Overall Trajectory: https://ignitiongolf.com/lower-trajectory
So keep working on the tilt until you have got it. Then work on something else etc. etc. etc. Forget the ball until you have a good swing. Once you feel your swing is pretty good then watch your ball. Watch the spin, direction and contact. Associate these 3 things with the 3 elements of your swing (body, wrists, tilt). When you see you ball go offline you instantly know which of these things you need to work on to fix it.
How to Cure the Direction: https://ignitiongolf.com/cure-direction/
How to Cure the Spin: https://ignitiongolf.com/fix-spin-problems/
How to Cure the Contact: https://ignitiongolf.com/cure-contact/
How to Cure Spin and Direction Problems: https://ignitiongolf.com/cure-spin-direction-problems/
September 3, 2015
HerminioDiazHello Paul. URGENT! I have started chunking the ball with my driver! I cannot figure out what to do to fix it. Please help!
September 3, 2015
Paul WilsonHerminio,
You really need to know how to use the site and/or dashboard in situations like this so you can instantly find the cure.
Even though this is a driver you are still hitting it fat/behind the ball. So you go to the FAT section in the DASHBOARD. The fixes are right there.
You have too much weight on your back foot at impact. If you are just drop kicking the driver you would also have too much weight on the back foot attacking it too much from the inside. As you get the weight off the back foot you will not be too tilted behind the ball through impact and the club will clear.
Fat: https://ignitiongolf.com/fat-shots-cure
Stop Fat Shots When Working On Moving Your Head: https://ignitiongolf.com/fat-shots-moving-your-head/
Drop Kick: https://ignitiongolf.com/cure-drop-kick