Strike Height For Irons

Practice
#1

Let’s see if this posts…

I was trying to put a test from Adam Young into action at the range today. Specifically, his “Strike Test.” Basically, you take a dry-erase marker, daube the back of a range ball, and hit it. You’ll see an ink impression on the clubhead where you struck the ball. Do 10, and see how the distribution compares to various metrics of dispersion, etc…

My question is, I was getting a lot of strikes that were centered heel-toe, but much higher on the face than the third groove up height where I thought the sweet spot was. Why was this happening, and how can I change it? (Young mentions a goal for his students that they be able to manipulate strike on the face at will. Which comes in handy when on the course, you experience mishits; this way, you already have muscle knowledge of how to fix them.)

I was hitting off of pretty fluffy range mats. Ball flight was higher than normal (and I hit my irons high, I think) and shorter. On the plus side, they stuck like I was throwing lawn darts.

I can sort of move strike around heel toe on irons; I’m lost on top vs sole. (I can sort of adjust on my driver, but I get to tee up that one.)

Thanks!

#2

Prob hitting it fat but getting some love from the range mat

Maybe do the towel drill to make sure you are getting ball first

5 Likes
#3

I’ll try that. Thanks for the very prompt response.

#4

Hi Jayjay

This one is simple (not necessarily easy).

High on the face is a fat contact - hitting ground first. We have two options to make the strike lower on the face

  1. move the low point forwards
  2. raise the arc depth up (dig less-deep)

I would suggest the second option, as it changes fewer variables and tends to be the one that is more intuitive to achieve.

Make swings feeling as if you just barely nip the top of the grass. The higher your club swings through impact, the lower the strike will be on the face and the farther forwards the ground contact will be (albeit more picky).

Refer to the 3D aim spot module in The Strike Plan for how to visualize this.

A good drill to then practice (which can be done at home) is to hit a bottle cap of a towel. Move the bottle cap without swiping the towel and you will be picking it nicely from the lower grooves of the face.

If you want something even more challenging, get an old bit of fluffy carpet, place a guitar pick/plectrum on top (or cut up bit of cardboard) and try to clip the pick off the carpet without moving the carpet significantly. This is pro-level arc-depth control.

Simply play a game of “higher/lower” with yourself. Too low and the carpet/towel moves. Too high and you will miss the bottle cap/pick.

3 Likes
#5

Yup - towel drill will also work to shift low point forwards (option 1).

3 Likes
#6

Thank you very much, Mr. Young, for the tips and drills. I’ll definitely put those into practice, the next time I can get out.

Your website helped me find this blog. Not only has your work changed for the better, how I think about and play golf, but my previous understanding of how people learn.

Thanks again.