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Swing Plane Simplified - Working with steeps and shallows
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A punch shot is a typical go-to shot that can be used to control spin, control trajectory, and prioritize accuracy over distance. This is typically used inside of 150 yards by tour pros. A recovery shot prioritizes solid contact and typically has more exaggerate curves than a standard punch shot. The most useful recovery shot is the pull hook, but a low fade is also a very useful shot to add to the arsenal.
Playlists: Understand Your Swing Plane/Path, Specialty Shots, Swing Plane Simplified - Working with steeps and shallows
Tags: Poor Contact, Speciality Shot, Concept, Intermediate
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This video is discussing the general punch shot versus the recovery shot.
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So I've got a couple different videos on lower-flighted shots and we had a question from one of the members about the difference between say the standard punch shot and then more of the recovery trap-hook or what do you need to do if you need to hit more of a recovery fade?
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So I've got my seven iron. I would recommend when you're playing around with these punch shots you start with like a six iron seven iron as low as maybe a five iron.
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I wouldn't go to a really low club. I wouldn't use a hybrid at least while you're first learning it and it will be harder to recognize the difference with say an eight iron. So somewhere in that middle iron zone.
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The general recipe for just your standard punch shot is it's going to have a little bit more of an upper body sequence to it with the upper body more level.
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That's going to help increase the angle of attack and now to bring the spins slightly down.
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I'm going to have a little less of the bracing and full supination release and I'm going to have a little bit more of that hold off move with the arms which is why it kind of feels even more so like a punch movement as opposed to like a swinging movement.
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I'm only going to put the ball position maybe slightly backward compared to my normal shot.
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So executing your basic punch shot. We've got a little bit narrower stance a little bit leftward swing pretty close to a normal or let's say slightly over three quarter backswing and more of that hold off style. Now you'll see that I still got a good amount of height on that.
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I still had a pretty regular divot fairly regular looking swing. It was just a little bit more flited a little bit more control.
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This is a great go to shot because under pressure your your arm timing and having like the perfect timing of your release can be a little bit challenging.
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So by doing this punch shot it's a little bit more of a feeling of a body release all I have to do is let my arms extend through the shot.
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I don't have to time quite as much of the unhing and supination feeling. Now what if we wanted to do more of a recovery shot?
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So now with a recovery shot I'm imagining there's some trees at about eye level and I need to keep this thing underneath the trees for a longer period of time.
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So now I'm going to play the ball significantly more back in my stance. I'm going to close the club face a little bit more to start.
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So if there's my normal grip I'm going to close it maybe in extra eight 10 degrees something like that. Now I'm going to still try and get my shoulders more level.
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But in order to get this to draw I'm going to make sure that I still have a good amount of arm shallowing during that early part of the downswing so that I get my my path to be significantly into out.
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Moving it back helps a little bit but I also don't want to get too steep with my angle of attack or else I can create too much spin.
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So I'm still going to get shallow on this even though I move the ball backward and I'm going to start with the club face a little bit more closed.
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This will also have a much lower flight usually a deeper divot. This is you're hitting this out of rough frequently.
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So the main reason you're not going to see quite as much of a big divot is because the ball's typically sitting in the rough. It's not quite as down.
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Or you can always work on making sure that the body or the arm is finished a little bit more around the left to minimize how steep that bottom this wing is going to be.
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Now if you have to play more of the low cut shot then it is a little bit trickier. I would recommend going to even less loft.
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So if you're doing this normally with your seven iron now we're going to move down to save my five iron but I'm going to use this club for demonstration purposes.
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The big thing here is I'm going to set up with my hips a little bit more back or even my spine leaning a little bit more to the left like so.
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And then I have to make sure that I'm going to get a little more arm height and I'm going to hold the club face from rotating. You'll tend to see this is where one of those feelings of like the grip coming in towards my thigh while the club face gets held open is kind of more of a feeling of like a hold off cut.
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The only way that you could have a full release and still hit a cut is if you got the club face open at the point of impact. So we're open to the path when it's making contact.
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To do that you'd have to start with the club face really wide open and that tends to feel less comfortable for more golfers than having more of this hold off style.
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So I'm going to play the ball back but I'm going to get my hips behind my upper body so my upper body is steep and on top of the ball.
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Now from here I'm going to hit more of that hold off cut. The lower body being back until to like this is going to get me a really low launch angle.
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The arm swing going left will get my path to the left and the hold off feeling will tend to keep the club face open to the path and make it curve back to the right.
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So it's going to swing a little bit more to the left.
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So you'll see that started really low and had a fair amount of curve to it. You can see how much I swung outside and I did so by kind of keeping my upper body in front.
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That is the more challenging shot and it's definitely harder if you swing harder if you really try to get a lot of arm action or hand speed.
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This is much more of a body shot and if you do it even slower and more controlled you can get it to start with a much lower launch.
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That's why you tend to see a lot of these goofy arm finishes when you're seeing pros execute this shot out of the trees.
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I recommend working more on the first two just the slightly ball backs, slightly more level punch style.
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Like three quarter style swing as a standard shot that you'll hit a lot even out of the fairway.
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And then working on more of the trap draw with the ball back and full release.
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Those two tend to be the most viable shots and then when you have to hit the cut shot now you'll have a few ways to adjust your pattern to get the right path face angle of attack in order to get the ball to start low as well as curve off to the right.
