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The punch shot is a way to hit a 3/4 swing that flights the ball lower. This is useful for shots into the wind, when you don't want a lot of spin, or when you want something that has a little more control than your stock full swing. There are a few major adjustments that you will have to make, but the general principle is that it's similar to your distance wedge technique.
- Ball position will move slightly back in your stance
- Shoulders more level
- Quiet either the hips or the wrists
- Lean forward during the backswing and have the hands moving more down and left through the shot
Tags: Speciality Shot, Impact, Follow Through, Intermediate, Beginner
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In this concept video, we're going to discuss the punch shot.
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So I've got my seven iron here with the loft tool, and we're going to use this shaft
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to represent the ground, because before we get into the mechanics of how we're going
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to hit this punch shot, I want you to understand essentially what we're trying to do
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and why.
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So it's hard to understand a punch shot, unless you talk about a concept called spin
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loft.
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Now spin loft is essentially the difference between the dynamic loft and the angle of
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the tech.
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So if this is the ground right here, and let's say this is straight up and now like so,
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let's say this is pretty close to how I hit my normal seven iron.
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You'll see that there's an angle formed between the ground and the club face.
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That's going to be the dynamic loft.
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Now if we include the angle of the tech, so a club coming down like this would have less
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spin loft than a club coming down like so.
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So what ends up happening in a punch shot, we're going to try to get it to launch low
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and with a little less spin.
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So to help it launch low, we're going to move this back.
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Now that will cause us to have a little bit more or a little bit less dynamic loft
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like so.
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But the problem is if we increase the angle of the tech by about the same amount, we don't
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really change the spin loft profile until we end up getting about the same amount of
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spin.
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So what we're going to have to do is even though we're playing it back, we're going
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to try to come in shallow as shallow as we can.
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It's virtually impossible.
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We're going to increase our angle of the tech by moving the ball back.
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But we're going to make some stance adjustments and some swing adjustments to help create
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this downward spin.
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So let's go through the technique of what we're going to do in order to maximize
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or to decrease this spin loft and maximize the distance that we can get with a really
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low launching club.
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So now that we have a basic understanding of this spin loft concept, let's talk about
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what we're going to do with this punch shot in order to apply that.
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Now there's three major keys that we're going to cover with this punch shot.
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One is going to be set up, which is basically just going to be shoulders a little bit
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more level, ball a little bit more back.
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The second is going to be the follow-through, which helps kind of shallow out this steep
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set up that we've created.
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So the second one, the shallowing out is going to come largely from having the stance a
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little bit open, as well as having the hands work a little bit more left through the shot.
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And the third thing is we're going to minimize or take away one of our power sources
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because by decreasing the spin loft we're going to get more roll out of it if we were
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to increase the speed will increase the spin and it may not necessarily end up like a punch
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shot it might just be kind of a low stock swing.
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So let's go over these three pieces.
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So the setup first, this is my full procedure, so I've got my grip, got my left foot turned
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out, and I've got my ball position somewhere off my left inner thigh, left ear, whichever
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is more comfortable for you.
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So for this punch shot, I'm going to play the ball a little bit closer to my right ear
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similar to what we do in the distance wedge.
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In fact, a lot of what we do with this punch shot is going to be very similar to a distance
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wedge just with a club that has less loft on it.
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So it's going to be a little bit more off this right ear right side, and then to account
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for the fact that I've got the ball position further back and then I'm going to be hitting
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down on it.
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I'm going to open my stance.
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One of your goals when you're playing around with this on the range is to figure out
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how far back can you go and still hit good shots, how open do I need to go with my body
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to still get it to fly straight, all those little factors.
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But that's my basic setup, upper body's leaning a little bit more level, ball position
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back, kind of looks just like so.
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So then the second piece is what are we going to do in the follow-through to kind of help
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shallow out the fact that we've set up with all these extra little steeps.
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So I've got my stance going left, ball position back.
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The big thing is I'm going to, if I was to make kind of my normal move, you could see
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that the club would be coming straight into the ground because of how I've kept my shoulders
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a little bit more on top of the ball, a little bit more in front and a little bit more
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level.
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So if I was to go like so, that club would just dig straight in the ground, which would
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give me a very small margin for air.
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So what I'm going to do is when I get into kind of the second stage of that release,
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I'm going to let my hands work a little bit more left and around and that left side
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is going to help by kind of raising up like so.
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So it'll look kind of something like that.
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Now the third piece is taking away one of my power sources.
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So in this case, I like to use whatever your dominant power source is and then take away
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whichever is kind of your least power source.
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So in my particular case, where I guess I should say, the two most common that I see are
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you're either going to quiet your lower body or you're going to quiet your wrist.
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You're still going to use your core and your trunk and your shoulders pretty much the same
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way you would in your stock full swing.
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So in my particular case, I would tend to quiet more the wrist.
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So I'd have a little bit shorter arm swing and a little bit less wrist set, a little
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bit less of this down clock, kind of more like the distance wedge swing.
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But I would still release my hands through the shot.
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They would just be covering a little bit smaller range of motion.
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The other option, if you're more of a upper body kind of spin type player, would be to really
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just quiet that lower body get a little bit more on top and then have your swing be upper
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body arms hands and kind of quiet the lower body.
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So I'll try and demonstrate those two.
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You'll see that one of them is a lot more comfortable for me, but that's why you want to
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know your pattern, know your swing and go out and practice it.
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So here's my good setup position and then there's my kind of dead hands model which
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is more of what I use so it had a little bit shorter arm swing, a little bit less wrist
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set.
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Now we'll try and do let me prep that upper body spin movement.
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So you'll see it's quite difficult for me to quiet my lower body but that's a little
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bit more of that kind of three piece upper body punch shot.
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Both of them work equally effectively as well.
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It's really just more is what your pattern of movement is and which you'd be more comfortable
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using.
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So practice both of them on the range see which one works best for you and then don't
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be scared to pull this on the course anytime you're trying to flight something a little
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bit low it shots into the wind or get out of trouble.
