Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in
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If you are not consistently taking a divot with your irons, there are really only two possible causes. The first would be that you are losing your posture by standing up, which is going to make it very difficult to control low point. The second cause would be that you are maintaining your posture, but bending your arms through impact. Or in other words, you are not fully releasing the club. As a quick fix, you can always make some "9 to 3" swings where you simply work on keeping your chest level and fully extending you arms through impact. If you do this, you should have no trouble creating solid contact. Of course, this should also give you a feel for what may be happening on your thin shots. So, as a general rule of thumb, always ask yourself after a thin shot: "Did I stand up or did I bend my arms?"
Tags: Poor Contact, Standing Up, Chicken Wing, Iron, Drill, Beginner
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This drill answer the question, what if I'm not taking a divot?
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So I give many of my students the simple rule.
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If you are not making ground contact, if you're not taking a divot, then one of two things
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are happening.
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Either you are losing your posture by standing up, and so therefore the club is coming
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above the ground and I can't get it all the way down there.
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Or I'm keeping my posture, but I'm bending my arms.
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Now I could be bending that left wrist or bending that left elbow or not fully straightening
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that right arm.
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But if I stay down and I don't take a divot, then the arms are preventing the club from
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getting all the way down there.
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If my arms are straightening and I don't take a divot or don't brush the ground, then my body
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is standing up.
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So this is the simplest application of the factors of low point, and if you're trying to make
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solid contact as your first key skill,
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I would highly recommend working on the chesting and about the same height and the arms
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extending through impact.
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If you do that, you will hit the ground and you'll have a much better chance of hitting
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the club or making contact higher up on the face, which is where the sweets bought for your
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irons are.
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So when you're worried about topping the ball, or if you're worried about just making
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a thin contact where you're having no turf interaction, the first question I want you
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to ask yourself after you've hit a shot is did I hit the ground?
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If the answer is no, then I want you to ask yourself, did I not hit the ground because
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I stood up or did I not hit the ground because I bent my arms or both?
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But if you stay at about the same height and the arms extend, then the club will have no
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choice but to make contact with the ground.
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If you have the club face in a good position and it's coming from a reasonable path,
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you will hit a solid shot dead online.
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But the first key for me is getting solid contact and in order to do that, if you're not
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taking a divot monitor those two key factors, did I stand up or did I bend my arms?
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If you get good at answering those two questions, I guarantee you'll make a lot more solid
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ironshots on the course.
