Hitting it higher

[ObieTrice5]

My irons as well as my driver are flying to low. I have moved the ball up in my stance and I have been trying to have my hands behind the ball. I was just wondering if anyone could help me out. Thanks

[sktheman]

I find that the trajectory of my shots depend on the height of my follow through. Try swinging higher on the follow through.

[Olan1987]

You may be coming too shallow into the ball if you could try and hit down on the ball a bit steeper you should be able to get more height into the irons.

[mikpga]

Hitting the ball higher requires a few things...1) Good clubhead speed...2)Higher spinning ball...3)The correct angle of attack into the ball...Are your misses generally left, assuming you're a right hander?

If so, clubface has a good chance of being closed which will deloft your shots as well...

[Puttersammler]

A too shallow angle of attack doesn't cause the ball to go low. Just the opposite is the case. Hitting down on it would only deloft the club more and consequently cause an even lower ballflight. Mikpga is right. Either your clubface is closed or you are hitting too late which steepens the angle of attack or your weight transfer is too much to the left which delofts the club as well. Hope this helps!

[SCameron009]

Puttersammler, it is hard to understand, but when you think about it, when you have the club coming down on a steep angle it will cause the ball to spin more, therefore causing the ball to apex higher, when you can combine coming down and THROUGH the ball with good clubhead speed you will begin to hit it a much better ball flight. I just went through this transition this year, I had a really flat swing plane, and I was sweeping the ball (shallow angle of attack) and now that I have made the transition of coming down on the ball more, my ball flight has improved tremendously.

[Puttersammler]

clevelandballer1028, it is always hard to tell when not seeing the swing. Let's assume we have a role model which has an absolutely neutral swing. Next we have to differentiate the swing path which would be the horizontal angle of attack and on the other hand the vertical angle of attack viewn when standing in front of the player. If you flatten the swing path (change the horizontal aoa) you will cause to shallow the vertical aoa as well which will add loft to the clubface and therefore cause the ball to launch high and vice versa.

[Triplebogey16]

Heard on the GC to stand farther away from the ball.

[wedgetoafoot]

Heard on the GC to stand farther away from the ball.

 

 

I'm sure some expert said this, but I have absolutely no idea why anyone would advocate having an improper setup. Stand the proper distance from the ball for the best results. Height of shot can be caused by a number of factors, most have been mentioned already, but standing farther from the ball than is correct is not one of them. One thing that hasn't been mentioned, in this murky thread of golf instruction, is that an excessive lateral shift (towards the ball) on the downswing can also create low launch angles if your timing is off. Hard to tell without seeing, but why not throw the kitchen sink at this guy. Anyway, I would look into the validity of standing farther from the ball before trying that one, because again, that just sounds like a really bad idea. Probably a Leadbetter teaching. Good Luck!

[Olan1987]

I would disagree with you puttersammler

[Puttersammler]

And why is that Olan 1987???

[wedgetoafoot]

And why is that Olan 1987???

 

Sorry I can't understand why a flat angle of attack would make the ball go higher. Wouldn't the angle of attack (seen from standing face on) have much more to do with the height of a shot. If you flatten your attack angle just a little too much you are really flirting with creating a flip (from having the club stuck behind you and flipping your wrists at the ball to make contact) and then you will be spraying it all over the place and you will have to fix that before you worry about the trajectory of your shots.

 

If you ever hear anyone describe how to get the ball up and out of deep rough, they suggest a technique that gets the ball up high quickly. Low and behold the techique is built upon creating a steep angle of attack into the ball which sounds a lot more like "hitting down on it", rather than swinging like it's a baseball on a tee (flattening your swing plane) as some have described. If that doesn't provide some clarity, then I don't know what does.

[Olan1987]

If you flatten your angle attack there is no way you can hit the ball higher. The only way you will hit it higher is by falling off putting loft into the club which is wrong. The only way you will hit it lower by a steeper swing plane is at impact your hands are miles in front of the ball which is wrong.

[juststeve]

Jack Nicklaus hit his long irons higher than anyone I have ever seen. To do this he employed a very shallow angle of attack and picked the ball very cleanly with a very free release of the hands through impact. Sweeping the ball maximized loft at impact. Club head speed produces backspin even with a shallow angle of attack.

 

Steve

[WHK]

The other night I heard Jim McLean say that standing a little further away from the ball will help get the ball in the air.

[bigkidneys]

I was having problems hitting the ball too low for awhile. Mainly with my irons. My pro told me to slow my swing down and the flight drastically improved. Turns out I was swinging too fast and delofting my irons at impact causing a 5 iron to flight like a 3 iron. I moved the ball slightly forward in my stance. Made sure my head was behind the ball at impact, and swung slower. This allowed my hands to hang back a little instead of being too forward pressed. Immediatley my ball flight was much higher. Maybe this will help.

 

Jason