Impact & The Shaft Angle

Every golfer is looking for more consistency. A more solid strike of the ball. A straighter shot & obviously without losing power.

One of the true goals to maintain a nice strike with nice direction is to minimize not only the way the clubface returns back to impact but also how the shaft returns to impact.

Most of the really great ballstrikers managed to return the shaft to impact in an almost identical state to how it was at the address position. Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, Henrik Stenson to name a few really manage this aspect of their swing well and their consistency can be attributed to this element.

Many pundits believe toe droop - where the clubhead dips down due to force of motion- is something that cant be avoided. This application however is a tell tale sign of an over accelerated swing on the downswing in an attempt to create too much power. We then see the back straighten up and the legs also straighten upwards which makes the hands raise up- see Jason Day above- and the grip and shaft are much higher up- vertically- then where they began.

This is one of the genius moves behind the incomparable Moe Norman. He worked out a way to set his shaft and hands higher at address than most so his arms and hands were set up so high they couldn't go any higher when he returned the club back for the strike. Hence his shaft at address and at impact were identical. And his reputation as a solid straighter hitter of the ball remained unchanged right throughout his career.

I will discuss this and other areas related to swing plane in more detail in other articles. And for my members I will show and explain this a lot more in my drill 1 discussions- where we combat this head on & right from the get go in my online drill series.

For now- pay attention to trying to return the shaft angle closer to where it started. Your ball striking and your back will thank you