Lesson of the Week: Abe Cohen – Downswing Issues Lead to Fat Shots

Abe is a new golfer who has succumbed to the allure of the game and wants to hit the ball better.  He is plagued by hitting well behind the ball with his irons, and as anyone who has suffered with a spell of fat shots knows it is a problem that must be fixed for there to be any joy in a round of golf.  Abe’s first batch of swings illustrate a few obvious problems (obvious to me and to veteran swing analyzers but of course not at all to someone just learning the basic concepts of hitting the ball off the ground).  Abe needs to get his hands more actively hinging the club in the backswing, then in the forward swing he needs to feel his lower body move his pressure from right to left much more aggressively while the club lags behind.  We discussed the idea of “interrupting” the backswing with the lower body, which causes the clubhead weight to bend the wrist back, and then focused on where everything needs to be at impact for the club to hit the ball first and compress it.  Abe was amazed at the difference in the quality of strike as he felt the lag of the club for the first time and increased his lateral movement so that the hands could be much more forward on the approach to and at impact.