Menu
Conrad has gotten to a decent level as a competitive junior and is looking to up his game by improving his ball striking. He is accurate but not long, and his iron play can be erratic with mishits and shots that spin up and are affected by the wind. In the video you will see a classic flip release with Conrad keeping the clubface open well into the downswing to the point that he has no choice but to stall his hips, jump up to his toes, and do everything he can to allow the hands to rotate the clubface to a square impact. If you watch Conrad’s right hand through the impact area you will see almost a “rock skipping” hand action with the palm staying facing upward as he throws the clubface under the ball. The fact that he has become a good player with this release action means that when he starts to compress the ball, he has a chance to really advance. We only had an hour together so instead of trying to band-aid the problem by strengthening the grip I decided to have him hit punch shots, hoping that the effort to hit low shots with the ball still forward of center in the stance would give him a feeling of forward leaning the shaft and compressing the ball. I explained how the hands work through impact and demonstrated a few punch shots, and what you will see is Conrad producing an entirely different and better look at impact even with the clubface still well open late in the downswing in his attempt to hit the punch. The video shows that Conrad can put the club on the ball correctly, and the hope is that with more work he can translate that into a full swing. Before that happens, he is going to have to get the clubface closing at a point higher up in the downswing, but that will be for the next lesson.
Join the forum discussion on this post