Hitting the ground before contacting the ball can be a common occurrence for beginner golfers. In many cases it can happen when using the driver on a tee shot but can also happen when playing other shots on the course.
This is often referred to as ‘drop kicking’ and can result in the ball behaving in all manner of ways, none of which are what we want.
Hitting the ground ahead of the ball can happen for many reasons but they can easily be fixed.
Remaining centred during the swing is an important aspect of making a nice contact with the golf ball. If your weight moves back during the swing, away from the target, the centre of your swing moves with it. The golf ball remains stationary which means unless you can align the swing back to the centre moving forward, you have a good chance of hitting the ground first.
To prevent this from happening, it is a good idea to get a little more weight on the front foot when addressing the ball. This will help to counteract the tendency for the weight to move back on the back swing. This will help you to hit down on the ball and prevent you from hitting the ground first.
Try it with short clubs first before moving onto the longer clubs, such as the driver.
Perhaps you are hitting the ground before the ball because you are releasing the club too soon. The release point of the swing is where it hits top speed and if you are releasing the club early, it will be slowing down as it meets the ball.
As the club speed slows down towards the ball it can often connect with the ground first.
The weight tip above is the first step to prevent this from happening. Once you have that in place you can then work on releasing the club using a wedge shot as practice. Using a pitching wedge, make some ½ and ¾ practice swings and feel the clubhead working down and hitting the ground in the centre of your stance.
You should feel as though you are leading with your hands and once this is comfortable you can add a golf ball to the drill. Try and keep the same feeling you had with the practice swings and think about working the club down, so it meets the ball and then the ground.
The final fix to prevent you from hitting the ground first is stop swinging from too far inside out.
This is often caused by over rotation, especially of the hips during the back swing. To stop this from happening, try and feel the club, hands and arms moving as one during the take away.
A great drill is to use a 7 iron and grip it midway down the shaft. With the top of the club pressed against your midriff, address the ball. Start the back swing and keep the top of the club against your stomach. Notice how the movement happens as one piece.
Do this 10 times as a practice and then try hitting some balls. Concentrate on moving the club, hands and arms as one piece.
Using these three tips should help you to stop hitting behind the golf ball.
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