So you don’t grip the club and turn the face open in your hands, but rather get correct neutral grip to start, then plan where you want the ball to be on the target line, then adjust the stance so the club starts from behind the ball somewhere on the backswing arc so that the face is open to the target line- then by swinging along the arc the path goes in to out therefore face is closed to path but open to target line? That was a mouthful!!😉
@rberndhhs - A mouthful indeed!! Ball Flight Rules 101: Face to Target Line = Starting Direction; Face to Path = Degree of Curvature
More to come on this in the school (it's definitely on my to-do list), but for now the Appendix section of the Golf Swing Simplified course has some good information on this. Lesson A1 is a PDF file title “Tom’s Golf Survival Guide”. You can access it here. There is plenty of information specific to ball flight control and shot shapes beginning on page 15 of this guide. Additionally, the lesson videos B1 and B2 Parts I & II which immediately follow A1 provide much more detail on ball flight. As you take ownership of this swing your downswing path will be properly and consistently approaching the swing’s low point on an inside track, and from there you will then be on the correct path to take full advantage of the S&T shot-shaping “grid”.
First of all, you never want to grip the club and then turn the face open or closed, because - barring any active downswing manipulation - the hands will naturally return to neutral at impact. In other words, that face that you twisted open at address will tend to return to the ball closed, and vice versa.
So, what we want to do first is grip the club with a square face. We then place our hands in the prescribed setup position, even with the inside of our lead thigh. From there, the further back we move the ball in our stance - while keeping the forward hand position constant - the more the face will open and, with a properly executed swing, the more in-to-out the path will be. Therefore, all other things being equal (and from a right-handed perspective), the further back the ball position the further right the ball's starting direction will be (clubface relative to target line), and the more the degree of draw curvature (clubface relative to path).
Thx Tom! Look forward to tomorrow’s episode. Have a great weekend! Rick Bernstein
So you don’t grip the club and turn the face open in your hands, but rather get correct neutral grip to start, then plan where you want the ball to be on the target line, then adjust the stance so the club starts from behind the ball somewhere on the backswing arc so that the face is open to the target line- then by swinging along the arc the path goes in to out therefore face is closed to path but open to target line? That was a mouthful!!😉
Hi @rberndhhs - Good question!
First of all, you never want to grip the club and then turn the face open or closed, because - barring any active downswing manipulation - the hands will naturally return to neutral at impact. In other words, that face that you twisted open at address will tend to return to the ball closed, and vice versa.
So, what we want to do first is grip the club with a square face. We then place our hands in the prescribed setup position, even with the inside of our lead thigh. From there, the further back we move the ball in our stance - while keeping the forward hand position constant - the more the face will open and, with a properly executed swing, the more in-to-out the path will be. Therefore, all other things being equal (and from a right-handed perspective), the further back the ball position the further right the ball's starting direction will be (clubface relative to target line), and the more the degree of draw curvature (clubface relative to path).
Make sense?
Tom