Why 90% of Golfers Can't Strike Their Irons & Hybrids

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Transcript Summary- So this week, I coached nearly 50 students, and every single one of them struggled to consistently strike their irons, hybrids, and fairway woods off the ground. They understood key concepts—striking ball before ground, having shaft lean, and shifting weight forward—but nothing they tried gave them consistent results. The thing is, they all had different swings, yet they shared one common misunderstanding. They didn’t fully grasp the concept I’m about to share with you. Once I explained it, two things happened: one, they said, “Danny, this feels weird,” and two, they saw rapid improvement in their ball-striking consistency. So, in this video, I want to share with you exactly what I shared with them because I don’t see many golfers truly understanding this. Before we dive in, if you’re new to the channel, consider subscribing—I release lessons like this every single week. Plus, you never have to remember everything; there’s always a free downloadable practice guide in the description box below.

Now, let’s get into it. To consistently strike the ball off the ground, we first need to understand how the club moves in an arc. Picture a hula hoop—if it was a perfect vertical pendulum, the swing direction would be straight. But in golf, we stand at an angle to the ball, which tilts that swing arc. On the backswing, the club moves inwards and upwards, then comes down and outwards before eventually returning inwards again. The key question is: where in this arc should you strike the golf ball? The low point of your swing is directly under your lead shoulder, but you don’t want to hit the ball at that exact low point because it gives you no margin for error. Instead, you need to position the ball slightly behind the low point.

The first thing I had my students do was identify their low point by letting the club hang straight down in front of them. The ball should be positioned about two to three balls behind that spot. Instantly, their strike improved, and you could hear the difference—no more thin, weak contact. But this led to a new challenge. When you move the ball back in your stance, your club naturally swings more to the right. Many students panicked, thinking they’d miss right. But that’s the key—you don’t try to hit the ball straight! Golf is a game of curves. By slightly closing the clubface before gripping it, you allow the ball to start right and curve back, creating a natural draw.

Most golfers instinctively try to hit the ball straight by making all kinds of compensations—coming over the top, flicking their wrists, or leaning back. None of these work consistently. The real breakthrough happens when you embrace the natural arc of the swing. To train this, I gave my students a simple but powerful drill: set up with your pelvis directly over your lead heel, just like the best ball-strikers in the world. From there, turn your hips and chest to face the target, letting your trail arm extend parallel to the ground. This drill helps ingrain the feeling of pivoting over the lead leg rather than falling back.

If you commit to this process—understanding the concept, adjusting your ball position, closing the face slightly, and trusting the pivot—you’ll start compressing the ball beautifully with every club off the ground. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments—I answer everyone. And if you found this helpful, share it with a friend who’s struggling. Don’t forget to subscribe and check out the free practice guide in the description. For more help with your game, check out this video here or visit dannymaude.com for personalized coaching. Until next week, have a fantastic golfing week!

Full Transcript- So this week I coached almost 50 students and every single one of them was struggling to strike their irons hybrids and Fs consistently off the ground now they've been playing for quite a while they understood concepts of like you got to stri the ball then the ground you've got to have shling you've got to have your weight forward all those kind of things but nothing they tried consistently gave them the results they wanted now they all had different swings but they did have one thing in common they didn't understand the concept I'm about to share with you in this video once I explain how to any club off the ground two things started to happen one they said Danny this feels a bit weird but two there was a rapid Improvement in their level of consistency in this video I just want to take the time to share with you what I shared with them because I don't see people understanding this or knowing this very much before I do though look if you're new to the channel one your first lessons of mine please consider subscribing at Le videos just like this one every single week to try and help you improve your game but you never have to remember thing I'll always put a free downloadable downloadable practice guide in that description box below so to help you hit every single Club consistently off the ground I want to give you exactly what I gave my students the first thing I'm going to give you is the concept and then I'll give you a drill that I gave them which worked very very well so the first thing let's start with a concept which most people don't really truly understand so I want to look at this Hulu this is what we call a very straight swing Direction This is a swing right a direction of a swing if it was a pendulum right but we don't play Go with shafts like this we stand at an angle to the golf ball because of that this kind of angles also which makes a big difference to the way the club moves so as I swing the club back notice this the club works inwards and upwards on the back swing and this is what then screws people up it works downwards and outwards on the way through before gradually working back to straight and then as it move it works inwards and upwards on the way through like this it's always working on an arc but my question to you would be this where in that Arc should you strike the golf ball because this is important there is a low point to this Arc right just let that Circle there there's a lowest point to that Circle your low point of your golf swing is right where your lead shoulder is right now we don't ever want to hit a golf ball at the lowest point because it basically gives you no margin of error whatsoever okay let me just show you here actually I'm going to hit a ball listen for this sound and notice what you

hear hear that almost thin noise right look at my low point there look 7even only s after the golf ball so it's right at the bottom of the low point and and the strike was really bad now I could I could hit it there and just about get away with it but there's no margin of error so what we do all the time is is we take this low point and we make sure that this is Step number one your ball position is behind the lowest point of your goal swing so the first stage I got my players to do was this I got them to hold the club out straight in front of them like this drop it straight down and this is the low point of your go swing you need to make sure that your ball position is at least two to three balls back of that place there that is the first thing to do right great simple right however now we move on to step number two so they've got the ball position in the right place we now know we have an opportunity to strike but I'll just hit a shot for you and then we'll show the next bit so if the ball position's now back here listen to the difference in the sound suddenly you'll see this low point now 4 in look after the golf ball so suddenly we get a much better sound but I'm professional they are professionals which need for that reason they need step number two because here's the problem they Now understand that low Point needs to be back they' moveed the ball back but here's the weird thing when you move the ball further back in your stance where in the ark do you strike the the ball Now where's that club heading notice on here look it's heading to the right of Target why is this difficult well Tony one of my students he just said it just doesn't feel right down here because as I'm coming into the golf ball it feels like I'm going to hit the ball because you're saying the ball has to be here it feels like I'm going to hit the ball to the right but how am I supposed to hit it straight I said that's the point you don't try and hit it straight we try to play golf in curves and it's like what it says yeah if you trying to hit a ball straight you have to have the ball at the lowest point of your Arc and that has no margin of Vara you can hit it straight but you'll hit it fat thin all kinds of stuff so by building in that margin of error by moving the ball back in your stance so it's now behind Le behind your lowest point which is your middle of your lead shoulder you now are going to catch the ball earli on in the a that is what you doing to um to basically strike a solid shot right so how do I get it on target well if your swing now is going to strike the ball as it's heading out to the right I want you to make one little adjustment take the club and just close it so it's just closed down just a little bit here and what this will do now is is it will help the ball it'll close the face the path and it will help the ball curve back to the Target so I want you to start seeing the ball setting off to to the right and drawing back nobody was doing this whatsoever every single one of them were trying to hit the ball straight and they all had different faults some of them did this they would try they would come over the top because this would give them the feeling of swinging straight down the line some would in a sense come down here but then they'd do this they'd flick the wrist to try and hit it straight yeah because this didn't feel right feel it was going to go out to the right side other people would move their body backwards like this again just to try and hit it straight none of them not single one liked this feeling of the body almost being at this angle as it's coming into the golf ball because every single one of them felt it was going to go to the right and side this is the feeling I needed to help them kind of be accustomed to right so we've got ourselves set here stance is completely straight ball position is is behind the low Point what I'm going to do here is I'm going to close the face down just a little bit then I'm going to grip it now from here look take a look at

this so take a look at that look beautiful even just tweaking that it's a lovely look a little soft draw low points after the golf ball here my swing Circle almost zero which is perfect club path as we said look we be out to the right posit number and the face to path is slightly closed which brings it back right so just always a little draw so before I show the drill that I gave them that they could take to the golf course every student once they understood this then had to get used to this feeling of look at this on the way down my hips and my shoulders look at where are they aiming they're aiming look to the right of the target most of the people to start with initially always wanted to go to straight which me meant that they would unfold their shoulders too quickly to try to hit straight which affects strike affects Direction increases slice all that kind of stuff now sudden they had the concept of apprecia that they could actually start the ball to the right of the target as long as they had the club face slightly closed it encouraged them to stay much much more look close to the Target and get that feeling that the club is heading to the right as they struck the golf ball huge huge difference now to really um kind of hit home with this I gave him a real simple drill that I got from a friend of mine Andreas Kelly who ultimately I think this is just brilliant really really is good now it's on your drill right to train the feeling so you get yourself set here you've got your low Point here look make sure the ball position is behind that low Point by at least two or three balls and then what I want you to do is this take your pelvis shift it right over your lead heel why do we do this because you'll see the best players in the world look when they're here the middle of their pelvis is over their left heel this is the one of the key factors of striking it you don't see this be most am to Golfers why what we've just talked about they're trying to hit straight A lot of the time it feels easier to hit straight when this pelvis starts to fall backwards than it is here this gives you the feeling that you're going to be now so did with my students they felt like they were now if that goes there Danny I feel like I'm now hitting even further to the right absolutely so pelvis over that lead heel get the face slightly closed then grip it now from here what we're going to do all I'm going to get you to do to start with with is just simply turn the hips to face the target get the chest the hips facing the Target and you Trail arm at this stage just parallel to the ground so it looks a little bit like this pelvis over and through that's all we're doing and it's getting them to feel which they're not used to the pivot happening over their lead leg because everyone who was trying to hit it straight had a combination of people trying to Pivot from their Center like this or even worse still over their right leg and all this did was get them flicking you well you can see it's not going to be powerful it's not going to be consistent so they've got the concept this feels really exaggerated for most of them but I said trust it right we'll get ourselves set face is ready to go and then all I'm going to do now is turn and finish here okay so I'm make a swing and finish here probably extend it a little bit on the way through more than I really wanted to but hey prester we h a beautiful look draw low point is after the golf ball if if you do this right and you repeat this in slow motion it's one of the fastest ways to really learn this feeling but no drill nothing you work on will actually work unless you really appreciate the concept and you're consciously trying to play this draw shot now if you've got any questions on this subject don't hesitate whatsoever I answer absolutely everybody leave them in the comments box below and look share it with a friend who you know is struggling with their game I'm sure it will help look if you're new to the channel press that subscribe button and the Bell I'll put a free download or practice guide in the description box below if you want to help on other parts of your game there's a couple things you can do to click this video out right here on the short game great great video or head over to dan.com where I can give you personalized advice but until next week have a wonderful golfing week.