Why You Can’t Strike Your Woods and Long Irons - EASY FIX

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So, long irons, hybrids, and fairway woods—chances are you're going to need them every so often during a round of golf. Many of my students, especially as they get older, struggle to reach the greens with their mid-irons. They're often needing to pull out a long iron, a hybrid, or even a fairway wood. When they do, they often struggle to get the ball airborne, topping the golf ball, not making solid contact, and certainly not hitting it as far as they could.

In this video, I'm going to show you how you can hit your long irons, hybrids, and fairway woods so much better. We'll start with contact, then move on to show you how to hit that little ball a bit further. But before I do, if you're new to the channel and this is one of your first lessons with me, please consider subscribing. I release videos like this every single week to help you improve your game. And as always, you never have to remember a thing—I'll always put a free download and practice guide in the description box below.

Like all good shots, it starts with a great setup, and it's super important you get that setup right with these clubs. So, let's start there. You and I both create a circle in our swings, and at some stage, this club is going to strike the ground. Ideally, we want to have the low point of that circle underneath your lead armpit.

Now, if you're hitting a 7-iron, you want to strike the ball before the low point, taking a divot after the golf ball to get that lovely, positive strike. But with hybrids or fairway woods, if you place the ball in the same position as a 7-iron, you reduce the loft, making it harder to get the ball airborne. So, we push the ball further forward in our stance, roughly just inside the lead heel. This helps maintain the loft on the club, crucial for getting the ball up in the air. However, the downside is that the more you push the ball forward, the higher the chance of hitting the ground behind the ball, making these clubs harder to hit.

So, with a great setup, just inside the lead heel, we ensure we've got maximum loft on the club. This setup helps strike the ball cleanly and get the necessary height.

That was a beautiful shot, but I’m still probably 30 or 40 yards from the green. I had 316 yards to go, so getting on the green in one shot was unlikely. But, with a fairway wood, I’m now closer and have a chance. How did I make such good contact? Well, here's what I did. Notice there’s no mark on the ground—I’ve just grazed the ball off the surface. Unlike an iron where I take a divot, with this club, it's different.

To achieve this, we've already moved the ball forward in our stance. Next, I want you to control the swing arc. Often, people either miss the ground completely by raising their elbows or standing up, or they go down into the turf, taking big chunks. To control your turf interaction, picture the club grazing the ground, not digging. Imagine your chin resting on a shelf, maintaining that level all the way back and through the swing. This helps keep your levels consistent, preventing you from hitting down too much or lifting up.

Look at the height on that shot! An absolute beauty. Another bonus tip is to maintain your arm radius throughout the swing. Many people bend their arms too quickly on the backswing and pull them in on the follow-through. Visualize keeping your arms extended, gliding through the swing, maintaining the arc depth for consistent contact.

Now, for tip number three, which my students absolutely love. We’ve talked about controlling the arc depth, but what about the arc itself? I use what I call the “fish’s tail.” Imagine your trail wrist hinging back and forth, creating an arc going up and then back down. This helps create a beautiful arc and a natural release through the shot. Most people either lift, pull, or roll their wrists, but the fish’s tail motion controls the clubface, preventing it from being open at impact.

Practice this motion with your wrist first, then blend it with your body rotation, keeping your arms straighter to maintain the swing radius. This motion naturally adds loft to the club, presenting the correct loft to the ball without rushing or chopping.

So, when you're hitting your fairway woods, remember to get a great setup, maintain your arc depth, and use the fish’s tail to control the loft and rhythm of your swing. If you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up, maybe share it with a friend. And if you're struggling with your driver, check out this video here—it's got incredible reviews. Plus, I’ve put a free download practice guide in the description box below, so you never have to remember a thing. Have a wonderful golfing week!

Full Transcript- so long irons hybrids and Fairy Woods the chances are you're going to need them every so often during round of golf you know a lot of my students they're getting a little bit older they're not reaching the greens now with their mid irons they're needing to pull out a long iron a hybrid or even a Fairwood often when they do they say they struggle to get the mayborne they're often topping the golf ball they're not making solid contact and they're certainly not hitting it as far as they could in this video I'm going to show you how you can hit your long irons your hybrids and your fairwoods so much better we'll start with contact and then we'll start to show you how to hit that little ball a little bit further but before I do look if you're new to the channel it's one of your first lessons of mine please consider subscribing at releas videos just like this every single week to try and help you improve your game and as always you never have to remember a thing I'll always put a free download and practice guide in the description box below so like all good shots it starts with a great setup and it's super important you get that setup right with these clubs so let's start there now you and me we both create a circle in our swings right and at some stage this club is going to strike the ground now ideally what we want to have is is I want you to create a circle here that has a low point to that Circle that is underneath your lead ampet here now if you're hitting a 7on you don't want to strike the ball there you want to strike the ball before it gets to the low Point why because you want to strike the ball first and you want to take a divot after the golf ball to get that lovely positive strike but the problem is if you move the ball position uh into a 79 position with a hybrid or a fairy wood what you've done now is I've got 20° of Loft on this club I have now looked look taken all that Loft off now the problem is is I could strike the ball beautifully first but the ball won't get any height so what we do with all of the clubs is we push the ball further forward in in our stance and I want to roughly have this just inside my kind of lead heel here now this does two things the first thing look it means now when I finally get into impact I've still got lots of Loft on this golf which is great but there is a Down side it re the reason why these are difficult to hit is is the more you push the ball forward the more chance you've got of hitting the ground slightly behind the golf ball which is why these clubs are harder to hit than your other clubs all right we just have to accept that what we don't try and do is start to try and hit down on the golf ball too much because when you do that you'll never get the ball up in the air all right so setup wise just inside the lead heel here so we've got the maximum Loft on that Golf Club whether it's your hybrid all your three-wood I definitely don't want to get that ball too far back here CU I've got 15 degrees on this Freewood now I've got loads more than 15 deges shaing that Ball's never going to go up in the air now I've at least got a chance so start with a great

setup so that's an absolute Beauty and that's going to get fairly close but I'm still going to be probably 30 or 40 yards from the green I've got look here look 316 yards to go the chances of me getting on the Green as zero right but I've taken here a free wood and I'm probably going to be 30 to 40 yards away still going to give me a chance but how did I make such beautiful contact with that shot well this is what I do this is tip number two you'll notice here I've taken no mark on the ground I've just literally grazed that ball off the surface I don't tend to do that with an N I'm more striking a DI I take a ball than I and I take a divver but with this nothing now how have I done that well we've already achieved the first bit we've moved that ball look forward in our stance the next thing I want you to do is this it's a really great image is I need you to control the swing Arc okay one of me on the depth of the Ark a lot of times people are either missing the ground completely because they're either raising the elbows or standing up here or they're literally going down into the turf and they're taking big chunks of the ground so how can you go about controlling how much Turf you interact with well the first thing I want to do is this I you to let's grab a quick ball I want you to get yourself set up and I want you to first of all picture in your mind the club grazing the ground not digging but literally grazing that ground now one thing that really helps my students is to imagine their chin is almost resting on a shelf I'm keeping that on the Shelf all the way back and all the way through I'm not letting it drop and go bang into the Shelf I'm just resting it on the Shelf it's basically helping me keep my levels all the way back and all the way through so that's the first thing you've set yourself up just put your chin on the chelf and now imagine maintaining it there all the way back and all the way through

look at the height on that one that's an absolute Beauty so the other thing a little bonus here before I jump on to the next tip actually number three a little bonus here would be you know you've got kind of controlling the arc height by not dipping down but another thing my students absolutely love is just almost imagining These Arms just kind of maintaining their radius all the way through I'm not crumpling them in I'm visualizing maintaining the width of the AR all all the way back and all the way through a lot of times I see too much of people they're bending both arms really quickly as they come back here and then on the way through they're pulling in just imagine those arms almost from here look I'm just broing through often get people to do this just glide through keeping those arms nice and straight all the way back and it's really just maintaining again the arc depth if you're constantly changing it it becomes really difficult so little bonus tip there for you before we move on to tip number three so tip number three and my students abs absolutely love this one it does so much so we said about look controlling your Arc depth but what about the arc itself so I get them to use the fish's tail and all it is is this I want you to imagine your Trail wrist just hinging backwards and going forwards just like this simple as this now as I'm doing this I'm visualizing an AR going up this way and then back down what this does is it creates a beautiful AR and creates a natural release through the shot now this is completely different to what I see with most people most people are either lifting pulling rolling their wrists but the fish's tail does so much it doesn't just get you beautifully on this Ark like this it's doing one crucial thing it's controlling your Club face most problems coming down are caused by an open Club face the face is wide open Where's My Wrist if the face is open it's this way if my wrist is back look where's the face it's behind me and close or Square right this is going to give you the best chance of coming in so this is how I get my students to work on this well obviously we've made sure they've got a good setup first we we they're controlling now look their Arc height by not letting themselves dip up and down too much so all I'm doing now really is is I get them to get the rhythm of this Arc and I do it first of all and I want you to do the same just with the wrist so on on their own so I'm getting the the trail wrist Bend backwards and then through so we're really getting this kind of like fishy tail motion now once you've done one or two of them and they've got a feel of this Rhythm they're controlling look how that club is look gliding through the turf not going into the turf they've got that sensation then they can start adding look their body rotation into so the arms now are naturally staying a little bit straighter why well we said to control the radius of this swing so now they've got the fish's tail and we're blending the whole thing in but this is the key factor what the fish's Tail's doing here and this beautiful release here it's made look at this it's adding Loft to the golf club here and it's producing look what we call a flat bottom I am not trying to lift the golf club up look I am simply presenting the correct Loft to the golf ball I'm not going at it and this is the great thing about the Fisher tail it kind of creates a rhythm that naturally look adds the correct L to that golf ball with no rushing no chopping as long as you maintain your height you'll start to maintain a beautiful consistent

strike so the guy in the bunker there if I push this slightly I might get quite close to him so I'm probably going to avoid him just a little bit aiming a bit left remember Fairy Woods are tricky to hit even professionals miss their their intended Direction 90% of the time that was a start I showed you earli by shot scope so I'm aware of this I'm not going to be crazy I'm G to aim a little bit more down the left to make sure I miss him and let's get cracking again let's get that fish's tail working get imagine that Loft look delivered beautifully back to that golf

ball and that is a Beauty look at the height on that that is how you start to hit your Fairwood you get a great setup you maintain your Arc depth not going up and down it's going to hit it's going to be inconsistent contact and you get the Rhythm and the arc from the fish's tail so you're adding Loft look correctly not doing this all the time all right now if you enjoy this video give it a thumbs up maybe share it to one of your friends and look if you're struggling with driver check this one out right here it's got incredible reviews people are loving it if you want to hit the driver straight and of course look I put a free download practice guide in the description box below so you never have to remember a thing until next week have a wonderful golfing week.