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How do you face your irons at address?

ball striker said:
But to answer the question my club face is always neutral unless we're talking wedges...that would be a whole new thread. My custom multi compound grips are spine aligned and I use it as an alignment aid on all my iron shots. Its my ball positioning and swing path that vary between irons depending on what the lie and yardage are.
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Forgive me if I am to sound like some sort of expert here as i am not. Ball position is kind of tricky thing imo. I tend to play the ball more forward in my stance. But have gone back and forth with this. The bottom of the swing arc is still the bottom in relation to the head, shoulders and full extension and irons should strike the ball just prior to that bottom whether back or forward "if" I have that logic correct. I would think if thats not correct then we would be taking 6inch deep divots when we place the ball back.

So with that (if correctly) said, then if the hands are closing the club face a bit too much at point of contact it should happen whether the ball is a bit up or back because it would be the same. Logic might seem to say that it may be easier to lead with the hands better with the ball back (to help prevent a closing face) and while this may be true for a short pitch or easy punch out it doesnt seem to have to be true with a full swing where the wrists are hinging much more and again the bottom of the arc and contact is the same. I just found it easier yesterday to open the face a bit vs forcing the hands to lead too much or adjusting the swing path too much both resulting in over doing it the other way. Finding that happy medium between doing iether of those things too much or not enough proved to be more tasking than simply opening the face a bit. Moving the ball position had no effect on any of it. Same good and bad results with any of the adjustments regardless if the ball was forward or back.

Dont really try to get fancy with my irons. I'm not good enough so i generally try to hit them straight. If I'm slightly drawing or fading them simply by default then thats great too. I just happened to be over drawing the ball yeasterday at the range which can happen some times and is why i braught this up and what i didi to fix it. I will however utilize swing path changes when my driver and woods are working well. A little turn of my shoulders at address iether a bit in or out does the job well to initiate a desired shot shape with those clubs. But i stress that is when/if I'm hitting them well and consistent for that day. Otherwise its just try to keep the ball in the fairway without getting fancy.
 
I'm open at address a little, I place the cub about 2 inches behind the ball so if I was square I'd be closed at impact.
 
This is something I've been trying to work on. I had always thought I was square but I've had a few people tell me my face is actually closed at address.
 
As square as I can. I will open or close the face slightly for fades or draws.
 
Trout Bum said:
I'm open at address a little, I place the cub about 2 inches behind the ball so if I was square I'd be closed at impact.
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Talk to me a little about this. I've developed this habit, and not sure how it came to be. It's something I've tried to change at address, but when I pick the club up/waggle it goes directly to a spot a couple inches back if I'm not paying close attention.
 
Smithfaced said:
This is something I've been trying to work on. I had always thought I was square but I've had a few people tell me my face is actually closed at address.
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Yea but if its not leading to anything bad then why would you have to change it?
 
Hawk said:
Talk to me a little about this. I've developed this habit, and not sure how it came to be. It's something I've tried to change at address, but when I pick the club up/waggle it goes directly to a spot a couple inches back if I'm not paying close attention.
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This doesnt answer your question to "trout" but an interesting sort of similar thing is that my instrucetor actually places his irons a full head inside the ball (to his body) at address and then swings.
 
Square to slightly closed, depending on if I want any draw. Very infrequently I will open it if I need a fade, but I rarely do this as I'm not very good at fading on command.

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rollin said:
square, open, or closed?

Point being is that I'm not sure if this was a cop out fix or is this ok to do when I would be otherwise over drawing. When/if this happens again, should I work at the other things like leading with hands to help stop the face from closing or even try taming the (in to out) path. Or is it was it ok to just hold the club a bit open at address? it seemed to work the easiest and worked well. Thanks for the thoughts and also do you keep them square at address or not?
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rollin, The easy fix is to just open the clubface a bit at address using your normal grip. Why try to lead with the hands or change your path if it's not necessary. Take your normal grip, put the club down behind the ball like you normally would and then turn the face open a bit. This is will essentially weaken your grip without any manipulation of the grip itself.
 
I'm the same Ryan, I have no idea how or when it started but my instructor said it was no biggie and to open the face a little to compensate. I've tried to change it too lol, but I keep going back to it. I also line the ball up right on the hosel and when I don't I get the shanks, talk about bass akwards!

I think Haney says it's important to have the face slightly at address as well
 
rollin said:
This doesnt answer your question to "trout" but an interesting sort of similar thing is that my instrucetor actually places his irons a full head inside the ball (to his body) at address and then swings.
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I like that idea, it could also help me come a bit more from the inside than I am, I'm going to try that dude, thanks.
 
Trout Bum said:
I like that idea, it could also help me come a bit more from the inside than I am, I'm going to try that dude, thanks.
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well i hope it works if your gonna try it. but I ask. Would it help you come from the inside? or would you think possible that in knowing the club is inside then subconciously might make you feel you now have to get it back out and could lead to actually over compensate and be even more from the outside? With your handicap i'm sure your good enough to not let that happen but just some thought about it as i am curious what it does for you or if it works.
 
I square the face, then adjust my grip as needed
 
I usually feel like it's slightly open at address, although it may be more square. I like to have it a little open so so that I can turn down through the ball at impact.
 
Im hoping its squared but its probably crooked one way or another like everything else I line up
 
Square for me.
 
I like to have it as square as possible. It seems to end up a little closed for me, so I make a point to focus on that.


THP #theking #imwithchad
 
Gotta be square for me
 
I usually set up square to a little closed. (at least it looks square to me...)
 
rollin said:
well i hope it works if your gonna try it. but I ask. Would it help you come from the inside? or would you think possible that in knowing the club is inside then subconciously might make you feel you now have to get it back out and could lead to actually over compensate and be even more from the outside? With your handicap i'm sure your good enough to not let that happen but just some thought about it as i am curious what it does for you or if it works.
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I actually went and tried it, what it does is flattens my plane out a bit forcing me to come from the inside to hit the ball vs where I am now off the Hosel which leads to a little over the top move. I topped quite a few of them but at impact when they were hit well they were awesome with a little soft draw. I love tinkering sometimes and I was able to quickly go back to my normal swing.
 
Trout Bum said:
I actually went and tried it, what it does is flattens my plane out a bit forcing me to come from the inside to hit the ball vs where I am now off the Hosel which leads to a little over the top move. I topped quite a few of them but at impact when they were hit well they were awesome with a little soft draw. I love tinkering sometimes and I was able to quickly go back to my normal swing.
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thanks for the update. I hit the range after work today and was going to try it just for fun but before I ever got around to it I was having a bad session. Was kind of bummed out because yesterday was a pretty good session. I kept hitting off the heel today for some reason and couldn't brake away from it. Started out great :) but then half way through I came apart :(.
anyway there is always the next time.
 
It actually slightly changes based on what type of shot I'm trying to hit. Face angle at address gives me a good visual of what i want to do for some reason.
 
rollin said:
Forgive me if I am to sound like some sort of expert here as i am not. Ball position is kind of tricky thing imo. I tend to play the ball more forward in my stance. But have gone back and forth with this. The bottom of the swing arc is still the bottom in relation to the head, shoulders and full extension and irons should strike the ball just prior to that bottom whether back or forward "if" I have that logic correct. I would think if thats not correct then we would be taking 6inch deep divots when we place the ball back.

So with that (if correctly) said, then if the hands are closing the club face a bit too much at point of contact it should happen whether the ball is a bit up or back because it would be the same. Logic might seem to say that it may be easier to lead with the hands better with the ball back (to help prevent a closing face) and while this may be true for a short pitch or easy punch out it doesnt seem to have to be true with a full swing where the wrists are hinging much more and again the bottom of the arc and contact is the same. I just found it easier yesterday to open the face a bit vs forcing the hands to lead too much or adjusting the swing path too much both resulting in over doing it the other way. Finding that happy medium between doing iether of those things too much or not enough proved to be more tasking than simply opening the face a bit. Moving the ball position had no effect on any of it. Same good and bad results with any of the adjustments regardless if the ball was forward or back.

Dont really try to get fancy with my irons. I'm not good enough so i generally try to hit them straight. If I'm slightly drawing or fading them simply by default then thats great too. I just happened to be over drawing the ball yeasterday at the range which can happen some times and is why i braught this up and what i didi to fix it. I will however utilize swing path changes when my driver and woods are working well. A little turn of my shoulders at address iether a bit in or out does the job well to initiate a desired shot shape with those clubs. But i stress that is when/if I'm hitting them well and consistent for that day. Otherwise its just try to keep the ball in the fairway without getting fancy.
Click to expand...

I stated in a previous post on a different thread ball address in accordance with club selection, yardage, lie etc... can't remember which one but through many years of trial and error(self taught) I found what works for me and it actually makes sense from a physics point of view. Hand positioning at contact....ball positioning, different lies etc, etc etc. Had zero to do with wrist cock or follow through.....again, another thread. Loll.
 
It takes a lot less effort to pull a ball than to hit a power fade. Again another thread I'm sure....I'm fairly new here so I don't want to come across as arrogant. Everyone has their own unique swing that work for them in theory and I'm no Butch Harmon and I hate playing with other singe digit cappers that turn into a Butch Harmon during a round when a playing partner is having an off day. Lolll
 
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