Forward Shaft Lean
July 20th, 2012 | 
Author: 
Tiger Woods (Beck/SI)
I love this photograph taken by Robert Beck yesterday at the Open Championship. It reveals what it takes to hit compressed and penetrating iron shots – forward shaft lean. If you tend to hit the ball too high with your irons or haven’t taken a divot all year this is a fantastic image for you to keep in mind the next time you practice.
Remember these important points to help you get into this position at impact:
- If you have a weak grip it is almost impossible to get here. Strengthen your grip a touch and that will encourage the hands to lead and hold through the strike.
- Your weight must be forward at impact – favoring the lead foot 80%/20%. Drive the hips forward in the downswing with out the head shifting in front of the ball for proper weight distribution at impact.
- Deloft the clubface as much as possible at impact. Top players actually launch a 4 or even a 5 iron at a height similar to that which they launch the driver. Practice hitting low, punch type shots until you can hit the ball at head height.
A few additional articles to help:
Posted in Long Game, Practice, Swing Philosophy | 
Tags: compression, Deloft the clubface, impact, launch the driver, no more scooping, open championship, penetrating iron shots, penetrating irons, proper weight distribution, punch type shots, robert beck, Strengthen your grip, tiger woods, weight must be forward at impact
Yesterday, I worked to strengthen my grip per your observation that a stronger grip is more conducive to getting into a better impact position with the characteristic forward shaft lean. Doing this seems to encourage an address position that is “pre-impact positioned”. Without moving my hands forward and introducing some forward shaft lean, my clubface is closed at address which I don’t feel comfortable with on a normal shot. I’ve also found that in this set up, it is imperative to get the weight forward on the downswing and to have an inside to outside swing path (any “over the top” move is greatly magnified and produces a trick shot like pull-hook). Does this sound about right? I like the way this new grip and set up re-enforces the feel of proper impact position but I guess it will take more than one large bucket to get the consistency I’m looking for.
Yes it will Todd! You have started to feel what it is you need to feel in order to make a move away from a shaft that is too vertical at impact – keep at it and you’ll train your hands to be quieter through the hit.
So with this set up, are “quiet” hands the preventative measure needed to avoid the visually interesting but embarrassing pull-hook? Do you have any mental gems along the lines of quiet hands, active body that might help re-enforce this?
Todd – quiet hands are the objective here. The more your body rotates through impact, the quieter your hands will tend to be…..