Blocking to the right

I've suddenly developed a real nasty habit of blocking shots out to the right

I *think* this may be as im holding on to the club through impact, with the misconceieved view that Im holding the club face 'down the line' as long as possible, rather than swinging around myself and trusting the face will be square when I connect. When I force myself to do this though I sometimes end up pulling the ball somewhat ( although I get great distance so I know this is right) which leads my subconcious to start holding the face through impact again

Any tips to help me get over this? Am I right in thinking that I need to concentrate on keepinh my hands in front of my body and releasing the club more around myself ( it feels like im going to hook it but thats probably the right sensation ?)

Hi Pnern,

My bad shot is a block to the right, I know my problem is I tend to come a little from the inside on the down swing causing me to get stuck behind.

I am working on getting the same half way position on the downswing the same as the backswing.


May be your suffering the same, have a look.


Ian.

Ian,

I suffer with this shot sometimes but, nowhere as much as I used to. In my case, it's a block to the left, being a leftie.

The standard response, according to the pros, is that your clubhead is arriving at impact on a swing path that is too in-to-out. I accepted the "experts" opinion and spent hours trying to make my swingpath squarer. The block, that all the books told me was being caused by an extreme in-to-out swing path, was nothing of the sort.

It may be a simple case that you have lost the synchronisation in your swing. The cause of my block was, purely, that my head was not staying behind the ball at impact. As a result, my left shoulder was not moving down and under, in the downswing. Therefore it was almost impossible to get the clubface square at impact.

Check this out. If you have a practise partner, have them stand in front of you. Get them to hold a club, by the head end, so that it is horizontal and stretch their arm out. The grip of the club should be placed against the left side of your head. Take your swing and you will soon know whether you are moving your head forward in the downswing.

Check your hip rotation too. If you're not clearing your left hip prior to impact then that can lead to blocked shots.

When I think of a block, I know that you're swing path is inside and your club face is square to the 'new' swing path. Simple enough..

Fixing it is a bit more difficult and I'd suggest that you don't alter you swing, your swing path or anything else, EXCEPT: practice closing the club face at impact by letting your wrists turnover through impact.

When the club passes the ball, it should be slightly closed...

The start of my year had a ton of these, and that was the cause. I had practiced in my house all winter, and had developed a swing where my hips didn't turn. Now that I've got that sorted out, life is much better.

If your hips aren't rotating freely, it may be because of your set up. It's probable that your stance is closed so there's no way you can swing fully without losing your balance. I battle constantly with alignment, I think it just creeps up on you unoticed.

The problem for me is the effect of one motion unbalances another. That is if I conciously think about turning my hips and clearing them, I tend to either slide into the donswing or my lower body outraces my arms

I try hard to have a very connected swing where I let my upper body and torso rotate my triangle. I find this always gets me the best and most consistent results. To do that I feel as though my whole body turns back through together

Thus I need to way to find this balance without trying to introduce too much of a lower body move as thats a killer for me. The closed stance theory is interesting. Whats the ideal angle at setup? I seem to remember the hips should be slightly open and pointing ever so slightly left?

Well, I've sorted this due to a video lesson and while I WAS coming too far the inside on the downswing the reason for that is I was taking the club away too far inside on the backswing

When the club was parellel to the floor on the backswing the shaft was pointing behind me and the club head was inside my hands. If I swing more outside (and actually on plane) the club is parallel and my hands are slighltly outside the clubhead

For someone (like me) who isnt used to the feeling, it seems like you are taking the club away WAY outside the lane and steep, but at the top your hands will be above your shoulders as the wrists set and lift

This also seems to have cured my sliced driver !

i suffered from major blocks when i first started to transfer my weight, I'm talking about 45 degrees. I would start my downswing by unrotating my hips, but left my arms at the top, When i would releash my shoulders and arms the result was my arms were then getting caught behind my body. because of this my swing would come from the inside and with a good release I would square the clubface to the swing line not the target line. for weeks i was told my clubface must be facing that way to cause the shot to go that way and i was not releashing the club. The next step i started to flip my wrist this would get me squaring the clubface to the target line but a major hook would come in.

It was after reading an article by david leadbetter where he said that with over active hips the golfer will always get some sort of block, even with the correct releash of his wrists. What he goes on to explain was that instead of slowing down the hips the golfer needs to whip down his arms, this will get the club working with the body and also create more clubhead speed.

After heaps of trial that is when I started to pull my club down from the top using my left arm. I now feel the sensation of my left side pulling the club down and at releash I have the sensation of my right side pushing through the impact area.

The results was my drives when from being 200 yards and one and a half fairway right to being clser to the correct fairway and 240 yards.

I would've thought that precisely the opposite is true - if you don't rotate the hips far enough, or the lower half is not active, round you will almost certainly "block off" and end up with a pushed shot to the right. And another thing, maybe I'm less flexible than other players but once I've turned my hips to the target, there's absolutely no way my hands will slow down at impact.

It just goes to show you that people read different things about the golf swing and that what is good for one person maybe no good for another. Sure, you can pick things up fom litrature and learn for a pro but I reckon we've got to find our own level. One of the first things a pro will probably tell a student is that few people swing the same. I reckon the we've all got to put 2 and 2 together, adapt, and come up with a birdie.

I thought that's where the term 'block' came from - your hips don't clear, and block your hands.

Well my problem wasnt my hips, it was my arms. Because my backswing was too far to the inside I was stuck on the downswing because I didnt have the room to swing my arms down to the ball, they had to come from too far behind me. This I believe is independent of my lower body (hips), its purely an upper body/swing plane fault

To me, blocking is caused by the head and upper body being ahead of the ball at impact. from that position it is virtually impossible to swing along the plane and close the clubface. I think that the most common cause of blocking is taking the club too much on the inside during the backswing. This is a common problem and usually happens to people who sometimes tend to slice the ball and are very concious of trying to avoid that. It is probably not a bad idea to remember that golf is a game of opposites, if you want to get the ball off the ground you hit down on it, you swing right of target to bend it left, etc. The same applies to the backswing, if you take it straight back on the extension to the target line you have a much better chance of making a good shoulder turn without swaying. The in-to-out swing path, ie along the plane, is automatic if the downswing is started with the lower body. If the head is kept behind the ball throughout the swing, it is practically impossible to block the ball right.