What is a Knock-Down shot?

I used to hit a lot of wedges very cleanly (but not thin) which would fly a bit low and stop very quickly - invariably getting a 'well played' comment from a playing partner although I didn't do this on purpose I just got away with a nervy shot.
Is this what is called a knock-down shot?
I have heard that this is a good shot to learn particularly in the wind but don't know what it is and how to (deliberately) play it.

This shot is supposed to fly lower. The term "Knock-Down" being what it supposed to do, knock the ball down lower then you would normally hit the shot.

The benifits are for what you said about going into the wind. If the ball fights a head wind, the ball will be actually traveling faster in the air then from the ground's perspective. This causes some things to happen:

* It will go less total distance
* It will have increased loft which causes the ball to stay in the air longer
* The longer it stays in the air in this headwind, the more the wind will affect the distance.

So you are fighting 2 items that cause loss in distance.

To counter the affects, you try to keep the ball out of the air longer by hitting the ball lower. One way is to hit a lower lofted club, 7i instead of an 8i. This is usually enough to counter a small headwind (5 mph), and go 2 clubs down for a stronger wind (10 mph). Here you don't change anything in your setup. Just hit a normal shot.

But what about 10+ winds? What starts to happen is that the hight that the ball goes with that 3 club 5i hit normally will cause it to fly too high and you start to loose the distance again.

The problem here is that there is too much spin on the ball being hit by a normal shot. Spin creates loft and that keeps the ball flying higher and longer.

We need to introduce the "knock down" which hits the ball lower AND puts less spin on the ball then a normal shot.

Here are the techiques:

* Place the ball in the back of the stance about 1 or 2 ball widths then you would with your normal setup for that club.

* Your swing back will be the same with your shoulders, but your arm hight at the top needs to be shortened and your hands do not set as much. It will look like you took less of a swing, but infact, you did the same, you just are going to hit the ball with less angle of attack.

This shallower angle will cause the ball to be hit with less spin, and hit lower. This is the knock down, which causes the ball to fly longer over a heaver headwind.

The things to avoid:

* Hitting the ball harder to try to counter the wind. All this does is put more spin on the ball creating more loft.

* Because the ball is in the back of the stance, doesn't mean you do anything different in your swing. There is a tendancy to rock back more, and then stay there on the back foot at impact. You still stay balanced on the takaway and transfer the weight to the front foot before impact.

* Try to avoid shaping a shot to keep the ball down (hitting the draw). This makes sence on paper (the ball flys lower, right), but in reality it creates new problems. When a ball start to curve, any wind will exagerate that curve. So any error in over hooking this shot will result in BIG misses. This should only be attempted if you have great control of how much you can do this, and you should expect a greater hook then normal. It is always best to play a straight shot into the wind....less to go wrong.

Hope this helps!