NHA and wedges

[bgoodyear]

I've been working on the NHA pattern. Beautiful with the long clubs - straight or baby fades. Divots a couple of degrees left of target. Swinging easy and often flirting with par rounds which is very good for me.

With my gap wedge down to the lob wedge I have problems. About every 15th shot I shank. Then afterwards when I focus on adding more gamma I often proceed to slam the face closed and dead pull 20 yards left. I also get alot of slapped thin pull cuts that never get above 20ft. Both problems get worse the shorter the club and swing. Divots point more left.

It's gotten so bad I've changed shot selection to avoid leaving 50-100 yards shots.

Never, ever happens with the longer clubs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Any common pitfalls? If it helps, I've identified the downswing axis tilt as an area where I need to improve. I'm often a bit upright with the shorter clubs.

Thanks,

-B

 

[bgoodyear]

Center face contact all day until wedges which are always heel side

 

[hp12c]

[video]How To Hit A Spinning Pitch - Video - GOLF.com [/video]

[video]http://www.golf.com/video/pitch-pros[/video]

 

[Brian Manzella]

In the vein of a NHA2 pattern, a "distance" wedge shot will be easy IF......

1. You really let the arms drop.

2. You don't over pivot in the start down.

3. You don't over-roll the face going back.


Once you get closer to the green, I'd use more of the technique of the post #3 video.

 

[bgoodyear]

Thanks for ideas Brian. Much appreciated.

And thanks for the link hp12c. I had forgotten about that video. It's a great technique for chopping down shots. That's a keeper.

With Brian's recommendations in mind I hit the range focusing on the arm drop (#1) which helped ALL of my shots come off with more zip and consistency. This eliminated the thin shot. Very solid strikes!

But with the wedges alone, the ball mark continues to average no more that 2-3cm from the hosel and the occasional S occurs. At one point I hit 25 straight sand wedges with the intention catching just one on the toe side of the club but couldn't force it to happen.

I just watched Brian's Shank Talk video which corresponds with suggestion #3 (less rotation going back). I have a very difficult time feeling the clubface in the downswing. So good chance the clubface is stuck on the shaft plane. I'll try to get the face off the plane early to avoid turning the hosel into the ball at the bottom.

For some reason this flaw of mine is highlighted by wedges - maybe the heavier weight of the club makes it harder to save the shot?

-B

 

[jewofgolf]

Thanks for ideas Brian. Much appreciated.
But with the wedges alone, the ball mark continues to average no more that 2-3cm from the hosel and the occasional S occurs. At one point I hit 25 straight sand wedges with the intention catching just one on the toe side of the club but couldn't force it to happen.
-B

I have found that standing too far away, especially with a wedge, causes one to have to reach too far at impact. Are you swinging on to your left heel, or are you ending up kind of "at the target", instead of "left"?

 

[magicmarker]

wedges always wanna go left, gotta scoop the marbles more with your dead left pull swing...

 

[bgoodyear]

Thanks for the advice Guys.

So I found the missing piece of my swing that centers the wedge strikes - using the shorter clubs/swings I need to manually apply a right wrist straightening move in the downswing (FATS?). I'm assuming this move breaks the lined-up relationship between the clubshaft, face, and hosel putting me into a better release. With the longer clubs I don't feel it at all, it just happens. So, I guess it boils down to me needing a more active release as I work down through the bag.

200 wedges in a row without a S, that's probably 175 better than I've done in many months. And I can see the ball marks are centered for a change.

Now I can sleep at night again.

I've also correlated this active right hand with more jump into impact resulting in power++. I won't even guess as to why. Just happy the ball is is behaving.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

When teaching NHA to people, they tend to shank the short clubs because they don't allow for enough "drop" OR they actually don't go IN enough. If you don't go in enough and then drop; you're literally going to drop the hosel right on the ball.

NHA is actually a wonderful way to hit wedges.

 

[grs]

When teaching NHA to people, they tend to shank the short clubs because they don't allow for enough "drop" OR they actually don't go IN enough. If you don't go in enough and then drop; you're literally going to drop the hosel right on the ball.

NHA is actually a wonderful way to hit wedges.

Could you explain what you mean by "going IN enough"? I've had this problem from time to time and would like to understand why this is happening? Could it be tension in the arms, not allowing the arm to drop properly?