Knock Down Shots

[GolfSpy WD]

I'm finally comfortable with Punch shots and they've helped me tremendously. My biggest problem with my irons has been hitting the ball very high. I got an email from SwingFix this morning on how to hit knockdown shots, so I'm going to try this out:

 

http://swingfix.golfchannel.com/features/instructor_videos/knockdown-shots

 

If anyone has other tips for lowering ball flight, I'm all ears though.

 

Thanks,

 

wd

 

 

As an aside, their tools for looking at a recorded video of your swing are very good and free. I'm going to make it a regular practice to record myself at the range and upload my videos.

[JMiller]

I'm finally comfortable with Punch shots and they've helped me tremendously. My biggest problem with my irons has been hitting the ball very high. I got an email from SwingFix this morning on how to hit knockdown shots, so I'm going to try this out:

 

http://swingfix.golfchannel.com/features/instructor_videos/knockdown-shots

 

If anyone has other tips for lowering ball flight, I'm all ears though.

 

Thanks,

 

wd

 

 

As an aside, their tools for looking at a recorded video of your swing are very good and free. I'm going to make it a regular practice to record myself at the range and upload my videos.

 

You really have to be careful about 'driving your body through hard' this can cause issues later on in the swing in hip spinning and shoulders turning open at impact in the full swing. Hip spinning can cause hip injury, knee injury, back pain and not to mention you will sometimes get 'stuck' with your hands and club behind your body rotation and you will start to block shots and snap hook them. A lot of better golfers get into this at some point trying to use the understanding that hip rotation and body movement generates power. The harder / faster you spin the hips open the more likely your going to get stuck behind you.

 

This is a specialty shot, you are not looking to make a full swing on a knockdown or punch shot majority of the time. More club, forward shaft lean, finish low with the hands around the ribs. I think this video has a lot better explanation on the shot.

[GolfSpy WD]

You really have to be careful about 'driving your body through hard' this can cause issues later on in the swing in hip spinning and shoulders turning open at impact in the full swing. Hip spinning can cause hip injury, knee injury, back pain and not to mention you will sometimes get 'stuck' with your hands and club behind your body rotation and you will start to block shots and snap hook them. A lot of better golfers get into this at some point trying to use the understanding that hip rotation and body movement generates power. The harder / faster you spin the hips open the more likely your going to get stuck behind you.

 

This is a specialty shot, you are not looking to make a full swing on a knockdown or punch shot majority of the time. More club, forward shaft lean, finish low with the hands around the ribs. I think this video has a lot better explanation on the shot.

 

Thanks Jmiller. I have no idea if knock-down and punch are used interchangeably, but I'm wondering if I'm too far behind the ball in my normal swing, thus the high ball flight. Speaking to fitters, they've told me there is only so much an iron shaft can do to help get the ball down, most of it is in the swing.

[Matt Saternus]

WD:

 

FWIW, I use "punch shot" and "knock down shot" interchangeably, but that's just me.

 

As for how to hit this shot, I think the "Swing Fix" video is fine, to a point. As I mentioned in another thread, I just get very nervous when people make this sound too simple, i.e. "Just get that shaft leaning forward at impact." If it was that easy, I would be unemployed. Two points: 1) Getting your hands in front at impact is, for the majority of the people I've taught, one of the hardest things to do. Flipping is a tough habit to break. 2) It's not something that you can do, at least not easily, if other requirements are not met. He touches on this a little by talking about getting the body working through the shot. That's key, IMO.

 

I like the video JMiller posted because you can see that the teacher is taking a very easy swing. To me, that's a big key to keeping the ball down. Punches/knock downs are not meant to be hit full out.

 

If you want to post a video of your own swing, I'm sure you can get some ideas (assuming you want them ) about why your ball is going too high.

[GolfSpy WD]

WD:

 

FWIW, I use "punch shot" and "knock down shot" interchangeably, but that's just me.

 

As for how to hit this shot, I think the "Swing Fix" video is fine, to a point. As I mentioned in another thread, I just get very nervous when people make this sound too simple, i.e. "Just get that shaft leaning forward at impact." If it was that easy, I would be unemployed. Two points: 1) Getting your hands in front at impact is, for the majority of the people I've taught, one of the hardest things to do. Flipping is a tough habit to break. 2) It's not something that you can do, at least not easily, if other requirements are not met. He touches on this a little by talking about getting the body working through the shot. That's key, IMO.

 

I like the video JMiller posted because you can see that the teacher is taking a very easy swing. To me, that's a big key to keeping the ball down. Punches/knock downs are not meant to be hit full out.

 

If you want to post a video of your own swing, I'm sure you can get some ideas (assuming you want them ) about why your ball is going too high.

 

I'll post something. I'm a lot better with my irons than driver, and I posted that awful video .

[JMiller]

Majority of people use them interchangeably... The only real difference that I can think of is that a 'knockdown' has a full back swing, where a 'punch' a lot of times is more like a really hard long bump and run type shot that has a 1/2 back swing. It is basically the same technique for both just different backswing lengths at least that is how i view it anyways.

 

on a punch shot you might tend to 'hold off' the face a little more as well rather then having the head release over, like i said think of a punch as a really long and hard bump and run, where a knockdown is more a full swing with a cut off low finish.

[RoverRick]

To me a knockdown takes a full backswing but only comes through about 3/4 speed and finishes low. Think long arms and slow hands. Because you do not accelerate the hands, there is less spin on the ball and it stays lower and runs more. This is excellent when you want to stay low to stay out of the wind.

 

A punch shot, is short arms and fast hands. This arms never really get above waist high for me, but the hands really accelerate generating as much speed as possible, but staying low. This will generate a lot of spin on the ball, and while the ball starts low, the spin makes it climb and when it hit the green or fairway it will check up rather quickly. This is great for hitting out from under trees to the green but you must be careful because the spin will make it raise up and hit the under side of the limbs and drop right down leaving you the opportunity to try another one from 10 yards closer to the green.

 

 

[JMiller]

To me a knockdown takes a full backswing but only comes through about 3/4 speed and finishes low. Think long arms and slow hands. Because you do not accelerate the hands, there is less spin on the ball and it stays lower and runs more. This is excellent when you want to stay low to stay out of the wind.

 

A punch shot, is short arms and fast hands. This arms never really get above waist high for me, but the hands really accelerate generating as much speed as possible, but staying low. This will generate a lot of spin on the ball, and while the ball starts low, the spin makes it climb and when it hit the green or fairway it will check up rather quickly. This is great for hitting out from under trees to the green but you must be careful because the spin will make it raise up and hit the under side of the limbs and drop right down leaving you the opportunity to try another one from 10 yards closer to the green.

 

I agree with this good explanation of the two shots, 'when it is breezy swing easy'. I started laughing when you mentioned hitting trees, I don't know how many times i clipped a tree limb i was trying to go under from spin or just launch a punch too high. The C.o.C. grooves tend to come out a slight bit higher with a little less spin so by time it gets to the tree same results really can get a little high if you don't watch it.