Stand around the range at Champions’Gate and one of the phrases you will hear stressed to good players is the need for the club to swing ‘in front’ of the body on the way back down to the ball. This is in reference to the better player’s fault of sometimes getting the club ‘trapped’ behind the body at the start of the downswing, and being too much on the inside coming in to impact (right).
The result, inevitably, is that the hands then have to get overly involved through the impact area, typically leading to hooks and blocks and general inconsistency in the strike.
This simple exercise can help to remedy such a tendency, and get the club swinging down on the correct line into the back of the ball. All you have to do is place the football opposite the right foot, splitting the difference between the foot and the ball-target line. In so doing, you create an exercise that subconciously encourages you to swing the club more ‘in front’ of your chest on the way down, thus eliminating the need to manipulate its path with the hands.
Good players love this drill. With a little practise, you will find that you replace any tendency to hit the occasional hook and/or blocked shot with a more neutral ball flight, one that enables you to more finely control your distances with the irons.