Hands and ball position - What's your style

[Mjr. D]

If you move the ball forward or back, depending on the club you're using, are your hands supposed to move back and forth as well or should they stay at the same place no matter what club you're using?

Another way of explaining it is....... are you supposed to have your hands opposite your left inner thigh no matter which club you're using or should your hands move back in your stance, the further back the ball is positioned? The result being....... with a wedge your hands will be a fair amount ahead of the ball....... with a 3 iron, even and a driver, just slightly behind the ball.

[Blader-X]

We're talking full shots here, right?

My hands never waver from their starting point no matter the club. The only thing which will change is ball position and that depends upon what club I'm using. Its my belief this is absolutely fundamental to a sound swing. Changing hand position only encourages inconsistency. For me, my hands are pretty much in my midline of the body. To have them too far back encourages a hook or fat shot; too far foward will give you a slice or thin shot. Take it from me, don't mess around with your hand position. My ball striking has never, and I repeat never been better than it is currently. And I attribute that greatly to my starting position in the swing.

You know, you may mess around with hand position somewhat in the short game but even then, I found its best to keep that to minimum.

Would love to hear others' takes.

[+TourSpecGolfer]

When I make impact with my irons my hands are always in front of the club head. With wedges they are usually where they where when I started and same for the woods.

I am a student of Bret Smith and he has helped me big time in trapping the ball with conviction and really going after it which has helped me lower my ball flight and increase my distance.

[Blader-X]

When I make impact with my irons my hands are always in front of the club head. With wedges they are usually where they where when I started and same for the woods.

I am a student of Bret Smith and he has helped me big time in trapping the ball with conviction and really going after it which has helped me lower my ball flight and increase my distance.

Couldn't agree with Chris here more. Just to clarify my comments above, I'm talking starting position only. At impact, hands are ahead on every shot.

[xchangmanx]

We're talking full shots here, right?

My hands never waver from their starting point no matter the club. The only thing which will change is ball position and that depends upon what club I'm using. Its my belief this is absolutely fundamental to a sound swing. Changing hand position only encourages inconsistency. For me, my hands are pretty much in my midline of the body. To have them too far back encourages a hook or fat shot; too far foward will give you a slice or thin shot.

You know, you may mess around with hand position somewhat in the short game but even then, I found its best to keep that to minimum.

I agree w/Blader. I've gone from shooting 150 one day to 80 only to realize its the dammed difference in my swing when I adjust everything for different club.

My experience has led me to complete the same swing on all my clubs for full swings, w/the exception of the driver(but of course it is teed up, hit up on it ) ie. I can hit my 3 iron w/the same swing as my PW. I try to videotape myself and then watch my swings... go from short iron to long iron. I used to screw around w/hand position but that screwed up my shots; fat and thin shank and pull. Ideally all your shots w/all your irons should look the same w/only distance being the varying factor. Further (Like blader says; this is crucial to having a repeatable sound swing)

Ball position, foot alignment and grip are what I change to work the ball. When I say grip, I use two different grips depending how I'm hitting that day. I use the interlock for more workability and consistency, I use the overlap when I want to get more yards. No matter what my left wrist always matches the leading edge of the club w/supination at impact.

RE:Ball position I follow ben hogans ball position and stance for each club in his basic fundamentals of golf book. Hand position and swing are exactly the same save the ball position (cuz of the length of the club) and your stance angle(angle at which you hit that iron to attain a certain traj angle and dispersion area)

For me I found that if I don't mess w/all that stuff(starting hand postition stance) and just try to hit a clean wedge shot w/whatever club I'm trying to hit... (5iron) my shots are almost of the time good misses or off by only a few yards.

Stay away from altering your hand position and focus on a creating a repeatable swing for all your irons. I think that will help.

[shoe295]

I don't move my hands around at all. Keep it simple is the philosophy I was taught. If I move my hands my swing would have to change in order to hit the ball. Now my brain...that's a different story because it moves at different speeds with each shot. Troublesome, but hey I don't pay it any mind.

[marwin24]

If you move the ball forward or back, depending on the club you're using, are your hands supposed to move back and forth as well or should they stay at the same place no matter what club you're using?

Another way of explaining it is....... are you supposed to have your hands opposite your left inner thigh no matter which club you're using or should your hands move back in your stance, the further back the ball is positioned? The result being....... with a wedge your hands will be a fair amount ahead of the ball....... with a 3 iron, even and a driver, just slightly behind the ball.

i always to admit the style of tiger woods

[Richmond Golfer]

Are you asking if you should have a forward press at address? I took a lesson lately from Brad Redding (top 100 teacher) and he eliminated my forward press completely and it has helped me. I had read that if the hands are forward one tends to lift the club rather than swing back. In a proper setup, the hands appear almost behind the ball but in a mirror you see they are straight over the clubhead head. I have checked a lot of pro swings and I almost never see any forward press except on a wedge.

[maslie]

If you move the ball forward or back, depending on the club you're using, are your hands supposed to move back and forth as well or should they stay at the same place no matter what club you're using?

Another way of explaining it is....... are you supposed to have your hands opposite your left inner thigh no matter which club you're using or should your hands move back in your stance, the further back the ball is positioned? The result being....... with a wedge your hands will be a fair amount ahead of the ball....... with a 3 iron, even and a driver, just slightly behind the ball.

I believe it's depend on the each club built, if we are using super game improvement irons than we have to use their OFFSET as their are built for, which is mean hands forward from the ball at adrress. Use the technology ... don't try to tweak it. My hints : Try to put club on table with flat bottom and true to its lie angle, that's where supposed our hand position. Just sharing my thought here :)