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The Secrets to Increasing Distance of Your 7-Iron
Most amateurs lack distance with their 7-iron. Especially if you are slicer, you have lots of potential to increase your distance with your 7-iron and other irons as well.
There are few keys to check.
Why You are Losing distance
Why do most players lack distance with their 7-iron?
The most important factor is the loft of their 7-iron at impact. Most players try to scoop the ball in an effort to hit the ball high in the air like pros.
But in fact, that's just the opposite of what pros do to hit their irons.
Pros hit the ball with a slight descending blow and add backspin to get the ball airborne. None of them try to scope the ball except for special type of shots.
The Loft and Shaft Angle at Impact
The lowest point of the swing arc comes after the impact for pros. That's why they take divots.
When you check the shaft angle at impact, the pros' shaft is tilted slightly toward the target. On the other hand, amateurs' shaft is more vertical at impact.
So pros are decreasing the loft of their 7-iron at impact, but amateurs are adding loft at impact. Of course, the clubhead speed is different for pros and amateurs.
But if you add loft at impact, you will hit the ball higher, but you will lose distance.
So you want to make sure that your shaft is tilted slightly toward the target at impact when you hit your 7-iron.
The Position of Your hands and the Ball
To hit crisp iron shots, you must check your address position before changing your golf swing.
The ball should be little left of center. You don't want to play the ball too far forward because you will add loft if you do so.
Also, you want your shaft to lean forward at address. To do this, you want to set your hands ahead of your ball.
I want you to set your hands toward the inside of your left thigh at address. This will set your shaft leaning forward.
By setting up like this, it makes it much easier to catch the ball with the slight descending blow for crisp contact with the ball.
Some players especially slicers want to check their hands position at address from time to time because their hands might want to creep away from the target.
In golf, it's much harder to get rid of the old habit than to learn something new.