How To Develop A Solid Golf Iron Swing

One aspect of the game of golf that may cause the most frustration is how difficult it is for most people to hit solid and repeatable iron shots. You may send your drives further off-line and you may throw away some shots around the green but fat, thin and topped iron shots can ruin a golf game in a hurry. Is there a simple golf iron swing tip that can help?

Well certainly factors such as ball position or moving or lifting up off the ball on your backswing can make it difficult to make solid contact. What if though you have these things under control and still have difficulty hitting your irons?

The first thing you should look at is whether you are breaking your wrists prior to striking the ball Chances are you do not even realize this is happening. A lot of golfers feel they need to help get the ball in the air and basically develop a “scooping” motion by flipping their wrists as they approach the ball.

There are at least two reasons why this is bad for your game; first it causes inconsistent shots and second you are adding loft to your irons so you lose a lot of distance even on the shots you think were hit well.

The more you ingrain this type of swing the more difficult it becomes to change your body’s muscle memory. The feeling that you are looking for is what is often called a “firm left wrist” at impact.

You can try different approaches to try to break this habit but one of the best golf swing tips to learn what this should feel like involves making a small chipping motion using only one hand.

1 – First, take your normal address position with say your 7 or 8 iron
2 – Then (assuming you golf right-handed) press your hands forward until your left arm and the club form a straight line. Your hands should be just in front of your left leg
3 – Now transfer around 70% of your weight to your left foot and also draw your right knee in towards your left
4 – Finally, remove your right-hand from the grip and hit chip shots focussing on just one thing – not breaking your wrist. Avoid the temptation to focus on where the ball goes or how well you hit it at first. You simply want to ingrain what it feels like to keep your left hand ahead of the club head throughout the entire swing.

After you are comfortable with the chipping motion you can start making half-swings. Be patient though as this can take some time to get the hang of. Remember you are learning what solid contact feels like so don’t be overly concerned with where the ball goes. There are also a couple other benefits to this drill. As you might expect this is not only a good chipping tip but also it is great for strengthening your left wrist. In fact many people are surprised at how quickly their wrist tires at first when practicing this drill but stick with it as it will pay great dividends.