The Ridiculous Reason Why 90% of Golfers Can't Strike Their Irons & Hybrids

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Transcript Summary- I’ve just got back from the US where I spent an incredible week coaching at the Johnny O Seaside Summit. It was such a brilliant event with some wonderful people. During the week, I gave a number of lessons on the short game, iron striking, and hitting driver straight. What really stood out, though, was how many golfers were falling for the same misconception — and I want to make sure you’re not doing the same.

So many players have been told to hit down on the golf ball with their irons and short game, and to take a divot after the ball. Now, that’s great advice — but most golfers interpret it completely wrong. I see it all the time. They start forcing themselves down into the ground, their heads stay down, and before they know it, they’re hitting fat and thin shots or flicking at the ball with their wrists. What they don’t realize is that great players actually do the opposite. Through impact, they’re not working down — they’re working up and around. 

When a good player swings, the club is being thrown down naturally, but the body is actually moving up through impact. This helps create effortless, natural power. When you go down into the ground, you lose that catapult effect — the speed just isn’t there. So what I showed the players in the US was simply a change in concept. Once they understood that, their strikes instantly improved — not just with irons, but across their whole game.

Let’s start with the short game, because that’s often the biggest culprit. Most golfers try to hit down too much — the knees buckle, everything collapses, and you’re done. The best chippers have rhythm. They move slightly down on the backswing, and then they work up through the shot. It’s not about forcing a downward hit; it’s about setting up correctly so that the downward strike happens naturally. For example, in a little chip shot, I’ll move my left shoulder down on the way back, then up and around through impact — and suddenly the strike is perfect, with a lovely downward angle of attack, without me ever trying to hit down.

You can build on that by adding the trail hand and eventually both hands, always focusing on that same rhythm: down, up… down, up. When you get that feeling, you’ll notice how much smoother your contact becomes and how effortless your strikes feel.

When we move into iron play, the same principle applies. You want your pelvis slightly forward over your lead heel, your head more centered, and then as you swing, your body works up and around through impact — not down and into the ground. The result? A perfect downward strike, simply because your body is in the right position.

A great little drill for this is to grab an alignment stick and imagine striking a match on the ground. Get your hands low, then use your pivot — your lead shoulder — to move up and around. You’ll feel that stretch, that extension, and that catapult motion that generates effortless power.

And finally, tie it all together with rhythm. Take your left hand only and feel your left shoulder working down on the backswing, then up and around through impact. It’s that rhythm that you want to bring to the course — starting with little chips and pitches, then gradually building it into your full swing.

If you can get this pattern — that down-and-up motion — into your game, you’ll notice everything becomes so much easier. You’ll strike it more consistently, gain effortless power, and your swing will just look and feel smoother — exactly what you see from the best players in the world.

If you enjoyed this lesson, give it a thumbs up, maybe share it with a friend, and of course, if you’re new to the channel, hit that subscribe button. And if you want to know how this applies to your driver, check out the video right here — it’ll take your driving to the next level.

Full Transcript- So I've just come back from the US where I spent a week coaching at the Johnny O seaside summit. Brilliant event with some wonderful people. And during the event I gave a number of golf lessons on the short game, how to strike your irons and how to hit driver straight. And what was really interesting is is many of them were falling for a misconception. I want to make sure you're not doing the same. They've been told to hit down on the ball with their irons and their and their short game. They'd also been told to make sure they take a divot after the golf ball. Now, that's all great, but how they were doing it was completely and utterly incorrect. And I see this so many times, completely misinterpreted. In this golf lesson, what I want to do is I want to share with you what I did with them to improve their short game, their iron shots, and their driver. And all it was one was a change just a change in concept that provided them with this effortless rhythm which allowed them very naturally to strike down on every shot. So they struck it perfectly but they also whereas they struck down on it generated effortless power and that's super super important. No point just striking a ball and it going nowhere. This is what I want to cover in today's lesson. Before I do though look if you're new to the channel your first lesson of mine please consider subscribing. I release golf videos just like this one every single week to try and help you improve your game. Plus, you never have to remember a thing. Everything we do here, I'll put into a free download practice guide in the description box below. So, I think by the end of this lesson, you're going to have something that you can kind of work into every part of your game, whether that be your short game, your iron play, your fairway woods, or your driver. Um, and let's start with the misconception that I'm seeing over and over again. This is what's ruining so many golfers, and and I don't know if you've been the same. So, a lot of times when we start to struggle to strike a golf ball, we've been told we want to strike the ball first and then the ground, uh, we've also been told to hit down on the golf ball. What do you think that would do to your action if you're trying to hit the ball and trying to hit down on the golf ball? Well, this is what I'm seeing a lot. When people are trying to hit down on it, they start to look down. They're starting to stay down. When they start hitting into the ground, start fatting it, then start pulling away. They even start to flick the wrists. What they don't do is what I see with all top players. Great players get to here and they're actually the club's getting thrown, but they're actually moving away from the ground. They're actually, in a sense, moving away from the ground through impact. So, they're actually working up and around. They're not working down, which is what I see with most players, which gives them two things. It doesn't just help them strike it more consistently, but notice this. When I start to work away from the ground, can you see how the club gets catapulted with speed? Whereas when I'm going towards the ground, I now struggle. There isn't this kind of throw, right? And this is how they get effortless power. So, how can you go about feeling? This is really important. This is what I gave to the guys. You have to learn to feel this in every part of your game. Let's just start initially just with with the irons and show you what the best players are doing. When they swing back here, when they come down, it's important to understand this. The hands here, when they're opposite the right leg on the way down, this is where the hands are at their lowest point. But if I look here, look at how far that is away from the golf ball. Right now, from here, what they're going to do, these hands now are going to work upwards and around. They actually work up. And it's the working upwards that then throws the club downwards, right? So, how do the hands work upwards? Well, when they're coming here, the shoulder, the pivot of the body is all working up and around this way to throw the club, right? So, there's ultimately the complete opposite pattern. The best players are working upwards through the impact area. The worst player is in terms of consistency of ball striking, they're still very much down on the golf ball. They've even often you may have heard the advice you hit a bad shot, you've lifted your head up, stay down on it. All these things are ruining actually your ball striking. So, let me give you uh two or three different drills. Now, each one of these drills I gave to uh one of the players out there, and they're all different because everyone responds differently. They're only going to take you a minute or two a day to practice to learn the feel of this, but I promise you they will help with every part of your game. I think the best place to probably start to learn the feel of this is the short game. We'll start with some basic chip and pit shots and then we'll work up to iron play because again absolute culprit with the short game is people trying to hit down on it. The legs start to get buckled. Everything's working downwards and they're just you've got you're dead from there. The best chippers, they have a rhythm and a pattern and it tends to look something like this. They'll tend to work slightly down on the on the on the back swing and then on the way through, look, watch this. I'm actually working upwards. And you might, well, how do you hit down on a golf ball if you're coming upwards? It's simply down to where you position. So, as long as you've got your position of your body back in in front of the golf ball here, I as I work upwards, I'm naturally going to hit down the golf ball, right? I'm not trying to force my handle forward or anything like that. But if I'm back here and I try and do that, yes, I'll I'll top it. I'll fat it. You name it. But I'm going to show you something. I'm going to hit a shot here. Naturally, to start with, what I'm going to show you is in two um single arms, get myself set handles leaning forward, ball back in my stance. And all I'm going to do, look, is I'm going to move the club back with my left shoulder. Left shoulder is going to work downwards. And then on the way through, look, all I'm going to do is I'm going to work the left shoulder upwards. And I'm going to allow my body to stand up and pivot into the follow through. There's going to be no attempt for me to try and keep that handle down, force the a downward strike. I'm actually going to work upwards through the impact area, left shoulder down, and left shoulder up. Watch what happens. Watch my angle of attack here. 5.8 is my angle of attack. 3.6 my low point after the golf ball. So, I have no there's no attempt for me there to strike after the golf ball. But I've naturally done it simply because of my setup where my body's positioned and because my body's in a great position. I don't have to try and hit down on it now. It's going to naturally happen. All I'm going to do is work my body up through the impact area. So, my left shoulder goes down. Left shoulder goes up. Hey, Presto. We're going to have a downward angle attack of 8.4 degrees down with a low point of 6.8 in after the golf ball. Massive, right? This is the first part of feeling this. You do it with short game, right? Take your trail hand, do the same thing. Right? So, what we're going to do now is this. We don't use the arms to do this. We use the shoulder. From here, I'm going to again lean my shaft forward. Get my weight slightly further forward. I'm going to feel I'm going to work down the back swing. My shoulder brings the club back. I'm going to keep my shoulder working through. I'm going to work upwards through the impact area. Watch this. One, two. Working up. Watch what happens now. The angle attack 3.6 down. Not quite as much with my right hand. Kind of normal because it's on this side of my body. But let's even go a bit steeper on this. Right. So, how do I get how do I get a bit steeper? Again, just lean a bit further forward. Right shoulder up here and away we go. Right shoulder up and through. Right. So that's a lovely sound. Five uh um uh angle of attack down 3.7 instead of the golf ball. Now we join those hands together and we're starting to move now towards closer to full swing mechanics. So just to feel this right. So you start with your shot again. You build it up. So right shoulder up, left shoulder up. And I'm simply look work look at this. I am now working from here. Look upwards through the shot. I am not continuing to work downwards. You can see here, watch my trail leg. This leg here actually starts to straighten. It doesn't buckle into the position here. So, look at this here. Right shoulder down and through. So, let's start. So, you practice that. I promise you, you will start you'll start to feel the rhythm of this. Yeah. And it is just you it's like a a pattern of movement. Look. down, up, down, up. And you just find that rhythm all the time. I'm working up through the impact area here now. How do you apply that with your irions? Similar kind of thing. Right now, I'll give you a couple of drills with irons. The first drill to learn the feel of this. And it look drills are going to give you the feel. I can't tell you what to feel. So, follow these drills and you'll get what I'm talking about. So, when I'm here, look, what I'm going to do is I'm going to get my ball positioned about club inside my lead heel. I'm going to position my pelvis here. This is very important. Over my lead heel. So, it's a drill. Why do I have my pelvis here? Because all the best players to strike it, make sure the pelvis is forward. This is what's going to help you strike down on the golf ball. Most poor players are back here. Pelvis is over the heel. My head is in the middle of my stance. Okay. Now, all I'm going to do here now is this. Just do a small swing here. I'm going to keep my trail knee almost pointing forward. I'm not going to let it buckle in or anything. Now, from here, what I do is I simply look work my body up and around. Notice this. I'm not working it down. I am working it from here. Look up and around. Now, all this is a great feeling because now suddenly you're going to start to get the feeling of your swing now working up through impact. that allows the club to naturally fall down on the golf ball whilst at the same time accelerating through impact. So you start to learn the sensation of power. Let's look at this in action.

You can see here I'm simply from there look working up through that impact area. Look at my low point here. 4.5 in after the golf ball. So despite me moving upwards through impact the club naturally comes down because of the position I put my body in. learn the feel of this. Right now, one thing you can do at home, got a couple of things, grab an alignment stick. Again, more feelings that to kind of generate this. Some of these drills are going to connect to you somewhere. Look at here. Look from here. Bend that alignment stick on the floor. It's like striking a match. From here, my hands are at the lowest point. What I'm going to do now is with my body pivot, I am going to look with my lead shoulder here. Look, and my body, I'm going to move my my left shoulder up and around here. And where am I finishing here? My legs, everything is extending upwards. So I'm down in the ground here. I'm low with my hands here. I'm working upwards. Yeah. Develop this sensation, not the downward motion. You're starting to develop. You just start to feel this kind of catapult motion. And then we're going to link now finally the rhythmical element of this which you can start to transfer to a golf course. Again, all the stuff you can be done in the garden. And we can link this to what we did with the short game. Take your left hand only. I'm right-handed, by the way. Right. The left hand only. Get the left shoulder working the club away. Now, when people do with the left hand, everybody I coaches to initially does this. They just use their arm. Doesn't kind of work like that. But what I want you to do is look at my left shoulder. Left shoulder's working down here. Right now, from here, what am I going to do? Get myself here. And then what happens? I work my left shoulder up and around. Down, up and around. Not down. Up. Down here. Up and around. I'm kind of getting that sensation of the rhythm of this motion. This would be too early, wouldn't it? Throwing it from the top. No, I'm coming down and up. Down here opposite my right leg. And then I'm firing it upwards. I'm really getting that sensation of this club firing down. It's a rhythm that we want to start to create. And that is why I started it initially just with your short game. If you can start hitting some short shots and you could go on a golf course, you think, you know what, I'm going to put this into play, Danny, but I'm going to start initially. Can I feel this first of all with pitches? Forget about iron play. Forget about driving. Can I actually get myself set up here in position? And can I create a movement where I feel like I'm going down with my left shoulder on the way back and then I'm standing up and I'm pivoting look through here. So I'm finishing what feels like much much taller through the shot. And every time I finish taller, I'm moving that club still down on the golf ball. Look here comfortably, but I'm controlling that pattern, that rhythm. It's so different to the pattern what I see with a lot of golfers, which is a a heave and a heave downwards. If you can get this pattern in your golf swing in a really subtle way, starting with a short game, then gradually building it up, you'll just feel effortless. And it's what you see with the best players when they look make this golf swing look easy. So, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, give it a thumbs up. Maybe share it with one of your friends. And of course, look, if you're new to the channel, press that subscribe button right here. I'm sure you're going to want to know how this applies to your driver, how you can drive a lot much, much better, check this video out right here. And if you'd like some personalized help with your game, make sure you head on over to dannymaude.com.