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    Hit Down Dammit! (The Key to Golf)
    Hit Down Dammit! (The Key to Golf)
    Hit Down Dammit! (The Key to Golf)
    Ebook130 pages1 hour

    Hit Down Dammit! (The Key to Golf)

    By Clive Scarff

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    About this ebook

    Most golfers have difficulty with the concept of hitting down at the ball to make it fly. Surprisingly, a great many players surveyed did not even know you need to hit down to get the ball up in the air.

    Hit Down Dammit! concisely explains the concept - and the technique - of hitting down at the golf ball for proper trajectory, increased backspin, much improved distance, proper divot taking, and best of all: consistent shotmaking.

    If you are inadvertently - or intentionally - hitting up at the ball, Hit Down Dammit! is for you. (Also available as DVD series, and MP3 download, all on Amazon.)

    If you are a seasoned amateur who has inexplicably “plateaud” - just cannot seem to get to the next level despite lessons and/or acquiring a library of books and videos - Hit Down Dammit! is for you.

    Symptoms of hitting up include (but are not limited to):
    - topping the ball
    - skulling the ball
    - pushing the ball
    - slicing the ball
    - poor distance
    - difficulty getting off back foot
    - poor backspin
    - no divot
    - fat divots
    - chunking the ball
    - thin/fat chip shots
    - roofing the ball with your driver
    - inability to hit long irons and/or fairway woods
    - good shots followed immediately by poor shots

    Hitting down at the golf ball is not a new concept, but it is a hitherto poorly explained (or completely avoided) concept. All pros agree on the need to hit down, so there is no debate there. Even Tiger Woods, in his 306 page “How I Play Golf”, states the need to hit down at the ball – but does not explain how. Hit Down Dammit! does.

    Learn to hit down, watch the ball go up, and your scores go down.

    BONUS: At the end of this book you will find a link to purchase the Hit Down Dammit! 4 DVD series and receive a full credit for the purchase of this ebook.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThornhill Press
    Release dateApr 12, 2012
    ISBN9780978194062
    Hit Down Dammit! (The Key to Golf)

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      Book preview

      Hit Down Dammit! (The Key to Golf) - Clive Scarff

      Chapter 1 - Golf Is A Difficult Game

      Golf is a difficult game. Yet to so many of the uninitiated it might seem incredibly simple. The objective is to strike a ball... that is just sitting there. How tough can it be? It's not like baseball, or tennis, where the ball is moving as we attempt to make contact with it. It's not like hockey where someone is trying to knock you down, and if it is, rethinking your choice of foursome should perhaps be the bigger priority. Why is it then, in golf, that this stationary ball is so difficult to hit? Why do we miss it completely at times? Golf is difficult, deceptively so, due to our perception of how to get the ball airborne. We want the ball to go up, and our natural inclination is to hit up at it. However, we need to hit down.

      Part of this initial deception lies in the fact the ball is round, and our clubface is lofted (angled back). On first look it might appear that our goal is to slide the lofted clubhead under the ball, striking its lower half on the upswing, and thus driving - or lifting - the ball into the air. However, it is critical to note that the golf club has not been designed to get under the ball to lift it. It has been designed to strike the ball as the clubhead is descending, on the downswing.

      The face of the club will contact the surface of the golf ball just prior to reaching the bottom of the swing arc. As a result the ball becomes trapped between the descending clubface and the ground. The ball compresses. Because the face of the clubhead is lofted, the ball will - rather than be driven into the ground as a downward hit might imply - spin backwards up the clubface, decompress (adding energy to its escape) and climb into the air. The angle at which the ball climbs (trajectory) will be directly related to the loft of the club we have chosen for the shot.

      Unfortunately, until the technicalities of hitting down are fully explained, hitting up seems, on the surface, more logical. If we want something to go up, we tend to hit up at it. If I gave you a tennis ball and a racket, and asked you to hit the ball up into the air, what would you do? You would lower your racket and strike up at the tennis ball. And the tennis ball would go up. It's logical. So why wouldn't it be logical in golf too? Certainly – on the surface anyway - hitting down at something you want to go up is not logical. While the hitting up approach might appear to be more logical, let's look at the downside of such a strategy as it relates to the golf swing.

      Chapter 2 - The Downside of Hitting Up

      Hitting up requires striking the lower half of a small object that is situated below you. The portion of the ball we are aiming for is usually sitting on the ground. In grass. All too often, long grass. So, if attempting to hit up at the ball, here is your first question:

      Do you want to:

      (1) Hit the ground before hitting the ball?

      or...

      (2) Miss the ground altogether?

      Chapter 2.1 - Hitting The Ground Before The Ball

      Hitting the ground before the ball (hitting fat) has a couple of significant negative physical effects, as well as corresponding negative mental effects.

      First, hitting the ground prior to hitting the ball will significantly slow the clubhead down. It is worth noting: clubhead speed is directly related to distance. Anything we do that causes the clubhead to slow down will unavoidably cost us in terms of distance.

      CLUBHEAD SPEED = DISTANCE

      Second, hitting the ground prematurely will also alter the angle of the clubface at impact, minimizing any chance of it returning to square to produce a straight shot.

      Contact with the golf ball after bottoming out (hitting the ground) means the club will be rising at impact. This makes it very unlikely you will be able to hit the lower half of the ball. Indeed it is far more likely you will strike the mid portion or upper half of the ball with:

      - the leading edge of a rising clubface or:

      - the sole of the rising clubhead... resulting in...

      - a skulled shot or:

      - a topped shot.

      Finally, hitting the ground before the ball also… plain old don't feel good! So, what happens after a series of fat shots is we begin to take on the belief that hitting the ground -at all - is not very productive. Now what do we do? Well, naturally (unfortunately) we begin trying to hit up at the ball without hitting the ground.

      Chapter 2.2 - Avoiding

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