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3 Wood and Long Irons

The 3-wood, long irons, and hybrids are longer and flatter than the other irons. They require a flatter swing, with a wider flat spot, but they also require good ground contact (the one thing you don't need with the driver). In order to get this flat spot, you need to have two key things: the arms extending through impact and the legs more active as a power source. If you struggle with both, then I usually recommend working on the arm extension first and then the lower body, but either could be your key.

Tags: Iron, Fairway Wood, Impact, Member Question, Concept

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This concept video is discussing the three wood and the long iron swing.

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So I've had a number of questions about golfers who specifically struggle with the fairway

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woods or long iron, they'll usually say the three wood is the hardest club in the bag.

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I usually top it or chunk it.

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It's usually a contact problem.

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So there are two big things that I think are more of a requirement for the three wood than

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any other club in the bag.

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So number one is I think of all the clubs, the three wood does the best with powering

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it from the lower body.

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So if you're more of an upper body dominant swing, the three wood tends to cause problems,

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especially if you lack component number two.

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And component number two is the arm extension through the wall.

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I think if I had to boil it down to one trait that gives people the most fits with

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the three wood, it is if the arms either stay the same or even bend on the way through,

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it's almost impossible to have enough tilt to create a flat spot and sweep the ground.

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When the arms stay the same or when they bend, the shape of the swing has much more of

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this V shape, it has a very limited flat spot.

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The three wood is even harder than the driver because the driver being teed up, if you

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can time and train where your upper body is in space, then you can kind of get away with

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it as long as you're not swinging too hard and you're able to control the club face.

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But with the three wood, if your arms are bending on the way through, you're almost always

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going to struggle with more of a thin contact and a lot of top shots.

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So oftentimes I'll have people start with that drag through drill where we'll put the

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club on the ground near the right foot and then we'll turn our hips like we were using

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them in the full swing and then we'll work on straightening the arms through impact there.

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As a result, when I do that dynamically, now I get the club to slide along the ground.

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If you are used to more bending the arms or keeping the arms the same kind of like this,

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you'll see that that will tend to come off the ground too quickly.

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I would top that.

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So then you get stuck with in order to do this and make solid contact, you have to lunge

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your upper body on top.

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Well now with the loft of the three wood, I'm going to hit this really low.

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So then I start bending to try to add loft and now I get worse and worse into this topping

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pattern.

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So usually I find that the order that makes sense for most people who struggle with the

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three wood, the three wood and less are extended but related the long irons is first you

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work on getting the arms to extend, getting the arms to extend, you'll help eliminate the

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top shot but you might hit some big poles until you get the sequencing down.

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So first I work on the arm straightening and then secondly we're going to work on getting

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the hips more involved.

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When you put them together you can do some 9 to 3s tend to 2s and such where basically

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I'm going to feel hips and arm extension and in doing so hips and arms extension I get

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the club to slide along the ground.

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Now we'll do more of a 10 to 2 hips, arms extension, a little bit of a fade maybe didn't

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quite control the club face.

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Three woods are hard to do in the less than full swing but I also think that's part

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of the brilliance of them.

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If you get good at it then that one was pretty good.

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If you get good at doing 10 to 2s 9 to 3s with the three wood then it becomes a lot easier

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or more consistent when you add full swing.

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Now we'll get closer to full length swing.

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Get that for the down line.

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Okay so we're going to focus on using my lower body and then extending the arms on the

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way through.

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I know like that so feeling those arms really extend is key number one I think that's

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the most important factor for the longer clubs like the three wood and then secondly

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is leading with the lower body so that the arms can extend later.

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If you master those two keys you'll build a nice little flat spot and find success with

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your fairway wood and long iron.

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