Subscribe now to watch the full video.

The Punch Shot

The punch shot is a way to hit a 3/4 swing that flights the ball lower. This is useful for shots into the wind, when you don't want a lot of spin, or when you want something that has a little more control than your stock full swing. There are a few major adjustments that you will have to make, but the general principle is that it's similar to your distance wedge technique.

  • Ball position will move slightly back in your stance
  • Shoulders more level
  • Quiet either the hips or the wrists
  • Lean forward during the backswing and have the hands moving more down and left through the shot

Playlists: Fix Your Flip, Fix Your Chicken Wing (Bent Arm @ Impact), Specialty Shots

Tags: Speciality Shot, Impact, Follow Through, Intermediate, Beginner

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
In this concept video, we're going to discuss the punch shot.

00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:10,000
So I've got my seven iron here with the loft tool, and we're going to use this shaft

00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:15,000
to represent the ground, because before we get into the mechanics of how we're going

00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,000
to hit this punch shot, I want you to understand essentially what we're trying to do

00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:20,000
and why.

00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,000
So it's hard to understand a punch shot, unless you talk about a concept called spin

00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:25,000
loft.

00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,000
Now spin loft is essentially the difference between the dynamic loft and the angle of

00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:30,000
the tech.

00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,000
So if this is the ground right here, and let's say this is straight up and now like so,

00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,000
let's say this is pretty close to how I hit my normal seven iron.

00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:44,000
You'll see that there's an angle formed between the ground and the club face.

00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:46,000
That's going to be the dynamic loft.

00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:52,000
Now if we include the angle of the tech, so a club coming down like this would have less

00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,000
spin loft than a club coming down like so.

00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:00,000
So what ends up happening in a punch shot, we're going to try to get it to launch low

00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,000
and with a little less spin.

00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:06,000
So to help it launch low, we're going to move this back.

00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,000
Now that will cause us to have a little bit more or a little bit less dynamic loft

00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:12,000
like so.

00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:19,000
But the problem is if we increase the angle of the tech by about the same amount, we don't

00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:23,000
really change the spin loft profile until we end up getting about the same amount of

00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,000
spin.

00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000
So what we're going to have to do is even though we're playing it back, we're going

00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:33,000
to try to come in shallow as shallow as we can.

00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:34,000
It's virtually impossible.

00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:38,000
We're going to increase our angle of the tech by moving the ball back.

00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:42,000
But we're going to make some stance adjustments and some swing adjustments to help create

00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,000
this downward spin.

00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:49,000
So let's go through the technique of what we're going to do in order to maximize

00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,000
or to decrease this spin loft and maximize the distance that we can get with a really

00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,000
low launching club.

00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:03,000
So now that we have a basic understanding of this spin loft concept, let's talk about

00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,000
what we're going to do with this punch shot in order to apply that.

00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,000
Now there's three major keys that we're going to cover with this punch shot.

00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000
One is going to be set up, which is basically just going to be shoulders a little bit

00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,000
more level, ball a little bit more back.

00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:23,000
The second is going to be the follow-through, which helps kind of shallow out this steep

00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,000
set up that we've created.

00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:32,000
So the second one, the shallowing out is going to come largely from having the stance a

00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:37,000
little bit open, as well as having the hands work a little bit more left through the shot.

00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:43,000
And the third thing is we're going to minimize or take away one of our power sources

00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:48,000
because by decreasing the spin loft we're going to get more roll out of it if we were

00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:53,000
to increase the speed will increase the spin and it may not necessarily end up like a punch

00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,000
shot it might just be kind of a low stock swing.

00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,000
So let's go over these three pieces.

00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:07,000
So the setup first, this is my full procedure, so I've got my grip, got my left foot turned

00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:12,000
out, and I've got my ball position somewhere off my left inner thigh, left ear, whichever

00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,000
is more comfortable for you.

00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:20,000
So for this punch shot, I'm going to play the ball a little bit closer to my right ear

00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,000
similar to what we do in the distance wedge.

00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:26,000
In fact, a lot of what we do with this punch shot is going to be very similar to a distance

00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,000
wedge just with a club that has less loft on it.

00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:35,000
So it's going to be a little bit more off this right ear right side, and then to account

00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,000
for the fact that I've got the ball position further back and then I'm going to be hitting

00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:39,000
down on it.

00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,000
I'm going to open my stance.

00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,000
One of your goals when you're playing around with this on the range is to figure out

00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:51,000
how far back can you go and still hit good shots, how open do I need to go with my body

00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:55,000
to still get it to fly straight, all those little factors.

00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:59,000
But that's my basic setup, upper body's leaning a little bit more level, ball position

00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:04,000
back, kind of looks just like so.

00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:09,000
So then the second piece is what are we going to do in the follow-through to kind of help

00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:13,000
shallow out the fact that we've set up with all these extra little steeps.

00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,000
So I've got my stance going left, ball position back.

00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000
The big thing is I'm going to, if I was to make kind of my normal move, you could see

00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:26,000
that the club would be coming straight into the ground because of how I've kept my shoulders

00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:30,000
a little bit more on top of the ball, a little bit more in front and a little bit more

00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,000
level.

00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:37,000
So if I was to go like so, that club would just dig straight in the ground, which would

00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,000
give me a very small margin for air.

00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:45,000
So what I'm going to do is when I get into kind of the second stage of that release,

00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:50,000
I'm going to let my hands work a little bit more left and around and that left side

00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,000
is going to help by kind of raising up like so.

00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:59,000
So it'll look kind of something like that.

00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:03,000
Now the third piece is taking away one of my power sources.

00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:10,000
So in this case, I like to use whatever your dominant power source is and then take away

00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,000
whichever is kind of your least power source.

00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,000
So in my particular case, where I guess I should say, the two most common that I see are

00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,000
you're either going to quiet your lower body or you're going to quiet your wrist.

00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,000
You're still going to use your core and your trunk and your shoulders pretty much the same

00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,000
way you would in your stock full swing.

00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:32,000
So in my particular case, I would tend to quiet more the wrist.

00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:38,000
So I'd have a little bit shorter arm swing and a little bit less wrist set, a little

00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:43,000
bit less of this down clock, kind of more like the distance wedge swing.

00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:47,000
But I would still release my hands through the shot.

00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,000
They would just be covering a little bit smaller range of motion.

00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:57,000
The other option, if you're more of a upper body kind of spin type player, would be to really

00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:04,000
just quiet that lower body get a little bit more on top and then have your swing be upper

00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:07,000
body arms hands and kind of quiet the lower body.

00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,000
So I'll try and demonstrate those two.

00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:14,000
You'll see that one of them is a lot more comfortable for me, but that's why you want to

00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,000
know your pattern, know your swing and go out and practice it.

00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:27,000
So here's my good setup position and then there's my kind of dead hands model which

00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:34,000
is more of what I use so it had a little bit shorter arm swing, a little bit less wrist

00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,000
set.

00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:41,000
Now we'll try and do let me prep that upper body spin movement.

00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:49,000
So you'll see it's quite difficult for me to quiet my lower body but that's a little

00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,000
bit more of that kind of three piece upper body punch shot.

00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,000
Both of them work equally effectively as well.

00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,000
It's really just more is what your pattern of movement is and which you'd be more comfortable

00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:01,000
using.

00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:06,000
So practice both of them on the range see which one works best for you and then don't

00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:10,000
be scared to pull this on the course anytime you're trying to flight something a little

00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,000
bit low it shots into the wind or get out of trouble.

Subscribe now for full access to our video library.