KEY THOUGHT CREATE POWER WITH THE BODY, NOT THE HANDS AND ARMS

Club players often go about this shot the wrong way. Sensing the restriction, they tend to limit the usual body rotation and simply try to hit as hard as possible with their hands and arms. This is rarely effective as you are denying yourself a valuable power source, and one that can create force in a limited space. I see it the other way round; create pressure on the ball with your body, not your hands and arms, and you can squeeze the ball out with some power. Here’s how it should be done...

1 ADDRESS SET UP TO SQUEEZE

You are going to gain distance by applying pressure down on the ball, so use your set-up to promote that squeezing strike. Play the ball back of centre in your stance, favour your front leg slightly for weight and make sure there is a good degree of forward lean in the shaft. Grip down to the metal to make the club a little shorter.

3 INTO IMPACT PRESSURE WITH THE BODY, NOT HANDS

Your upper body cannot rotate as much as for an unrestricted swing, but even a small coil and unwind can generate a surprising amount of speed. So keep your focus on chest and shoulder rotation on the way through, using it to squeeze down and apply pressure onto the back of the ball. Your hands and wrists will stay pretty passive and the ball will come out fast and low.

2 BACKSWING FOCUS ON YOUR LEAD SHOULDER

Always make practice swings to assess how much room you have to work with. But even on these, focus more on the movement of your lead shoulder than your hands and arms. Turn it as much as you can to create some rotation through your core. Do this while working more ‘on top of the ball’ and you can begin to create and store hitting force.

4 THROUGHSWING AS FULL AS POSSIBLE

If the branches allow, keep your chest rotating through to face the target and make as complete a throughswing as possible. This will help you commit to applying force through the body and not the hands and arms. It will also help you generate as much acceleration and clubhead speed as possible, given your shortened backswing. With a little practice, you can develop decent carry and run with this technique.