By Joe DiChiara and Jason Meisch
You take a swing and don’t like where the golf ball goes. You want to know what happened, so you turn to your launch monitor. You look at the club face numbers. They tell you exactly went wrong. For the shot you wanted to hit, the club face was either too closed or too open. You now know what the club needs to do differently, but you need the right tools to change it.
Our experience
We have taught over 10,000 hours of lessons to everyone from beginners to tour players. As we see it, the club face numbers are the result of a specific combination of body, arm and wrist movements that together make up the swing. When we work with a player, we focus on modifying those specific movements to change what the club face does to get the result we want – proper ball flight. We have found that K-Coach 3D is a highly effective tool that helps players achieve better ball flight by adjusting club face and a number of other launch and impact parameters.
The 3D toolbox
As we share the information we use to change club face, keep in mind that because of all the variability in golf, this information is meant to be used as a toolbox and not a recipe. The key is to find the right combination of tools to achieve your goals.
In the K-Coach 3D toolbox for club face, we have several tools to influence the club face at impact. These are:
• Bend.
• Side bend.
• Rotation of the pelvis and torso.
• Wrist flexion/extension.
• Radial/ulnar deviation of the wrists.
By adjusting each of these elements as discussed below, individually or in combination, you can achieve the desired effect on the club face.
Club face too open
If the club face is too open and you want it to be more closed at impact, you can:
• Add pelvis and/or upper body bend.
• Decrease pelvis and/or upper body side bend.
• Decrease pelvis and/or upper body rotation.
• Add wrist flexion.
Club face too closed
If the club face is too closed and you want it to be more open at impact, you can:
• Decrease pelvis and/or upper body bend.
• Increase pelvis and/or upper body side bend.
• Increase pelvis and/or upper body rotation.
• Decrease wrist flexion.
Seeing it
If you have a K-Coach or K-Player handy, the best way to see how these factors influence the club face is to follow these steps:
1. Go into Train mode.
2. Load the Expert Full Body at Impact activity.
3. Change a factor, and watch the numbers move.
How to train
To train, we suggest picking one variable to start with. Focus on that variable with a simple biofeedback drill until you have it down. Then, move onto the next variable and a corresponding biofeedback drill.
The activities we suggest using are:
• Full Body Bend at Impact.
• Full Body Side Bend at Impact.
• Rotation at Impact.
• Flexion/Extension at Impact.
Pick a drill, load it, and get into the position that creates the tone — or get as close as you can. Set Live to save your position. Find what works for you, and stick with it.
Having a concrete set of tools to use to change club face at impact has helped our games and the games of the players we work with — at all ages and levels of play. We hope it helps you too.