Stop Flipping At Impact: 3 Simple Swing Solutions

Many golfers, especially those new to the game, often make the same assumption: they believe their hands need to help lift the ball into the air. As a result, they tend to flip their wrists through impact, relying on what feels natural to them. They then wonder why their playing partners are hitting shots that have a penetrating flight and travel farther, yet land more softly on the green.

Having a basic understanding of what correct impact looks and feels like can greatly benefit these golfers. With just a few practice sessions focused on these principles of good impact, they can achieve significant distance gains and a dramatically improved ball flight.

When flipping costs you the most distance and control

Early release and scooping? This flipping motion causes the club to create a weak, ascending blow, which prevents proper compression of the ball. Essentially, you’re trying to lift the ball instead of striking down and forward, resulting in a loss of power and control over spin.

Trying to help the ball up? While this feels natural, actively lifting with your hands destroys the descending blow needed for crisp iron contact. You can’t compress the ball properly when you’re flipping the clubhead past your hands before impact.

Inconsistent hand action from shot to shot? Even if your flip isn’t severe, wild variations in release timing mean you never optimize impact. Some shots work, others don’t, and you never know which strike pattern you’re going to get.

Fear of hitting down on the ball? When golfers worry about hitting the ground or taking divots, their hands instinctively flip to avoid contact. This destroys proper impact dynamics and turns potential compression into weak, ascending blows.

Solution #1: Master the setup that prevents flipping

Your address position largely determines your impact position before you even start moving. Most golfers set up in ways that make flipping almost inevitable.

Weight distribution: Start with 60 percent of your weight on your lead foot with irons. This forward weight bias helps you stay ahead of the ball through impact, rather than falling back and flipping.

Hand position: Your hands should be slightly ahead of the ball at address, creating a straight line from your lead shoulder down to the clubhead. This forward shaft lean is what you want to return to at impact.

Ball position: With mid-irons, position the ball just ahead of center in your stance. Too far forward encourages flipping as you try to reach the ball. Too far back makes it difficult to achieve proper compression.

Spine angle: Maintain your posture with a slight tilt away from the target. This helps you swing down and through the ball rather than up at it, preventing the flip that destroys compression.

Solution #2: The downswing sequence that eliminates flipping

Your transition from backswing to downswing determines whether you can maintain lag and compress the ball or have to flip to make contact.

Lower body leads: Start the downswing with a slight bump of your hips toward the target. This lateral move helps you stay ahead of the ball and prevents the backward lean that causes flipping.

Maintain the angle: Keep the angle between your lead arm and the club shaft as long as possible. This lag is what creates the descending blow and compression you’re looking for.

Hands stay quiet: Your hands should feel passive through the hitting zone. The power comes from your body rotation, not from active hand manipulation of the clubhead.

Impact position: At impact, your hands should be ahead of the ball with the shaft leaning toward the target. Your weight should be firmly on your lead side and your hips should be open to the target.

Solution #3: The follow-through that proves proper impact

Many golfers focus so much on the moment of impact that they forget how a proper follow-through both indicates and reinforces correct ball striking.

Extended arms: After impact, both arms should extend down the target line before folding. If you’re flipping, your arms will collapse immediately after contact, robbling you of power and accuracy.

Chest facing target: Your chest should rotate through to face the target in your finish. If your body rotation slows moving into impact, you are far more likely to flip with your hands. Knowing that you need to get your chest facing the target will help you continue to rotate through.

Balanced finish: You should be able to hold your finish position comfortably. Flippers often fall backward or struggle to maintain balance because their impact position is so poor.

Divot pattern: With proper impact, your divots should start at the ball and extend forward. Flippers either take no divot or hit behind the ball, clear evidence of their ascending strike pattern.

What actually creates effortless compression

Many golfers believe they need to hit down harder on the ball to achieve compression. This thinking is opposite to what actually creates penetrating ball flight.

Proper sequencing enables the club to compress the ball naturally without conscious effort. When your lower body leads and your hands stay passive, you create the lag and forward shaft lean that automatically produces crisp contact.

A correct impact position allows this compression to happen naturally without any manipulation or flipping action.

Start with impact position drills first

Avoid trying to groove the new impact position at full speed. Begin with slow-motion swings, focusing solely on achieving the proper impact position with hands ahead and shaft leaning forward.

Practice hitting balls with a shortened backswing, concentrating on maintaining lag and avoiding any flip through the hitting zone. Get comfortable with how it feels when the ball compresses against the clubface with a descending blow.

Many golfers attempt to adjust their impact position during full swings. This never works because speed masks the feelings you need to learn and old habits take over under pressure.

The ball-striking improvement you can expect

Achieving a proper impact position not only adds lost carry distance on irons but it also dramatically improves trajectory control. Your shots will fly with a more penetrating flight and land with more spin, giving you much better control around the greens.

Mastering the correct impact position means you’ll never have to help the ball into the air again. More importantly, you’ll finally have that penetrating ball flight that separates good players from great ones, making approach shots and scoring much more consistent and predictable.

The key is understanding that the loft of the club gets the ball airborne. Your job is to compress it with a descending blow. Once you stop flipping and start compressing, you’ll wonder why you ever thought you needed to help the ball up in the first place.

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