Shaft Before Clubface
By Michael P. Hebron
There is a good chance that many questions about inconsistent golf could be satisfied with accurate
insights about the principle of shaft before clubface through impact. For some golfers these insights
will be profound in their consequences for a powerful on-line ball flight.
What happens through impact is fundamental to consistency and if the shaft of a golf club (any club)
is not traveling through impact before the clubface, there is a good chance golfers will not be happy
with the result of their swing. There are some short game and other specialty shots that are the
exception to the principle of shaft before clubface; in those cases letting the clubface pass the shaft
would be the most efficient way to play the shot at hand. But swinging the shaft of a golf club through
impact before the clubface answers many questions about inconsistent ball flight from fairways and
tees.
Some golfers may not realize that golf club shafts are designed on angles that come up from the
ground angled forward of the clubface. The shaft is designed to be leaning forward, with the grip end
in front of the clubface. For most shots in golf, golfers should swing the club through impact—shaft
before clubface! It may help improve inconsistencies to focus more on pulling the entire shaft (all 34”
to 44” depending on the club) through impact, rather than focusing on the club head.
Other visualizations that may help golfers accomplish the all-important principle of shaft before clubface
through impact are:
Have the feeling that your hands, your right shoulder, and the club shaft are all swinging down
plane through impact at the same pace or rate of motion.
Try replacing the often-used swing thought of “one and two” with the feeling of a long one
count. Try feeling a swing that has the same pace of swing from start to finish.
Shaft before clubhead, is a fundamental that often gets overlooked by golfers
who are focusing on how to move their bodies.
I have found it more useful to focus on what you want to do with the golf club’s shaft, head, and face
(which depends on the shot at hand), than focusing on how to move one’s body. By finding your own
best way of keeping the clubface behind the shaft, and avoiding tips from your well-meaning friends
about how to move your body (tips that are always changing), you can accomplish several
fundamentals of consistent golf.
Note: Golf clubs are designed for correct impact alignments. In golf swings that apply force to the ball
efficiently, that shaft does not swing past the left arm of left wrist joint through impact. The shaft goes
in line with the left arm through impact (not past it) when the principle of shaft before clubface is being
applied.
Copyright Michael Hebron, Learning Golf, Inc. 2007, all rights reserved
