Clive Scarff - Hit Down Dammit! (The Key to Golf)

"...the more Istudy your program the more I realize that you have created amasterpiece. David Arbelaez,California

"Clive hastaught thousands of golf lessons, and his teaching methods, alongwith his passion for the game, come through loud and clear in "HitDown Dammit!" Chris Hood, Canadian PGA,Past President, BC PGA

Hit Down Dammit! will be like being hit by lightning for manygolfers
Andrew Whiley, HeadProfessional, Chisholm Park GC, New Zealand

What a nice,simple way you have of conceptualizing what the club head isdoing... The swing move you describe so extremely well isunderstandable, and what is more, it works when properlyapplied." Dr. David Lubin,Georgia

I have only had[Hit Down Dammit!] for a couple of weeks and I can't believe thedifference it has made to my game. I can't believe it!! Awesome! Ihave been singing your praises. AngelHernandez, California

Hit DownDammit!

By Clive Scarff

Published by Thornhill Press

Smashwords Edition

Copyright Clive Scarff

Distance, Accuracy, &Consistency in Golf can never be achieved until you understandthe principle of hitting down.

A MUST FOR BEGINNERS, VITAL FORANY GOLFER STRUGGLING TO IMPROVE

The concept and technique ofhitting down at the golf ball for improved ballstriking, accuracy, distance, and backspin.

Thornhill Press

www.thornhillpress.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this book may bereproduced in any form or by and electronic or mechanical meansincluding information storage and retrieval systems withoutpermission in writing from the publisher.

ELECTRONIC EDITION: 2011,Canada

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADACATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Clive Scarff

Hit Down Dammit! / CliveScarff

I. Golf Instruction II. GolfTheory III. Golf Tips

ISBN 978-0-9781940-6-2 Electronic Format (PDF/ePub)

www.thornhillpress.com Hit DownDammit! DVDs available at www.hitdowndammit.com

Welcome to Hit Down Dammit! What you are aboutto learn is not new. It is effectively the central ingredient ofthe golf swing and has been since before the hickory shaft.However, for reasons we can only guess, this key ingredient seemsto have become one of the game's biggest secrets. It shouldn'tbe.

The secret is simple. In orderto hit a good golf shot you must hit down at the ball. You willsoon see why, without a clear knowledge and understanding of thisprinciple, almost any other worthwhile instruction or swing theoryis rendered useless. And, why even endless hours of practice yieldineffective results.

You will seehow a proper understanding of hitting down makes all worthwhileinstruction begin to make far more sense, and become much easier toexecute, and to memorize. As well, you will see that with thisunderstanding it becomes much easier to weed out the misleading,hackneyed, old clichs of golf instruction that over 500 yearsafter the games inception continue to permeate throughout the golfworld, and stymie even the most dedicated students of the game. So,open your mind, grab a club, and join me as we learn to Hit Down Dammit!

Clive Scarff

Golf is a difficult game. Yetto so many of the uninitiated it might seem incredibly simple. Theobjective is to strike a ball... that is just sitting there. Howtough can it be? It's not like baseball, or tennis, where the ballis moving as we attempt to make contact with it. It's not likehockey where someone is trying to knock you down, and if it is,rethinking your choice of foursome should perhaps be the biggerpriority. Why is it then, in golf, that this stationary ball is sodifficult to hit? Why do we miss it completely at times? Golf isdifficult, deceptively so, due to our perception of how to get theball airborne. We want the ball to go up, and our naturalinclination is to hit up at it. However, we need to hit down.

Part of this initial deceptionlies in the fact the ball is round, and our clubface is lofted(angled back). On first look it might appear that our goal is toslide the lofted clubhead under the ball, striking its lower halfon the upswing, and thus driving - or lifting - the ball into theair. However, it is critical to note that the golf club has notbeen designed to get under the ball to lift it. It has beendesigned to strike the ball as the clubhead is descending, on thedownswing.

The face of the club willcontact the surface of the golf ball just prior to reaching thebottom of the swing arc. As a result the ball becomes trappedbetween the descending clubface and the ground. The ballcompresses. Because the face of the clubhead is lofted, the ballwill - rather than be driven into the ground as a downward hitmight imply - spin backwards up the clubface, decompress (addingenergy to its escape) and climb into the air. The angle at whichthe ball climbs (trajectory) will be directly related to the loftof the club we have chosen for the shot.

Unfortunately, until thetechnicalities of hitting down are fully explained, hitting upseems, on the surface, more logical. If we want something to go up,we tend to hit up at it. If I gave you a tennis ball and a racket,and asked you to hit the ball up into the air, what would you do?You would lower your racket and strike up at the tennis ball. Andthe tennis ball would go up. It's logical. So why wouldn't it belogical in golf too? Certainly on the surface anyway - hittingdown at something you want to go up is not logical. While thehitting up approach might appear to be more logical, let's look atthe downside of such a strategy as it relates to the golfswing.

Hitting up requires strikingthe lower half of a small object that is situated below you. Theportion of the ball we are aiming for is usually sitting on theground. In grass. All too often, long grass. So, if attempting tohit up at the ball, here is your first question:

Do you want to:

(1) Hit the ground beforehitting the ball?

or...

(2) Miss the groundaltogether?

Hitting the ground before theball (hitting fat) has a couple of significant negative physicaleffects, as well as corresponding negative mental effects.

First, hitting the ground priorto hitting the ball will significantly slow the clubhead down. Itis worth noting: clubhead speed is directly related to distance.Anything we do that causes the clubhead to slow down willunavoidably cost us in terms of distance.

CLUBHEAD SPEED = DISTANCE

Second, hitting the groundprematurely will also alter the angle of the clubface at impact,minimizing any chance of it returning to square to produce astraight shot.

Contact with the golf ballafter bottoming out (hitting the ground) means the club will berising at impact. This makes it very unlikely you will be able tohit the lower half of the ball. Indeed it is far more likely youwill strike the mid portion or upper half of the ball with: