First of all, let’s understand why we hit the ball thin as there are many reasons. However; I’ll focus on the top 3 causes that I have seen throughout my golfing career while conducting lessons:
1. Standing up in the downswing or coming out of posture
2. Flipping the golf club or casting in the downswing
3. Poor ball position in the golf set up
I find the best way to cure someone from hitting it thin is first get their body into a better posture and maintain that posture throughout the swing (at least through impact). However; before we started taking full swings to fix the problem, I like to have my students to utilize the clock in reference to their body. For example: The head is 12 O’clock, the feet are 6 O’clock and for RH golfers back hip is 9 and front hip is 3 O’clock (LH would be the opposite). I would have my students start out with a 8 to 4 swing while keeping the hands around of the clubface; which in turn prevents casting.
Once they have successfully hit a number of solid chip shots (ball in the air and straight), I increase the swing to 9 to 3 and again maintaining the hands ahead of the clubface. After a short period of time, the student becomes very comfortable with this drill and is hitting the ball in the air repeatedly and straight. Once that occurs and only when that occurs do I then increase the length of the swing to 10 to 2 while again keeping hands ahead of the clubface through impact. Please note that with all the different swing lengths, the student is only swinging at a 60% capacity so they can feel the swing; which will help them to repeat it over and over again.