Every golfer wants to achieve a powerful impact position. When your body is positioned just right, and the Club is delivered with plenty of speed, you can send the ball impressive distances toward your target.

Of course, if it was easy, everyone would do it. This is a hard game and getting to a solid impact position is a serious challenge.

One of the leading issues that stops golfers from getting to a good impact position is known as the ‘flip.’ Even if you aren’t familiar with this term, the underlying issue might be standing in your way as you strive for improved play.

In this article, we’ll define the flip, talk about why it might be happening, and help you look for some solutions.

How Do You Know You’re Flipping?

There are two telltale signs to watch for if you think you might be flipping the club during your downswing. While you can look for this mistake on video, you might not even need to go that far.

#1 The Slice

This is the classic sign of a flip. If you are slicing the ball regularly, it’s likely that you have some degree of a flip move in your golf swing.

The flip tends to put the club to the outside of the intended swing path, leading the player to cut across the ball when swinging through the hitting area.

#2 A Lack of Power

Do you hit the ball significantly shorter than your playing partners, despite relatively similar physical capabilities? If you can’t seem to figure out why you struggle to generate much power, you might find that a flip is to blame.

What is “Flipping” Really?

To understand the flip, and why it is a problem, you first need to understand how your golf swing is supposed to work as the club heads down toward the ball.

As you swing down toward impact, your hands should be leading the club head. In other words, the club head should be lagging behind the position of the hands, building speed gradually so maximum power can be unleashed at the last possible moment. Players who have good ‘lag’ in the downswing form a significant angle between their lead arm and the shaft of the club on the way down. If you watch a slo-mo video of a professional golfer making a swing, you’ll notice this lag all the way into impact.

Unfortunately, many amateur golfers struggle to hold onto this angle deep into the downswing. Many players give up the angle by ‘flipping’ their hands early in the downswing – maybe even as soon as the transition from the backswing to the downswing.

If you let your hands get too active early in the downswing, you will give away the angle and waste much of the potential power you could have used at impact.

Some Possible Causes of Flipping

It’s hard to pin down exactly why golfers flip the club during the transition or downswing. For some, it’s likely nothing more than a misunderstanding of what they are trying to do with the club. For others, even if they know what they are trying to do, it just feels impossible to make it happen.

Understanding why the flip is popping up in your game is important, so let’s look at some possibilities. As you review the list below, think about your own swing in an effort to figure out where things are going wrong.

#1 Rushing the Swing

This is a big one, and it’s quite likely that at least some of your issues with the flip are related to being in a rush to hit the ball.

As the swing develops, some players feel like they need to hurry all the way through to the end. When that feeling sets in, it’s likely that your hands will get involved and force the club to move quickly down toward impact. This hand action is what creates a flip, and you end up dragging the club through the ball.

If you can convince yourself that there is no need to rush, which there isn’t, you might be less inclined to flip the club.

#2 A Poor Grip

If the fundamentals of your grip are incorrect, you might feel like you need to flip the club to keep control over the downswing. If you re-grip the club during the transition, you might wind up flipping it as part of that move.

Go back to the basics on your grip technique to iron out this issue and keep your hands firmly in place from start to finish.

#3 Trying to Hit the Ball too Hard

Ironically, attempting to hit the ball extra hard can lead to a flip move. It feels like a powerful action to flip the club from the top using your hands, but that just isn’t the case. You’ll actually be wasting speed too early in the swing, and you won’t be able to recover that speed to use it when impact does arrive.

It’s fine to make an aggressive swing, but keep in mind that the rotation of your body is what is going to create speed, not the action of your hands.

A Helpful Drill to Stop Flipping

For a right-handed golfer, one good way to work away from the issue of flipping the club is to make some practice swings with the left arm only. When you make one-armed swings with your non-dominant arm, you’ll find that you have to rely on your body to move the club, rather than just your hand. As such, it’s unlikely that you will flip the club at any point during the downswing.

During your next visit to the range, try making a few practice swings with only your lead arm. Then, put both hands back on the club and hit a few shots. Hopefully, if you are able to carry over the feeling from the practice swings into the real swings, you’ll start to erase the flip and generate more and more speed through the hitting area.

Cover Photo by Erik Brolin on Unsplash