Welcome to Day 8 of the "9 Days to Amazing Ball Striking" series. Today we're going to fine-tune your trajectory control — moving beyond the extremes and into the precision that separates good ball strikers from great ones.
On Days 4 and 5, you learned how to hit the ball very low and very high. Now we're going to execute a drill that mirrors actual on-course scenarios. You'll hit each shot progressively a little lower, then a little higher — developing the subtle adjustments that give you complete command over your ball flight.
We'll also discuss using ball position to fine-tune your trajectory even further.
Use Your Normal Trajectory as a Reference Point
Start by hitting a few regular shots to identify your normal trajectory. Find a reference point on the sky or horizon to mark the peak of your standard ball flight, and then you can begin making precise adjustments from there.
You're going to hit a series of shots at progressively different heights. Each time you successfully execute the specified shot, move on to the next one in the sequence. When you've completed the full list, that's one round.
Here's the sequence: hit one ball at your normal trajectory. Then hit one 15% lower, one 30% lower, one 15% lower, then return to a normal ball flight. Then go higher: 15% higher, 30% higher, 15% higher, and back to neutral again.
That's one complete round. You're going to work through three full rounds in total.
As you'll recall from the earlier ball flight lessons, the left hand controls loft and the direction of the club face. The right arm and right hand play a more passive role — the right arm is primarily there for speed. At this stage, we're focusing on left-hand wrist mechanics to dial in trajectory.
Start Low: Bow the Wrist for Penetrating Shots
Hit your first shot, targeting 15% lower than your normal trajectory.
If your first attempt doesn't go low enough, recall the technique from Day 4: you hit low by turning the glove logo toward the ground and bowing your left wrist forward to deloft the club face.
As you can see in the photo, bowing the wrist creates significant forward shaft lean, which delofts the club and produces a lower, more penetrating ball flight.
Watch the trajectory of your shots carefully, then adjust your wrist position accordingly. The results may surprise you.
It may feel like you're bowing your left wrist dramatically, but if the ball is still climbing too high, you'll need to exaggerate the movement further — bowing more and more until you achieve the target trajectory.
Trust the ball flight, not your feelings. Watch each shot and adjust your swing based on what you actually see.
Keep working until you successfully produce a shot that's 15% lower than your normal trajectory, then progress to 30% lower, back to 15% lower, and then return to a normal ball flight.
Now Go High: Keep the Wrist Flat
To produce higher trajectory, you'll simply reverse the approach. Instead of bowing the glove logo toward the ground, you're going to keep the left wrist perfectly flat through impact.
However, resist the temptation to cup the wrist through impact.
Cupping the wrist causes you to flip the club, allowing the ball to simply roll up the face. When that happens, you lose both compression and trajectory control entirely.
For your highest trajectory, simply keep your left wrist flat so you preserve the full designed loft of the club — nothing more.
The only time you would ever cup the wrist during a golf shot is if you faced a very tall obstacle like a tree and had no alternative but to add extreme loft. That's strictly a last-resort recovery shot.
Practice until you hit one shot 15% higher than normal, then 30% higher, back to 15%, and finish the drill with another normal trajectory shot.
As you work through this sequence, remember that if the ball starts to slice or fade, you already have the tools to correct it. Simply roll your left hand to the left or right as you learned on Days 2 and 3.
Combine both skills together — maintaining a straight ball flight while executing your trajectory control adjustments. If you want instant visual feedback on your wrist position at impact, try a free AI golf lesson that tracks your mechanics in real time.
Ball Position: The Third Trajectory Control
One element we haven't yet addressed in this series is ball position — your third tool for trajectory manipulation.
As you know, the standard ball position for an iron shot is off the logo of your shirt or your left ear. The reason: the bottom of your swing arc — the deepest point of your divot — falls roughly under your left shoulder with any club you're hitting off the ground.
You want the ball positioned slightly behind that low point so you can strike down and through the golf ball with a descending blow.
If you're trying to hit a lower shot, you can move the ball back slightly in your stance — especially when attempting a 30% reduction or a stinger shot. Moving it back helps you strike down more aggressively, producing a genuinely low ball flight.
But there is a critical limit. No matter how low you're trying to hit the ball, never move it more than one ball width back from your standard position.
The One Ball Width Rule
As you can see in the photo, placing the ball extremely far back in your stance causes the club head to approach on a dramatically steep angle during the downswing.
It's virtually impossible to hit two solid shots in a row with the club descending that steeply. The angle is simply too vertical for consistent ball striking.
You'll find yourself manipulating the club, flipping at the bottom, or raising up through impact. There's no predicting how many compensations you'd need to make to shallow out that excessively steep swing plane.
Another problem becomes visible from the down-the-line view. The club doesn't travel toward the target in a straight line — it swings around your body in an arc from inside, to square, then back to inside.
We frequently see golfers move the ball extremely far back in an effort to produce lower and lower shots — sometimes positioning it almost off their back foot.
Not only does this create the excessively steep approach we just discussed, it also means the club is still traveling outward to the right — because it hasn't reached the square portion of its arc yet. The club is still coming from inside.
Now you'd need to make a cascade of compensations just to straighten out the shot — turning one simple adjustment into a complex, unrepeatable manipulation.
When moving the ball back to lower your trajectory, never take it more than one ball width from your standard position.
The same rule applies when moving the ball forward to raise your trajectory, for the exact same reasons. Never move the ball more than one ball width forward of your normal position.
Moving too far forward makes the swing plane too shallow, producing thin shots. You'll also be swinging to the left through impact, requiring yet another set of compensations.
Tomorrow: The Ultimate Ball Striking Test
Work through the trajectory sequence outlined above — three complete rounds of progressively lower, then higher, then neutral shots.
Tomorrow is Day 9 — the culmination of this entire series. You'll learn the same drill that elite tour professionals use to master all nine ball flights.
This final exercise will reveal your true strengths and weaknesses, giving you a concrete score that tracks your progress over time and shows you exactly what to work on to continue improving your ball striking. You can also get a free AI swing analysis to see how your overall mechanics compare to the elite model.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
Trajectory drill
Trajectory drill
Keep the wrist flat
The swing arc bottoms out under the left shoulder
Much too far back
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One ball width
