Welcome to Day 5 of the "9 Days to Amazing Ball Striking" series. Today you're going to learn how to add loft to the club and hit higher-trajectory golf shots that land softly on the green.
This skill becomes invaluable when you're playing on firm or fast greens, where a low, penetrating trajectory causes the ball to roll off the back edge. Sometimes you need additional loft to get the ball to hold the putting surface on landing.
The high shot is equally essential when you face a tucked pin. If there's a bunker guarding the front of the green and the flag is positioned directly behind it, a higher trajectory brings the ball in at a much steeper descent angle — allowing it to hold the green and finish close to the hole.
On Day 4, you learned how to deloft the club head for low, penetrating compression shots. Today we reverse that technique and add loft. However, unlike some of the earlier drills where we exaggerated everything dramatically, we're only going to add a small amount of loft. A little goes a very long way with trajectory control.
Most golfers already tend to present too much loft at impact, so many of you will find this particular exercise fairly intuitive.
Step 1: Keeping the Wrist Flat Through Impact
As always, we begin by working with just the left arm and hand — isolating the wrist mechanics before adding the club.
Set up in your simulated impact position, just as you have throughout this series. Get into neutral joint alignment with your weight on your left heel. Your hip, ankle, and shoulder should all be stacked vertically.
Make your backswing movement as though you're turning to shake someone's hand. Keep the left wrist nice and flat — exactly as it was in yesterday's compression drill.
Now swing forward, and instead of letting the left wrist bow to deloft the club face, you're going to keep the wrist perfectly flat all the way down into impact.
The logo of your glove will face directly forward toward the target. By maintaining this flat wrist position, you're using the natural designed loft of the club to produce a higher trajectory.
Complete 20 repetitions of Step 1 with just the left hand — swinging back, swinging down, keeping the glove logo facing forward toward the target. This grooves the sensation of preserving loft rather than removing it.
Once you've finished your 20 reps, grab a club and progress to Step 2.
Step 2: Mini Swings With the Impact Bag
By now you know the pattern — Step 2 is making mini swings into the impact bag with the left hand only.
As you swing down, focus on keeping your left wrist flat — not bowed forward like yesterday. Look down at the club head and verify it's nice and square at impact.
If you find that your club face isn't square at impact, remember the skills from the first few days of this series. You can adjust by rotating your wrist either clockwise or counter-clockwise through your swing, depending on whether the face needs to be more open or closed.
Once you've established the correct motion with a square club face at impact, complete 20 repetitions with the impact bag.
Preset your weight on the left, bring your arm back to waist height with the left wrist flat — maintaining the club's natural loft rather than delofting — and swing down into the bag. Do that 20 times, then progress to Step 3. If you want instant feedback on your wrist position at impact, try a free AI golf lesson that tracks your hand mechanics in real time.
Step 3: Hitting Over the Noodle
Now you're ready to return to the noodle setup from Day 4. Last time, you delofted the face to hit the ball under the noodle. Today you'll preserve the club's natural loft and hit the ball over it.
Start from approximately 15 feet away using an 8 iron. The noodle should be set up roughly waist high as your baseline target height.
Repeat the movements from the drill. As you swing through, picture both the glove logo and the club face pointing up at the sky during your follow through.
The sensation will feel very similar to what you experienced when learning to work the ball left-to-right for a fade.
Verify that your left hand stays nice and flat at impact. Don't let the wrist bow forward at all — that would remove loft and defeat the purpose of this drill.
Hit a few mini shots with your left arm only, trying to clear the noodle. You're aiming for a straight ball flight, so make the necessary adjustments if the ball starts too far left or right.
You don't want to hit a slice here — you simply want to add trajectory height to the shot while maintaining directional control.
Hit the ball over the noodle 20 times, then you're ready for full swings.
Step 4: Full Swings for Higher Trajectory
Just as you did on Day 4, begin by hitting a couple of normal shots so you can observe your standard trajectory and establish a reference point.
Pick out a cloud or landmark on the horizon at the peak of your normal ball flight, then hit some full shots attempting to fly the ball 50% higher than that reference point.
Push for maximum height — really try to get the ball climbing.
Verify that your left wrist stays perfectly flat through the ball. As you swing through impact, your wrist and the club head should be pointing upward, giving you that extra height and soft landing angle.
Once you're consistently getting the ball about half again as high as your normal trajectory, complete 20 full swings at this height. You can also use a free AI swing analysis to compare your impact position on high shots versus low shots — the differences are immediately visible.
What's Coming Next
You now have four powerful shot shapes in your arsenal — you can hit a big hook or a big slice, and you know how to hit the ball very high and very low.
On Day 6, we'll begin the process of refining these techniques and bringing them under precise control.
You'll learn to tone down these exaggerated movements, shape shots deliberately, and play a game designed to develop increasingly subtle control — hitting the ball just a little higher or lower than normal, or producing a tiny fade or draw on command.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
Turn back to shake hands
Wrist bowed (above), flat (below)
Left wrist stays flat
Take your arm back to waist height, then keep the wrist flat all the way through impact
Logo & face point up
Hit over the noodle
Full swing
