Chris Ries: Hello everyone, my name is Chris Ries. I'm one of the teaching professionals here at TopGolf located in Alexandria, Virginia. And we're here today working on your golf game, more specifically the long game and your full swing. Now we're going to discuss the difference between your Long Irons, your Hybrids and your Fairway Woods, and how to hit them that's much more consistently.

In the first one is the 4-Iron, very difficult to hit. Next is a Hybrid much easier to hit than a Long Iron. Next is a Fairway Wood, certainly still easier to hit than a Long Iron but more difficult to hit than a Hybrid. So let's talk specifically now about the 4-Iron. As the golf club gets longer, I will physically be further away from the golf ball and you should be. So we get into our posture and our stance, ball position is now critical. Have the golf ball about one ball forward or towards my left foot and my stance then from directly in the middle, with this will help us and ensure is that the golf club will still be moving down, as I get to the golf ball to create backspin to get the ball airborne. One of the biggest problems is the player will want to try and help the golf ball up in the air. What that's going to produce is a top-spin, and guess what the ball is going to dive into the ground.

Next is the Hybrid, the reason these golf clubs have become so popular over the years once again is by the design of the head. This is a 4-Iron replacement. So this Hybrid has the same law of does my 4-Iron, but because of the design where they've put weight behind the face of the golf club and try to get it as low as possible, well that changes the center of gravity and helps to get the golf ball up in the air. Also with a much wider sole or bottom of the club, I can hit a little bit behind the ball as this golf club is on a descending blow, and still kind of get away with it. It will help the club sort of skip across the ground if I hit a little behind it. The ball position should be almost identical to the 4-Iron, because these are almost exactly the same in the length. Now we're going to discuss the Three-Wood, the Three-Wood is much longer in length as compared to your Hybrid and your 4-Iron. What that's going to facilitate is me having to make sure that I have the ball slightly more forward or towards my left foot, then with the other two clubs. So the ball position with my 4-Iron and hybrid would be right about here. And now I want to make very small stutter steps back, moving the ball slightly more up in my stance.

Now what we have is for as an angle of attack, is I still need to have the golf club moving down as I get so the ball. But because the ball position is so much more forward it has the feeling of being more of a sweeping action. If I get the ball to far forward with my Fairway Woods, the golf club has stopped moving down, and it will never get airborne. So now let's put all this information to use in our golf swing. Once again you can see how that 4-Iron and the Hybrid basically the same length, so I'm going to have the same ball position. I've got the Three-Wood that I'm going to hit last, and you can see how that ball is-- one ball slightly forward of the other two balls. Good rhythm and good balance. Next is the Hybrid, ball position the same as with the 4-Iron, the Three-Wood. Those tips will go a long way to help and improve your consistency and accuracy with your Long Irons, Fairway Woods and Hybrids.