How to Stop Flipping at Impact (and Shallow the Club Naturally)

Why Flipping Happens in the First Place

If you’re losing power and seeing weak, high shots that curve off line, odds are you’re flipping the club at impact.

“Flipping” happens when your wrists release too early—often as a reaction to poor sequence or steep swing plane.

The clubhead passes your hands before impact, creating inconsistent contact, loss of shaft lean, and that scooping motion that kills compression.

Most players don’t flip because they want to. It’s a compensation move—your body senses the club’s too steep, so you add loft or throw the clubhead to square it.

The problem is, it ruins face control. To fix it, you don’t “hold the angle” harder—you change the motion that causes the early release in the first place.

A flip is a symptom, not the disease. The root cause is usually one of these three things:

1. Steep downswing path: The club attacks too vertically, forcing you to flip to avoid digging.
2. Lack of lower-body rotation: The chest stalls and the hands overtake the body.
3. Poor wrist sequence: The trail wrist extends (flips) instead of maintaining flex and rotation through impact.

The goal isn’t to “fix” the flip—it’s to make your swing shallow and sequence naturally so the flip can’t happen.

How to Shallow the Club Naturally

You’ve probably seen pros drop the club “into the slot” on the downswing while their trail elbow stays tucked and the shaft shallows behind them. This motion allows them to rotate through impact with forward shaft lean—no flipping required.

To shallow naturally, think less about manipulating the club and more about setting up the chain reaction:

• Start the downswing with your lower body. Your hips bump slightly toward the target and begin rotating open. This shift creates space for the trail arm to drop inside instead of casting over the top.
• Keep your trail wrist bent (extended) and lead wrist flat as you start down. This maintains the lag angle between your forearm and the shaft automatically.
• Feel the clubhead drop behind your hands, not above them. If the club gets too steep early, it’s nearly impossible to shallow later without a flip.
• Rotate your torso through impact. The more your body keeps turning, the longer the club can stay trailing your hands. Stalling rotation is the #1 trigger for flipping.

One powerful drill: take slow-motion half-swings focusing on sequence. Let your hips start first, your hands drop second, and your chest rotate last. Feel the weight shift forward and the club glide through impact with the handle leading. You’ll hear that compressed “thump” when you get it right.

Drills to Train Forward Shaft Lean

If you want to eliminate flipping, you need to feel what proper shaft lean and body rotation actually do at impact. Trying to consciously “hold” lag never works — it creates tension and ruins tempo. Instead, use drills that let your body naturally discover the right positions.

1. The Impact Fix Drill
Set up with your normal 7-iron, then push your hands slightly ahead of the ball at address so the shaft leans toward the target. You’ll notice the handle forward, trail wrist bent, and lead wrist flat — that’s your impact position. Now, without swinging, press the club gently into the turf to feel how the hands lead and the clubhead lags behind. Take small half-swings returning to this position. Your goal is to recreate this shape through the ball, not after it.

2. The 9-to-3 Drill
Take waist-high backswings (club parallel to the ground) and rotate through to a waist-high finish. Focus on keeping your hands ahead of the clubhead through impact. This helps you feel connection between rotation, forward lean, and solid compression. Start slow and smooth. When done correctly, you’ll see the ball launch lower and feel heavier contact — that’s real compression.

3. The Towel Drill
Place a small towel about two inches behind the ball. Your goal is to strike the ball without touching the towel. Flippers hit the towel first; proper ball-strikers miss it completely because their hands are forward and their low point is ahead of the ball. This drill instantly teaches you to hit down and through instead of flipping up.

Each of these drills rewires your impact awareness. The more you train forward shaft lean, the more your body naturally adjusts to create it — no manipulation required.

How to Feel Lag Without Forcing It

Lag isn’t something you “hold.” It’s a natural byproduct of good sequence and width. The more your arms and body work together, the more effortless lag you’ll have.

Here’s how to feel it correctly:

• Start with soft wrists at the top. Tension kills lag. Loose wrists let the clubhead fall naturally as you start down.
• Let gravity drop the club. Don’t pull it — simply start the downswing with your lower body bump and let the arms follow.
• Keep your trail wrist bent through impact. This maintains angle until the last moment, giving you compression instead of scoop.
• Focus on body rotation, not hand action. The more your chest turns through the ball, the less your hands need to flip.

A great visual is thinking about “dragging the handle” past the ball with your pivot. Your body rotation pulls the club through, not your hands throwing it.

Tour players often describe the sensation as releasing through rotation, not wrists. When you train that move, lag stops being something you chase — it becomes a natural product of a synced, shallow, rotational motion.

Read Next: How to Stop Pulling Golf Shots Left

Common Mistakes When Trying to Fix the Flip

When golfers first try to fix a flip, they often make it worse by overcorrecting. The instinct is to “hold the angle” longer or “keep the hands forward,” but those thoughts usually create tension and block rotation. That tension ruins sequence — the very thing you’re trying to fix.

Here are the most common mistakes to avoid:

1. Holding lag artificially. Trying to keep your wrists cocked longer causes a stall in your pivot. The club then whips past your hands at the last second — the classic flip. Lag must be created by proper body sequence, not hand manipulation.
2. Stiff lead wrist at setup. Some players try to preset massive forward shaft lean at address, thinking it’ll help them compress the ball. In reality, this steepens your swing path and leads to chunks and thins. Let shaft lean happen dynamically through movement, not by locking in angles early.
3. Not shifting pressure forward. If your weight hangs back during the downswing, the club bottoms out too early, forcing you to flip to reach the ball. Feel pressure move into your lead side before impact — that’s how you naturally deliver the handle ahead.
4. Over-rotating the arms. Many players hear “shallow the club” and immediately roll their forearms open in transition. That move flattens the shaft artificially and sends the face wide open, creating slices or hooks. True shallowing happens from the body and elbow movement, not an exaggerated hand roll.

Fixing the flip requires subtlety — not forcing angles, but training motion that lets the club arrive square with natural forward lean.

Final Thoughts: Train the Motion, Not the Manipulation

The real cure for flipping isn’t a wrist trick — it’s learning proper sequence and trust in rotation. When your lower body starts the downswing, your chest keeps turning through impact, and your wrists stay soft yet structured, the flip disappears on its own.

Train yourself to move athletically, not mechanically. Feel pressure shift forward, let the club shallow naturally, and keep rotating through. If your swing feels smoother but the ball flies lower with more speed — you’re on the right track.

Use your practice sessions to exaggerate these feels, but when you play, focus on tempo and target. The shallowing, compression, and shaft lean will all take care of themselves once your motion flows.

Golf doesn’t reward control — it rewards sequence. When you train the movement, not the manipulation, you’ll finally stop flipping and start compressing the ball like a pro.

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Thanks for reading today’s article!

Nick Foy – Golf Instructor