Sean Foley Driver teaching

[motteler621]

So I watched some Sean Foley instruction videos from Golf Digest Ondemand and in the Power section, one of the topics he covers is how he teaches to hit the driver.

For the driver he teaches

Ball forward

slightly wider stance

let the lead arm hang down comfortably to grap handle, in other words just straight down

put back arm on club, which creates a slight side tilt away from the ball in the upper body ( from ball being forward and wider stance)

so this is your address position now, this creates a weight proportion of 55 weight on back foot and 45 weight lead foot. Sean wants you to stay with this weight proportion for the entire back swing, In other words he doesnt want any extra movement or weight into the backside.

at the top Sean just wants you to come into impact like any other shot, transfering your weight into your front foot and squashing the tomato under your lead foot.

His technique is about creating a higher launch angle but reducing spin. The only difference I see between S&T; and Sean with the driver is, S&T; still wants you to be at address with 55 front foot and 45 back foot, and with Sean 45 front foot 55 back foot.

Please discuss this, Would like to hear your thoughts on this.

[Pete1983]

I was wondering about this too. I saw the clip your talking about where he says 45-55 but on his DVD you can clearly see he's set up 55-45 when doing his section on the driver but he doesnt address weight distribution just says that it is same set up as with irons Seems to be a little conflicting his driver though in the DVD it looks just like Andy plummers driver clip in my opinion.

[motteler621]

Originally Posted by Pete1983

I was wondering about this too. I saw the clip your talking about where he says 45-55 but on his DVD you can clearly see he's set up 55-45 when doing his section on the driver but he doesnt address weight distribution just says that it is same set up as with irons Seems to be a little conflicting his driver though in the DVD it looks just like Andy plummers driver clip in my opinion.

really, yea I havent seen the dvd. He did go over this in the Golf Digest Ondemand videos though. To me Sean is too vague in some of his teachings so its really hard for the average viewer watching his dvd to really put his swing into practice.

[Stretch]

I think the idea of the weight distribution per se is a bit of a red herring here. In my limited understanding, what Foley's getting really at (and the S&T; guys too) is the secondary axis tilt (ie. away from the target) at address in order to help you keep your head well back on the downswing. This allows the club to shallow out properly into impact, giving you the flatter angle of attack you need with a long club. You play the ball more forward in the stance for exactly the same reason.

Nicely demonstrated here from the S&T; perspective:

Notice that Dave talks about James pushing his hips and weight "more forward", but the net result is almost exactly as described by Foley when he advises keeping your weight "more back" -- lead arm straight, rear shoulder down, spine tilted slightly away from the target. Don't think it really matters at all who's right about where the total body weight is -- the key part is your lower half needs to be in front of your upper half at setup and it needs to stay there (at least) into impact.

[westcyderydin]

This is why i like foley.

He explains things in the same way you would teach somebody to shoot a jumpshot or throw a baseball.  He says weight 55/45, right shoulder lower than left shoulder because of the grip and ball position, etc.  I am not speaking about his driving video because i havent seen it.  But if it is like any of his other videos he says do "this" which leads to "that".

Then on the S and T video it is like teaching somebody to play a videogame or something.

Make sure your forward axis this, lower center that, etc.  Then there are like 12 steps to do something as easy as hitting the ball off of the tee.

The golf swing is an athletic movement and foley explains it in a way that an athlete would understand.  The S and T video is explained in a way that some kid who plays videogames all day would understand.  I guess that has its place in teaching some people.

and if you look at the guy in the video his weight is like 75 percent forward.  it seems a little unnatural to me but im sure it works for some people.  Going off of what the OP says about the foley video, those all seem like pretty sound ways to hit a driver well and differ quite a bit from the s and t video.  ball forward weight a touch back instead of weight 75 percent forward while pushing the hips further forward.

So i know a lot of people say foley is ripping off S and T but it looks here that he teaches the driver swing differenty and his teaching style in general is different.  The way foley teaches these things seem to be more natural, more relatable to most golfers, and easier to understand.  But if you are an S and T system golfer, then obviously their video is probably the one for you.

[motteler621]

Originally Posted by westcyderydin

This is why i like foley.

He explains things in the same way you would teach somebody to shoot a jumpshot or throw a baseball.  He says weight 55/45, right shoulder lower than left shoulder because of the grip and ball position, etc.  I am not speaking about his driving video because i havent seen it.  But if it is like any of his other videos he says do "this" which leads to "that".

Then on the S and T video it is like teaching somebody to play a videogame or something.

Make sure your forward axis this, lower center that, etc.  Then there are like 12 steps to do something as easy as hitting the ball off of the tee.

The golf swing is an athletic movement and foley explains it in a way that an athlete would understand.  The S and T video is explained in a way that some kid who plays videogames all day would understand.  I guess that has its place in teaching some people.

and if you look at the guy in the video his weight is like 75 percent forward.  it seems a little unnatural to me but im sure it works for some people.  Going off of what the OP says about the foley video, those all seem like pretty sound ways to hit a driver well and differ quite a bit from the s and t video.  ball forward weight a touch back instead of weight 75 percent forward while pushing the hips further forward.

So i know a lot of people say foley is ripping off S and T but it looks here that he teaches the driver swing differenty and his teaching style in general is different.  The way foley teaches these things seem to be more natural, more relatable to most golfers, and easier to understand.  But if you are an S and T system golfer, then obviously their video is probably the one for you.

I like getting instruction from both foley and S&T; mike and andy etc. I knew alot of what Foley was doing because of being taught S&T; step by step even though Foley didnt really go into detail on it in the videos I watched. He did go into detail on how to hit the driver though and he always throws in good insight and drills for my own swing and what Im doing. Foley has alot of knowlege and insight from talking with many great swing guys and hes pretty smart.

What I mean by vague and how its bad, on his non driver swing he teaches in the videos to feel pressure in your inner thigh rear leg and buttocks rear leg during the backswing, without saying the weight ratio or what to do with your legs. To me thats a very vague feeling and I wasnt able to reproduce it. I did come across this video though which actually shows what he teaches with the weight ratio.

[westcyderydin]

i dont mean to hate, tho.  dont know why i came across so harsh.  what they are teaching is pretty dang similar, they just have two different ways of teaching it.

both ways of teaching it work for different people i just learn better from the simpler version.

[niteshplanet]

Dear It is true if you keep your 45-55, means 55 on hind leg and try to rotate your body along fixed axis( means keeping your head still) during back swing, if somebody watch he will feel like your weight is on front leg but it is not, when you do this yourself you will feel pressure on your back leg. I am using this technique for last one month and i have played almost 8 round of 18 hole without losing any ball and without any OB.

Thanks sean you changed my life forever. In one month or so i have improved my HP by 5.

[lewisgl]

Sure glad you came up with this information because he doesn't get into driver swings on his Blu-Ray/DVD video.  I have been using, well trying to learn his swing and have had more weight towards the target with the driver and the ball flight has been pretty low for the most part.  Thanks for sharing this information and now I have another good excuse to go to the Range and do some practice to see if this might get the ball on a little better trajectory.

[lewisgl]

Originally Posted by motteler621

really, yea I havent seen the dvd. He did go over this in the Golf Digest Ondemand videos though. To me Sean is too vague in some of his teachings so its really hard for the average viewer watching his dvd to really put his swing into practice.

I have found that some of Sean's videos online and some of  his Golf Digest articles, tend to disagree with his video in some ways and his DVD is pretty basic and he leaves a lot of detail out for some reason.  I think that his magazine tips are geared  more to the average golf who might have flexibility issues whereas his DVD is geared more to the advance player who is try to learn Sean's more advanced swing.  One good example of this is that in his DVD he stresses the sequence of clubhead,hands, arms torso and hips but in on magazine article he stressed that hip turn is one of them most important thing and that we should make sure to turn the hips and get some wrist hinge.  All in all I really like the things he teaches.