Driving tips Vids

[Sai-Jin]

So some of you know I'm having major issues hitting my driver... can't even hit it 150yds.

Now what do you think of these videos?

One addresses the ball by putting the club by the ball and tilting to the right.

the other is a normal setup and puts the club face 4 inches behind ball, but doesn't tilt.

I used to address by club by the ball and I ended up opening my shoulders at times and

I don't even know the feeling of correct tilt. I wanna go try the 2nd set up.

and

Let me know what you guys think of these 2.

[LankyLefty]

These may well correct a slice but they seemingly advocate 2 thins I most certainly do not agree with.

1) Hitting the ball on the upswing.

2) Keeping your weight back.

Both of these are going to sap distance and if you are an average joe who wants his driver to go a mile you are going to try to make up for that with your arms and your swing will go to pieces again.

They don't actually advocate these 2 things however someone who watched them without knowing much else might infer these 2 things and especially the second one is quite bad.

[mobosecomin]

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

These may well correct a slice but they seemingly advocate 2 thins I most certainly do not agree with.

1) Hitting the ball on the upswing.

2) Keeping your weight back.

Both of these are going to sap distance and if you are an average joe who wants his driver to go a mile you are going to try to make up for that with your arms and your swing will go to pieces again.

They don't actually advocate these 2 things however someone who watched them without knowing much else might infer these 2 things and especially the second one is quite bad.

Even though they infer these problems they also improve so much more. They are extreemly good videos IMO. Most high handicappers including myself suffer from the problem of addressing the ball with open shoulders and these videos address these problems.

Also better hit the ball on the upswing than slice it OB. Actually most people would be better off hitting the ball on the up swing because they will get more speed from releasing the club properly.

[LankyLefty]

There is nothing you can say that will convince me that keeping your weight back is a good thing. Hitting on the upswing is sort of a nitpick as you can certainly be successful like that but no swing that never transfers weight forward at some point will ever be successful.

That second video basically says "Lean back through swing and into your finish" and that is just dead wrong I don't care how bad your slice is keeping your weight back for the entire swing without even an attempt to shift some of it forward is terrible for your driver or any club.

[johnthejoiner]

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

There is nothing you can say that will convince me that keeping your weight back is a good thing. Hitting on the upswing is sort of a nitpick as you can certainly be successful like that but no swing that never transfers weight forward at some point will ever be successful.

That second video basically says "Lean back through swing and into your finish" and that is just dead wrong I don't care how bad your slice is keeping your weight back for the entire swing without even an attempt to shift some of it forward is terrible for your driver or any club.

This might change your mind

[iacas]

Originally Posted by johnthejoiner

This might change your mind

It wouldn't change mine. Tiger's been a terrible driver for nearly a decade.

[LankyLefty]

Tiger woods has been so average to below average with his driver over his whole career that he once went an entire Open Championship without using it... and won.

However if you look at his Iron swings, you know those clubs that made him good back when he was good... you can see that he shifts some of his weight forward before impact and finishes with weight forward into the finish.

[mobosecomin]

I think you are missing what is actually meant. Keep your head back! not your weight. Theirs a million swingvision vids on youtube of people driving the ball and they all have their head behind the ball. I think its this position that the videos are promoting.

Theirs no argument when it come to getting weight forward being vital. but I think what these videos address is address. Touche

So many people set up aimed at the target not parallel and then proceed to open their shoulders as they move the driver up to the ball. They then swing and move their head forward while sliding and not rotating. Nothing good ever happens when this is done. Unless of course you are after a massive push slice. I think what these videos address is that and it's a big problem for a lot of people.

That bring it back to the original topic are these videos any good. I think so, even so much as to say they are batter than most at addressing the problem of a slice.

[LankyLefty]

I'm not missing the point I'm saying that the way he said it and demonstrated it is going to make a casual watcher think that in order to hit a good driver you should just keep your weight back and never shift forward and that's dead wrong.

Secondly, squaring shoulders at address can be done any number of ways that don't involve leaning way back. What he actually said was "Keep your spine angle back." and hes not wrong but the way he explained and demonstarted it was terrible.

I think he missed his own point...

[saevel25]

The key is to keep your head still in the downswing. You should minimize the movements in the backswing, but alot of player's heads move back in the backswing. But they are still in the downswing.

Believe me, you can have all the mph clubhead speed in the world, if you can't make solid contact your loosing a ton of yardage. I have lost nearly 50 yards before between hits. Groove a solid swing, and that should help out a ton.

[Sai-Jin]

Well, I needed to be clearer... ever since I got a new driver 1 month ago, I can't hit the club and I ended up losing all confidence and my swing...

I don't have a slice problem, rather an address problem with the driver all of a sudden.

So those vids are mainly for the "address". I see some people have a back tilt and some don't.

I for one I tilt back, still have 60-40 weight stance front to back when I was swinging my driver 283yds average.

I just got back from the range today and I combined the 2 vids and make it to a medium balance for my preference and it seems to improve my ball flight

and I think I'm starting to get to the point of my old swing.

So the answers I was looking for are:

1. How do the pros fix that open shoulder when they put their club face to the ball? (I fix this by making my right shoulder lower, thus tilting more)

2. Driving the ball... is it up swing? level swing? Down swing? I got so many different replies from people here

and it's driving me insane. Again, "I" up swing the ball.

3. Do we address the ball by putting the clubface next to it? Or is it 4 inches from the ball?

[mdl]

I'm no model of consistency with the driver, but the not hitting the ball on the upswing argument is dead wrong just from the physics.  If you're swinging say a 10˚ driver with your hands (correctly) slightly in front of the ball and you hit the ball at impact, simple physics tells you that the initial launch angle is going to be something like 8˚.  We all know that's too low of a trajectory.  Unless you're seriously flipping and bottoming out your swing with your hands behind the ball at impact, or hitting a huge push slice with the face wide open, it's physically impossible to get a good launch trajectory with a standard loft driver and proper hand position at impact if you hit the ball at the very bottom of the swing.

[jshots]

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

These may well correct a slice but they seemingly advocate 2 thins I most certainly do not agree with.

1) Hitting the ball on the upswing.

2) Keeping your weight back.

Both of these are going to sap distance and if you are an average joe who wants his driver to go a mile you are going to try to make up for that with your arms and your swing will go to pieces again.

They don't actually advocate these 2 things however someone who watched them without knowing much else might infer these 2 things and especially the second one is quite bad.

Keeping your weight back could take away a little bit of distance but definitely not hitting on the upswing.

If you are opposed to hitting a driver on the upswing i suppose you think it should be hit on the downswing? That will add spin and cause the ball to balloon up into the air, which is not good and the ball will not roll at all.

[Stretch]

PGA Tour average angle of attack, per Trackman, is 1.3 degrees on the downswing. But those guys have distance to burn and are more concerned with being in the fairway. The rest of us who don't swing 120mph generally need to hit it on the upswing to get max yardage.

Weight forward, hips forward, hands forward, head back.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by mdl

I'm no model of consistency with the driver, but the not hitting the ball on the upswing argument is dead wrong just from the physics.  If you're swinging say a 10˚ driver with your hands (correctly) slightly in front of the ball and you hit the ball at impact, simple physics tells you that the initial launch angle is going to be something like 8˚.  We all know that's too low of a trajectory.  Unless you're seriously flipping and bottoming out your swing with your hands behind the ball at impact, or hitting a huge push slice with the face wide open, it's physically impossible to get a good launch trajectory with a standard loft driver and proper hand position at impact if you hit the ball at the very bottom of the swing.

You might think so... but you'd be wrong. You've left out consideration for the fact that the clubhead and shaft aren't in a straight line (among some other little things). It's quite possible to have the handle leaning forward, a driver with 9 degrees of loft, and to strike the ball on the downswing, and yet still get a launch angle of 10 to 12 degrees.

[Stretch]

You might think so... but you'd be wrong. You've left out consideration for the fact that the clubhead and shaft aren't in a straight line (among some other little things). It's quite possible to have the handle leaning forward, a driver with 9 degrees of loft, and to strike the ball on the downswing, and yet still get a launch angle of 10 to 12 degrees.

Can you expand on how that's possible please? We came up against this in another thread and I just can't get my head around it.

[B-Con]

[quote name="iacas" url="/forum/thread/46818/driving-tips-vids#post_607281"]

You might think so... but you'd be wrong. You've left out consideration for the fact that the clubhead and shaft aren't in a straight line (among some other little things). It's quite possible to have the handle leaning forward, a driver with 9 degrees of loft, and to strike the ball on the downswing, and yet still get a launch angle of 10 to 12 degrees.

Can you expand on how that's possible please? We came up against this in another thread and I just can't get my head around it. [/quote] An open clubface is one way -- think of an opened clubface on a wedge for a pitch. S&T; teaches a push-draw, and the push comes from an open clubface. Stand at address, lean the shaft forward, then rotate the clubface a little open. Viola, more loft.

[jshots]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Quote:

Originally Posted by iacas

You might think so... but you'd be wrong. You've left out consideration for the fact that the clubhead and shaft aren't in a straight line (among some other little things). It's quite possible to have the handle leaning forward, a driver with 9 degrees of loft, and to strike the ball on the downswing, and yet still get a launch angle of 10 to 12 degrees.

Can you expand on how that's possible please? We came up against this in another thread and I just can't get my head around it.

Yeah this makes no sense... any forward tilt takes loft off as well as hitting on the down swing. How could you then take a 9 degree face tilt it and put it on the down swing (which should decrease it to like 7 or 8) and then go to 12 degrees?

Maybe you are talking about the shaft bending, but that would only add loft if you slowed down through impact which shouldn't be the case.