is it better to be straight than longer?

[FLOG4]

Originally Posted by ggolokin

u mad bro? hahah

all people have different opinions, that what a forum is for.

having said that, i'd rather be 300 yards and 10 yards into the bush, rather than 100 yards straight (as one of the posters above said)

to each their own.

that what a forum is for....Better to kick numbnut posters than my dog. And its striaght in this post. hahah

[trackster]

If it was as easy as swinging as hard as you could, then wouldn't we all have 18 majors?  Telling a beginner golfer to swing as hard as they can is TERRIBLE advice.  52 lost balls later and possibly a dislocated back later I hope the beginner realizes that.  If your swing is off plane swinging harder isn't going to help matters.  If you have two golfers at the same ability level, one lift weights, stretches, and develops solid contact, while the other swings as hard as he can, I wonder who will come out the better.

[FLOG4]

Read Jack's book educate your dumbbutt and then speak. Crawl in your hole troll.  Practice swinging hard.....Practice. But hey I forgot. You be the authority on improving your game....Play it Forward skirt....

[LankyLefty]

While FLOG4 may be putting it in a childish way... and their have been plenty of great golfers who have know clue how to teach what they have.

The hardest thing in golf to teach is distance, teaching someone to really compress the ball to get that amazing arcing flight that the really good ball strikers have is really really hard. So im not saying that you should swing as hard as you can, but when your starting out... swing for the fences and be happy with good contact even if you land in the weeds. You can come back and adjust the grip, adjust the backswing, adjust where the ball is in your stance. Its much harder to adjust the muscle memory that you've built over years of practice and playing.

[mdl]

Hitting your 7i 140 but very consistently is fine.  From standard middle tees you can shoot excellent scores with good control and consistency hitting the ball that distance.

As far as the distance/accuracy debate, I think it's worth practicing both.  I've finally finally become mentally capable of actually dialing it back and concentrating on a smooth, easy, on-plane swing with flush contact, and I've started hitting much straighter irons and have only lost maybe 3-5 yards off my irons despite feeling like I'm swinging 60%.  But I spent a long time figuring out how to whip through the ball and keep my hands in front of the club head at impact and whatnot, so though I should have dialed it back a while ago, I learned to hit it fairly far for an amateur before concentrating on smoothness and accuracy, so now I can still hit it solid distance while learning more control.

Just to give numbers as an example.  I started hitting my 7i 145-150, quickly reached 150, then plateaued for distance there for a while.  Over a year or two I learned how to get more club head speed and got up to 160+ with the 7i.  Then I got new clubs that were much higher quality and also a bit stronger lofted, and now if I'm ripping at it I can hit my 7i 170-175.  But that's an inconsistent shot with lots of straight big pushes and hard drawing pulls.  If I dial back and just try to hit it smooth and straight, it goes 165-170 and is much more consistent.  That's how I'm trying to play all the time now.  But I wonder if I'd made that change when I hit my 7i 150 and dialed it back to 145 but straight, would I have ever learned to hit it those extra 15-20 yards?  Maybe so, but I'm glad to be working with good distance and trying to smooth it out and tighten up my landing area rather than the other way around.

[Grumpter]

Quote:

You and Trackster would make a great alternate shot 2ball from the Ladies Tee.  Read up on the PGA Tee it Forward Program. You gals will rock.  11 and 12 handicappers contradicting Jack Nicklaus advise....Ya gotta love a forum like this.  You wanna offer advise by Tiger or Hogan or Leadbetter or someone with knowledge, please do. To randomly say I thinks it be betar ta do it mys way cuz I'ms a 11 handicap ands I hits it straight and you too could be a great golfer likes me....Make me PUKE.

Maybe it's just Tracksters track record influencing your reply but that's more than a little over the top.

[jshots]

I don't really understand the argument that you can't teach distance... no shit, you have to go to the gym.

[LankyLefty]

Strenth is not equal to distance at all. The gym does nothing for you.

The longest hitter in the world, owner of a 150mph driver swing, is a 5 '10 160 pound canadian, muscles don't get you distance.

[jshots]

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

Strenth is not equal to distance at all. The gym does nothing for you.

The longest hitter in the world, owner of a 150mph driver swing, is a 5 '10 160 pound canadian, muscles don't get you distance.

Not sure what to say to this other than you are wrong. Jamie Sadlowski (whom you are referring to) can bench press 230 pounds (and I would imagine he works his core even more) and he is extremely flexible... 5'10 160 lbs is not equal to no strength and your own example proves you wrong.

So yes you can train distance and the gym (between strength and flexibility) does in fact do everything for you regarding distance once you learn how to swing correctly.

[LankyLefty]

What you bench has zero effect on how fast you can swing a relatively light object.

There are 2 forms of muscle fiber, one exerts short powerful bursts but runs out of energy quickly, the other takes longer to get going but does not tire as fast.

The first kind, fast twitch fibers, allow you to move a relatively light object, such as a golf club, in a short powerful burst. The other allow you to exert much greater total force but over a longer period of time.

Jaime Sadlowski, could hit it 400+ yards when he was 17 and skinny. Through training and to a larger extent technology hes extended that to 425-430. Being relatively fit, having proper nutrition, and all that stuff will allow your body to perform at its peak level. However training in the gym will not increase that peak level.

[Gioguy21]

Originally Posted by jshots

Not sure what to say to this other than you are wrong. Jamie Sadlowski (whom you are referring to) can bench press 230 pounds (and I would imagine he works his core even more) and he is extremely flexible... 5'10 160 lbs is not equal to no strength and your own example proves you wrong.

So yes you can train distance and the gym (between strength and flexibility) does in fact do everything for you regarding distance once you learn how to swing correctly.

and yet, it's not everything. take into consideration the build of one tiger woods...and keegan bradley. i dare you to tell me keegan is as strong as tiger. alot of it has to do with genetics, more than you think. i was a pitcher in college, could leg press over 450-500 lbs, weighing 200 and 6'3" and could throw it 92...while a kid on our team, hardly lifted and was a string bean at 6'4" and 180 could chuck it 95+....you my friend are explaining a direct ratio...you lift, you can hit further and it's simply NOT true...each person is entirely different and while weight training is GREAT for some it's debilitating for others in terms of flexibility or fast twitch muscles. some people, regardless of how much flexibility training they do, will be limited. sadlowski is a freak outlier and needs to be taken as an example as such. there comes a point where no matter what you lift or what exercises you do for flexibility...you can only do so much better for your golf swing. so no, it can't do EVERYTHING for you regarding distance.

[newtogolf]

I agree strength is not equal to distance, but disagree the gym does nothing for you.  Tiger and younger golfers all have found out that conditioning and weight lifting are beneficial to becoming better golfers.

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

Strenth is not equal to distance at all. The gym does nothing for you.

The longest hitter in the world, owner of a 150mph driver swing, is a 5 '10 160 pound canadian, muscles don't get you distance.

[LankyLefty]

One of my favorite sports quotes ever came form Kevin Durant he said "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

Training takes whatever talent you have and lets it come out, but you cant train Talent.

[LottaBalata]

I think this is a great thread.  Plenty of schools of thought on the subject!

Personally, I used to "TRY" and swing for the fences, but I never had a great swing.  I always struggled with slicing the ball.  So, now, that my technique is MUCH MUCH better, the ball travels 40 to 80 yards farther with my driver, than it did before.  At the same time, I'm dealing with a back injury.  So, I'm getting healthier, WORKING THE HECK OUT OF MY CORE!!!  Its all important, strength, technique, straight up swing speed. . .

JMO, technique and hitting the ball straight, will pay more dividends to the typical joe shmoe golfer.  I can certainly see why Tour players would/might say distance is more important.  But when you have guys like David Toms and Scott Verplank in the hunt on a course that measures nearly 8,000 yards. . .Well, that's my point!

[Deryck Griffith]

Originally Posted by LankyLefty

Strenth is not equal to distance at all. The gym does nothing for you.

The longest hitter in the world, owner of a 150mph driver swing, is a 5 '10 160 pound canadian, muscles don't get you distance.

Just becuase your 5'10" 160lbs means you "aren't" capable of being strong???  Really...are you serious?  I've seen people who are 6'5" 225 that are very weak.

Jamie was a former Junior Hockey player who has incredible core strength and flexiblity and is a good model of those two things.  His core strength and flexibility didn't come by accident?  It came from hard work and exercise so yes, his work ethic in the gym assists in his ability to be the long drive champion.

[Precis1on]

Just look at Tim Lincecum pitching a baseball :P.

[newtogolf]

He's an exception to the rule.  His father was a pitching coach and worked with him from a kid to optimize his pitching motion for maximum speed.  No one else has the pitching motion he does.

Originally Posted by Precis1on

Just look at Tim Lincecum pitching a baseball :P.

[jshots]

I don't really think Jaime Sadlowski was probably ever hitting it that far without being in good shape especially flexibility wise. You are right that strength isn't everything, but what I'm saying is that I think once you get a good swing where you are maximizing the power you create in your swing with what you have (IMO that is what a good swing is all about) that the only way to go further than that is by improving your strength and flexibility.

I doubt many people are ever performing at their peak level if their even is one, you can train in the gym for the fast twitch part of your muscles too.

Originally Posted by Gioguy21

and yet, it's not everything. take into consideration the build of one tiger woods...and keegan bradley. i dare you to tell me keegan is as strong as tiger. alot of it has to do with genetics, more than you think. i was a pitcher in college, could leg press over 450-500 lbs, weighing 200 and 6'3" and could throw it 92...while a kid on our team, hardly lifted and was a string bean at 6'4" and 180 could chuck it 95+....you my friend are explaining a direct ratio...you lift, you can hit further and it's simply NOT true...each person is entirely different and while weight training is GREAT for some it's debilitating for others in terms of flexibility or fast twitch muscles. some people, regardless of how much flexibility training they do, will be limited. sadlowski is a freak outlier and needs to be taken as an example as such. there comes a point where no matter what you lift or what exercises you do for flexibility...you can only do so much better for your golf swing. so no, it can't do EVERYTHING for you regarding distance.

Keegan Bradley might not be as strong as Tiger, but I bet he is stronger than he might look. If you can increase your flexibility (how big of a turn you make) and you increase how fast you snap your muscles back (fast twitch or whatever you want to call it) you are going to hit the ball further...

But you are saying that this does not do anything? Maybe you aren't exercising correctly then?