Hitting the Driver 250+

[patrick]

Ok, one guy offered what got his tee shot with  a driver longer.

Has anyone else had a moment in their learning where one thing improved their drives length or accuracy?

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by patrick

Ok, one guy offered what got his tee shot with  a driver longer.

Has anyone else had a moment in their learning where one thing improved their drives length or accuracy?

My swing's power comes from core rotation.  I focus on taking it back with my shoulders and down with my hips and legs.  The arms and hands are just along for the ride.  If you want a top to spin fast you spin it from the stick in the middle not by spinning the edges.

[rustyredcab]

Originally Posted by patrick

Ok, one guy offered what got his tee shot with  a driver longer.

Has anyone else had a moment in their learning where one thing improved their drives length or accuracy?

Yes. When I started feeling a straight lead arm, a wide backswing, a short backswing, and a good hinge and then drive into a flexed front knee. For me the big change in distance with accuracy was the wide backswing from straight arm. When I do that, I am much longer and dead straight.

I used to sometimes hit it farther without that straight arm feeling, but rarely straight and long at the same time. Now, when I'm on, I'm very straight and plenty long enough -- 240-260 carry.

[saevel25]

For me my longest drive is when i concentrate on releasing through the ball. I had an old chicken wing, so i have to really concentrate on release. I never hook the ball, so i usually can just rip through it and not worry about it. I get into trouble when i don't and i hit a very high fade/slice. But for me its when i really get good extension with the arms, really push my right palm through the ball into a full release to a finish. In my finish i feel my body recoil from the rotation through, i like to really rotate so that i feel the stretch in my obliques, then recoil back to a finish balanced finish. OH, Balance, huge key, if you loose foundation you will loose distance.

[DoctorYikes]

I hit ny 3 wood 250. My driver, not so much. Struggle getting the face around and either push or snap a hook. So I back off and can hit it straight... almost as far as my 3 wood, which I should have been hitting to start with, haha.

[tshapiro]

I hit ny 3 wood 250. My driver, not so much. Struggle getting the face around and either push or snap a hook. So I back off and can hit it straight... almost as far as my 3 wood, which I should have been hitting to start with, haha.

Your results are typical. You essentially have 2 swings with your driver... 1 where you swing normally and fail to get the clubhead around and/or closed, and the other where you really work to get under it and excessively pivot in an attempt to get the clubface closed. I'd say forget swing number 2 because you've essentially lost good form with that method. So, from here on out let's address your swing #1. With this swing you are essentially struggling with your driver's extra length and lower loft. So, a couple of tweaks can help. You want your swing be more like your 3 wood and prevent yourself from getting excessively flat. Teeing the ball as low as you can will help you keep your swing in a naturally more upright plane. When your club swing plane is more upright body physics and gravity will naturally close the clubface more. Essentially, you will be swinging more like you do with your 3 wood, The next thing to consider is a flatter swing makes it more difficult to get good forward hip rotation which leads to a an over the top move leaving your clubface open. So, in your backswing ensure you keep your good form and load your left shoulder turn against your right hip. You probably do this fine when swinging your 3 wood, But it is typical to see someone who swings a driver lose some good form by getting too flat and failing to load the lower body leading to an upper body release from the top because there is no lower body load to utilize.

[tshapiro]

My swing's power comes from core rotation.  I focus on taking it back with my shoulders and down with my hips and legs.  The arms and hands are just along for the ride.  If you want a top to spin fast you spin it from the stick in the middle not by spinning the edges.

I agree 100% but I think the hardest part of this for someone who has yet to realize this concept is the failure to properly load the lower body in the backswing. If you got to the top but failed to load the lower body than beginning your downswing with core rotation will simply feel disjointed and powerless. That's why I always concentrate on how well someone understands the concept of loading before I teach them to lead the downswing with their hips. My 3 basics for teaching someone to 'swing': 1) Maintain your head alignment 2) load your left arm backswing against your right leg 3) allow your right hip to control your relaxed left arm downswing while continuing to maintain your head alignment Practice these 3 steps over and over and eventually you will find and utilize a proper golf swing

[carpediem4300]

the biggest question is why do you need to search for mystical distances when the average club golfer can easily hit long drives but with varied accuracy?

3-4 times on my last society day i had guys with 28+ handicaps out driving me,....yet i shot 81 and they shot 100+

it obviously doesnt help them,..

the decision for the amatuer player, amatuer club player is qutie easy,......are they/you ever going to be pro? doubtful,....are you ever going to be playing super long courses for high stakes money? probably not

so why sacrific such accuracy for another 30-40 yards? id rather be short off the tee and accurate to the green shooting low than spraaying it over the course trying to be a "Big Dawg Bubba Hitter"

tour pros hit it far because they can do it consistently and accurately witht he aid of the best trainers and equipment in the world

[HitTheMark]

On 4/28/2012 at 1:30 AM, tshapiro said:

Seems that most people are concerned with hitting the driver straight and go for years searching for fundamentals to accomplish this. The big problem I see with this is that moves to manipulate the swing path or face angle suck the power right out of the swing. So, I see a lot of people who have learned to hit the driver straight - but in the low 200's. I equate the driver swing to swinging a heavy axe into a tree. With that move, there is a lot of body action and no room for wrist or arm wrist manipulation. As I got better at golf, I got tired of being shorter than other good players. On my way to learning how to swing for the fences I learned - by using a swing speed meter - that any club manupulation at all would kill swing speed. Muscling the club with every ounce of power would also kill swing speed. I eventually got my swing speed to 100mph+ by using a long and smooth swing. To get the extra length in the backswing and to have a smooth flowing transition I needed to stay extra loose and not 'load up' at address. Of particular importance was to let the momentum of the backswing pull my loose upper body all the way taught. With this, I can use my hips to pull the club through the swing with totally relaxed arms. Today, I strive to have as long a back swing as possible without rushing the transition prior to my upper body becomining taught. With this method, it is quite easy to close the clubface with the timing of the hips. This allows you to hit straight and far. My bottom line tip here is to learn to hit straight - and far - at the same time. Learning to hit far will change how you learn to hit straight.

Good lord...this exact thought is what transformed my game....driver is not like irons...get that damn ball out there as far ad you can within in reason...even if you slice it on, just get it out there...swing for the fences on the range, figure out what swing will give you the fastest club head speed and stick with it...THEN once you have that swing bring the accuracy in...for driver I am a firm believer that its distance first, then accuracy...if ur worried about absolutely hitting a fairway and only care about that and not distance, then put the damn driver back in your bag and pull out a fairway wood or hybrid...if ur pulling out driver you need to get it out there...the risk vs reward is worth it...you hit a monster drive and now ur talking birdie...you hit a baby 200 yarder and you have to be damn perfect now to make par...even if ur in the rough after 260 ur in great shape...and if you don't hit your 200 in the fairway, man ur really screwed now

On 4/28/2012 at 5:00 AM, poser said:

Gary woodland hits it harder than anyone on tour and his swing is short and compact. So is JB holmes.  Different ways to get it done just because bubba and john were long doesn't mean it works for everyone.

I dont think hes advocating having a long swing hes saying stop baby driving to get it in the fairway...whatever your fastest clubhead swing is, use it...for driver I turned a corner when I started focusing on distance first just hammering it out there and making contact (it was a massive slice) but from there now I had a repeatable motion that generated a lot of power and I learned to square the face...I never had success with gently getting it to 215 then from there trying to swing faster

 

Irons different story cause you can always club up/down but drivers sole purpose is to get it as far down there as possible...if you dont plan on taking advantage of that, put it away and use a hybrid or fairway wood...its safer and you'll go same distance...I dont get why people want to swing a driver on the course (range is different) focusing just on keeping it straight ur taking the risk of using a hard club to hit but now the risk won't give you the possible reward if you dont put some speed behind it

[HitTheMark]

On 5/9/2012 at 8:58 PM, carpediem4300 said:

the biggest question is why do you need to search for mystical distances when the average club golfer can easily hit long drives but with varied accuracy?

 

3-4 times on my last society day i had guys with 28+ handicaps out driving me,....yet i shot 81 and they shot 100+

 

it obviously doesnt help them,..

 

the decision for the amatuer player, amatuer club player is qutie easy,......are they/you ever going to be pro? doubtful,....are you ever going to be playing super long courses for high stakes money? probably not

 

so why sacrific such accuracy for another 30-40 yards? id rather be short off the tee and accurate to the green shooting low than spraaying it over the course trying to be a "Big Dawg Bubba Hitter"

 

tour pros hit it far because they can do it consistently and accurately witht he aid of the best trainers and equipment in the world

But then why even use the driver???? You can get all the distance youd need if those are your aspirations from a 5 wood or 3 wood with much less risk...if ur gonna risk using the driver try to get thr reward from it

[biodarwin]

On 5/2/2012 at 9:29 AM, patrick said:

Has anyone else had a moment in their learning where one thing improved their drives length or accuracy?

Understanding how to separate the movements of my lower body and upper body.  This made the most different to me.  Until I worked this out, my pivot was not winding or corkscrewing into the ground very well.

[Carl3]

On 4/28/2012 at 5:09 AM, poser said:

If you swing a club like you are chopping wood then good luck ever breaking 80.

 

This guy used to annoy me, but I have grown to like him very much. I bet he has broken 80. LOL

Edited August 17, 2019 by Carl3

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, Carl3 said:

 

This guy used to annoy me, but I have grown to like him very much. I bet he has broken 80. LOL

Not a fan. Nice guy and explains his ideas well. What SC has a difficult time accepting is that people can have very different feels despite our anatomy being remarkably similar to another. I can chop wood without any problem. I can skip a rock all day with no issues. I can swing a ball on a string and release it forward over and over and I can grass whip the f*** out of weeds into the late of night. 

None of these actions translate to a good golf swing for me. SC can stack two nickels and hit the top one off with a 5i. I tried it and shanked both nickels. Nothing is natural to me and many others about the golf swing. The grip feels like a cluster f*** knotted oak branch, the proper backswing position feels like a half-assed ballet etendre and the proper hip rotation is like asking the Tin Man to use a hula hoop.

[Zippo]

On ‎4‎/‎28‎/‎2012 at 5:18 AM, saevel25 said:

I would have to agree, there are many ways to hit the ball long, its not just one swing type. Though i think the majority would be those will very lengthy swings, like bubba who can get his hands really high..

Tony Finau has a pretty short backswing. He still seems to get the ball out there a reasonable distance. I agree that the majority have a longer swing, though. As you say - many ways to hit it long.

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

Nothing is natural to me and many others about the golf swing. The grip feels like a cluster f*** knotted oak branch, the proper backswing position feels like a half-assed ballet etendre and the proper hip rotation is like asking the Tin Man to use a hula hoop.

LOL! Truer words have never been uttered by a sober man!

[MaestroFarceNugget]

I'd say almost 75 percent of your speed will be in a full wrist action and release, and 25 percent body support. The body can only really move so fast, maybe 3 or 4 mph for an average person. I mean to be honest a free release is the bulk of your speed, and that's why we grip the club in the fingers and not the palm.

[iacas]

11 hours ago, Zippo said:

Tony Finau has a pretty short backswing. He still seems to get the ball out there a reasonable distance. I agree that the majority have a longer swing, though. As you say - many ways to hit it long.

He said the majority, not "everyone" or something.

5 minutes ago, MaestroFarceNugget said:

I'd say almost 75 percent of your speed will be in a full wrist action and release, and 25 percent body support. The body can only really move so fast, maybe 3 or 4 mph for an average person. I mean to be honest a free release is the bulk of your speed, and that's why we grip the club in the fingers and not the palm.

The wrists don't do much. The arms themselves (and in concert with the wrists unhinging at the right moment, which is more passive than active) do a tremendous amount, though, yes.

[Vinsk]

7 minutes ago, MaestroFarceNugget said:

I'd say almost 75 percent of your speed will be in a full wrist action and release, and 25 percent body support. The body can only really move so fast, maybe 3 or 4 mph for an average person. I mean to be honest a free release is the bulk of your speed, and that's why we grip the club in the fingers and not the palm.

What seems hard to grasp is how much the body must influence the speed of the arms. I’m a helluva lot more powerful than JT but he can smoke me on distance anytime. And how the hell does Finau generate so much speed with such a short backswing? Isn’t the biggest difference in pro’s swings and amateurs their rotation? I mean it doesn’t take incredible skill to swing hard so how do they do it if the body is such a small percentage of the swing?

[iacas]

1 minute ago, Vinsk said:

What seems hard to grasp is how much the body must influence the speed of the arms. I’m a helluva lot more powerful than JT but he can smoke me on distance anytime. And how the hell does Finau generate so much speed with such a short backswing? Isn’t the biggest difference in pro’s swings and amateurs their rotation? I mean it doesn’t take incredible skill to swing hard so how do they do it if the body is such a small percentage of the swing?

The body is a minority percentage. Amateurs can turn 90°. 110°. Etc.

So what are you asking @Vinsk?