Anyone successfully gained more distance?

[srjorion]

I WANT MORE DISTANCE DANG IT!!!!!!!!

Don't we all!  I know, topic that has been discussed before.  I'm looking for people that have successfully gained distances of 10 to 20 yards throughout the bag through drills, strength training, whatever may have worked.

Here's my situation.  I currently play at a 11.2 handicap. I've been playing in Salt Lake City for a couple of years now after playing primarily in the southeast for the past 25 years.  The altitude difference definitely helps with extra distance, but I recently played a tournament in Hilton Head and my distances were horrible.  I was hitting driver 210 max.  Every Par 5 was Driver, 5W, 5W to reach the green.  I had a lot of long Par 4s where I had to lay up and wedge in hoping to get a par.  My short game isn't perfect, and I know I can gain more strokes there, but I already save strokes around the green with my short game.

During the tournament I played in I was the shortest hitter in my group for three straight days.  I was consistently outdriven by 20-30 yards, sometimes for over 50 yards by some of the longer hitters.  Where I hit hybrids into greens guys were hitting 7 and 8 irons.

I'm not looking for monster distance increases, but I honestly think I can get a club or two extra if I work at it.  Just looking for any suggestions from people that have actually been successful at doing so.  I'm done being a short hitter and having to rely on my long game to get me close to the green and a short game to hopefully make up strokes.  I'd much rather be hitting shorter clubs into greens and putting more often than having to chip up and save par.   I'm not looking to buy new equipment to get extra distance as I have modern clubs that I know can be hit further.

Thanks for the help!

[Valleygolfer]

I don't know that I can explain it well enough for you to emulate it. I studied a lot of swings and the ability of timing, weight transfer and keeping the hands in front of the ball during impact are key.

[JetFan1983]

Chances are, it's your technique. I'd probably buy a single lesson from Evolvr and see what they say is your biggest problem. Let them diagnose your swing.

Or just start a swing thread here for free. The point is, no one can say what the problem is until they see the swing.

It's less stressful and more fun practicing when you are confident that what you are working on is what you should be working on.

[hanalei]

I've used one of those large rubber band things with handles. About $15 at wallmart. U can modify resistance by how far u stand from the wall. It definitely helped with distance on all my clubs. Tie one end to a wall and hold the other in your hands, then with straight arms twist arms and torso in the direction u swing, parrallel to the ground. Same stuff all the pros do but they do it in both directions for more powerful backswing. I just don't do it much cuz I'm a lazy ass with kids.

[jaybo]

I gained 15-25 yds off the tee and 5-10 yds on my irons.  I took a few lessons and most importantly gained flexibilty in the gym during the winter months.  I took sessions with a personal trainer told her I was a golfer wanted more flexibilty not bulk muscle.  She still had me doing some strength training to keep my muscle but a lot of it is core training and plyometrics. (ugh)  Plyometerics helps activate your fast twitch mucles, which you use in yor golfswing to hit the ball farther.

[Spudmonkey]

I have gained about 20%-25% increase in distance through the bag over the last 12 months. While I have actually lost about 8Kg in weight.

Still getting used to my new distances, it's pretty weird. But its taken a lot of work, detemination and a lot of range buckets.

eg, 7I was 140yds now 165-175yds

Its all about technique, for me the main things that brought the gain about (having worked hard on them) are :-

Flat left wrist (all the way),

Extensor action,

Club weight awareness throughout the swing, makes a big difference to clubhead speed, ensures your working with the club and not choking its potential speed,

Soft hands (needed for above)

No over-run of arms, (shoulders finish turning, my arms are finished moving as well),

Sense of linkage/connection of left arm and shoulder blade with my turn.

These are the main points for me, there are of course many other things, but these are the ones I had to work on/discover.

It all comes together, and you actually feel like your swinging with less effort (because you are), and the distance just appears.

It really is nothing to do with hitting the ball as hard or as fast as you can, it really feels like the opposite of that. ie, easier, more fluid, more connected, more aware of the energy in the club.

Its very hard to explain the feelings, without using phrases and words that end up confusing things even more.

All I can say is

TECHNIQUE

TECHNIQUE

TECHNIQUE

Good luck & bear with it, its worth it!

[wadesworld]

If your distances are coming up far shorter than other golfers of similar size, builds and ability, chances are the problem is your release.

If you're trying to muscle the ball out there rather than letting the wrists release properly, you won't hit it near as far as someone who does.

[joekelly]

No doubt one must rid the mind of the idea that we want to 'hit the ball'. That notion is a speed killer coz it puts the shoulder, arms and hands out in front of the lower body which is exactly wrong.  Chopping wood we do not want.  And i can tell you that in my case, at least, ridding the mind of this idea is not at all simple or easy.  A lifetime of bad habit, more difficult to quit than cigarettes.

[srjorion]

Thanks Spudmonkey.  Good info.  Ironically I went back to working on a flat left wrist like I did a few years ago and started seeing some gains in distance on solid shots.  On the ones I didn't hit solid I wasn't hitting as far, but when I made a good stroke and kept that flat left wrist it made a difference.

[turbosdad]

Im the last one to give "advice" but i was shown a wall drill that helps is "release".  Combine this with steeper angle of attack, or more simply put hands and hips leading club head at impact and BINGO, there was distance for me. ( with irons)  Hasnt worked for me with Driver, its' a different animal.

Stand next to wall feet together w right arm extended so that finger tip just touches wall.  maintain that distance with center of body.  Dont need a ball.  grip club in your normal stance, raise club to 90 degree from level in front of you, with arms straight out.  Rotate this position to the your right with shoulders to get in your backswing position without hitting the wall.  Now complete a normal downswing without hitting the wall..  It takes a hip slide and a held release to NOT hit the wall.  Do this a bunch then do it hitting balls and they will go further.  Worked for me.

[mchepp]

I gained about 40 yards on my driver from going to trackman and learning how to hit up on the ball. I went from -4 AoA to +3 and without increasing my swing speed I easily hit it 40 yards longer.

I have also gained about 0.5 of distance in my irons, but that is much longer than a post to go into all of those details. Really hard work.

Easy way to pick up yards is find yourself a trackman and learn how to hit up on the ball with your driver.

[Spudmonkey]

"Club weight awareness throughout the swing, makes a big difference to clubhead speed, ensures your working with the club and not choking its potential speed,

Soft hands (needed for above)"

This for me was really an eye opener, (so easy to lose the feel of the clubweight in the swing), but its so important to feel it. It allows you to actually feel how to accelerate the club correctly (not overpower it) once you have the faith to do it, it really is a game changer.

I would urge you to develop "soft hands" and get in touch weight of the club (weight isn't the right word its more like energy/potential)

Sorry if this sounds confusing, but its very hard to explain in words.

[ChrisGSZ]

Srjorion,

There are three elements of clubhead speed (prime determinant of distance):

1. Muscular co-ordination (not muscular strength...). The downswing needs to be a 'corkscrew' action starting at the feet/legs and moving up through the hips, trunk and finally arms. It's the sequence of muscular work - each section passing on speed to the next section - that creates arm/club speed

2. Next, this muscular work should meet minimal resistance . We can minimize resistance by making our body/arm/club orientation as 'tight' as possible (small bodies rotate faster than big bodies given the same effort because they provide less resistance to rotation...). So keep the clubhead as close to the body as possible through the first half of the downswing. 'Wrap' the club around you...

3. Finally, this body/arm speed needs to be transferred into clubhead speed. This is achieved by a passive wrist release. It's tough, because it's against all our instincts! But any muscular effort during release destroys the mechanical advantage we've built up. Essentially we just need to allow the wrists to unhinge when they 'want' to....

That the physics of it - ground-up unwinding, keep the clubhead close, then a passive release. Find some simple mental thoughts that will promote these three things, and let me know how you got on.

[saevel25]

Its basically called the Kinetic chain, its easy to see why if you don't have a flat left wrist or a slighly bowed left wrist at impact that you'll loose distance,

Yes, rotation is built from the ground up, with each building on each other. hips rotate slower than the core, than the arms, than the clubhead, but all these things build up producing a very fast clubhead speed.

Rory probably has the fast hip rotation on tour, being only 5'9" tall, compared to someone like Bubba Watson, who's 6'4" tall (note that 3 out of the top 5 in driving distance last year were over 6"3" tall, height helps :p as well), if you look up "Sports Science Rory Mcilroy", you'll find a great video on the kinetic chain and why he can bomb  his drives.

Basically it comes down to, flexibility and muscle strength. He has amazing lower body strength, and hip mobility to get that rotational speed, but he has amazing core, and arm flexibility.

Look at Jamie Sadlowski, he's about the same height as rory, but he has very very flexible wrists. So his ability to amplify his core rotation to club head speed is increased.

Key's to increasing speed,

Hit the center of the clubface

Joint stability and flexibility

Stronger lower body, with emphasis on power

All of these can be improved upon. I am not saying that you'll be able to hit it as far as Rory, some people have god given talent. But its not unreasonable to see significant gains in your driving distance.

For me, the key is, i didn't gain much distance, i am hitting more fairways because i swing the same speed but under control. When i need to i can really rip into one. That's were i like about working on my body to gain speed. I am really excited for next year, i am really upping my workout program, and finally loose my gut to see if i can gain more yards. I'm 6'0" tall, 210 lbs, 20% body fat, and i hit the ball 280-290 average. I haven't even scratch the surface of working on joint flexibility and stability.

[chilly]

Agree with a lot of what's been said here.   Last year, a good drive for me was 260.  Made some effort to crank it up a bit more.

In a nutshell, made sure that I was "swinging" rather then "hitting" at the ball.  Seems simple enough, but it's tough.  In general, this will help you come from the inside and hit a draw, play looser, get more turn, and sequence the swing better.  All the same stuff stated above.  I also lost some weight, which helped with the flexibility.

This year a good drive for me is 280, and I've had a lot more days hitting it consistently, had a few over 300yds in the right conditions.  Not a big deal in itself, but the nice thing is I'm swinging EASIER to get there.  It's less work, and a lot more accurate...that is the big deal.

The other big thing, besides sequencing correctly and not coming over the top is not flipping.  It's simple, if I flip a driver I'm lucky to hit it 250, and it's going to leak right.  If I keep lag, it's going to be a good drive.  The sound and feel when the ball comes off the driver with proper lag is awesome, get that "cracking the whip" sense and the ball come off low and very hot.   Again, this is part of an easy swing, you can't lag when tense or coming over the top.

[Bananarama]

I would say the 9 degree stiff shafted FT-5 wouldnt help you on your drives.  The loft seems far too low.

Edit: oops i forgot it is all about techinique.

[srjorion]

Originally Posted by Bananarama

I would say the 9 degree stiff shafted FT-5 wouldnt help you on your drives.  The loft seems far too low.

Edit: oops i forgot it is all about techinique.

I was actually fitted for that loft and shaft.  Of course something has changed in my swing since then.

My main point of the thread isn't so much what is wrong with my swing.  That I would go to a pro and have them look at in person (which I will probably do early next Spring).  I am more curious if people have successfully gained extra distance and how they did it if they did.

[divot dave]

Originally Posted by Spudmonkey

I have gained about 20%-25% increase in distance through the bag over the last 12 months. While I have actually lost about 8Kg in weight.

Still getting used to my new distances, it's pretty weird. But its taken a lot of work, detemination and a lot of range buckets.

eg, 7I was 140yds now 165-175yds

Its all about technique, for me the main things that brought the gain about (having worked hard on them) are :-

Flat left wrist (all the way),

Extensor action,

Club weight awareness throughout the swing, makes a big difference to clubhead speed, ensures your working with the club and not choking its potential speed,

Soft hands (needed for above)

No over-run of arms, (shoulders finish turning, my arms are finished moving as well),

Sense of linkage/connection of left arm and shoulder blade with my turn.

These are the main points for me, there are of course many other things, but these are the ones I had to work on/discover.

It all comes together, and you actually feel like your swinging with less effort (because you are), and the distance just appears.

It really is nothing to do with hitting the ball as hard or as fast as you can, it really feels like the opposite of that. ie, easier, more fluid, more connected, more aware of the energy in the club.

Its very hard to explain the feelings, without using phrases and words that end up confusing things even more.

All I can say is

TECHNIQUE

TECHNIQUE

TECHNIQUE

Good luck & bear with it, its worth it!

flat wrist for me made a huge difference all by itself. But the rest of this post is important as well... except for the "extensor action" ... i don't even know what that is