Distance Gain due to Change in Swing Path

[HJJ003]

So as I embark on my journey to shallow out my downswing (have suffered from steep swing and OTT moves in the last which causes all kinds of issues)...I have begun to wonder what distance gains one can expect to see on average by changing the path from OTT/steep to more “on plane”. Any ideas on what to expect if and when I am successful in my swing change? Are there too many other variables to consider? 

I average around 230 or so now off the tee with driver. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by HJJ003

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, HJJ003 said:

So as I embark on my journey to shallow out my downswing (have suffered from steep swing and OTT moves in the last which causes all kinds of issues)...I have begun to wonder what distance gains one can expect to see on average by changing the path from OTT/steep to more “on plane”. Any ideas on what to expect if and when I am successful in my swing change? Are there too many other variables to consider? 

I average around 230 or so now off the tee with driver. 

I don’t think you’d gain anything nor lose anything distance wise. Just the direction will be more predictable. If you slice all the time now, you should gain a little bit.

230 in the winter time is not too shabby.

[Vinsk]

3 hours ago, HJJ003 said:

Any ideas on what to expect if and when I am successful in my swing change?

Any successful swing change is directly proportional to the severity of error in another aspect of your swing. 🙂

[HJJ003]

2 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Any successful swing change is directly proportional to the severity of error in another aspect of your swing. 🙂

You would make a great motivational speaker....😉

[Chasing_Bogeys]

On 12/29/2018 at 2:03 PM, HJJ003 said:

So as I embark on my journey to shallow out my downswing (have suffered from steep swing and OTT moves in the last which causes all kinds of issues)...I have begun to wonder what distance gains one can expect to see on average by changing the path from OTT/steep to more “on plane”. Any ideas on what to expect if and when I am successful in my swing change? Are there too many other variables to consider? 

I average around 230 or so now off the tee with driver. 

I'm on the journey with you. I'll be putting up a swing video at some point this week. I'm looking for tips/drills on how to shallow out and not come OTT. I'm hopeful that eliminating the OTT/Slice will add 10+ yards lost from the driver/3W/4H to the right hand turn. Irons, I'm not expecting or concerned about gaining much (well, maybe the 5I sometimes). Will be tracking this thread to see what advice you get and/or what path you take on the journey. Good Luck!!!

[HJJ003]

34 minutes ago, Chasing_Bogeys said:

I'm on the journey with you. I'll be putting up a swing video at some point this week. I'm looking for tips/drills on how to shallow out and not come OTT. I'm hopeful that eliminating the OTT/Slice will add 10+ yards lost from the driver/3W/4H to the right hand turn. Irons, I'm not expecting or concerned about gaining much (well, maybe the 5I sometimes). Will be tracking this thread to see what advice you get and/or what path you take on the journey. Good Luck!!!

Thanks. I hope you have an easier time than me!

[WarrenB]

Watched a really good YouTube video the other day   Place a shaft or club straight at the target.  Place a shaft in front of the ball pointed right and one behind ball continuing the line inside.  

   Start the drill by swinging forward from address. Along the front shaft. Then backswing back along the line. At top try to shadow the shafts on ground coming from inside. Go slow and try to grove it. It helps with the over the top move. 

[TN94z]

On 12/29/2018 at 4:08 PM, Lihu said:

I don’t think you’d gain anything nor lose anything distance wise. Just the direction will be more predictable. If you slice all the time now, you should gain a little bit.

230 in the winter time is not too shabby.

I am thinking that you would more than likely see a distance gain (maybe small) because swinging along the correct plane would be more efficient than swinging on the incorrect plane with bad mechanics. I actually had this discussion with my club fitter last year. We were specifically talking about swing speed increases in having a better swing but we all know that swing speed correlates to distance.

[billchao]

19 minutes ago, TN94z said:

I am thinking that you would more than likely see a distance gain (maybe small) because swinging along the correct plane would be more efficient than swinging on the incorrect plane with bad mechanics. I actually had this discussion with my club fitter last year. We were specifically talking about swing speed increases in having a better swing but we all know that swing speed correlates to distance.

I agree with this. A more efficient motion should result in slight gains in swing speed. A better swing will result in better overall contact which should result in distance improvement as well.

[Lihu]

34 minutes ago, TN94z said:

I am thinking that you would more than likely see a distance gain (maybe small) because swinging along the correct plane would be more efficient than swinging on the incorrect plane with bad mechanics. I actually had this discussion with my club fitter last year. We were specifically talking about swing speed increases in having a better swing but we all know that swing speed correlates to distance.

Yes, small and a little bit might not be what the OP wants to hear, but what @Chasing_Bogeys mentions is more realistic? However, 10 yards out of 230 is not huge.

 

[TN94z]

2 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Yes, small and a little bit might not be what the OP wants to hear, but what @Chasing_Bogeys mentions is more realistic? However, 10 yards out of 230 is not huge.

 

I actually feel like it could be more than 10 yards honestly. For instance, when I was at the fitter on the trackman, it has an optimal reading (I believe that is right) that tells you with an optimal swing and your current swing speed and what not, what your approx. distance would be. Mine was a fairly high number, but with my swing flaws and ball path, I was hitting it X yards that day. Based off the trackman readings, an increase in 30 yards or so was possible. So I think getting the swing on plane and swinging more efficiently that would in turn build more swing speed added with the fact that the OP would then be hitting more in the center of the clubface and have a better ball flight and launch angle, I'm banking on more than 10. Also, the OP didn't mention his current ball path, how far the miss its, etc...With the miss I was having that day, it was going an easy 30 yards off line to the right. Straighten that out and it would gain more than 10, right?

[p1n9183]

A few years ago i used to hit my driver with a high pool slice. I averaged 240 carry and just 250 with roll.
After my swing change I started to hit a high draw, 250 carry and 270 with roll.
At the begining with my slice i had a shot zone of 60 yards wide. With the draw i gained distance but shot zone increased to 75-80 yards. After a few years i keep the draw and the distance but lowered the shot zone to 65 yards.
A really good change overall.

[Lihu]

20 minutes ago, TN94z said:

I actually feel like it could be more than 10 yards honestly. For instance, when I was at the fitter on the trackman, it has an optimal reading (I believe that is right) that tells you with an optimal swing and your current swing speed and what not, what your approx. distance would be. Mine was a fairly high number, but with my swing flaws and ball path, I was hitting it X yards that day. Based off the trackman readings, an increase in 30 yards or so was possible. So I think getting the swing on plane and swinging more efficiently that would in turn build more swing speed added with the fact that the OP would then be hitting more in the center of the clubface and have a better ball flight and launch angle, I'm banking on more than 10. Also, the OP didn't mention his current ball path, how far the miss its, etc...With the miss I was having that day, it was going an easy 30 yards off line to the right. Straighten that out and it would gain more than 10, right?

Sure, if you hit less trees your average could go up a lot.

Take a look at the flight scope optimizer. It’s not that huge unless your swing speed increases. 20 yards extra is like several mph gain though. Not sure path will gain that much?

Edited February 5, 2019 by Lihu

[TN94z]

3 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Sure, if you hit less trees your average could go up a lot.

Take a look at the flight scope optimizer. It’s not that huge unless your swing speed increases. 20 yards extra is like several mph gain though. Not sure path will gain that much?

No trees...obviously. It's not all swing speed though, right?  A lot of it is mishit and bad contact. Yes, for straight swing speed increase to gain 20 yards extra is a lot (what is it like 1 mph gains 3 yards or something like that?).

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, TN94z said:

No trees...obviously. It's not all swing speed though, right?  A lot of it is mishit and bad contact. Yes, for straight swing speed increase to gain 20 yards extra is a lot (what is it like 1 mph gains 3 yards or something like that?).

About 1mph for 2.5 yards

[TN94z]

2 minutes ago, Lihu said:

About 1mph for 2.5 yards

Right. I am basing this off what I saw personally on my trackman results. My mishits versus my optimal swing was a huge yardage difference. I wouldn't expect to gain the total yardage it was giving me by any means, but it was well over 10.

Edited February 5, 2019 by TN94z

[Lihu]

3 minutes ago, TN94z said:

Right. I am basing this off what I saw personally on my trackman results. My mishits versus my optimal swing was a huge yardage difference. I wouldn't expect to gain the total yardage it was giving me by any means, but it was well over 10.

Read @p1n9183‘s post.

He gained 10 yards carry, albeit 10 more roll

I don’t really depend upon roll though

Edited February 5, 2019 by Lihu

[TN94z]

11 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Read @p1n9183‘s post.

He gained 10 yards carry, albeit 10 more roll

I don’t really depend upon roll though

Right. But that's not going to be linear across every golfer.  And his misses may not be as bad as the OP either. That's no different than taking my experience into consideration which is on the longer end of potential distance gained. For that matter, I have hit an over the top cut mishit with my 7i that went about 150 and then turn around and hit a solid in to out baby draw 7i that went about 175.  There is not enough data to compare the two. I'm simply stating that it is very possible that he could gain more than 10. I'm not saying it's a for sure thing, but I'm saying it's a very good possibility.

But I don't want fill up the OP thread, so I'll end my portion there.

Edited February 5, 2019 by TN94z