jdalton

When I find myself occasionally going off balance, I narrow my stance somewhat and it forces me to either control my swing or fall backwards. Since I don't want to fall backwards, I am forced to correct my swing motion. Many times, poor balance is caused by concentrating too much on hitting (smashing) the ball into the next county. Concentrate more on a correct swing motion, rather than how the shot will turn out and yu should be more in control. Try it and good luck. Coach-Joe

You must be rather tall. A driver with a 45 1/2 inch length is rather long for most golfers. The standard length for steel shafts is 43 " for steel and 44 " for graphite. Your height and distance from the wrist to the ground are the two determining factors for length of club. If you are having good results, then stay with what you have. If not, you might consider getting measured and the result may be even better distance. Hope this helps,,,,,,, Coach Joe

It all depends upon if you are interested in show or results. I've started with matched sets and usually end up adding and deleting over time. The result is a mismatched set. It' all whatever works best and what club you feel most confident with. After reaching a decent level of play, a golfer should then consider custom fitted clubs. Variables such as player height, length of arms ( distance from the wrists to the ground ) swing speed, etc all need to be factored in. Only then will you know whether to use steel shafts, or graphite, degree of loft, etc. Even non-brand name, mismatched, but properly suited clubs in the hands of competent players can often result in better scores at the end of the round of golf. Hope this helps,,,,,, Coach Joe

Although you don't state what scores you were shooting or what your handicap was before your friend pointed out your out of alignment issue when you addressed the ball, it sounds as if you were having sucess with what you were doing. You state that you were striking the ball well, were more in control and scores were down and consistent. Sounds like you were doing better than most of the people that I coach. The majority of golfers make accommodations of some sort. Just find what works for you and try not to let all of this technical stuff get too much in your head. We all have different physical builds and talents. Use what you have and tell your friend thanks for the input. golfcoach-joe

Hitting an effective draw should provide the extra distance that you are looking for. Your slilce could be caused by several factors, but I assume that you have already tried to correct your slice with swing, face alignment, etc. If the new driver addresses your slice problem, why not just buy it and correct the slice NOW, without going through the time, money and agravation of more lessons. If the new driver should not work to your satisfaction..... put it on Ebay and move on. Us amatures need to use anything that works to help our game. Good luck Golfcoach - Joe