Driving longer - Any help ppreciated

Swing speed cannot be overemphasized if you want to hit bombs off of the tee. The biggest obstacles I see in most players are lack of flexibility that inhibits a full shoulder turn, not sufficiently hinging and unhinging the wrists, and unhinging the wrists too early in the downswing. That being said, you have to have a solid base and good balance or it will all go to waste.

A powerful golf swing comes by swinging the club with the muscles of the legs, stomach and back. Your arms should not be the primary driver of the swing. Additionally, delayed unhinging of the wrists on the downswing until the club reaches your hip will create maximum clubhead speed at the moment of impact. Practice taking your driver and without moving your arms, hinge and unhinge your wrists and see how much speed is generated. The effect is similar when assimilated into your normal golf swing. Then, slowly take a full swing and concentrate on keeping your wrists full hinged until the club gets down to your hip on the downswing. When you can start making flush contact by consistently combining a full shoulder turn on the way back with a delayed unhinging of the wrists on the downswing, you'll start hitting some bombs.

Here is something you may like to try, take usual address with driver but have left hand on club only. To place right hand on club most people commit same error, they swivel shoulders anti clockwise , try it, you will find shoulders and hips are very much open. The key move is to swivel shoulders clockwise, you should find shoulders and hips square or slightly closed. To initiate downswing move hands and arms as one unit, feel you are having hands directed to a point outside your right toe .This should promote in to out swing.Give it atry.

I tried my new titleist 983k HCr today. Its unreal. The hot face, larger head size and stiffer shaft work well. Its added some extra yds on my old 975D but I find that the ball now travels in a more even arc, dropping just after half way? Its a 10.5 degree club so I think it must be the stiffer shaft or maybe that the range balls compression is not as well suited to the harder impact. I have been looking at the 2nd previous subject by mtibt so I think I'm fairly clued up.

I also got to try the Nike Ignite as a rep was at the range. Its a fine club. Very light, forgiving and powerful. I was impressed.

Glad to see lots of good posts on this topic

Good luck everyone

-PH

We can go at this topic for years. There is not 1 component that creates distance. It is a combination of many factors, the two most broad catagories would be proper swing technique for the individual and proper equipment for the intended user.

Ricky, I have to disagree that clubhead speed doesn't create distance. Speed is one of the biggest requirements for distance. If you take 20 grams of weight out of the pros clubs and the difference in distance will be minimal (<10 yards), but you slow their club head speed down by 20 mph and there will be a significant decrease in distance. The key to speed is that it must be done while having proper technique. You can swing 150 mph, but unless you swing correctly, it will not have the same effect that swinging 120 mph with correct technique would have.

As for equipment, the 'optimal lauch angle' must be considered if you are looking for distance. This can be affected by the clubface angle as well as the kick point in the shaft. Also the shaft has to be the right flex and length for the user. As the shaft get longer, it is more difficult to control, but more distance is added. As the shaft gets stiffer, the distance decreases, but the accuracy increases. There is a perfect point for each of us, so if you are serious about hitting longer drives, get to your local club making professional to get your clubs matched to your swing.

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Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall

First look at your equipment. Be sure that you are playing the right type of shaft that is est suited for you.

To figure what type of shaft you need to play. What is your swing speed?

That being said, lets talk about technique

It is very common to swing harder with a driver to produce more distance. This is the opposite of what increases distance. You are unleashing your power well before you arrive at impact if you swing harder. Swinging harder decreases swing speed. You need to swing easier. Your arms should feel like rope.

You right arm may be attaching itself too soon to your upper body. This does not create any arc width. With no width there is no distance

REMEMBER THIS A well hit 3 wood will go farther than a mi**** driver

Second is arc width. When I say arc width I am talking about extensions of the arms. The more extension you create the more potential for speed, and increase in distance.

Setup to a golf ball now turn back until the shaft is parallel to the ground. Check that your arms have swung away not into your upper torso. Be sure that your arms are fully extended away from your body. While making a note of how much extension you created also look at your knuckle count is it the same as it was at address? It better be, if it is not you have manipulated the club. Also be sure that the face is square the toe should be pointing up towards the sky.

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Jordy Scerbo
Golf Instructor

I must say, if club head speed is not what creates distance than i have an unreal golf swing. It comes down to how much force is put into the ball, basically how much energy transfer there is. With some balls, i.e. lower compression balls, the transfer is easier, but with higher compression balls, there is more potential. True with a more mass hitting the ball at the same speed, it will create more distance, but only if its at the same speed ect.

Try taking up your stance with the feet wider apart (just a couple of inches).

This will create more torque between the hips and shoulders and will make balance more stable

I've just changed from a 975D to an 863K. The back fence of our range is at 280yds and with the D I hit it on the bounce- Went out with the new club- same shaft and set up- carried the fence by 15 yards everytime.

If your desperate for the extra distance it does make a difference- having said that Im certainly not selling my D- its served me well.

ps. I'm the same size and shape and average around 300- the important factor as much as speed is the coil of your body- Tiger hits it so far because he coils his body so well- Im sure someone can explain it better than me- its to do with the turn of the shoulders and waist without the turn of the lower body- its come naturally to me as i grew up playing a lot of squash.

Can anyone explain it better please!?

two words...."the cream"

chris dimarco almost won the masters this year averaging 250 off the tee.....worry about hitting fairways and a 100 yards in...keep track of your strokes from 100 yards out and 100 yards in and i bet you probably should be posting...."Why am I 3 putting?"....or "What is the best technique for hitting out of soft or hard sand around the greens."

I average 280 off the tee and my biggest score killer is not the driver it is hitting crisp irons to par 3's especially 170+out.....long par three's some how kill my round....keep track of were all your strokes go.....forget distance...as you get older you may gain distance with muscle developement and confidence. Find out where your true weakness is.

ed

Physics 101

1. The distance the ball travels depends on the force applied to it (and the friction that impedes its flight and roll).

2. As Newton pointed out, F=ma, i.e., force equals mass times acceleration. In the case of the club head, the curved path means that the head is accelerating through the ball. The mass factor, however, is a little more subtle. Is it the mass of the club head that matters, the mass of the club, or the mass of the club plus golfer?

Lets ask it another way. Suppose two golfers swing their driver--the same driver--correctly with a club head speed of 115 mph at impact. And suppose wind conditions etc. are the same. But one golfer weighs 240 lbs., the other weighs 160. Will their drives go the same distance?

No. The bigger guy will hit it farther. How much farther? Hard to say, but because the club is connected to the whole golfer, and the golfer has a skeleton that provides some degree of rigidty, the mass of the golfer cannot be ignored, just as the mass of the boxer can't be ignored in boxing. The force of a punch doesn't depend just on glove speed. And the fact that Babe Ruth was a Big Guy had something to do with the distance some of his hits went.

This doesn't mean at all that in practice the bigger golfer will always hit it farther. It means that the bigger golfer will hit it farther ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL, but all other things are seldom equal. So Michelle Wie can drive a ball farther than I ever will, even though I am the proverbial Big Guy. Even a small flaw in the swing can impart a lot of force-wasting sidespin to the ball, which also hugely increases its friction with the air. Because my swing is rubbish, when I go to the practice range I routinely see men and women much smaller than me hitting the ball much farther.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

see it isnt the balls and clubs ruining the game....its the scientist and physics guys......Dave Pelz was a aeronautical engineer....burn them...burn them all!

The so called "late-hit" gives more power not because you whip your hands into the ball before impact, but because the centripetal force/acceleration causes the clubhead to catch upto your hands at impact.
Look at anything that is spinning, the outside has to move "faster" then the inside, it has centripetal acceleration as it has to cover a large distance while moving at the same "speed".
If you try and whip or flip your hands into the ball you lose all this and end up scouping the ball.

Delay the hit and let the natural laws of physics take over.
I disagree with a previous post comparing an amateur to Tiger just before impact.
The amateur usually has their hands inline with the club whereas the pros have anything up to a 60 degree angle --> delayed hit.

So in order to do that, we should keep our right wrist cocked for as long as possible?

In a way yes, but you dont want to hold your wrists as that will prevent them from releasing naturally.
Its also vital to have a soft grip on the club, any tension will delay the release, if not prevent it.
Try swing a weighted bar or club, the extra weight will put the club into the correct position and will cause you to release correctly, the physics of the situation will increase the speed of the club head to reach the ball at the same time as your hands, if you let it!

Roger that. I guess it's a fine balance between trying to keep the clubhead back as long as possible, and gripping softly enough that it can flow through like a hammer at the right instant. I am worried that by keeping is so loose that it can effectively hammer through the ball on impact, I end up breaking my wrist right after impact...