High driver shots

Hi Bob,

Hope I read you correctly. Yep indeed it seems weird that even though my clubhead has returned to my heel position, it is still going inside-out, and hence the fade. I'm interesting if this is what you mean by me not releasing the club at that point, and how to go about rectifying this?

Thanks!

My understanding (and one of the real experts could just jump in at anytime) is that what you describe would be considered a "push", that usually there a 2 causes:

1) the one I did not mention is that it is possible you are swaying forward on your downswing and not staying back. Doing this causes the ball position to become more in the middle rather then the front foot. Causing a push right. So first you may want to make sure on your downswing your body is not sliding forward. but rather your turning rotationally

2) The other cause, is that your hitting the ball with an inside out swing with a open clubface. (basically everything is squared up the swing, clubface etc. just aimed right) It is harder to attmpt to fix this one without seeing the swing but there are 2 ways to go about it 1) work on fixing the inside out swing, which would be working more on takeaway drills and downswing (there is nothing wrong with a inside out swing, but sometimes a person maybe coming way too much from the inside which case the problem is in the takeaway and downswing) or 2)more hand action at impact, which is a very fine line between ideal and being off either way. But when a person says releasing the clubhead they are meaning the position of your hands more specefically your right hand. usually in your set up your right hand is square to the target, during the backswing the right hand or palm faces up, and continues to during the start of the downswing, at impact it needs to square again and then basically rolls over the lefthand and faces down. (that move is considered "releasing the club") usually the sequence is natural but if your timing is off slightly it can have a major impact in ball flight. if your club face is open it could be due to your hands not getting 100% back to being squared up and the right hand needs to roll over the left a fraction of a second sooner. It is all right that the club is going in to out, it is just that the face of the club need to be squared at the target at impact.

On the second one I would look to find a good righthand drills, I have not tried any so would not know what to recomend.

Bob (hopes that helps and not confuses you more)

But I see it 1) are you swaying, 2) coming too much from the inside or 3) not enough hand action.

But like I said any of the real experts could chime in.

Wow, good thread gentleman. I too suffer from hitting too much from the inside with ball hitting near the heel of club. Coupled with an open clubface I am faced with a lot of push/slices in my high drives. I have been working on this the past couple of weeks at the indoor facility I hit balls at in the winter. With impact tape and use of the simulator, I noticed that almost everything I hit is off the heel portion of club. I tried something tonight that helped but I dont know if its a cure. I addressed the ball off the toe of club and widened my stance and only swing thought I used was "hit it off the toe." Numbers got better (inside degrees, swing speed, ball speed and closer to center hits), with a more boring trajectory. You can try a couple of these things but Im no instructor, just experimenting for now. I did all of this hitting with my old Orlimar Trimetal 9.5 driver with EI70+ stiff flex shaft. I keep putting away my Callaway BB 454 10* with reg flex shaft(possibly shaft is not right for me?) due to so many heel hits with slices. People have said to me that the big headed drivers are forgiving, but they also have more room for error if you have tendencies.

braveheart : we might be on the same track here. I also noticed that I'm hitting off the heel! My immediate thought was to try standing a bit further from the ball at address and maybe reaching more a bit. Any thoughts on whether this might be a good solution?

Demoed with one of those 460cc drivers, and still got the same result - high trajectory with push/slice. I think it could be because I've been trying to rip it.

A lot of very good suggestions have been offered in this thread. Guess I'll just need more practice time to go through them and see what works.

Thanks!

simonwoo,
I have tried to toe address the ball and that does help a bit but it has been suggested to me to have a 1/2" taken off length of shaft. Before I do that Ill play around with distance from ball and ball position. The toe address position is done by having toe part of driver meet inside edge of ball. Ive heard many people use this with the big headed drivers with great success. You can also try choking up a 1/2" with normal address and see if that helps. It cant hurt to try these things.

Just referring to using the same swing for every shot. With a driver I sweep it, and with an iron i work on hitting down on the ball to produce soild contact. Apart from that my swing plane is very similar for both irons and a driver. Obviously my set up is different.

simon,
Ive been working hard to rectify my (our) problem and Ive come up a few things that are helping me:
1. Traded my Callaway BB 454 10* with reg flex stock shaft for 454 9* with Fujikura stiff shaft. My SS is 100-102 mph with quick tempo, lately it had been dipping 5-7 mph lower (more on that later). Immediately, I felt the difference with less deviation and more solid hits.
2. Moved ball up to even with big toe of foot with much higher tee (Ive never tried anything higher than 2 3/4") with toe address of club. On simulator, swing speed which had been dipping a little lower now jumped back to 100, 103, 104 x 2 with increased ball speed, closer to sweet spot hits and increased distance as a result. Clubface still open a bit but swing flattened out and it felt easier to swing. Im not used to teeing it up so high so some inconsistency exists but that can be remedied by some practice.
3. Its been pointed out to me that I seem to roll my R hand open as I move L hand so 3 knuckles show at address, thinking that this will strengthen grip but it tends to let L hand pull club through without any release. I moved it on top of club more and Voila!, a more effortless release happened. Was not able to work on this long enough due to time constraints.
Impression:
I have always teed balls up low which in my case due to my steep swing makes me stay steep. I now see why I always lean toward shallow faced drivers and FWs. I was almost ready to give up on the deep faced driver I own. Im not advocating a lower loft, shaft change or any of these tips as the way to go for you but a least you can consider them in your experimentation. Take care.

Hi braveheart,

Point 3 sounds interesting, but I'm not sure if I get it fully. Would appreciate if you could talk a bit more on that, as I am definitely trying to have a better release. Scary thing is that when I think of release, I automatically link it with left wrist (breaking), so perhaps I have an immediate need to work on that...

Explanation for #3. When I strengthen my grip moving the left more on top with 3 knuckles 2-3 knuckles showing as I look down at club, I move my R hand counterclockwise too much. Now for me this makes it harder to turn R hand over naturally. I moved it on top of L thumb to where I think it should be (V of R thumb and forefinger now facing R cheek). This seemed to make the clubface be more square at contact with a more effortless release. Im working on this as I said I didtnt do it that long to know if its a fix for me entirely. I must stress that you dont get caught up in too many tips given to you. Try them out but realize that what works for me might not work for you. Ive seen variations of things work well for some people but getting a lesson from a pro and being fitted first should be the first order. Let me know if how you are doing.

Ah I see what you mean. Indeed I have already tried this, but also didn't devote enough time to it to get comfortable enough. I've always had a more neutral left hand grip and strenghtening too much felt very unnatural, even though there were many times I was able to find very clean contact with the ball this way. I think that also helps me keep the hands more ahead of the clubhead.

Yes, you should have the same swing with all clubs if u want to be consistent.. however obviously with the driver you are going to want to hit through the ball rather than hittin down on it..

to add to the original post, make sure your left wrist is flat at the point of impact. If your left wrist is bent (supinated - like you are pushing on the steering wheel) then you have added loft to the driver. if this is the case, practice with an impact bag to flatten out your wrist.

I've been practising so much with the 7 iron and learning how to hit down on the ball. I'm still not quite sure how to do this different with the longer clubs (is it as simple as putting the ball forward and just swing as per normal?). I suspect I am also cutting down on the ball with the longer clubs and therefore generating a lot of backspin (hence higher and shorter shots), but I don't really know how to verify this.

I was also hitting my driver a little higher then I would have liked. So what I did was change my shaft. I have a TM R5 (D) 10.5 loft. The shaft I had was a stock shaft, mid torque, soft tip 55.5 g. My swing speed is between 105 - 109. I switch to a Aldila NV 75 S, 2.8 Torque with a low to mid launch angle. I love it. I have better control of my ball flight and because it has brought my ball flight down some I am getting 10 to 15 yards more distance.