Tour Proven Keys to Distance

For awhile I was on a long driving binge. I studied many of the longest hitters swings in slow motion, to look for their secrets. I have also read articles and books on distance here are some basic and advanced techniques.



Basic
These are techiques that are used by most/all of the long hitters on the PGA Tour. By using these you can improve your distance.

Maintain Your Spine Angle: The simplest thing you can do, is to stay in your posture and maintain your spine angle throughout your swing. What I mean by this is to not "come out of it" so that when you reach impact, you are not standing straight up, but rather over the ball a little. This needs to be done in any swing for maximum consistancy and power. Do this in all of these techniques.

Length of Arc: How far you take the club back. try and take it back farther WITHOUT comming out of your spine angle and posture. the key here is to do it with your Shoulder Turn and not by bending your left elbow. just turn farther.

Width of Arc: How far away your hands are from your body. try and get as much extension away from your body in your backswing.

Hip Turn: the less you turn your hips the more torque you can create, and that means more power.

X-Factor: this is an equation that deals with hip turn to shoulder turn. the more your shoulders turn in comparison to shoulders the higher your x factor will be.(natalie gulbis has the highest, even higher than tiger).
It requires a great deal of flexibility to maximize the xfactor. so if you arent that flexible, dont try this, its more important to make a full shoulder turn than to restrict your hip turn.

Clear Your Hips: On your downswing, turn your hips through fast enough so that your belt buckle points at the target when you make contact with the ball. You probably wont be able to get your hips that far ahead, but thats the image you want.

Turn Through It: Just simply turn through the ball with your body hips and shoulders in sync. This goes along with "clear your hips".



Advanced:
I advise only players with a high skill level to try these. And only if you dont mind messing up your swing. They are extremlely hard to time and perform properly. If all you care about is distance, then these are for you.
*note: some of these contradict what I said above.

The Knee:
This is a technique that I have discovered from watching Bubba Watson.
What he does, is during his backswing, he lifts his front heel off the ground, and bends his front knee inward towards his back knee. All while limiting his hip turn and staying in his spine angle. The first move in his downswing is to fire his front leg straight. What this does for him, is makes his hips fire extremely fast.

The Elvis:
I call this "The Elvis" because it looks like Elvis when he his flailing his hips and knees around. This is similar to "The Knee" but has a slight difference. This technique is employed by Sean "The Beast" Fister. He delays the knee action untill late in his swing, then he basically kicks his front knee back which flares his hips open, but this can create more speed because he is strong enough to fire them through. The farther your hips have to turn the more speed potential is there if you can physically do it. To see it in action, watch the commercial for the "Power Hitter" where Sean is hitting golf balls through plywood, and look at his lower body action.





ok im sick of typing stuff out, i have a few more, and a few secret ones that only tour pros know about, but i might keep them to myself. i might update this later on. if you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.

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I'd rather hit it 380 than shoot 68.


My set:

Driver(s):Nike Sasquatch 9.5 degree D3 Swingweight 44.5 XStiff V2 2.9 Torque

Nike Sumo and Sumo2 8.5 D3 44.5 Xstiff V2 2.9 Torque

Fairways: Nike Sasquatch 3 5 woods

Irons: Nike Forged Blades 1-PW all 2degrees upright and 2 degrees strong Rifle 6.0 shafts

Wedges: Titleist Vokey 52,56,60

Putter: Nike Unitized Retro

First off, good post.

Second, I like the fact Bubba gets a mention here - that guy is unreal, pink driver shaft and all.

Instead of focusing on bending your back knee towards the front knee on the backswing, why not just keep it bent the entire time - wouldn't that restrict the hip turn as well?

Btw, I was just wondering - the conventional swing isn't for me ever since I found the Mike Austin method.

well bubba is unreal. everyone makes fun of him cuz he hits it so far, but id rather see him try and drive a par 5 than see someone like jose coceres bunt it out there 200yds then lay up and 2 putt.


but i think u got what i said backwards. but keeping your back knee bent is another thing you need to do, never straighten it in your backswing. if you are physically fit enough to fire that straight during ur downswing then do it, but it is hard. like i said tho, i left some stuff out cuz i got lazy.

__________________
I'd rather hit it 380 than shoot 68.


My set:

Driver(s):Nike Sasquatch 9.5 degree D3 Swingweight 44.5 XStiff V2 2.9 Torque

Nike Sumo and Sumo2 8.5 D3 44.5 Xstiff V2 2.9 Torque

Fairways: Nike Sasquatch 3 5 woods

Irons: Nike Forged Blades 1-PW all 2degrees upright and 2 degrees strong Rifle 6.0 shafts

Wedges: Titleist Vokey 52,56,60

Putter: Nike Unitized Retro

this long drive stuff is pointless. the real money is made from 100 yards and in.

LOL

Why do you think a wide takeaway arc will generate more power? Surely the backswing only gets the club to the top, it does not come back down on a wide arc.

I get my longest drives by feeling tense on my backswing and loose and free on my down swing. I picture throwing the club down the line so that it would flip end over end. I can actually feel a good hit in the shaft, I don't even have to look up to know that it is gooooonnnneeee.

Having said that, I still work on direction---after all, this game is all about distance and direction, get those wrong and you can add 10 strokes to your game easy. I went through a period where I became a great tree player... Driver was giving me fits.... Had a few lessons, lost yardage implimenting changes--now I have gained yardage after the mechanics of the new swing have been slotted in and sorted.

Having said that, I am no where near joining any long driving competitions... I hit a ball last weekend 335 meters... Was really happy about that, until my playing partner said that he watched John Daly play the same hole from the back tee box to the same fairway position during the NZ open.... Felt pretty stink about that, couldn't imagine someone able to hit a ball that far... I was sure that the stars had aligned and that distance would never be repeatable...

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SumoSid
"Moments of Greatness followed by Moments of horror."

The width of the arc is reduced on the downswing, creating "lag". Watch any long hitter, they have a wide take away, then on the downswing the club comes down on a more narrow path. Try and take a swing with a narrow width arc on the backswing and you will basicly top it. Look at a pic of Tiger or Sean O'Hair at the top of the backswing and see how far away their hands are from their body. Taking it back too narrow will cause you to cast the club, come over the top, "scoop" the ball at impact, and basicly be a 43 handicap.

__________________
I'd rather hit it 380 than shoot 68.


My set:

Driver(s):Nike Sasquatch 9.5 degree D3 Swingweight 44.5 XStiff V2 2.9 Torque

Nike Sumo and Sumo2 8.5 D3 44.5 Xstiff V2 2.9 Torque

Fairways: Nike Sasquatch 3 5 woods

Irons: Nike Forged Blades 1-PW all 2degrees upright and 2 degrees strong Rifle 6.0 shafts

Wedges: Titleist Vokey 52,56,60

Putter: Nike Unitized Retro

Tension is a killer of the golf swing, any Pro will tell you that. What you said about being tense doesnt really make sense to me, but the most important thing is, do whatever works for you. If that works, then keep doing it.

And making changes will make you regress from your game for awhile, before you get used to the changes. So if you try anything, and things done work out at first, you need to stick with it.

Did you lazer that drive, or was it by going off the advertised yardage for the course?

Partners laser little bushnell jobbie he picked up cheap while in the states on holidays.

tension I talked about might more approprietly be called loading up. BTW... Can you further discribe what looks like a discripency in your first post.
Hip Turn: the less you turn your hips the more torque you can create, and that means more power.
Clear Your Hips: On your downswing, turn your hips through fast enough so that your belt buckle points at the target when you make contact with the ball. You probably wont be able to get your hips that far ahead, but thats the image you want.

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SumoSid
"Moments of Greatness followed by Moments of horror."

The best way to show you what I mean is to use this picture of Bubba Watson.


Look at where his hips are here at impact. Not many people can get to this position. Only Tiger Woods, Fred Couples and a few other tour players even get to here.


Here is Tiger's sequence. This here, is how you generate power

1st frame, perfect power setup. 2nd, Thats what we call "width of arc" 3rd Frame, look at the minimal hip turn, and huge shoulder turn(like 120degrees). He has an unbelieveable x-factor. 4th, look where his hips are at impact. Fully cleared. This is what I'm talking about with hip turn.

__________________
I'd rather hit it 380 than shoot 68.


My set:

Driver(s):Nike Sasquatch 9.5 degree D3 Swingweight 44.5 XStiff V2 2.9 Torque

Nike Sumo and Sumo2 8.5 D3 44.5 Xstiff V2 2.9 Torque

Fairways: Nike Sasquatch 3 5 woods

Irons: Nike Forged Blades 1-PW all 2degrees upright and 2 degrees strong Rifle 6.0 shafts

Wedges: Titleist Vokey 52,56,60

Putter: Nike Unitized Retro

Opening the hips so far gives you power, but it's a killer for control.

The thing that stands out in that picture to me:

Avg driving distance rank : #1
Fairway percentage rank : #182

Does it really matter how far you can hit it when you can't find the fairway? Unless you've got Bubba's short game, hitting it 350 into the trees isn't going to help you.

open hips at impact is not necesarry for long drives. If you study mike austins swing, and he hit the ball farther then anyone, you sill notice his hips and shoulders are square at impact. having your hips outrace your shoulders is not good for the spine and not necesarry for long distance. Is it one way people do it, yes, but there is more then one way to hit it long

I definitely agree with that. I tried Hogan's move of turning my left hip rapidly towards the sky for awhile, but it really killed my lower back.

As to your quote about Mike Austin, notice the fully cleared hips here at impact. Im not saying to outrace your arms, but if your hips dont clear you will be using all arms and not utilizing all your potential power. Also, fully clearing your hips will make your swing more consistent and hit more solid shots.


Notice that you can see "two cheecks", meaning he has fully cleared his hips, as is the case with any good player.

it definitely helps to clear the hips for distance. i was at a point in my swing where i was all arms and was hooking everything from driver to lob wedge. i started to clear my hips during my downswing and i improved dramatically. nice and high and about 5-6 yards longer with every club.

i still find myself forgetting to clear my hips, but the courses and ranges open this weekend so i'll have plenty of time to work on it.