How many times have you been told “You have to hit UP with your Driver”?
It is a bane of good Coaches during golf lessons, to hear the cliches of “Pre Technology” days.
1) Keep Your Head Down!
2) Keep Your Left Arm Straight to stop slicing
3)Pull the Club down!
4) Going to the Gym is bad for your swing!
5) Out to in path causes your slice!
6) If you are right handed, hit with your right hand! There are so many!!!
There is so much miss-information, and honestly it was not till the Technology came into it that we could see it as incorrect advice.
So the one I am interested in today is the Driver, because it really is the one that the Handicap Golfer cares about most, rightly or wrongly.
Tilt the spine more and hit up on the ball!… As soon as we get advice, we try and implement it… often we exaggerate because we don’t know any better. You’re told to tilt your spine away from the target so you do… then every Driver swing the club head hits a foot behind the ball.
(Picture Hank Haney)
Because your (Right Handed Golfer) Right hand is lower on the grip than your left hand, you already have spine and shoulder tilt.
That’s enough,you don’t need to tilt anymore, make sure your mass (weight) has moved back at address and you are ready to go.
Now you swing and see what happens.
According to PGA Tour Statistics, the AVERAGE angle into the ball (AOA) with a Driver is -1.3 degrees, this translates into a “downwards” swing….. Wait… a DOWNWARDS swing!!!!
Now I am certainly no Mathematician, but that means that more of the top players swing down with their Driver… OR there are enough players that swing Waaaaay down to affect the averages…
So what does that mean exactly… glad you asked!
What that means is that if you have been measured and your angle of attack (AOA) into the ball is -4 and no matter what you have done to try and make it a positive number has not changed it, then you need to look at other, simpler solutions.
What you need to do is match your AOA and Club speed to a more correct spin rate and Launch angle…
OMG what are you talking about!!!!
Well if you have a reliable Coach or Club Fitter this is a relatively simple process, much easier than trying to make your body do something that it cannot, or will not do.
-4 degree AOA, 100 MPH Club Speed, Optimal launch is 14.3 degrees and 2680 rpm of spin, how do I achieve this… maybe a higher lofted Driver head, try different shaft options, it could be as simple as changing ball position or width of your stance (feet) at address, or even a higher or lower tee position!
This is the point, don’t always try to change your swing, especially if the ball is going relatively straight.
The bottom line is there is no “one swing for everyone” if you cannot get into a position, then that position is not for you. We only have to look at latest PGA Tour winner Matthew Wolff or Jim Fyurk to see that so called perfect swings don’t always win.
There is so much information available to us now, there are so many ways of checking if you can or cannot do something, why try and force your body to contort when a shaft change maybe all you need…
The catch phrase now is “Measure, don’t guess”. the tools are there to make things so much easier as a student, test what you can and cannot do… measure as to what you need, then devise a plan!
The objective is to play better Golf and lower scores right?, you don’t have to look like Adam Scott as long as you score like him!