Today I’m going to give you what I believe is the best thing you can do if you want to hit longer drives. But before I give you that, let’s just recap what we’ve covered so far in this little series to help you hit the ball further. Here are the four things I’ve covered up until now to help you add yards to your drives…
1. Striking the ball consistently in the middle of the clubface.
2. Starting the ball consistently where you want it to start.
3. Controlling the clubface angle at impact.
4. Getting fitted with a driver to help you hit the golf ball as long as possible.
Now let’s say an average golfer called Trevor works on those 4 things and has added a good solid 10 yards to his drives on average. Trevor’s average drive has risen from 220 yards to 230 yards.
Ok, so what else can Trevor do to hit the golf ball further?
Well, there’s only one thing….and it’s a huge thing!
Increase his swing speed.
If your swing speed is 90 mph (which the average golfer is) and you increase your swing speed by 10 mph up to 100 mph then you’ve just picked up 22 yards in distance! Because apparently for every 1 mph of clubhead speed you increase you pick up 2.2 yards in distance.
So if you increase your swing speed by 15 mph then you will gain 33 yards in distance. If you gain 20 mph in swing speed you’ll gain 44 yards in distance.
Does gaining that much distance sound far fetched to you?
Well, if it does you’ve got to check this out!
There’s a guy who has recently gained 44.3 yards in distance in just 56 days. His swing speed went from 93.8 mph up to 114 mph!
And he’s even got video proof. You can go here now to see it.
Now before you think he must have all day to work on improving his golf game and workout etc. think again. Because he works full time and has a young family yet still managed to gain 44.3 yards in distance in just 56 days.
He then got some others to try out the swing speed program and you can see some of their results by going here. In fact, after talking to Alex, everyone who has completed the program has increased the distance they hit the golf ball!
That’s why I haven’t been as excited about a golf product as I am about this for a long time. So much so, I even purchased this for myself! And I can tell you from first hand experience the program looks fantastic. I’m really looking forward to going through this to see how much distance I can pick up. Especially after my two ACL knee surgeries because I would have lost quite a lot of distance.
So will you join me? Take The Golf Swing Speed Challenge by going here and see how much distance you can pick up.
You’ll be hearing quite a bit about this website I’m sure, so check it out now while it’s brand new: http://www.GolfSwingSpeedChallenge.com
Today I have for you part 2 of this plan to help you add 30 yards to your drives, and today I’m going to give you two more things to help you hit longer drives. Now just in case you missed it or just as a refresher…in the first part of this plan I gave you two things you need to work on to hit longer drives more consistently. The first two things were…
1. Striking the ball consistently in the middle of the clubface.
2. Starting the ball consistently where you want it to start.
Now there is a third and very important impact element that you need to work on, both for consistency and added length.
We all know that if at impact the clubface is a lot open then the ball will curve to the right. Equally, if the clubface is closed then the ball will curve to the left.
So in a perfect world we want the clubface to be exactly square at impact to where we want the ball to finish. But if you haven’t already noticed….we do not live in a perfect world. And the chances of hitting perfectly straight golf shots are zero to none. If you’ve seen the protracer on TV you’ll know you never see a perfectly straight golf shot. But rather you’ll normally see shots like this…
Now there’s a famous story about Jack Nicklaus watching Ben Hogan hitting balls and seeing the machine like fade that Hogan hit balls with. So Nicklaus was determined to use the same ball flight. To do this he would practice at a target and then he would start the ball at the target but he would never want a ball to end up to the left of the target. Obviously to do that he had to strike the ball with an open clubface creating the fade spin on the ball.
Good story right? But what’s better, an open clubface at impact, or a closed one?
Well, there is no right or wrong with this BUT if your average shot is a slice you need to at least get that back to a little fade. Equally, if your average shot is a hook you need to get that back to a little draw. The guy’s that I see hitting the ball long all have a little draw or a little fade.
Now here’s a great way to work on this…
Go to a driving range and pick out a target in the distance to aim at. Then set something up in front of you so you have a gate to shoot through. I talked about this in the last post.
When you’ve set this up it will mean that if you get the ball between your gate it will start directly at your target. Then you need to set a goal to either get your balls to finish all to the left of your target or all to the right of your target. When doing this I suggest you start by hitting half shots with 5-irons. And so what you’re working on is starting the ball straight where you want and then getting the ball to curve to the left or to the right.
By learning to curve the ball all one way consistently you will get a great by product, which is CONFIDENCE!
Imagine standing up on a tee with out of bounds all down the right hand side. And you’ve trained yourself to start the ball consistently at a target and draw the ball. So that means you can pick a target like the middle of the fairway and you know that your ball is going to end up to the left of that, i.e. NOT O.B.!
That will give you confidence. That will allow you to swing with more relaxation and freedom which will naturally give you longer drives.
All right, that’s the 3rd thing you need to work on for longer drives. The next thing I want to have a look at today is your equipment.
I am most certainly not a golf club specialist so don’t jump down my throat if I get something wrong or miss something out, but here’s the general run down on club fitting for longer drives. It comes down to two critical numbers. The launch angle and ball spin rate off the face of the driver. And it’s been found through research that a higher flight off the club face that is combined with lower spin rates can help golfers to hit the ball further.
Now a good launch angle is between 10-14 degrees. And this can be determined largely by the loft on the driver.
Next up you have the spin rate and generally speaking, the less spin on the ball the better. You should have between 2,500 to 3,500 RPM’s when hitting a driver. You can alter this through driver loft, shafts and different kinds of balls.
So you can go to a club fitter that has a launch monitor and they can fit you with a new driver that will help you to hit the ball longer. But be warned, this will probably not be cheap! Chances are you’ll need a new driver and you know how much those are.
Anyway, those are the two things you need to add to the mix for longer drives. Here is what we’ve covered so far.
1. Striking the ball consistently in the middle of the clubface.
2. Starting the ball consistently where you want it to start.
3. Controlling the clubface angle at impact.
4. Getting fitted with a driver to help you hit the golf ball as long as possible.
That’s 4 great things you can work on and improve so you can hit longer drives more consistently. But in the final part of this plan for longer drives I’m going to give you the absolute best thing you can do for longer drives. So look out for that final installment early next week.
A couple of weeks ago I asked you what you thought it would take to add 30 yards to your drives.
I got swamped with replies but most people were unfortunately way off base. So I’ve put together a plan to help you. If you follow this plan you can add 30 yards to your drives. It’s going to come to you in 3 parts. Today you get part one, then I’ll be sending you the second part next week and then the third part the week after. So let’s get started….
Let’s say John is on the driving range and he wants to work out how far he currently drives. So he hits 20 drivers. The worst shot goes 200 yards. His best drive goes 240 yards
and the average works out to be 220 yards. Or 220.83 yards to be precise.
Ok, so what can John (a.k.a-YOU!) do to add 30 yards to his drives?
Before I tell specifics on what you should focus on to add 30 yards to your drives I want to briefly cover something very important.
When people told me what they think they should do to hit the ball 30 yards longer they told me things like…
- Stay behind the ball prior to impact
- Turn the hips at the onset of the downswing
- Turn through the ball at impact while shifting the weight forward.
- Release the hands after impact.
- Keep a smooth tempo.
- Add more “torque” to my swing.
- Stay in balance through the whole swing
And then I got some that had big lists like this…
1. First I make sure I grip the club correctly and at the same time check that the face of the club is square to the target
2. Then from the two feet together which is square to the target as well and the ball positioned inline withe the middle of the feet, I then take a step to the right with my right foot sothat I have a stand which is slightly wider than the width of my shoulder.
3. I bend my knees slightly and bend forward at the hip to address the ball which is teed up with about half of the ball above the top of the club head.
4. I will waggle at little to check my balance and to relax my arms and shoulders before I take a swing.
5. I will start the back swing by taking the club as far back as possible (to widen the swing arc) until my wrist begins to cock about 45 degrees angle and my left shoulder turns until it is slightly behind the ball. At this point, I will find some tension are exerted on my knees due to the coiling effect. And by this time , I will feel most of my weight will be on my right foot.
6. I will start my down swing slowly with a sort of light “thump” down with my left foot towards the ground causing a slight shift of my hips and transfer of weight to left “fore” foot and resulting in the slight turn of my hips and
7. followed by a full turn of my shoulder as my arms followed through the swing. ( I try not to use the arm swing intentionally as my club swings down and through).)
8. I will try to delay the uncocking of my wrist until my chest face the target and straighten both my arms together in the follow through until it breaks naturally.
9. During this process, I will try to keep my head steady and as little movement as possible.
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1. Ball off front armpit and big toe.
2. Back shoulder slightly lower.
3. Hands slightly behind ball.
4. Butt of club pointing at belt buckle.
5. Weight slightly favors back foot.
6. Back knee flexed, slightly pointing toward target. Position maintained throughout swing.
7. On takeaway, front shoulder rotates back under chin and is lower than it was at address.
8. Arms and hands go back connected, maintaining triangle formed with shoulders.
9. Back arm stays straight until waist high at takeaway.
10. At least 70* shoulder turn.
11. At top of back swing, back elbow is folded, pointed to ground. Butt of club is pointing to target line.
12. Weight shift to front side preceded by “bump” of front hip toward target.
13. During swing, body moves around spine with limited head movement. Spine is tilted forward toward ball and slightly away from target. Spine plane is maintained throughout swing.
14.Just as takeaway is slightly inside, downswing is inside to ball, square to ball and target line, and slightly inside past impact.
15. Back arm straightens at impact, front wrist stays flat throughout swing, back wrist stays flexed throughout swing.
16. After impact and as a natural result of swing, back arm straightens and front arm folds.
17. With follow through, belt buckle faces target. Shaft of club should fall diagonally on back. Back shoulder should be turned toward target as much as physically possible.Weight on front foot should be evenly balanced between ball and heel.
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Now those things are red herrings. They are NOT going to add 30 yards to your drives. Equally, learning a new swing method is NOT going to add 30 yards.
How can I know this with absolute certainty?
Because for almost every “should” in the golf swing you have someone great that contradicts it.
For example, everyone knows that your right elbow needs to be tucked in at the top of the backswing. But Jack Nicklaus seemed to do OK with a flying right elbow.
You shouldn’t swing past parallel. But John Daly, Phil Mickelson, Sam Snead, Fred Couples all seemed to have played some pretty good golf swinging past parallel.
You should swing like Moe Norman because he’s the best ball striker that has ever lived. No, you should swing like Ben Hogan because he’s the best ball striker that ever lived.
Trust me, I could go on and on with that sort of stuff. But my point is…those are all red herrings.
So my question to you is…do you really want to add 30 yards to your drives?
If you do then here’s what you need to focus on.
IMPACT
Look the ball is just sitting there WAITING to be hit. As much as we’d like to think so, the ball does not have a brain. The golf ball doesn’t care how pretty your swing is. It doesn’t care whether your right elbow is tucked in or flying. It doesn’t care whether you use a one plane swing or a two plane swing. So how far you hit the ball is determined by what you do at impact.
Have you ever worked on improving what you do at impact (not impact positions)?
Or are you concerned about swing positions?
I can tell you from years of experience that a person only increases the distance they drive the ball when certain aspects at impact are improved. And there are five main things I’m going to cover in this plan about this. The first thing I want to cover is where the ball hits the clubface.
Now in the example above where John hit his best drive 240 yards and his worst drive 200 yards a HUGE factor on the 200 yard shots would have been where John hits the ball on the clubface. It’s well known that for each 1/4 inch inch the ball is hit off center then you can expect about an 8-10 yard loss in distance.
In response, you may say that you’ve got game improvement irons or a super big headed driver. But that stuff still doesn’t matter. You can’t change the fact that the sweetspot is tiny and so to hit the ball consistently long you need to hit the sweetspot consistently.
So if you want to hit the ball longer you should be practicing hitting the ball consistently out of the middle of the clubface….the sweetspot.
How do you practice hitting out of the sweetspot?
Well, there’s lots of ways of doing it. You can get some spray to put on your clubface so you see where you’re striking the ball.
You can use impact tape. You can mark your practice balls so the mark will appear on your club etc. etc. But no matter what you use to get feedback on where you are striking the ball you should, when working on hitting the sweetspot, start off by doing small swings. Start with chip shots. Because if you can’t hit the center of the clubface with a chip shot chances are you won’t be able to do it with a full driver swing.
So that’s the first piece of advice I’ve got for you if you want to add 30 yards to your drives…practice hitting shots consistently out of the sweetspot.
Now the next thing to help you add 30 yards to your drives is to work on your swing path, because the shortest point between two distances is a direct line.
So if you’re starting the ball way too the left or way too the right of where you want your ball to end up then that’s going to cost you distance.
To hit the ball longer, more consistently you need to work on starting the ball straight where you want. I remember years ago seeing a magazine article with Ken Green and it showed him hitting golf balls out of his living room through the ranch sliders that were open about a foot or so and the ball was flying out onto the golf course that his house was next to. Crazy stuff.
And if you have ranch sliders at home you should do exactly the same thing.
Just kidding. 
But the concept is a great one for working on swing path. To do this place some objects in front of where you’re hitting shots so that your ball has to go through them to travel directly towards your target. A couple of umbrellas work well for this or big drink bottles.
Now like the impact practice I suggested earlier….when you’re working on your club path you should do so with small swings first. Start off with chip shots trying to hit them through the gate you’ve setup. Then move up to half swings, then three quarter swings, full swings etc.
Also, you can move the gate closer together so the gap your ball has to fly through is smaller. And if you’re really keen you can record how close you’ve got the gap that you’re hitting balls through and try and beat your best.
When doing this you might want to use wiffle balls or almost golf balls. Not real golf balls because if a ball ricochets off your gate and comes back to hit you it might hurt.
So that’s part one of this plan to help you add 30 yards to your drives and your first task is to work on improving where you strike the ball on the clubface. And second, you need to work on improving your path so you start your drives straight at where you want your ball to start.
Ask me any questions on this below or just make a comment on what you’ve learned. Then next week I’m going to send you part 2 of this plan to help you hit longer drives so look out for that.
Tags: longer drives