I've never understood how you can hit up on the driver without your weight falling back on the trail foot. Whether S&T or not, I see how you can hit down on a ball with your weight moving forward. Your momentum moves you forward and down.
But with the driver, when I think of hitting up on the ball, my body naturally starts to tilt backward, putting the weight on the trail leg. It probably also causes me to slow my arms dramatically, which is why I can't hit the driver more than 150 yards.
Granted, I have many other problems with the driver, slicing being the worst, but I can work on those. But mechanically and mentally, I can't figure out how to hit up on a ball while moving my weight forward. It doesn't seem to make sense. And, yes, I know about tilting at address, which for me, actually make the back tilt worse.
I'm seriously considering dropping the driver and just going with a 3-wood or maybe even a mini driver, anything where my brain doesn't try to hit up on the ball.
Thanks,
Mark
Tom,
Thanks. I was planning on sending you a driver video, or, really, a partial driver swing since a full swing doesn't seem in the cards at the moment. Also, I wasn't trying to imply that S&T doesn't work for the driver. I've had the same issues with the driver since I started golfing. (From what I've seen, the driver is the most difficult club for weekend hackers.) This isn't a S&T issue in any way.
I'll check out the videos as well. Thanks again.
@Mark Helm - There is no instruction here in the school that teaches you to "hit up" with any club. Think of proper impact position - hands leading the clubface, bowed front wrist. This applies to the driver as well, and it'd be difficult to retain those angles if we were actually hitting up on it. So, perhaps with the exception of folks with very slow swing speeds – or those Long Drive participants using extra high tees and hitting maybe 1-2 balls out of 10 onto a 60-yard wide "fairway" - the path is still ever so slightly down. In fact, believe it or not the PGA Tour average with the driver is actually minus (e.g.: downward) 1.3 degrees - nearly level but slightly down nonetheless! Thus, I do not advocate trying to hit up on the ball, and efforts to do so due to erroneous advice has caused many an amateur significant issues with their driver.
Oftentimes when golfers are hitting everything well except for the longer clubs it can be attributed to one of the following:
1) They don't start with - or maintain - enough weight on the front side. In general with the longer clubs we should add a little more front weight load at address - more like 60/40 instead of the 55/45 prescribed for the other clubs. This forward weight should gradually increase to the top of the backswing (70/30) and build further on the downswing - approximately 80/20 halfway down, 90/10 impact, and 95/5 finish.
2) Their hips are not continuing their lateral slide through impact. This is common with the longer clubs as the wider stance means that the hips have a greater distance to travel. If the hips stop moving laterally towards the target on the downswing then their rotation takes over, changing the low point and rerouting the club. This can produce a variety of undesirable results including fat and thin contact, topped shots and popups, straight pulls, and “banana” slices. Here is a drill from the Fixing Common Swing Problems section specific to building in more lateral hip slide in the downswing.
3) They are not allowing the length of the club to dictate the backswing path and are getting too steep as a result. The shaft length of the longer clubs encourages more of an around the body backswing as established by the shaft plane at address. It may "feel" flat as you take it back along the shaft plane for the first few feet, but as long as you maintain the "weight forward, shoulder down, and hands in" components while allowing the club to work around you, it should put you in the proper position at the top so you can attack the ball from the inside.
This is a common issue that I am regularly asked to fix, so if you care to have me put my eyes on your driver swing, please feel free to arrange for a V1 Swing Video Analysis. I'll then be able to identify some opportunity areas in your swing and give you a specific action plan for resolving them.
Beyond that there is this Driver mini-course in the school that offers some tips for setting up to and hitting the big dog. Also, there is this KFC Club member video comparing driver vs. iron swings. Finally, here is a video of Stack and Tilt co-founder Mike Bennett hitting the driver: It looks very similar to his iron swing, right?
The vast majority of my students and online school members - darn near 100% of them - hit the ball longer and straighter once they learn the basics of this swing, and that definitely includes the driver. Sure, most have initial success with the short and mid irons while the longer clubs tend to lag behind - and there are valid reasons for that which I've shared above - but once it all clicks and they are tapping that tremendous and virtually effortless power source known as angular momentum, they end up ripping it through the entire bag.
We can get you over this hurdle and mend your relationship with your driver...
Tom