Driver is killing my score.

[crkranz]

I have been playing fairly well lately (around par), but my driver is killing me and golf isn't much fun hitting 3 wood off the tee box all the time. Had a couple of leasons with Manz in Minnesota and have never been hitting my irons better! I've been trying to hit up more to get more distance and when it is working I get a beautiful high draw, but it is too unreliable. My typical miss is a big push fade and occassional hook. What should I focus on doing better?


DTL + Face On
‪07252011.avi‬‏ - YouTube

 

[footwedge]

Face control. Also looks like ball position is too far back, could be camera positon if your aiming the path right and the ball is too far back and you have varying face positons voila! big push fade and big hook. JMO. Plus you appear to have a neutral to weak grip postion.

 

[softconsult]

This is just an impression. This should be an interesting thread as the instructors weigh in. To me it looks like you are over doing the pivot.
That massive left heel lift is allowing too much pivot and too long a backswing. On the downswing this is screwing up your timing. Also looks rolling your open too much on the backswing.

 

[holeout]

Fix the ball position, and possibly work on having the right shoulder slightly higher in the downswing. To me, it looks like you're working under it a lot more than you should.

 

[spmurph]

Looks a little flippy to me. You make a great move in the transition but then your upper body catches up too fast. What did you work on with Brian?

 

[crkranz]

Thanks for the input so far. I try and play the ball just inside my left foot, so it might be bad camera angle. I do have a bad tendency to lift my left heal and backswing is longer than I like. I'm sure I probably flip a little, but not like I use to and doesn't look too bad on video.

Brian and I worked on getting my up body to stay back and arms to swing past my body or maybe releasing my arms more through impact is a better description. I don't know if I'm describing this right, but that is how it feels. Kinda kick myself for not doing a summary video at the end of the lesson.

 

[crkranz]

Well just got back from the range and am very encouraged thanks to some of the suggestions. Straighter, higher and deeper.

2 things that seemed to help the most.

1. Focused on keeping my heals on the ground both back and through. In addition to the overly long BS, I noticed that in the video my left foot sliding forwards during the downswing. I am sure this shortened up my backswing and kept things in better sync.

2. Worked on not rolling it open on the takeaway. Things really started to click when I did this.

Thanks guys. I would have taken video, but the range was pretty busy and I kinda feel like a dork out there shooting video of myself.

 

[crkranz]

My driver is definately improved the last couple of days, but still have some consitency issues. What I noticed on video is that my head moves way away and up during backswing. Anybody got any good ideas on a good way to fix this problem?

 

[dschultz6072]

What I see, and I suck, is you raise up out of your posture and you lose your "tush line" so to speak. From there, your torso is blocking your arms (no space) and you either block it or try to save it and give it a flip. Do you feel the same? Your left cheek should move deeper backwards as you swing down and through. Remember, I suck. You don't have to listen to me.

 

[counterfall]

Thanks for the input so far. I try and play the ball just inside my left foot, so it might be bad camera angle. I do have a bad tendency to lift my left heal and backswing is longer than I like. I'm sure I probably flip a little, but not like I use to and doesn't look too bad on video.

Brian and I worked on getting my up body to stay back and arms to swing past my body or maybe releasing my arms more through impact is a better description. I don't know if I'm describing this right, but that is how it feels. Kinda kick myself for not doing a summary video at the end of the lesson.

Was Brian trying to get you to slow the pivot down so that your arms would be more "flung" across your body post-impact? It looks as if the separation you develop between your upper and lower body in transition evaporates because your shoulders are spinning open a bit too soon. Hence the need to feel like you hold the shoulders shut longer until your hands get to waist high and then allow the pivot 'braking' to initiate the shoulder rotation followed by arm fling.

Try to let only your arms drop down (drop your right hand down toward your right ankle to exaggerate it) on your intial transition THEN get the shoulders moving and add in a little bit of 'jump' to get the left shoulder up and around. Just a thought...

 

[crkranz]

Was Brian trying to get you to slow the pivot down so that your arms would be more "flung" across your body post-impact? It looks as if the separation you develop between your upper and lower body in transition evaporates because your shoulders are spinning open a bit too soon. Hence the need to feel like you hold the shoulders shut longer until your hands get to waist high and then allow the pivot 'braking' to initiate the shoulder rotation followed by arm fling.

Try to let only your arms drop down (drop your right hand down toward your right ankle to exaggerate it) on your intial transition THEN get the shoulders moving and add in a little bit of 'jump' to get the left shoulder up and around. Just a thought...

Flung is a perfect description. I will work on drop and jump and see what happens.

 

[counterfall]

Flung is a perfect description. I will work on drop and jump and see what happens.

Breaking it into pieces was necessary for me. I needed a bunch of reps without a ball where I went to the top as normal, did my normal transition and held my shoulders back (full speed, slowed down, eyes closed, etc.). This sequencing issue was something that was missing for every club in the bag, of course. The driver just exaggerated it and made it obvious.

You could simplify your swing a little bit as far as backswing range and how much you lift the left heel. If you find that you need to shorten your backswing range so you CAN get everything in sequence from the transition, then maybe that is the way to go. Those that lift the heel for a reason other than for a lack of flexibility (idiosyncrasy, carried over from baseball, etc.) may need to drop the heel to get the lower body going (i.e. it is part of your rhythm). I mention this because someone posted that the heel lift is allowing you to over rotate your hips and shoulders. I personally believe that a given level of rotation can only be qualified as OVER rotation if it hinders performance (which may be the case for you at the moment). Keep that in mind as you try to work on it.

 

[crkranz]

Breaking it into pieces was necessary for me. I needed a bunch of reps without a ball where I went to the top as normal, did my normal transition and held my shoulders back (full speed, slowed down, eyes closed, etc.). This sequencing issue was something that was missing for every club in the bag, of course. The driver just exaggerated it and made it obvious.

You could simplify your swing a little bit as far as backswing range and how much you lift the left heel. If you find that you need to shorten your backswing range so you CAN get everything in sequence from the transition, then maybe that is the way to go. Those that lift the heel for a reason other than for a lack of flexibility (idiosyncrasy, carried over from baseball, etc.) may need to drop the heel to get the lower body going (i.e. it is part of your rhythm). I mention this because someone posted that the heel lift is allowing you to over rotate your hips and shoulders. I personally believe that a given level of rotation can only be qualified as OVER rotation if it hinders performance (which may be the case for you at the moment). Keep that in mind as you try to work on it.

Went to range over lunch and worked on dropping arms, seemed to help. The other thing that helped was I remembered that Brian said you needed to an in/out path of something like 7 degrees when hitting up with driver to draw the ball, so I concentrated on hitting it hard from the inside. These two things helped and thanks for the input. Swing is still too long and I'm still raising up in the BS, it is getting close


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