Driver from middle of stance

alxmorgan

Hey guys,

Scored 39 points yesterday but hardly hit a fairway and lost a couple of balls as a result. (easy course to be fair)
Anyway this has been an ongoing feature of my game - my inability to hit fairways and losing points due to wayward driving.

So have been thinking of ways to sort this and one thing I had toyed with a while back was teeing the ball lower and putting it in the middle of my stance.

http://www.golf.com/video/tee-it-low-hit-it-straight

Of course the perceived wisdom says a driver should be hit with an ascending blow so should be forward of centre.
The danger of the middle of stance route is that I hit down on the ball imparting backspin and a higher ball flight thus losing distance.
I'm not the longest to begin with so ideally would like to hit more fairways while not losing too much.

Any thoughts on this and has anyone tried this with any success ?

thanks,
Al

Dr.Silly

Personally I would advise against it.
I would rather work and practice in doing it the *correct way rather than trying to accomodate my weakness and do it an alternate way.
You should have a natural swing/rythem/stance for all your clubs and shots.

saintastic

Also, this has probably been mentioned a lot but I'd go for a lesson to look at your driving. Get it done now, practice it for the winter months and have it nailed for the full season then.

alxmorgan

saintastic wrote: »

Also, this has probably been mentioned a lot but I'd go for a lesson to look at your driving. Get it done now, practice it for the winter months and have it nailed for the full season then.

Just about to call there

Out of interest what I am asking ?
Have a look at my driving ? Teach me the fundamentals ?
Teach me how to draw it ? (my miss is left to right)

saintastic

alxmorgan wrote: »

Just about to call there

Out of interest what I am asking ?
Have a look at my driving ? Teach me the fundamentals ?
Teach me how to draw it ? (my miss is left to right)

If it was me, I'd be saying, I want to consistently hit more fairways, my miss is x, what is wrong with my swing?

alxmorgan

saintastic wrote: »

If it was me, I'd be saying, I want to consistently hit more fairways, my miss is x, what is wrong with my swing?

Sounds reasonable - thanks

Dr.Silly wrote:

Personally I would advise against it.
I would rather work and practice in doing it the *correct way rather than trying to accomodate my weakness and do it an alternate way.
You should have a natural swing/rythem/stance for all your clubs and shots.

Fair enough but I guess even to have it as a fall back shot when my driving was off or I absolutely had to hit a fairway - do you think it has any benefit then ?

charlieIRL

what i done to help me was grip down a little more on the club and only 3/4 swing. hit nearly all my fairways now but am well short on distance but at least i am not in trouble.

I also have a new pre-shot routine which is one of the drills from my lessons and its working a treat!!

k.p.h

alxmorgan wrote: »

Of course the perceived wisdom says a driver should be hit with an ascending blow so should be forward of center.

I remember reading a thread about this somewhere and apparently you would be surprised to find out that most professional golfers do not actually hit up on the ball with the driver. It's more of a level or even slightly descending strike. It's counter intuitive at best, but still a hell of a lot shallower angle of attack compared to other clubs. It's really beside the point an anyway but I just thought I would mention it.

In regards to going to see a pro like the lads said, definitely the right idea. But I don't think it will work like "This is my issue, what should I do to fix it". Any pro worth his salt will take a look and probably start from the beginning, probably go with the grip and then you posture and setup. It's all about making the angles add up and staying square throughout the swing, so if one of the starting positions is off then the next part of the swing is going to need some compensations etc. it is a chain reaction after all.

It's a bit daunting changing everything, from your grip to setup. It's pretty hard to even hit the ball but it starts to click pretty fast if you genuinely work at it. This is definitely the best time of year to go at it anyway, you have 12 or 14 weeks before the start of the proper season that you could work on a few things and not be too bothered about scores. I would say go for it, but I would definitely view it as a 3 month plan and not just one lesson to get the driver going.

Best of luck anyway

k.p.h

Double post

alxmorgan

k.p.h wrote: »

I remember reading a thread about this somewhere and apparently you would be surprised to find out that most professional golfers do not actually hit up on the ball with the driver. It's more of a level or even slightly descending strike. It's counter intuitive at best, but still a hell of a lot shallower angle of attack compared to other clubs. It's really beside the point an anyway but I just thought I would mention it.

In regards to going to see a pro like the lads said, definitely the right idea. But I don't think it will work like "This is my issue, what should I do to fix it". Any pro worth his salt will take a look and probably start from the beginning, probably go with the grip and then you posture and setup. It's all about making the angles add up and staying square throughout the swing, so if one of the starting positions is off then the next part of the swing is going to need some compensations etc. it is a chain reaction after all.

It's a bit daunting changing everything, from your grip to setup. It's pretty hard to even hit the ball but it starts to click pretty fast if you genuinely work at it. This is definitely the best time of year to go at it anyway, you have 12 or 14 weeks before the start of the proper season that you could work on a few things and not be too bothered about scores. I would say go for it, but I would definitely view it as a 3 month plan and not just one lesson to get the driver going.

Best of luck anyway

Well I've been for two lessons already and we worked on not straightening the right knee and my distance from the ball.
My grip, posture etc were sound to begin with apparently.

We never worked on driver so it's probably a natural progression.
One thing he did say is I over-swing so maybe that becomes a bigger miss with my driver so perhaps he'll start there
Anyway guess we'll see

thanks

k.p.h

Ah right, yup sounds like you are on the right track so. The driver is hard to get going, even the best of players flake it everywhere at times, with the lessons and some practice you will probably get some consistency going.

If it's a big ballooning push slice that you have it could the same thing I do, actually it's probably not all the things I do because I'm a catastrophe, but because I have the driver in hand I get a bit excited because I'm looking for distance. I throw the club behind me really fast because I want some power and loose all connection with wrists and elbows flying everywhere and then I fire my body as hard as I can can leaving the club miles behind me. It's manky and it only seems to happen with the driver, has to be a psychological thing because my swing is starting to function well with all the other clubs. I suppose it just go's to show that their is more to a swing than just hitting positions, things like tempo and being calm and relaxed are equally as important and probably have to be worked on in their own right too..

Uncle Ben

charlieIRL wrote: »

what i done to help me was grip down a little more on the club and only 3/4 swing. hit nearly all my fairways now but am well short on distance but at least i am not in trouble.QUOTE]

I read some interesting stats.over the xmas, which showed that on both the PGA and European Tours, none of the top 10 drivers for distance appeared on either list for the top 10 golfers in fairway regulation.
Luke Donald didn't even feature in the distance stakes!

Just goes to show what keeeping out of trouble can result in.

whizbang

Folks can post an awful lot of bad comments about hints and tips:
the trick of teeing in the middle of the stance is a fab way to keep everything centered, keeping control of the swing, balance etc.etc.. It does way more than just change the impact postion. Think of it as an alignment aid.
However there are an awful lot of good tips out there, finding one that works is the magic bit, but then:
Dont think of the tip as the perfect way to swing, but use it as a thought process to help correct your flaws.

Fursttimer

If you want to be a better golfer then under no circumstances consider placing the golf ball in the middle of your stance with a driver.

If you want to eradicate your errors, learn how to swing your driver correctly off the tee. When you do, practice and practice more. Then (and only then) will you no longer need to frequent these forums asking for driving accuracy advice.

Golf is a simple game, once you practice it regularly, however, very few amateurs do.

k.p.h

Fursttimer wrote: »

Golf is a simple game, once you practice it regularly, however, very few amateurs do.

That's not true, I practice all the time and I'm still crap .. :cool:

charlieIRL

k.p.h wrote: »

That's not true, I practice all the time and I'm still crap .. :cool:

same here!!:D

alxmorgan

k.p.h wrote: »

That's not true, I practice all the time and I'm still crap .. :cool:

Brings to mind the saying perfect practice makes perfect
Practicing the wrong thing isn't going to improve you

Range last night anyway and tried some drives from middle but didn't feel right
So went back to just forward of middle and it went very well.
I was also working on maintaining lag which allowed me to get some real distance without much effort which is nice
Now if only I can take it to the course

GreeBo

Try teeing the ball up as normal but aligning the driver to the middle of your stance...I use this sometimes to help with driver issues....but its a drill...its not how you should suddenly start playing proper golf (like teeing it in the middle!?)

alxmorgan

GreeBo wrote: »

Try teeing the ball up as normal but aligning the driver to the middle of your stance...I use this sometimes to help with driver issues....but its a drill...its not how you should suddenly start playing proper golf (like teeing it in the middle!?)

Thanks for the reply...but interestingly Shawn Clement would agree and then disagree with you.
In that he says place driver in middle of stance and ball forward and actually play like this.
He reckons when people start to default to the ball they get into trouble

k.p.h

Yeah with the driver and the ball tee'd forward, it really plays havoc with alignment and it's really easy to end up with open shoulders. Exactly what people do when they want to hit a cut.I find it's a really tough habit to shake too, grand for the start of a round but if you have been doing it habitually as soon as the body gets a bit weary you can start slipping back and sliding the club forward.

JD Dublin

Problem 1 - Iif I put the ball towards the forward foot i.e. left foot for a right-hander, my shoulders tend to be open by the time I hit the ball. Result - I am spraying shots all over the place, left and right. A partial solution is to control the drive so that shoulders do not open at the time of hitting the ball. This approach leads to another problem, because I haven't got full power becasue I am trying to control the shoulders, I tend to have a short drive.

Problem 2 - place the ball in the centre of the stance. This corrects the wayward shots, but the drive goes off at a low angle, and often falls short.

Anyone got a solution? Apart from 3 years practise?

alxmorgan

JD Dublin wrote: »

Problem 1 - Iif I put the ball towards the forward foot i.e. left foot for a right-hander, my shoulders tend to be open by the time I hit the ball. Result - I am spraying shots all over the place, left and right. A partial solution is to control the drive so that shoulders do not open at the time of hitting the ball. This approach leads to another problem, because I haven't got full power becasue I am trying to control the shoulders, I tend to have a short drive.

Problem 2 - place the ball in the centre of the stance. This corrects the wayward shots, but the drive goes off at a low angle, and often falls short.

Anyone got a solution? Apart from 3 years practise?

Have you tried somewhere between the two ?
So club in centre of stance and ball the width of the driver head ahead of the club ?

Check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68RZjdnVMs

Also these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6StntbwKSQ&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGTI_WxjmJw&feature=relmfu

Rikand

charlieIRL wrote: »

I also have a new pre-shot routine which is one of the drills from my lessons and its working a treat!!

its a great routine!

JD Dublin

alxmorgan wrote: »

Have you tried somewhere between the two ?
So club in centre of stance and ball the width of the driver head ahead of the club ?

Check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68RZjdnVMs

Also these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6StntbwKSQ&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGTI_WxjmJw&feature=relmfu

Excellent video by Shawn Clement ( the first one listed ), explains exactly what I was doing and how that comes about - I was facing the ball unconsciously, leading the shoulders to be in the wrong position at impact, and you know the rest.

Can't wait to get out and practise that routine.