Feel the Force! How to Use the Ground to Hit Longer Drives
There are so many buzzwords in golf nowadays, a new one seems to come each week. Science has gradually crept into golf as people look to unlock the mysteries and myths of this great game, and biomechanics has come to the fore. We are able to use 3-D analysis machines now to look inside the body to see how our components are harmonizing to create and transfer energy. So if video analysis is an X-ray of your swing, 3D is the MRI.
Ground Force Reaction is based on Newton’s Laws: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” So basically, if a player coils up on the way back and then pushes down into the ground in transition, the ground is pushing back with equal force. This stored energy can then be transferred to the ball with the action of the body through impact. As you will see, an athletic and springing action from the ground is needed to transfer the latent energy. This can be seen in all long drivers of the golf ball.
A word of warning to all teachers, however. Golf is not just about how far you hit it; it’s how straight you hit it, too! So be careful in spending so much time trying to rip it that you end up losing some of the key geometry and subsequent control of the ball. I do not agree with the doctrine of “smash it and find it.” Golf is an accuracy and finesse game most times, but it has a component of explosive hitting with the tee shot.
Watch the video, try the move and the ball will go much further. Science says so!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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martin
Mar 30, 2017 at 9:57 pm
if you accelerate the club head down then the equal and opposite force on your body will be upward and your weight (ie the downward force your feet exert on the earth) will decrease.
Mr Poopoo
Mar 20, 2017 at 3:31 pm
Hmm.. all this time I thought “ground force reaction” was the involuntary need to launch helicopters following me burying the bottom 4 grooves in the turf behind the ball from the middle of the fairway.
Steve S
Mar 20, 2017 at 2:56 pm
Interesting but basically not much use. “Hitting it miles” is a function of swing speed. Which is a function mostly of hands, wrists and forearms. Years ago Harvey Penick used to demonstrate this point by sitting in a ratty old lawn chair and hitting 230 yard drives..when he was in his 70’s.
Philip
Mar 19, 2017 at 6:56 pm
So a golfer increases their effective weight by up to 100 pounds … can you explain how you proved this? Cause all of my attempts have not increased my effective weight one bit. Then again why would one’s weight change? If every action creates an opposite and equal reaction (assuming the object being pressed against does not move), then wouldn’t one’s weight remain constant as the forces are neutralizing each other. You wanna know my theory … how about the body is just reacting to a motion in such a way so that it keeps it’s balance and doesn’t fall over?
ROY
Mar 20, 2017 at 10:01 am
How did you prove that you did not increase your effective weight??
joey
Mar 21, 2017 at 11:26 am
It’s easy to measure with a swing catalyst force plate!
Isaac Newton
Mar 19, 2017 at 1:10 pm
Great video. From a physics perspective some of your terminology made the engineer in me cringe though.
Dennis E Jones
Mar 20, 2017 at 6:32 am
Science isn’t his strong suit.
DrRob1963
Mar 21, 2017 at 4:24 am
LOL!!! +1 boys!