Instruction
What can we learn from long drivers?
By Steve Pratt, a GolfWRX Contributor who analyzes golf swings using kinesiology for a living
Kinesiology is the scientific analysis of muscular motion, and can be used to determine how efficient a sport motion is as well as how to improve the motion.
I have the unique perspective of coaching several professional long drivers, and estimate that’ve had more than 100 long drivers on my launch monitor, from total unknowns to world champions like Ryan Winther, who I recorded at 151 mph of club head speed and 223 mph ball speed.
Nearly all professional long drivers swing faster consistently than the fastest PGA Tour player. In a typical year, the fastest single swing on the PGA Tour will be around 128 mph. If I beat the bushes, I could find hundreds of guys doing long drive in the United States alone are averaging over 130 mph. But contrary to popular belief, not all long drivers are big guys — two-time RE/MAX World Long Drive champion Jamie Sadlowski is 5-foot 10-inches tall and only weighs about 170 pounds. Aaron Davis has a 137 mph club head speed and he’s three inches shorter than Sadlowski and weighs about 140 pounds. They prove that a golfer need not be big in stature to hit really far!
At the World Championships last year, I asked one of the top ranked competitors in the world from Sweden about a new face I did not recognize. He replied, “Oh him, he stinks. He’s only around 195 ball speed.” Of course, the average Tour player is around 165 mph. And the average guy would be tickled to break 140.
Most golfers that I talk to would love to hit the ball longer off the tee, especially if they could do it without any more effort than they are currently using. When combined with a good wedge game, long, straight drives can really bring courses to their knees.
When attending a long drive event and meeting some of the competitors, one can quickly make a couple of casual observations. First, even the average-sized guys have incredibly strong and powerful forearms. Once, a guy around my size walked up to shake my hand and I was stunned by his grip. It felt like he could just crush my hand and rip my arm off if he chose.
Regular forum poster and former World Champion Monte Scheinblum related a great story to me once about when he was in a Nationwide tournament (then the Hogan Tour) a number of years ago. Some “sciency” type guys were at the tournament with a dynamometer, trying to determine if grip strength correlated in any way with driving distance. Monte squeezed the device to the end of its scale, nearly twice the pressure of the guy who ended up second in driving distance for the week and three times the average.
It is the same experience I’ve had when shaking hands and observing the forearm size of long drivers. Although we are all born with a set potential that varies from person to person, we are all capable of training the muscles in our wrists and forearms to become more powerful.
Now squeezing power only serves to grip the club, not to move it. The primary actions we are looking to make more powerful are the ulnar deviation of the left wrist and the wrist flexion of the right (for a right-handed golfer). These are the basic actions that uncock the club in the downswing. Ulnar deviation is the same action you would make to open a pickle jar. Flexion would be the action you would use to slap someone or slam a door.
Working these muscles on a regular basis through fast and dynamic exercises will allow you to swing the club head faster over time. But you’re going to have to practice tapping into this new source of power in your swing, which brings me to my second observation about long drivers in general.
If you stand around any event and observe, you will see that most competitors make a high volume of extremely hard swings. They practice going faster -– a lot. Lynn Ray, a senior competitor, and record holder for most 300-plus-yard drives in one hour, is a perfect example. In a typical workout, he might make several hundred all-out swings.
Now while you might be able to work up to this large of a load eventually, I advocate starting really small, and only after a complete warm up. You might start with three sets of five really fast swings. Rest a day, and then listen to your body to determine where you should go from there. If you feel no bad after-effects, you might try doing four sets the next time, and so forth. You must have the intention of going all out, beyond your normal comfort zone to really get the benefit.
This type of all-out explosive movement can result in a higher risk of injury to the joints, so work up to it gradually. To push you, you might consider purchasing some sort of feedback device that will tell you how fast your club head speed is.
I look forward to seeing you wait for the green to clear on par 5s.
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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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Bob Weiss
Mar 21, 2013 at 12:27 pm
I totally agree with what’s being said
However I also believe that strong wrists and good flex inthe wrist is a must for long hitting
The power in the swing comes from just below the shoulder on the downswing where you really whip the club into the ball
I regularly hit 275-290 drives and I’m only 5’8 but have strong wrists and good flex action in my wrists and hips
Steve Pratt
Mar 21, 2013 at 3:02 am
Hi Dale and thanks!
I believe with today’s technology, that nearly every adult male can learn how to drive at least 250 yards consistently. 300, in my opinion, will take a little talent, and/or a lot of dedication. For many, it is doable – just don’t expect it overnight.
A legitimate 300 yard drive (neutral conditions) takes a minimum of 108 mph of clubhead speed, and around 160 mph ball speed. The human body has many sources of leverage that can power a golf ball out to 300 yards, but IMO, many swing techniques do not tap into it.
You can find more by clicking my profile, or just googling my name.
Dale Kap
Mar 20, 2013 at 9:37 am
Thank you for the enlightened article. I would LOVE to learn how to hit a true 300 yard drive. Your content gives me hope. 5’9″, 195 lbs.
Where can i learn more about the Long Drive techniques?
Steve Pratt
Mar 19, 2013 at 8:58 pm
Agree John. Kinesiology is the universal language of human movement. Each motion in the golf swing can be precisely defined.
I recently posed the question ‘what is over the top’ to a panel of highly expert biomechanists, and nobody could agree on an exact definition. But hip abduction, as an example, is the same always.
John Brady
Mar 19, 2013 at 1:03 pm
Steve, this article can help many/all golfers who become curious and seek out kinesiology based instruction.
I am somewhat concerned about people attempting maximum effort swings IF they are using a golf swing method that promotes coiling the shoulders against the hips to create a “rubber band” tension.
It is still unbelievable that so many swing methods are damaging to the back and knees (and other body parts) when the proven longest and straightest and most efficient swing method is also the safest least stressful on the body.
Phil
Mar 19, 2013 at 2:32 am
docsbro, here’s Martin Hall and Jessica Korda describing “educated hands” http://www.golfchannel.com/media/school-golf-tips-and-drills-from-jessica-korda-030612/ http://www.golfchannel.com/media/big-break-academy-medic-mike-fitness-natalia-071712-hw/
Steve Pratt
Mar 18, 2013 at 2:34 pm
Thanks Marty! If by ‘relaxed’ you mean slightly bent and supple, I totally agree! Rigidity is your worst enemy when trying to raise clubhead speed. Sometimes golfers will lock up that left arm in an effort to keep it straight!
Doc – yes I will be detailing some exercises in a future article! Stay tuned!
docsbro
Mar 12, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Any suggestions for types of exercises to strengthen the specific muscles you are referencing? That would be a tremendous help.
Phil
Mar 19, 2013 at 2:36 am
Here’s Martin Hall and Jessica Korda describing “educated hands” http://www.golfchannel.com/media/school-golf-tips-and-drills-from-jessica-korda-030612/ http://www.golfchannel.com/media/big-break-academy-medic-mike-fitness-natalia-071712-hw/
Marty
Mar 12, 2013 at 3:16 pm
Great article. One thing I’ve noticed in the last few years in watching long-drive stuff is a relaxing of the left arm at the top. Almost baseball swing-ish. Of course, Ryan Winther was a former baseballer, so it would make sense for him, but Joe Miller from 2010 had a similar action.