totally lost my driver swing!!

shamusan wrote:

haha...

ok ok

i've got reprimanded by course marshal already...

yes, skybobo, i did win the tendy golf... but it was due to my high handicap that i won it... i shot the same score as and68low and honestly, he was far more deserving of the win...

Yo ! I know you have good memory ... secondnitise still haunting me !

Subject: Re: totally lost my driver swing!! Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:30 pm
you might want to hit your driver like putting,start with swing back 1 feet between club and ball, if it improve then you swing back a little bit more (about 1 feet more), if it improve then try half swing, once it improve then 3/4 swings. Your weight on both feet should be 50-50.

I'm not a pro but I calibrate myself with this method

Thanks, i have try that last Saturday at MBGC, but when i return to my normal swing THE END!!

Subject: Re: totally lost my driver swing!! Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:12 pm
Bro,

You are not alone.....
I have not been using my driver for very long time......

whahaha!! i almost faint when i use back my driver, now my hybrid 4 can give me more distance. i might intend to use hybrid to tee off!!!

sorry for saying this cos i'm not a pro or anything... but if your driver used to be 150m to 200m, you didn't have much a of swing to start with (i don't mean any offence by this)

if your distance varies by abt 20m, i can understand... but if your ball used to go straight and it varied between 150m to 200m then your difference is too great...

my distance would vary too depending on day, my rest and what not rubbish i like to tell myself but i know that its doesn't vary more than 20m to 30m when it is straight... assuming that i'm using the same driver so if you different is so great to start with, i suggest you head down to SSN to ask some of the better players there or seek out a coach...

once again, i'm sorry for being so blunt, but there is neither malicious intent nor insult intended, i'm just offering my 2 cents worth

No worries, i am also a super noob!! just started playing for less than half a year.. i was practicing at MBGC last week irons and wedges was fine, hybrid was ok but driver was bad real bad. thanks anyway!!

Subject: Re: totally lost my driver swing!! Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:43 pm
in my opinion,

think too much..

try using your old driver.. do half swings to get the sweet spot and e feel of hitting sweet..

den will be back to normal..


thats my warm up routine and also when i havent touch any clubs in 1 week..

jus my thoughts..

dun change drivers la.. no diff wan... waste time and $$

was my first driver.. whaha if i change again, my wife will change me!!!! thanks bro, for the advise!!

dun change driver... change shaft...
wahahahahaha


joke

Clarence.lim.cy,

You started playing less than half a year ago? Welcome to this wonderful and mad addiction called golf. There is nothing like it.

For most beginners, the longer the club, the hard it is to swing it correctly, and therefore learning to handle the driver will take some time. Don't worry, it happened to all of us, keep at it and you will certainly get there soon enough.

These feedback contained some useful clues...

"my driver use to be able to hit 150 - 200m. but now i totally lost it. i can't even drive it out to the 100m. if i swing real light and easy i can only go up to max 100 but when i do my normal swing my ball just cut either to the left or right and i do not achieve even simple distance like 100."

"irons and wedges was fine, hybrid was ok but driver was bad real bad."

So basically, you used to hit it 150-200m, and now, your ball goes left or right. It probably goes further than 100m in distance traveled, except because it is to the left or right, it does not exceed the 100m in a straight line from your tee box to the target.

It is unlikely that your swing dropped from 80-85mph to 40-45mph, thanks to DGMan's helpful data.

More likely, you are having an out-to-in swing path at impact, which will cause you to either pull the shot (it goes quite straight, but way left of the target) or slice it (it curves to the right like a banana.)

Why are your irons and wedges fine, hybrid ok, while driver is not? Because the shorter clubs have more loft, which gives you more spin. And spin will reduce the effect of the outside-in path. The longer the club, the less spin it imparts, and the more sensitive it is to club path and face angle.

An out-to-in path is quite common, especially among beginners. We hit the ball with our arms and hands. The ball slices. We tense up and grip harder at address. We pull down harder with our arms from the top of the backswing. The ball slices even more. We compensate by adopting a stronger grip and we use our hands/arms to hit harder. (The clubface is now square to the swing path but the swing path is still outside-in.) The ball now goes straight but way left. Does that describe what you experienced?

"i have been told that driver swing 40% weight on left and 60% weight on right place the ball nearer to your left foot!!"

Since you say that, it would suggest that you are also hanging back on your right side through impact, which would mean you are not shifting your weight to the left sufficiently. This has a tendency to further compound the outside-in swing path.

Assuming the above describes what you are experiencing, this would be my suggestion.

1. Focus on transferring your weight correctly in your downswing.

2. Use your hips to start the downswing, not the hands or the arms

It may help reduce your outside-in swing path, and eventually give you an inside-out swing path, which is what you want.

A correct setup at address will help to ensure good weight transfer in the swing. Re-look into your setup, especially the weight distribution at address. 40%-60% is probably too much on the right side. Most swings that go wrong start to go wrong at setup.

There is a lot more detail to get into, but it is hard to comment further without knowing what your swing looks like, as a poster above pointed out.

Finally, as some have suggested above, seek a pro to build your swing correctly. It is not easy to put into words in a forum what a swing feels like. A pro can do much more for you in person.

This is a crazy fun game. Have fun with it.

Bro Lee36328,

I am impressed with your input.
I reckoned that I have the problem described by you.
My driver is in the store room for a year.....
May be I shud take some of your suggestion and try to hit the driver again.

Clarence,

The following are 10 of the swing fundamentals you should take note of but not exhaustive:

1) Grip right;
2) Stance right;
3) Weight shift (max weight shift back to the front leg upon impact thru finish);
4) Right swing plane;
5) Initiate down swing from the leg up;
6) Head beind ball on impact;
7) straighten your arms thru impact;
8) Your arms and grip should stay relax and soft thru out the swing;
9) Complete your follow thru';
10) Identify your personal rhythm/tempo and stick with it.

If you can excel in the above pointers, you are on your way to a much much longer and straighter drive for sure ... I am pretty sure! But dun forget to make sure that the shaft of your driver suits your swing speed.

Noodleball wrote:

Bro Lee36328,

I am impressed with your input.
I reckoned that I have the problem described by you.
My driver is in the store room for a year.....
May be I shud take some of your suggestion and try to hit the driver again.

Cool! Glad to hear it.

For a beginner, the driver is the most intimidating shot. And we try to get more speed from our hands, which is usually a mistake.

Get more speed from your hips in the hip turn. Let the hips fire the arms and hands through impact.

If you play tennis or any other racket sport, think of how you would make a high forehand shot with some topspin.

Check out this video of Nadal's forehand. He is left handed, so you'd need to flip the image for a right-hander, or imagine watching a mirror.

Look at the 6 second mark. See how he plants his front foot down, fires his hips, which finally fires his arm and hand at the ball. As the poster noted above, the sequence is from the ground up. The head stays well back, which maintains the spine on an inclined angle.