How to hit a driver ....

[Ezgolfer]

Swing guru's please answer these two questions about hitting a driver . Thanks.

 

1. Descending or ascending blow on the ball.

 

2. I always thought that the sweet spot on the driver is in the middle of the face , but i am reading about pros , hitting it high on the face .Watch the last few seconds of Tiger Woods Swing .http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-761659086978331475

Where do you think of hitting while using a driver ?

[gir2]

grip it and rip it holmes :good:

[AcesAZ]

Swing guru's please answer these two questions about hitting a driver . Thanks.

 

1. Descending or ascending blow on the ball.

 

2. I always thought that the sweet spot on the driver is in the middle of the face , but i am reading about pros , hitting it high on the face .Watch the last few seconds of Tiger Woods Swing .http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-761659086978331475

Where do you think of hitting while using a driver ?

 

1.) Slightly ascending, placing the ball forward in the stance should automatically do this.

 

2.) I think about my target and that's it. I don't see how you could ever hit a good shot if your thinking what part of the face you are trying to hit. You can also just tee it up a little higher if your hitting the middle/lower part of the face consistently.

[Ezgolfer]

Thanks Wananbe pro.

Any Brian Manzella fan wanna take on the first question . It's a bit controversial .

 

 

The clip in first post did not turn out that well. Here is the link

 

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6697535631078301022

[thenewbie]

in older drivers, the sweet spot was smack dab in the middle of the face. with modern titanium clubs the sweet spot is much higher. the "rule of thumb" with modern drivers is to tee up the ball so half of the ball is above the face while the club is sitting on the ground. you'll have to find whats right for you, but you'll want contact towards the upper part of the face.

 

and a slightly ascending blow is preferable, to optimize launch while minimizing spin.

[abefroeman]

I hit it with the same swing I would use when I hit a 3-wood of the deck.

[rosskoss]

Ascending doesn't make any sense to me. Your clubhead stops accelerating after the low point of the swing arc.

 

I would say ever so slightly descending (mostly level) strike would give you the best result. Trying to help it up in the air by aiming upwards doesn't work as well as smashing into the ball with maximum speed. Basically similar to a 3 wood. You try to promote a level or very slightly descending strike.

[pocketfulladoubles]

I've read people doing both, but I think the vast majority hits on the upswing slightly. You'll get less backspin, and you should still be accelerating at this point so it should still be faster than the downswing if struck correctly. Put yourself on a launch monitor and check the backspin, it will be much higher and probably too high with a descending strike.

[thenewbie]

Ascending doesn't make any sense to me. Your clubhead stops accelerating after the low point of the swing arc.

 

I would say ever so slightly descending (mostly level) strike would give you the best result. Trying to help it up in the air by aiming upwards doesn't work as well as smashing into the ball with maximum speed. Basically similar to a 3 wood. You try to promote a level or very slightly descending strike.

 

if your clubhead stops accelerating after the low point of the arc, then your flipping, or atleast definetly not releasing the club as efficiently as possible. I would say that my driver doesn't stop accelerating untill atleast 12" after impact.

 

when you hit the ball with an ascending blow, your not "helping the ball up". that term is a negative one, used to tell us why we are topping our 3 woods and chunking our irons. its also used to describe flippers, also known as people who's swings stop accelerating after the low point of the arc. :rolleyes: (sorry, had to)

 

thinking about hitting "up" on a driver is the same as thinking about hitting "down" on an iron, its not the correct way to go about things. however, just like impact with an iron should be just barley before the bottom of the arc, say 2" before, and impact with a wood should be even closer to the bottom, maybe 1/2", impact with a driver should be barely past the bottom, maybe 1-2". if you do the math, that would put your ball position with driver 3-4" forward of the average iron placement.

 

in just that 3-4" your going from a "downward" blow to an "ascending" blow, so its not nearly as dramatic a difference as the semantics imply.

 

bobby jones said that with his driver he prefered a different flight than with irons. he said it should be higher launching with a more arcing flight. he did this by moving the ball forward in his stance. funny that someone so long ago understaould things as well, if not better, than we do now.

[birdie_man]

Swing guru's please answer these two questions about hitting a driver . Thanks.

 

1. Descending or ascending blow on the ball.

 

Depends on the player, the shot, and the desired effect/result.

 

I will say that hitting down is not as unoptimal as some people think....and........check some slo-mo Swing Vision stuff on YouTube..............they're caught a number of guys hitting it over 300 with a descending blow including Tiger, VJ, Mickelson, Els.

 

That's not to say that they do it every time or that "It's the best and only wayyyyyy!!!!!gahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"...............but it ain't the devil like some will say.

[thenewbie]

descending blows are the DEVIL bobby!

[birdie_man]

descending blows are the DEVIL bobby!

 

Ahhhhhhhhhh......I'll tell you hu-what..................

 

:D

[extremeld]

grief!

 

 

descending blow with a driver??

 

 

hit it on a slightly ascending path, modern drivers are designed to be hit this way, launched high with low spin then you get that lovely flat flight your require and the ball goes long

 

 

hit down with a driver get annoyed buy a new driver repeat !

 

 

k

[hoganfan924]

I never try to hit driver with a descending blow, always level or slightly ascending. I don't really think about it though, as that's taken care of in the set-up/ball position. The hot spot on my FT3 is roughly 3/8" above the middle of the face and slightly towards the toe (it is a fade bias, so the Cg is toe biased). I don't think about hitting it there, I set up for hitting it there. I always hover the clubhead at the exact height that I expect to swing it through (aligning the ball with the spot on the face I want to hit) and tee the ball up so that 1/2 of the ball is above the top of the face.

[sdrem]

Check out Golf Digest Nov. '07: Bobby Clampett does the "Breaking 90/80/70" near the end of the magazine. He claims that all the pros bottom out their swings 4 inches past

impact, even with the driver and that he is "blown away that so many reputable golf teachers instruct their students to strike the driver on the upswing". Take it for what it's worth.

[thenewbie]

I think its just kind of hard to say exactly whats going on. I mean, if you flip the club through the bottom and into the ball then its easy to see whether your hitting down or up. but a good swing doesn't go down and up. . .it goes down and through towards the target.