Short hitter - ways to progress? (best driver distance 160 yd, and desparately hoping to improve)

[Marty86]

You have to be throwing your hands and flipping them at the ball rather than swinging to hit it that far. I started at age 25 and even I was able to hit it 200 if I struck it down the middle with my friend's beginners set which he let me borrow when I started out.

 

I agree with most people, take a video and post it here. If you are being fleeced for 20 lessons and are doing that at your age then you need to find a new coach. I get that some of us are more gifted than others naturally but 160 seems off. 

[mgoblue83]

Forget everything you think you know about the swing and start letting it rip without any fear about where it will go.

 

You have a serious mental block that is limiting your speed.

 

Pick up a baseball or football and throw it as far as you can with a maximum effort and a running start. That is EXACTLY how much effort you need to be swinging with.

[LeftDaddy]

This is 100% a series of swing faults. A 32 yo with any athleticism whatsoever could hit a driver 160 from their knees. Either your instructor is way off base, or (more likely) you have a lot of faults that rob you of any power AND you aren’t hitting anywhere near the center of the club face. And to other’s points, maybe you are swinging incredibly “softly”. Anyway, you need a hard reset. 

[scooterhd2]

[jay9]

Thanks again to all who replied - especially to those who has provided your detailed thinking behind, and those who started "late" like me who has provided some meaningful reference points for me.Strongly reinforces my intention to work on my swing. And for those who said I'm swinging too light, yes, I feel I had to hold back when swinging (otherwise driving accuracy drops drastically such that I'll lose maybe 80% of the balls).

 

The resetting / rewiring takes time, so in this case - I will have to experiment, verify and progress from that.

 

A progress report in one or two quarters.

 

 

[ShortGolfer]

12 hours ago, jay9 said:

 And for those who said I'm swinging too light, yes, I feel I had to hold back when swinging (otherwise driving accuracy drops drastically such that I'll lose maybe 80% of the balls

This is precisely when you should club down and hit the 7 iron instead of a driver on an Executive course. 

Far better to make full swings with the 7I than worrying about losing balls hitting driver.

My course is like that.  The fairways are too narrow and the rough too punishing to freely hit driver.  So I took it out of my bag and hit a 4 iron or 7 iron off the tee.

I learned a lot playing a Sunday bag twice a week with just a 4I, 7I, AW, SW, and putter.

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by ShortGolfer

[Barfolomew]

Hook Line and Sinker

 

What lesson # is Hitting Driver off a Tee?

[betarhoalphadelta]

On 11/20/2021 at 9:18 PM, jay9 said:

 

2) some has raised questions about my coach - potentially that could be the case. In the first 2-3 months he kept asking me to get fit (aware he is also a ping ‘ambassador’ / has affiliation with

3) I’m certain I have swing faults - till date I have trouble using 6 iron consistently (not to mention long irons - impossible to launch for me). Will need to practise more and get better quality advices.

 

 

2) Fire your coach. Find someone better. Even with lack of regular playing and practice, to not be hitting farther than you are means that your conception of the swing is 100% wrong, and your coach isn't fixing that. After this long, he's a dud. 

 

3) With your driver/7i distances, you have extremely low swing speed. With extremely low swing speed, you simply CANNOT launch long irons effectively enough. Those clubs are useless for you until you fix your swing. 

 

It's VERY common for novice golfers to have a completely wrong conception of how to generate speed in a golf swing. The key to power is properly sequencing a number of movements of the body that effectively "crack a whip" where the clubhead is the end of the whip. It's also sometimes described as a kinetic chain. Essentially if you think of hips/chest/arms/hands/clubhead like the fat to thin part of a whip, in order to generate speed you're building energy with the big parts progressively transferring that energy to the smaller parts such that all that energy coalesces at the point where the clubhead meets the ball. Strength and fitness helps, but SEQUENCE is the key. 

 

If you're only driving 160, that MUST mean that your conception and execution of the swing is not even close to proper sequence. It's not fitness--I have a buddy who just took up the game and he's mid-30s, overweight, and unathletic. He had major distance problems until he took lessons and his coach could actually teach him proper movement and now he's easily hitting driver in the 230 range. That fix occurred over ~5-6 lessons in the span of less than 10 weeks.

 

It was basic novice stuff, and apparently your coach is incapable of doing it. 

 

Fire your coach immediately. Find someone better. This IS fixable. 

[Justsomeguy]

On 11/22/2021 at 8:34 PM, jay9 said:

Thanks again to all who replied - especially to those who has provided your detailed thinking behind, and those who started "late" like me who has provided some meaningful reference points for me.Strongly reinforces my intention to work on my swing. And for those who said I'm swinging too light, yes, I feel I had to hold back when swinging (otherwise driving accuracy drops drastically such that I'll lose maybe 80% of the balls).

 

The resetting / rewiring takes time, so in this case - I will have to experiment, verify and progress from that.

 

A progress report in one or two quarters.

 

 

I used to hold off the face to steer the ball. Felt like bunting the ball. Down the middle, but very short.

Gotta figure out a grip and action that allows you to let it fly.

[TIM929]

.

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by TIM929

[elsie451]

Skip you next lesson and get on a lunch monitor.  Let's look at some data.  Either your swing speed it terribly low or your hitting it incredibly poorly.  At your age, you should be able to top the ball and have it roll out nearly 160 yards.

[Marty86]

MMM I could go for some lunch right now lol.

 

But in all seriousness, yes a launch monitor and a video of 1-3 of your driver swings.

[elsie451]

22 hours ago, Marty86 said:

MMM I could go for some lunch right now lol.

Well poor nutrition could lead to a weak swing, so we gotta monitor his lunch...🤪