Tentative with driver

[Ajgaguy83]

26 minutes ago, RatherBeGolfing15 said:

I am not sure how you can make that conclusion. If once every 2 months you make a swing totally outside of your normal swing (for whatever reason) and hit a sky ball that means you had technique issues on the other 300 drives you hit fine over the past 2 months?

 

I think the point I am trying to make is that my technique surely is an issue with driver but I think right now it is driven by a tentative swing that cuts off the back swing and doesn't follow through and until I can get over the mental issue to swing full and fast with driver than any technique issues are pointless to fix because I am not swinging my actual swing

 

If that's really your belief there's an easy fix....... Go hit Drivers at full speed on the range, on the course, everywhere. Do not care where it goes. If your technique is sound and it's truly a mental block doing this for 2 weeks should all but fix the issue, maybe a month if you're really ingrained in a tentative swing.

 

Had a coach tell me in college, "if you're going to hit it OB at least hit it OB with conviction."

 

If after a few weeks you've taken the governor off your mind and you're swinging freely and fast and the dispersion hasn't improved then it's likely more technical than mental, but you've got to give yourself a few weeks of not caring where it goes and just swing it. 

 

Remember this is golf, a game. No one really cares how good you are or how well you drive it. Your life and paycheck aren't tied to it. Enjoy it. 

Edited January 8 by Ajgaguy83

[Avid_but_mediocre]

Hey man, I am in a bit if the same boat. New-ish golfer and while the iron swing feels consistent, the driver swing feels like I'm playing another sport (with results to match).

 

If I understand you correctly, you feel its an unknown mental block that's holding you back and that you are looking for practical ways to overcome it.

 

Reading the thread, everyone seems to agree this is a mental issue. The open question is the cause of the block.

 

A few folks, including Mpstrat, are trying to do root cause analysis so they can suggest the best strategy to overcome it. 

 

Their hypothesis (I'm inferring a bit here) is that you have a swing flaw that doesn't prevent you from moving the club fast, but would cause contact issues. Therefore, when there's no club head (stack) or ball (air swing) your brain is unconcerned and lets you swing fast. BUT, when you add the ball and your brain knows the goal is to hit it far and relatively straight, it puts the breaks on - i.e. your mental block.

 

As someone who is NOT licensed or qualified to give you swing advice, it seems from the thread your options are:

 

- Play "Long drive" at the range and help free your mind from the outcome of the strike*

 

- Post a swing video (probably of both an iron and driver) so qualified individuals can assess if there's an obvious flaw at the root of the problem 

 

- Revisit the conversation with your coach and ask if anything technical in your iron / woods / tentative driver swing could be the root cause

 

*I've seen videos of Berkshire on Trackman with ONLY ball speed on the screen (like a giant number), so maybe doing that could disassociate outcome and let you practice swinging hard with a ball

 

Just my two cents on why folks are pressing you on the technical aspect.

[Zitlow]

Do you hit your irons relatively straight? If you have control issues with your irons you might be hesitant to let the big dog eat. 

[Long_Left]

Buy some foam golf balls so you have "something to hit" but it is easy to not care about the outcome and hit em as hard as you can until you're comfortable?

[RatherBeGolfing15]

17 minutes ago, Long_Left said:

Buy some foam golf balls so you have "something to hit" but it is easy to not care about the outcome and hit em as hard as you can until you're comfortable?

I like this idea. It will take out the worry about "what if"

 

58 minutes ago, Zitlow said:

Do you hit your irons relatively straight? If you have control issues with your irons you might be hesitant to let the big dog eat. 

Irons are relatively straight. But I am a constant worrier when I play. There are holes at my course with Tee boxes 70 yards right of a green and it will be in my head when I hit into that green "what if" I hit it onto the tee box where those other people are. I never have even come close but it gets in my head. I know these are destructive thoughts and I am working on that.

 

I think with driver I always have that what if it goes crazy so I try to control it which causes more issues

[betarhoalphadelta]

23 hours ago, RatherBeGolfing15 said:

I have always felt tentative with driver but I also work with a swing coach who has identified it and noted that I swing much different with driver vs all other clubs. 

 

15 hours ago, RatherBeGolfing15 said:

I think scenario 2 is a bigger part. Having the ball on the tee and having the thought to hit up and not being able to do it makes me try ever hard to hit up. I have a fear of hitting the sky ball because of my AoA
 

I don’t think my swing is particularly steep and my club face is definitely not open 

 

I think you might be getting mentally in your own way thinking your driver "swing" is supposed to be different. It's not. It's ball position and setup, and then you swing the same as anything else. 

 

However what might help is to try teeing the ball up lower and hitting down on it like you would your five wood off a tee. If you look at PGAT numbers on Trackman, they average a negative AoA with driver. You clearly have the speed to do it, and it'll get all this "hit up on it" stuff out of your head. 

 

22 hours ago, Jayjay_theweim_guy said:

Are your driver and 5w the "same" setup and feel?  I.e., same head type, same shaft (with the usual weight differences between 1w and 5w)?  

 

Reason I ask is, for me, my 1W speed improved greatly once I got the club head to feel more like my fairway woods did.  Less dumbbell feeling, similar swingweight, similar shaft.  Not hitting down on it consciously, but not consciously trying to hit up on it either.  I also relied on the setup drills and tests in the Driver DIY thread to get the length and tee height dialed in.

 

 

This is also something to look at... When I was younger, and graphite shafts were first coming out in driver (90s), I got it into my head that I just couldn't play graphite. I recall buying a Mizuno driver at Play It Again sports with a graphite shaft and it was just terrible. Every swing felt wrong and I sprayed it all over the map. My first club fitting in 2001, the fitter actually still fit me into a steel shaft. 

 

In reality, what is the case with me is that I can't play clubs that feel "too light". Being tall, the irons I was fitted for back then were +1.5" and thus had a swing weight of E0, but that felt right to me. Even now I think my swing weights come out into the D6-7 range on my current clubs. My driver is a 70g shaft and feels light to me but not "too light". I'd consider going even heavier in my next one. My 5w is an 85g shaft and I'd probably do better with a little heavier there too. Irons are 115g but play +1 to designed length so "feel" heavier. When I try to swing something lighter it just feels like I don't have resistance or feedback from the club and my tempo goes screwy and the ball goes everywhere except where I want it to. 

 

If you've been going down the speed route and assuming that you'll be faster with a lighter shaft--but it doesn't fit your tempo or swing--you might be governing yourself because the club just doesn't "feel right". 

[me05501]

Do you feel like you're hitting the center of the face or is your contact more varied? That's a really good metric to stay on top of using impact stickers or foot spray. 

 

It's so easy to go mental when it comes to the driver. Try alternating drivers and full nine irons on the range trying to use the same swing for both. 

[RatherBeGolfing15]

Went to the range today. I warmed up with shorter clubs to get comfortable and then did a stack “prime with balls”

 

Once warm, I was able to avg club speed of 116 over about 70 swings and topped out at 119. This was a big jump and while not caring about where the ball went I still found the session as accurate as any other, if not more.

 

I felt like I was taking a much better back swing and could feel the club loading much more in transition. I don’t think I was getting to a full finish and think thats another step. 

 

I feel good today so I am going to keep these sessions up and see what happens over the next few weeks

 

Thanks for all the advice