(golf club clicks)
- Hi, Adam Bazalgette here, founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject, three power leaks in your driver swing.
Listen, as with the good thing in the golf swing it is
if you get it in the right places in your golf swing.
It's disastrous if you don't, we'll show you that.
How about swing plane, certainly helps
with solid hit and direction.
But if you know where to put the club
you'll avoid another power leak there.
And the third thing we'll tackle
is something that most people
don't pay attention to, but it's easily fixable.
We'll give you some drills for that.
(rhythmic instrumental music)
(golf ball clicks)
(golf club clicks)
Reasonably good drive for me there.
Is a wider swing better,
does a wider arc produce more power?
That's the first questions we've got.
In theory it does, if the rate of rotation.
If the weight of rotation of the golf swing was the same,
the longer the golf club, the longer the arms, et cetera,
the wider the swing, it would produce more speed.
But in the real world of physics is you have to apply it
to a golfer, it doesn't work that way.
The law of physics called moment
of inertia comes into play in a big way.
And what it states is that anything you are trying
to rotate in space, in this case it's a golf club,
the more that there is weight distributed away
from the center axis, the more resistance to speed there is.
Believe me, your arms and club
at high speed have plenty of weight,
so if you're too wide too soon in the downswing
you are fighting physics to get the club going.
So, how do we reconcile that?
Let's have a look at a couple of great players.
There's Tiger Woods with his driver, how wide is he?
Well, he's got good structure in his arm for sure.
And there's reasonable space, pretty good width
between the club and the body there.
Let's check it out by comparison
at that point in the downswing.
Nowhere near as wide, the club is much closer to him.
Again, that creates relative to what we're talking about.
Freedom of motion and speed here
is not disobeying moment of inertia.
He does however regain the width right down there.
That's when you can use it without being bogged down
by being wide at this point in the golf swing.
Let's have a look from behind.
He's hitting like a hybrid on this one or a 3-wood,
but we can get the general picture.
Let's say there he is midway back.
And we'll get him approximately that point in the downswing.
Look how much more compact his trail arm is there.
Look how much less space there is between the club
and his shoulder at that point in his downswing.
Again, that allows him real freedom to create speed.
And he only really gets the width back down
at the very bottom, perfectly done.
(golf club clicks)
Well, another problem, problem number
two let's say, is steepness.
What we mean by that, let me put a ball
back on the tee as a reference.
When that golf club is too vertical and or too far
over here towards the ball, coming over the top
is a common phrase, it will cause you a lot of problems.
Number one, it'll cause you problems
in the area of speed and distance.
The reason for that is this, when the golf club
is further over here it is nearer to the ball.
When the golf club is more here
in the downswing if you took a tape measure,
and measured the distance club head to ball,
it is much greater than when you get steep on the shot.
So, have the poise when you're playing.
This isn't a lesson specifically about that.
But have the poise to feel like you
can leave the club behind you.
The club works more down than furiously
out towards the golf ball.
Steepness affects speed in another way as well.
When the club's too steep the angle of attack
towards the ground is too short.
The player subconsciously realizes the club's going left.
They'll almost always put the brakes on a bit,
have to either raise their body, or their arms,
or fight off the steepness basically.
You lose that freedom, and you lose the ability
to really accelerate the club and your body freely
through the ball when you create a bad angle of attack.
Well, final one is perhaps the easiest to change,
and it will make a big difference.
And that's hitting too much down at the ball.
Now, before we get into the drills
let's just analyze it just a little bit.
Now, listen, if you don't have a Trackman,
or a Flightscope, or some sort of a launch monitor
you can't be certain about your angle of attack.
But if you're the type of golfer that snaps tees,
hucks balls up off the top of the driver,
likely slices it, that is you, you're in this category.
Here's Angel Cabrera, a little throwback,
two time major champion.
Look at the driver head there.
And look how it's on the rise as he hits the ball,
just barely picks it off the tee.
Here's one of the fine lady players.
Again, if we watch the club it is definitely slightly
on the rise there, just picking the ball off the tee.
Let's look at our drills.
So if this is you, and you would bang down
on the tee too much and hitting down
on the ball the broom is a great drill.
Now, the image of it alone is good
even if you don't have a broom like this.
This is a metal-handled one, a cheap one.
I lopped it off with a hacksaw at the length of a 5-wood.
I use it all the time in teaching.
The idea would be mentally, and again even
if you don't have the broom the picture's good.
If this was a cement floor with dust on it,
and I had to flick dust off the floor
and up against the wall let's say,
I wouldn't need the whole broom going towards the ground.
I would be feeling the handle move up.
The bristles would have a little bit of lean.
But it would be a very level to slightly upward hit
with just a tick of the bristles against the cement floor.
That would be one of them.
The other one I would try if you're out
at the driving range, place some tees in the ground.
And tee them where you barely prick the end of the tee
in the ground, so they're sitting higher than a normal tee.
You could even buy some longer ones at your golf store.
Start with some small swings, and just feel like
you can clip the top of that tee, just nick the wood there.
You can sense whether or not you're chopping down,
not whacking the ground, or breaking the tee.
I can hear that just clip the top of the tee.
Rehearse this fairly often, I like the broom drill too.
You'll have the right feel for it.
Well, I'd really appreciate it if you'd hit
the thumbs up button down there.
That helps me, helps build the channel,
helps us bring you quality golf content.
Hope this is helpful for you in how to avoid
those three power leaks when hitting your driver.
Best of luck to you.
(hip-hop instrumental music)