Canary_Yellow
Journeyman Pro
Over the last year my ability to hit my driver has got worse and worse and worse. It’s reached the point now where I quite often don’t get the ball airborne at all! I have however got better at hitting my irons in this same period.
I think I’ve diagnosed what the problem is and I’ve described what I think I do wrong below and how I’ve got to this point. I’d appreciate it if someone could firstly confirm that my diagnosis matches my symptoms, and secondly give me some suggestions as to how I might be able to beat this! Not being able to use a driver (teeing off with a 4 iron) is slowly strangling my enjoyment of the game.
Symptoms
Low ball flight with the driver, sometimes not getting airborne at all. If I do get it up in the air, it tends to be a push / block to the right, or a hook. However, solid (ish) iron striking with some good distance. A slightly lower ball flight that I used to have.
Diagnosis
I used to hit my driver well and my irons poorly. I could get the ball a decent distance with my driver, but struggled to get the ball airborne with the irons. My bad shot with the driver was a hook – most likely due to my hands getting a little stuck behind me.
In a bid to fix my hook, I think I started to really try and make sure I got my weight forward on to my left foot on the downswing (does that make sense?) – as a result of this, I think I’ve started to slide my hips towards the target, rather than turning them. To compensate for this, and to keep the club face square to the target line, my grip has become very strong. As a result, I think I am sliding my hips, swinging around my body and almost smothering the ball with a face that is closed to the swing path (albeit square to the target line). My eyes see a low ball flight, and then I try and get the ball in the air – but I do this by trying to get under it and hit it up, which means I slide more, come even further from the inside and exacerbate the problem.
This analysis would seem to be consistent with my improved iron striking. With my strong grip and lateral shift, if I clear my left hip to some extent (see below) then I get a nice downward strike with a lot of shaft lean caused by my strong grip and a delofted club – this makes a 7 iron go more like a 5 iron etc etc.
When using the driver, if I try to shift my left hip away from the ball on the downswing whilst also pushing my weight forward (some sort of diagonal slide maybe?) I feel like I’m hitting down on the ball too much rather than sweeping and hitting on the up. The other night when I was trying this the ball was striking the crown almost.
Sometime I will ping a drive straight out of the middle of the club – but if I do, it’s almost always a push / block, sometimes a fade, I figure this is because I’m leaving the face open to the target line and square to the swing path, giving the club a little more loft but just pushing it, or in the case of a fade, a club face slightly open to the swing path.
In the short term I’m just going to not use my driver and hit a 4 iron off the tee. I think I should still be able to be better than a 19 handicap even if I’m only 180 off the tee, in the long term however, I want to improve my technique and be able to hit the ball with a driver.
Do you think my swing analysis makes sense? Anyone got any suggestions as to how I go about fixing my problems. I’m willing to put the work in – but as it stands, I don’t know where to start and I could practice until the cows come home but if I’m practicing the wrong things I’ll never improve!
I think I’ve diagnosed what the problem is and I’ve described what I think I do wrong below and how I’ve got to this point. I’d appreciate it if someone could firstly confirm that my diagnosis matches my symptoms, and secondly give me some suggestions as to how I might be able to beat this! Not being able to use a driver (teeing off with a 4 iron) is slowly strangling my enjoyment of the game.
Symptoms
Low ball flight with the driver, sometimes not getting airborne at all. If I do get it up in the air, it tends to be a push / block to the right, or a hook. However, solid (ish) iron striking with some good distance. A slightly lower ball flight that I used to have.
Diagnosis
I used to hit my driver well and my irons poorly. I could get the ball a decent distance with my driver, but struggled to get the ball airborne with the irons. My bad shot with the driver was a hook – most likely due to my hands getting a little stuck behind me.
In a bid to fix my hook, I think I started to really try and make sure I got my weight forward on to my left foot on the downswing (does that make sense?) – as a result of this, I think I’ve started to slide my hips towards the target, rather than turning them. To compensate for this, and to keep the club face square to the target line, my grip has become very strong. As a result, I think I am sliding my hips, swinging around my body and almost smothering the ball with a face that is closed to the swing path (albeit square to the target line). My eyes see a low ball flight, and then I try and get the ball in the air – but I do this by trying to get under it and hit it up, which means I slide more, come even further from the inside and exacerbate the problem.
This analysis would seem to be consistent with my improved iron striking. With my strong grip and lateral shift, if I clear my left hip to some extent (see below) then I get a nice downward strike with a lot of shaft lean caused by my strong grip and a delofted club – this makes a 7 iron go more like a 5 iron etc etc.
When using the driver, if I try to shift my left hip away from the ball on the downswing whilst also pushing my weight forward (some sort of diagonal slide maybe?) I feel like I’m hitting down on the ball too much rather than sweeping and hitting on the up. The other night when I was trying this the ball was striking the crown almost.
Sometime I will ping a drive straight out of the middle of the club – but if I do, it’s almost always a push / block, sometimes a fade, I figure this is because I’m leaving the face open to the target line and square to the swing path, giving the club a little more loft but just pushing it, or in the case of a fade, a club face slightly open to the swing path.
In the short term I’m just going to not use my driver and hit a 4 iron off the tee. I think I should still be able to be better than a 19 handicap even if I’m only 180 off the tee, in the long term however, I want to improve my technique and be able to hit the ball with a driver.
Do you think my swing analysis makes sense? Anyone got any suggestions as to how I go about fixing my problems. I’m willing to put the work in – but as it stands, I don’t know where to start and I could practice until the cows come home but if I’m practicing the wrong things I’ll never improve!
