| I hope you realize that it will take Time.
I commend you for wanting to learn to better use the woods when you score fairly well without them. If you can hit irons, you or anyone else, can eventually hit woods too.
I like the way you mentioned tempo and the need to have smoothness in the swing. These are important things in hitting any club. After the experiences you have had with failure at hitting woods, it is a near certainty that there is a certain fear of failure when hitting woods. That fear leads to tension, and tension destroys the swing. The longer the club, the harder it is to make solid contact making the removal of tension even more important. The start to removing tension is to loosen up on the grip. Incidentally, since the grip is the body's only contact with the club, it is imperitive that you have a good grip. That you hit good shots with your irons means it is probably pretty good, but make certain that you are not gripping the club too firmly. On a scale with ten being a very strong, white-knuckler grip and one being so loose the club can easily be pulled from your grasp, shoot for a two or three. As you approach impact the grip is going to tighten up some naturally, so do not worry about losing control of the club.
Every club is designed to sit naturally on the sole of the club when the clubface is square to the target line. When sitting thusly, the shaft will take a certain angle in regard to your body and also to the target. If your clubs fit you, these attributes of the naturally, properly resting club head make golf fairly simple. (Did I hear laughter?) All you have to do is stand to a properly positioned club and you will have taken care of alinement, ball position in the stance, posture, how far to stand from the ball. It IS that simple.
You want to maintain your good posture throughout the swing. If you do, your spine angle will be the same all the way through the swing. Doing this prevents raising up which can produce topped shots, and it also prevents lowering the body which can produce fat shots.
It is OK for the head to move some, but it does not move too much. Here, I am talking about lateral movement since the constant posture mentioned above will prevent vertical or up and down movement of the head. The head might move an inch or so to the right as the shoulders coil back. Here I need to say that with woods which have longer shafts, you must coil until the back is facing the target. This means you have completed the back-swing. With less than a full coil, you will probably not get the club face back to square and you get the slice. At impact, your head is where it was at impact which is somewhat behind the ball. After impact, it is ok (and very good for your back) to let the head go three inches or so ahead of where the ball was at impact or address as you make a full follow through to where your looking at your target. It is of utmost importance that your head be behind the ball at impact. If it gets ahead, you will now have created a much too steep angle of attack which can do many things, the popped-up driver being one that really sucks.
With all shots, but especially with the driver, our goal should be to swing the club head through the ball. Often a person will have a beautiful practice swing, but when the ball gets there, the beauty disappears. It disappears because the person is now striking at the exact point the ball is located. This causes the hips to stop turning, the shoulders to stop turning, etc, etc. Things will keep moving properly if we swing the clubhead through the ball as if it were not even there, just as with the beautiful, rhythmetic practice swing. This is the best way to make solid contact. Trying to precisely strike at the ball is probably the worst fault there is since it robs power, consistency, accuracy, feel. Swing smoothly through the ball to a full finish. This prevents deacceleration which causes all the problems.
No matter what shape of shot we want (fade, straight, draw), the clubhead should come to the ball from the inside. I do not think this is happening right now when you are using the driver and other woods. With shorter clubs you can get the ball back to square and make fairly good contact when the club head is coming from the outside to the ball. With longer clubs that is just about impossible. Incidentally, I know that a wood looks different and that creates mental issues, but the main difference is actually the longer length of the wood. Hybrids are so easy to hit because of the shorter shaft. So we have to do things to accommodate the longer club.
The arc of the swing needs to be longer so on the take-away keep the driver head on the target line and low for about 15 inches or so before allowing the clubhead to come inside. Stay connected which simply means keeping your arms close enough to the body so that if clubhead covers were in your arm-pits, they would stay there. If they fall out, you have become disconnected, and you will not come to the ball from the inside in almost all cases. Stay connected! But, remember, keep the grip loose enough to avoid too much tension. (Yes, it takes practice.)
I will now share with you and anyone else who needs this a strange but great drill. This will force you to attack the ball from the inside. It is the old "Broom Drill." Get a broom and go outside to the side of a garage or house. Stand with your back facing the wall. Address an imaginary ball using the broom as a golf club. Be a distance from the wall behind you that will have the broom make contact with the wall on the down-swing. Go slow at first. Maintain contact with the wall with the head of the broom for as long as you can. You have now prevented the dreaded over the top move that kills a huge percentage of all swings! Get to where this feeling of sweeping the wall is a part of you. At the range, hit drives with the idea of sweeping the wall. Be ready for some really solid contact!
Hitting shots with any club (I prefer the 5 iron) with your feet together is probably the best all around drill of them all. When the broom drill has given you the feel for the inside track to the ball, I would incorporate some of the feet together drill in my practice.
Hitting drives that go about half the regular distance is a good drill. Some call this the "full motion-half speed drill." By slowing things down, it gives you a better chance to make solid contact. True it will seem strange at first, but you will get the hang of it. And you will be amazed at how far you can hit the ball with such reduced effort. You will be surprised how far you can hit the ball with your feet together, once you can swing and retain your balance which is what the drill is all about. Golf is full of contradictions, and the biggest may be that we hit the ball farther when we slow things down. As you get use to the "full motion-half speed drill," you can then speed it up a bit a shot at a time. You will eventually find a speed (a percentage of your power) that allows you to swing forcefully and still have good accuracy. This is how fast you should try to swing with every shot.
Well I wrote another book. Sorry if anyone read this and feels cheated or abused. I do know that all of this is important and that the drills do work. It takes time and patience, but you will eventually get the results you want. I am sixty years old and shoot in the low seventies most of the time. I played the number one course in Louisiana one time and had a one-under par 71. Toot, toot, toot goes the horn. Hey, the stuff works. How about driving the green on a 330 yard par four and making the twelve foot putt to win a sudden death play-off against three others who birdied the hole? Toot, toot, toot. How about three eagles in the last five rounds? Toot, toot, toot. How about one two many glasses of wine?
The very best of luck to everyone with their games. Sincerely, Cypressperch
How about knocking in a 150 yard eight iron for eagle, and the playing partner who was the only guy who could see the pin, says, "Nice shot!" I go up and look for the ball, and he says, "Hey dummy, its in the hole!"  |
08-01-2006, 08:35 PM
Singles are Coming
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