Hitting down on the ball with a driver

The conventional wisdom has always been that better golfers will take a huge divot with their iron shots, and the key to compressing the golf ball is to. I know what a good flight looks like and i already have one playing it off my right foot and trying to hit it just past the low point in my swing. If your ball striking is struggling, one of the most common tips youll hear instructors tell you is that you need to hit down on the ball more. Rating is available when the video has been rented. The direction of the ball flight is intermediate between the clubface angle and the clubhead path.

When i say hit up, i mean hit the ball just past the bottom of the swing. However, that concept does not translate to the driver. Amateur golfers commonly hit down with their drivers, like an iron shot. Dont get too cute with the sweeping stroke, and follow through with your right elbow if youre righthanded pointing at the target. Watch the best of sean foley hit down with the driver. I dont know of any good player who does not hit the ball as i described. When you hit a shot fat fat being a golf term to describe hitting behind the ball you instantly know that the shot is going to come up short of the target. Ive seen a number of drills out there to increase angle of attack, and i think this one from andrew rice is one of the best. The reason for this belief is that when hitting optimal drives with a downward angle of attack, we also have to deliver a higher dynamic loft loft at impact. Hitting down on the ball is vital to produce good swing dynamics and to use the full leverage of the leading arm plus club which in turn translates into power.

Hitting down on the ball is encouraged with most iron shots. How would you like to be able to hit up on your driver. Golf instructor sean foley shows you how to cure your slices and pulls by hitting down on the ball with your driver. This is because the club is longer than the other clubs, and it has a lower loft angle. Almost all of them have hit down on the ball with their driver instead of up. Compressing the golf ball is the actual term that should be used.

The club should connect with the lower half of the ball. You will be hitting down on that yellow ball a little bit sacrificing some distance for the sake of consistency. Remember that you dont need to hit the ball at full force to send it far. If you are hitting golf driver too high on a regular basis, there is a good chance that you are swinging down into the ball. Move the ball up in your stance, get some axis tilt away from the target and tee the ball up higher to catch it on the upswing. Hitting down on the ball is the key to better iron shots. Indeed, hitting down using your irons and wedges will help make sure you get as much distance as you can out of your shots and should improve your consistency and protect you from fat, thin and other shot errors. Use the swing keys below if you are seeking to improve a critical aspect of good ball striking, i. The idea of hitting down on a gold swing is that when you take your club back you do not move backwards.

A great way to think about the angle of attack in to the golf ball with an iron is to imagine the club head is an airplane coming in to land on a runway. Many players struggle to hit their fairway woods solidly. Strike down on the ball and visualize the club clipping the tee after impact. I do not recommend they be told to hit down or up on the ball as the swing changes that result make things way more complicated. You might have been told to sweep the ball off the tee with your driver to maximize distance. In the driver, the swing bottoms out just before the ball. Instead, you want to be hitting up on your driver, using the advantage that the tee is giving you. They make the mistake of trying to sweep the ball off the ground, sometimes even trying to lift the ball with the club. When you hit a few balls, youll understand the feeling of hitting down on the ball. Most recreational golfers are hitting down on the ball with their drivers for a number of reasons, and because of that they are not optimizing their distance. Im pretty sure its not the club, as my ss is 96 with a driver, and i had no problems hitting my buddys tm r7 10 superquad with a stiff shaft. Mar 12, 2016 the golf fixs michael breed debunks a common myth to hit down on the golf ball. Hitting down on the ball is what leaves those nasty.

Remember, the goal is to hit the driver on the upswing as it will result in maximum ball flight and translate into more distance and carry. When golfers tend to think about hitting down, we usually. The ultimate guide to ball position at address usgolftv. If you have a pga swing speed of 110125 mph, you can get away with it. You hear a lot about hitting up on the ball with your driver good advice but little about doing the opposite. The path any club travels into the moment of contact with a golf ball is called the angle of attack. We know without a doubt that in order to maximize your distance when hitting the driver, based on whatever your club head speed is, that you want to hit up on the driver. I tee the ball pretty low for my driver, only about a quarter of the ball above the driver face. I dont think that a lot of times they even realize that its a high, weak ball. Hit down on the ball is a phrase that has been told to golfers struggling to improve their ball striking for decades. Jan 15, 2010 hitting down on the ball is a great way to hit drivers. How i hit drives 56 yards farther with one adjustment. With the golf ball being teed up so high with a driver, the most common strike pattern is a heel hit due in part to something called diagonal strike effect which i explain in the strike plan.

Jul 10, 2018 thats the technical explanation of what happens when an iron face correctly impacts a golf ball while the iron head is still traveling a downward path. How to hit the golf ball with higher trajectory driver. Hitting down on the ball with the driver is a distance killer. Many golfers lose distance with their driver because they hit the ball with too high a launch angle. If you were to play the ball on the ground instead of on a tee and provided you perform a geometrically perfect stroke, there would be no divot. On the pga tour the average downward hit with a 7 iron is just 3 degrees. Mar 19, 20 hit down with the driver sean foley show you how to cure your slices and pulls by hitting down on the ball with your driver. With recent advancements in golf technology, we now have the ability to track this information. For the rest of us, just look to the lpga averages. If an upward hit is desired, as with a driver, the ball should be placed up in the stance and the golfer told only where the swing is to bottom out. Sean foley on how to hit down on the ball with your driver golf.

Hitting down on the ball is a great way to hit drivers. How to hit fairway woods correctly, 3 and 5 wood golf tip. Change ball position to hit down on a golf ball video lesson by peter finch when youre looking to strike down on the ball more one of the easiest ways to do that is to alter ball position. The secret to hitting your driver better the left rough.

This was primarily due to the fact that the pga tour average for attack angle hitting up or down was 1. Golfer a swings at 90mph and hits 5 degrees down on the ball 5 attack angle. A good thought is to try to take a little divot after impact or to hit with the shaft leaning toward the target left. Tips on hitting down with irons golf tips team titleist. But its a lot harder to hit up on it when the ball is teed low. This causes the ball to float in the air and land with minimal roll. As for hitting the drive on a lower trajectory with the negative aoa, i dont consider the analogy another commenter noted of it being like a skulled pitch over the green or hitting a ball thin as reasons why the ball runs further as an accurate analogy. How much distance are you losing with your driver adam. This also means that the driver will hit the ball on the upswing, which creates less spin and straighter drives. Aug 06, 20 this doesnt necessarily mean hitting down steeply onto the ball.

I guess i will play the driver in the middle of the stance and try to take a divot. Hit down on the golf ball and take a huge divot its not. The basics of hitting up vs hitting down with driver dwg golf swing tips in order to have the. Make sure you are still in your same stance, and keep the club hovering in the air. I have seen more than a couple of good players ruin their swing from being obsessed over hitting down. The aoa is simply a measurement of whether the club head is moving upward or downward through impact. Our goal is to get enough spin to achieve lift, while minimizing hopefully eliminating drag. We have the golf swing and your total game boiled down to the 5 most important. But if you frequently hit slices or pulls, this swing. The most common mishits come from an individual swinging the driver like they are trying to hit the ball 3 miles. But many amateur golfers have a misunderstanding of what hitting down on the golf ball actually is and they do it wrong. Change ball position to hit down on a golf ball video. If you are wholly focused on hitting down on the golf ball, it can cause you to lead your swing with your upper body and come over the top of the golf ball. Im just wondering how many of you guys hit down to the ball with your driver.

Essentially, you want to make impact just before hitting the low point of your swing. After you get good at that, hit a couple of balls with a normal grip. However, a well hit fairway wood shot feels solid, and the loft of the club does all the work of getting the ball into the air. In this segment of swing clinic, pga pro jimmy hanlin shows elise lobb how to properly hit down on a golf ball, presented by clean hit golf. Players who are struggling with hitting driver inevitably start to feel awkward when they address tee shots. Hitting the driver straight duke university golf course. Hitting down on the ball is what creates that pure, powerful feeling of flush contact. I have since come to learn that the vast majority of us could g. Hitting down by itself has no direct influence on spin, ball speed, or curvature. A good thought is to try to take a little divot after impact or to hit with the shaft leaning toward the target top photo. A heel hit is a killer for distance, as it dramatically lowers smash factor and increases spin rate through the roof.

This video shows the viewer how to hit down on a golf swing. The driver is unlike all the other clubs in your bagyou really dont want to hit down on the ball at all. Many golfers fail to get maximum distance with their drivers. Michael breed, host of the golf fix, shows you a drill on how to hit down on the golf ball. You just need to try and groove your swing so you can hit the sweet spot or centre of the club. During the swing, your arms remain still same as iron as you come through to hit the ball. Nov 10, 2011 shots struck off the ground need to be hit with a descending blow and shots struck off an elevated tee are better when hit with an upward blow fact. If you find yourself hitting the ball too fat or too thin at times, you need to check the position of the ball in your stance. Line the ball up with the inside of your dominant foot in front of you. Many beginners tend to place the ball exactly in the middle. There can be various contributing factors that cause this so we have decided to look at 3 ways that can help you hit more up on the ball in order to maximize your distance of the tee.

Everyone wants to hit their driver as far as possible that is no secret. Practice by putting a tee in the ground 67 in front of the ball. Jun 10, 2014 hitting your driver with a sweeping motion rather than a downward angle will help to bring down the spin rate and give you a better, more penetrating ball flight. Jun 09, 2019 however, it is a myth that hitting down on the ball causes the ball to go up. It seems logical but we have so many people get so worked up over this. Hitting down on the golf ball with irons liveabout. When you teach kids to swing down, they actually, literally swing down. In golf swings that are using a downward angle while hitting a driver, two outcomes are likely, and neither of them are positive the pop up. The golf fixs michael breed debunks a common myth to hit down on the golf ball. To get the ball up in the air, it may sound silly, you need to hit down on the ball.

Hit up or hit down with driver rick shiels is joined by pga golf professional dan whittaker at quest golf academy and are going to. Fix your golf swing to stop hitting behind the ball. Alternatively, the driver arc bottoms out just before the ball, most good players and long drivers strike the ball with a slightly ascending arc. No need to club down how to hit more fairways with your driver. Hitting down how to improve hitting down into the ball in golf. Hit down on the ball means your iron should contact the ball before it hits the ground. The goal is to feel the club working down, hitting the ball, and then the ground.

However, it is a myth that hitting down on the ball causes the ball to go up. Hitting down with the driver is a concept that deserves a post on its own. Where the ball strikes the club face affects distance more than anything else. Hitting off heel of driver instruction and playing tips. A simple drill for perfect ball position and pure strikes. While trackman stats for the pga tour may show that on average tour players hit down on their driver 1. You need to set the ball more forward in your stance, since the driver is a long club, to allow the driver to square up with it.

How can i stop my driver from hitting the ground before. What is happening when i hit the golf ball way up with a driver. This causes the ball to come off the driver with too much backspin. In golf posture place your driver directly down against the front of your body so that the driver head is between your knees. Why you shouldnt hit down on the golf ball adam young golf. What scares the devil out of me is hitting a driver from a tree lined, narrow space tee box in order to get the ball to the fairway. Hitting down into your irons shots is a great thing because it imparts spin onto the ball and allows the loft of the club to do the work of getting the shot high into the air. May 10, 2017 clubbing down is a great way to put the ball in play, and it is the right choice in a variety of situations.

Presume that one swings slightly downwards two degrees downwards with a driver and that the descending path will functionally deloft the driver, and functionally turn a. In fact, the average angle of attack aoa on the pga tour is 1. If you slice the ball you know about an outsidein downswing path. The common term used to refer to the vertical movement of the center of mass of the golf club at impact is called attack angle. No matter how fast you swing, you can hit shots that hiss off your clubface. The yellow ball in the photos shows how you would set up for a normal stock shot. To cure your slices and pulls, hit down on the ball with your driver. When using your driver, kolb says the most common cause of power loss is hitting down on the ball. Where you hit the ball on the bat is going to have a huge effect on whether or not the ball goes up or down. Sep 06, 2019 bring the driver back down at the ball and shift your center of gravity to your front foot as you make contact. They swing an average of about 95 mph and hit up on the ball about 5 degrees. Surge claims that hitting down on the ball is not required. Spine tilt in golf posture place your driver directly down against the front of your body so that the driver head is between your knees. This doesnt necessarily mean hitting down steeply onto the ball.

This will help you shift to your front side on the downswing and swing into impact from inside the target line. Butch harmons best driver tips will get you hitting it straight and long. So maybe instructing golfers to hit down on the golf ball, is not the most ideal way to phrase this piece of instruction. The angle of attack whether the club is moving up, down or level with the ground at impact has very little to do with the launch of the ball. Ideally, you will hit the ball first and the turf second.

How to hit down on the golf ball for your iron shots usgolftv. For instance, if you are facing a par four which has a fairway guarded by bunkers and trees but is also 430 yards long clubbing down really isnt an option. If youre feeling uncomfortable on the tee, check your distance from the ball. In a simulation with all other factors equal, hitting just 12 34 below. If you are a beginning golfer, make sure your driver has a flexible shaft, a large clubface with a large sweet spot and a loft of at least 10. I tend to struggle off of the tee because my driver can send the ball in both directions slice and hook.

The angle in which the ball comes off the club face is called the launch angle. Poor setup and swinging down on the ball can cause golfers to hit drives with a high launch angle. Really work on flattening the swing by making practice swings 6 inches above the ball. We can move the ball just a hair forward to remove some of that negative angle. A lot of golfers struggle with a really high, weak ball flight. I see too many people teeing the ball way too high and swinging up at the ball. A fairway wood swing bottoms out almost exactly at the point of impact, with players catching the ball cleanly and just bruising the ground afterward. Many golfers will look away from such a shot, not wanting to watch it inevitably fall down short of the green. This will help promote a more neutral angle of attack but hopefully still help you strike the ball first followed by the turf. The goal is to keep the same feeling as the swing gets larger.

You then rotate forwards with your hips as you hit the ball and extend your arms. This is achievable for even the most casual golfers if you make small adjustments to move the low point of your swing forward. How to lower the launch angle of my drive golfweek. Basically, lessskilled players were hitting down on the ball while golfers who shoot in the 70s hit up on the ball. You stay over the ball and simply rotate back using your hips. This is the main problem that we are trying to avoid. Yet, you must aim this way on the golf ball, from wedges to driver.

The basics of hitting up vs hitting down with driver dwg golf. This leverage is obtained by maintaining a mandatory flat left wrist and a bent right wrist for righthanded players. The key to hitting the ball farther with the modern, 460cc driver and modern golf ball which spins much less off of a flat face than balls of the past is high launch angle combined with a low spin rate. Go ahead and hold the golf club maintaining this tilt. Now ive already spoken a little bit about the kind of motion the club takes around the body. However, i dont like the term hitting down on the ball. Hitting the heel of the driver is most likely as someone said, an over the top issue, as the left arm folds too soon before impact the body comes forward to catch the ball at least on the heel. One can create the exact same conditions of spin, ball speed, and curvature hitting up or down. Remember, teeing it high will not result in skyballs. The golf club should work down, hit the ball, and then the ground. However, when utilizing your driver your swing plane should be more of a sweeping stroke and it all starts during your backswing. So i hit a few balls with trackman and realised that i do hit down on driver, attack angle was like 0.

Irons are designed to contact the golf ball while still traveling down. I know that in the past i have made it known that it is okay to hit down on the ball with the driver. Hit through, not down on the ball march 12, 2016 the golf fixs michael breed debunks a common myth to hit down on the golf ball. Teeing the ball correctly is the simplest solution to hitting your ball too high. Getting more out of your driver august 07, 2011 andrew rice. Although a softer flex may have a better upkick when the club hits the ball, the shaft alone shouldnt be enough to cause a super severe issue, especially with a 10 loft. How to hit down on the golf ball golf practice guides. By hitting down with the driver, you will make contact with the ball slightly above the center of the clubface and your ball will launch off the face like a cannon. It is more like hitting it flat but with your head behind the ball. Hitting a driver with too much backspin will cause the ball to balloon up in the air and land. The key, imo, is to realize that you are merely pinching the ball between the clubface and turf for a very brief moment in time. How to hit down on the golf ball the golf fix golf channel. You want to be hitting down on the ball and trapping it between your club face and the turf.

Hitting down on the ball swing surgeon don trahan peak. Most recreational golfers are hitting down on the ball with their drivers for a number of reasons, and because of that they are not optimizing their distance potential for their swing speed. Recently i came across this article written by sean foley, hitting down with a driver promotes greater consistency like tiger and hunter mahan do. Pros do hit slightly down through the ball but its because of their proper swing and their ball position, not because they try to hit down at the ball. Play the ball where your righthand fingers point when hitting driver. In irons, the swing bottoms out just past the ball, the evidence is the divot.

The key to having this shaft alignment at impact is a matter of experimenting with what iron ball position produces the optimal shots for you. Use a sweeping motion, instead of a downward angle, to give the ball more lift and less spin. Place a tee flush into the ground 12 inches behind the ball and ask the golfer to brush the ground there no divot. If you are teeing too high, during the downswing, the driver hits the bottom half of the ball, which will cause an increase in loft and decrease in distance. I thought every players goal was to strike the ball first and then take a nice thin divot, meaning that the player delivered a descending blow to the ball. The main technique remains the same, but with the driver your body is positioned slightly different than when hitting an iron or wedge. Simply tilt your spine away from the target until the club head touches the inside of your lead knee. The driver is one of the most difficult clubs to hit in golf. Hitting down causes more spin and therefore more control. But basically, people struggle with the driver because low point and the ball overlap. How do you hit down on the golf ball when hitting irons.