Optimizing your Driver Swings for more Distance and Control
In this webinar, Chris Tyler demonstrates how to optimize your driver swings for more distance and control.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back.
Happy Saturday to most of you.
Some of you, it's already Sunday.
So hopefully everybody's having a wonderful weekend so far.
Hopefully everybody can hear me all right.
I was doing some mic testing this morning and I think I got it right.
I see Master Instructor Craig Morrow is joining us this morning.
Welcome, Craig.
Right and early this morning.
Good morning, good morning.
Welcome, John.
Welcome, Donald.
Welcome, Barbara.
It looks like we have a pretty large group of people coming in today.
It looks like there's a lot of late comers or people are doing things on their Saturday mornings.
Maybe they're out playing golf.
Today, I had to make a little last minute adjustment.
I had every intention of today's workshop being outdoors so I could show you a lot of how this stuff works.
So today we had to make a little adjustment because in Florida, it's raining and cloudy and unfortunately, camera equipment does not work very well in the rain.
So we're going to do it in here.
We can still get a lot of stuff done today.
We're going to talk about how to make some simple adjustments with your setup.
Also, tee height and how to start taking advantage of certain things in your golf swing that could help you unlock a little bit more power, a little bit more speed, which is kind of fun.
I'm going to show you guys exactly how I do things personally.
So hopefully everybody's having a wonderful, wonderful start to their weekend so far.
Hey, David, how are you?
Welcome, Helen.
Good morning, everybody.
Hopefully everybody is doing fantastic.
I'm going to give it just a couple minutes so that people can come into the room.
I know that there's some people that might be a little bit slow.
Aloha, Mitchell.
Welcome, sir.
Hopefully you're doing well.
Today's a fun one.
We get to talk about the big dog, letting the big dog eat, right?
So for those of you that are just joining me, you can see that we're indoors today.
We were going to be outdoors, but unfortunately, the rain gods didn't work in my favor, which is not ideal, but I'd rather be in here not ruining the camera equipment.
So hopefully everybody's doing well.
Just a couple more minutes to let people get in here and then we're going to get started.
We're going to be talking about how to hit this thing with some authority and stop powder puffing it all over the golf course, right?
We're going to talk about how to get some speed out of this thing.
You'll be very surprised on how a couple of little small adjustments go a long ways here.
We're going to talk about stance width.
We're going to talk about T height.
We are going to talk about how the stance width ultimately affects your spine and what you're going to be looking for down through the hitting area.
And then I'm also going to show you guys a simple little drill that you guys can start doing this weekend to start helping.
Increase your club head speed at the bottom of the swing arc, where it matters the most.
So, and believe it or not, I'm going to let you guys use your right hand and right arm.
How about that?
Good morning, Patrick.
He loves hitting some bombs.
I love it.
So I love it.
So hopefully everybody's having a great start to their weekend.
I see a few more people are getting settled.
One or two more minutes and then we are going to get started with today's optimizing webinar.
So if you guys have any questions at this point, feel free to ask some questions.
So I see Barbara's telling Craig, giving some Craig, Craig some love.
Has anybody got a chance to play some golf this weekend?
Anybody playing golf this weekend at all?
Everybody's just really quiet.
Everybody's just ready to get into it, huh?
Ron, welcome, sir.
Springfield, Illinois.
I heard you guys got a little bit of snow recently.
So you're going to be off the golf course for a little bit.
Don playing in two hours.
Well, hopefully the stuff that you hear today, You can start trying to take out on the golf course and make some of this stuff work for you.
Because I like this topic a lot today.
Because it's one of those things that you're going to have a little bit of freedom on your end to be able to play around with some things, right?
So you're going to see exactly how I do things personally.
I'm going to show you the shot that I use the least.
I'm going to show you the shots that I use the most.
And I'm going to show you how I adjust myself throughout the round of golf just to help optimize and help take advantage of my lack of speed right now, right?
So I'm not getting a chance to play in practice as much.
So, you know, when I was playing a lot of golf, when I was playing full time, I was usually swinging right around the 115 to 118 mark.
I've never really been a fast, fast springer of the club, but that was moving it, right?
That was just above the bottom of the tour average.
Right now, the tour average is at 113.
So, which is moving it and grooving it.
But when I'm now not playing as much golf and my swing speed, it's going to be like the 110, 111 mark.
Well, I still want to be able to hit the golf ball far enough.
And just making a few adjustments.
And being able to capitalize on modern day technology is a wonderful thing.
Now, you guys are going to be probably laughing at home when I show you how old my driver is.
Maybe some of you can see this.
Maybe some of you can't.
This is a Cleveland.
If anybody knows exactly what model this I will buy you a hot dog and a Coke.
So this is a very old driver that I will not get rid of.
It's actually, I think it's 12 years old.
I was on staff with Cleveland for a number of years.
And even with all the modern day stuff that comes out, I've tested everything as far as shaft combos, head combos.
This is the driver that fits my swing the most.
I don't spin this at all.
So I keep my spin rate really low and I have very good launch angles with it.
So I'm not going to just change just because TaylorMade is trying to sell me something new every other year, right?
Which I know can be a little bit frustrating for you guys at home because you guys fall victim to the marketing stuff that they go out there and they preach, right?
That's what the PGA show is all about, right?
The PGA show just came into town recently and that used to be really closed down just to vendors.
And now they've opened it up for the public so that you guys can go in there and start sampling some of the new stuff that the tour players are using.
But in all reality, it's not really changing that much year over year.
In fact, if you were to go out and watch me hit this driver versus some of the new stuff that's come out, you would find that I'm not getting any advantage from it.
So it's not me being cheap.
It's just I go with what works, right?
And so I use a very heavy shaft.
This is a Miyazaki Kasala 72 gram X-Flex that's tipped just a fraction.
And so how we were able to come to that determination with this driver was me being on a launch monitor.
So if you have a chance to be going out and get fitted for your driver, then make sure that you go to a reputable club fitter, okay?
I'm not just talking about somebody that sits at a store that is there geared to sell you something, okay?
It's very important that you understand that there are massive amounts of heads available to you and there are massive amounts of shafts.
And a lot of times, equipment can actually work for you, all right?
You don't want your equipment working against you.
And I think you'll find that a lot of people make.
The same mistake that I've made in the past with some of my irons is that I've gone too heavy and too stiff with my shafts.
Like even this one would be considered too heavy for me at this point, but I'm still not getting rid of it because I hit it really good, okay?
But I have noticed that my iron shafts, when I went back to a reputable fitter, they were much too heavy for me.
And so we always find ourselves kind of falling victim to that.
And that's something that, you know, I know it's hard to find somebody in your area that's a reputable club fitter, but we do have possibly some recommendations in your area.
So if you want, at the end of the session, you want to kind of say where you're at and if you want to go see a fitter, fine.
TrackMan's a great device to be able to have during the sessions.
I know that Mizuno has these new things that they can kind of hook onto your shafts.
And they can actually see some things with kick points in the shafts.
So they can see how you're loading it.
So that is not a launcher, but very close guess.
So is that the one that Payne Stewart used to be in the open?
No, not quite that old.
So, but funny one.
So Persimmon Head?
Yeah, it's a Persimmon Head.
I was Club Champion.
So Club Champion, I will say that I've heard nothing but good things.
I have not gone through the experience there.
I just had a student in last week that went through Club Champion and showed up with all brand new PXG stuff, shafts that I hadn't even heard of at this point.
And they, I feel like they were fit pretty well for him the way he hit the golf ball.
So definitely I've heard some good stuff about them.
I'm not going to comment any further.
I know that when I was playing full-time, we had this guy in Orange City, Florida.
We called him like the mad scientist.
And this guy could do, Like this is when spining a shaft became a thing.
And he could do all kinds of things for your golf clubs and set you up to where the clubs weren't ultimately working against you.
But a lot of the modern day technology is not going to be working against you anyways.
Just you'll find that shaft combo and head combo, if it's set up properly, can help you optimize and get you a little bit more distance.
And that's what we're here to talk about today.
Is some adjustments that you're going to be working through or working on that you can use on the golf course.
And so let's just go ahead and get into that now.
And so first thing I want to do is I want to talk about tee height, okay?
I use three very specific tee heights.
My first tee height that you're going to see me use is under a stock shot.
And this stock shot is one that I use very little on the golf course.
I'll use it when I'm trying to get a golf ball into a really, really tight position.
I'm not trying to take advantage of like a par five or short par four.
Like let's just say it's a really narrowed up par four where I've got trees on both sides, I've got trouble, and I'm trying to get a ball where I'm trying to squeeze it out into play.
And when I say squeeze it, I'm going to try to hit a little bit more of a left to right shot there.
That's the shot that I feel comfortable with under the gun.
But the other two shots that I'm going to be showing you here in just a little bit are going to be erroring on, you're going to see that they're going to move right to left.
So what I do with tee height, and this is a common question, is when I'm trying to hit that stock shot, again, this is the shot that I'm using the least in a round, is I'm going to have the tee height where the middle of the ball and the middle of the face are lined up, okay?
So that's a stock shot.
Now, as far as setup is concerned, what I'll do with my setup is I will use exactly a seven or an eight iron setup or a pitching wedge setup.
I will stay two inches outside of neutral.
I will have the ball position off of the left ear.
You're not going to see any changes here as far as this shot is concerned.
What you will see though is that when I'm releasing the club is instead of letting the toe rotate to where it's toe up or toe left, is I'll hang onto the face just ever so slightly.
Now, when you tee the golf ball a little bit lower like this, okay?
What it tends to do at a subconscious level is it forces you to try to go down and get it.
So it steepens your angle of attack a little bit.
So again, the ball is going to come off a little bit lower.
And when you hold onto the face a little bit through the hitting area, then that tends to make the ball cut a little bit.
So that's a shot that I use, again, very seldomly.
If I play 10 rounds of golf, you'll probably see me hit it twice, okay?
But I want to address that because again, you can set up in a stock shot format and still be able to produce really, really good results, really good, consistent bottom of the swing arc results.
And in fact, I think there's one person that does this better than anybody in the world.
And that is Adam Scott.
If you go look at Adam Scott, he actually has a stock driver swing that you'll see him use just like I was talking about here, where you look at his ball position, it's off his left ear.
But then you want to see him ramp it up a little bit.
You'll start progressively seeing the ball position move forward.
And then you start seeing his stance width get wider, which leads me into the next point.
So the shot that I use the most is where you're going to see me tee the ball up.
Half of the ball is going to be on the face and half the ball is going to be above the face.
So I'm a half on, half off kind of guy, okay?
This is the shot that you'll see me use the most in a round.
And the adjustments that I make for this when the ball is teed up a little bit higher is now I'm going to start setting up just a fraction wider.
I'm not going to go to my widest stance.
So if I'm two inches outside of neutral right now, okay, what you're going to see me do is get about an inch and a half wider on both sides.
This is not something that is going to be ironclad across the board for all of you at home, okay?
This is something that you're going to want to play around with.
And so the next piece that I'm going to make an adjustment to is I'm going to make an adjustment to my ball position.
Now, I am very, very careful with ball position here.
I don't want to start moving it way too far forward with my stance width being the way that it is, okay?
Just because that's something that we've heard.
When you start moving the ball position more forward in your stance, you have to remember that the path that the club is going to be working on is going to be more left, okay?
And so you have to make adjustments for that.
And so I try to keep the left turn out of the path here because I'm trying to hit big draws at this point.
Now, the widening of the stance width, what it does for us is when I load to my right side, so when I shift and turn into my right side and I start shifting my hips back to the left, if I keep my head and my chest back and behind the golf ball like I'm supposed to, okay?
Then you can see that there's an increase of what we call secondary axis tilt, right?
So you can see that this tilt right here is something that's going to be increased quite a bit versus the stock shot, right?
So if I get to impact in a stock shot format, you're going to see that I have a lot less secondary axis tilt, right?
So I'm going to be more apt to hit down on it.
Now, one thing that you probably don't know at this point is that modern day drivers are set up for very high launch, very low ball spin.
It's the only club in your bag that is set up for positive angle of attack.
The only club.
Your three wood, your hybrids, your three iron, your four iron.
Does anybody even carry a three iron anymore?
I do.
I'm old school.
I'd carry a two iron if I could find one, okay?
Every other club in your bag is designed to have negative angle of attack.
Now, positive angle of attack is what we're going to be trying to produce in this swing.
And secondary axis tilt helps you get positive angle of attack.
So when your spine is leaning back, that starts getting the club more on the ascending blow rather than the descending blow, okay?
Now, you've got to be careful with this, right?
If you start getting too much of it, then you can have all kinds of hell break loose here.
You can have your weight hanging out on your right side too much.
So you have to be committed to still shifting your weight.
Now, one of the things that was a little bit baffling to me is for those of you that have studied trackman numbers, okay?
And you look at the PGA Tour across the board is that you're going to look at the PGA Tour average right now as we stand is down 1.
3 degrees in angle of attack, which is mind -blowing to me.
Why?
Well, because if you look at the driving range when they're all out there getting ready to play golf, what do you see on the driving range?
Well, you'll see everybody with trackman or you'll see everybody with GC Quad or you'll see FlightScope out there.
So they have this data right there in front of them.
Now, that doesn't mean when you look at an average that everybody out there is doing it.
There is a very good chunk of guys out there that are moving the golf ball and they're on a very, very positive angle of attack.
So what we've typically seen with people that are optimizing, and this is not something that's static, this is something that can change from one person to the next, is four to six degrees up is going to be optimal.
So four to six degrees up.
Now, I, again, am one of those people that likes to be able to, because I'm not swinging as fast, I like to get the golf ball going up in the air.
I know it scares a lot of you to see it go really, really high like that because you feel like you're going to be losing some distance.
But if you maximize the launch and you get the ball spin really low, then the ball carries a long ways.
And so that's the shot that you're going to see me use the most in a round is that I'm going to start working to widen the base up a little bit.
I'm going to have the ball position move slightly forward.
Now, this is something that I want you guys to be able to play around with.
So if stock shot is off my left ear and I widen my base up about an inch and a half on both sides, then I'm going to start moving the ball closer to the left end step.
And I want you to try to hit some balls from this position just to get comfortable with it, just to see what it's like.
Now, if you notice that maybe the launch angle is a little bit too high, then you can start coming in on your base a little bit.
You can move your ball position slightly back.
If you notice that your path is turning a little bit to the left because your ball is starting a little bit more left, then what you can do is you can start closing off your stance a little bit, right?
What I mean by closing is if I've said I square the target line right now, then you can start closing your stance up a little bit.
Or again, you can make the adjustment of ball position.
This is stuff that I don't want you to think is going to be ironclad across the board.
I want you to be able to play around with it.
That's the whole purpose of today's workshop because, again, some people like to maybe not hit it as high.
Some people maybe don't want to feel as much secondary axis tilt.
But that secondary axis tilt, again, what it's going to do for you, if you look at this from a down the line perspective, if I get up to the top and I lean my spine way, right, you can see how much more shallow the swing plane is.
So you can notice that it's doing two things.
It's creating more of an ascending blow by the time the club gets to the ball.
But it's also shifting the swing plane where?
Well, it's shifting it more into out, which is a little bit more optimal for us to be able to do what?
Well, it's a little bit more optimal for us to hit a draw, right?
I know a lot of you at home are like, I want to hit a straight shot with my irons, maybe a little baby fade, and I want to hit big draws with my driver, right?
I can guarantee it there's a lot of you sitting in this room that want that, right?
So that draw can come from a couple things that you're going to be doing.
Widening the stance and when you shift left, you're going to create more secondary.
Now, there's a big key to this.
If you're going to get a little bit of a draw happening, you have got to be able to stop your upper body from turning through the hitting area and allow your hands and your arms to release.
So a good way to feel that is to start doing some little small reps back and forth where you're going to try to think about the club being.
Toe up on the trail side of my body here, and toe slightly left on the lead side of my body.
Now, when I say slightly left, is like that, okay?
Not like that.
You start grilling that into your practice routines and you're going to call myself or Craig or Chuck and you're going to be like, I'm hitting a snap hook and I suck at golf, okay?
We don't want you to do that.
So it's a toe up to slightly toe left.
Now, What you want to try to feel is that your head and your chest are staying back in behind the ball.
And I'll do this quite a bit back and forth, just to feel, okay?
Then once I've got that burned into my brain, then I start making a full swing here.
So I want you to try that out first before you start trying to widen your base up.
I want you to get to your wrists and your forearms to rotate properly and then start playing around with the width.
Now, The final shot that you'll see me use, and I use this probably four to five times, just depending on par fives or par fours, is I will go full ball above the face.
So we've gone from middle of the face, half on to fully above the face.
Now, this ball fully above the face, this is where you'll see me get my widest.
Now, stance width provides a couple of things for you.
It provides stability, right?
So if I told you that I was going to come knock you over, what are you going to do?
Well, you're going to get really wide and really low to the ground, right?
So this is where you'll see me widen up my stance quite a bit and this is where you don't see me hold anything back, okay?
This is where I will make my biggest, hardest swing.
I won't have the ball position drastically forward my lead foot.
You'll see it be right off the left.
You have to be very cautious when you start going down this road, though, because when you start creating a lot more secondary, if you get too much of an ascending blow, then you can start hitting the belly of the golf ball and you're going to hit a lot of top shots, which is not good for us.
So you have to be willing to be able to play around with the tee height and the stance width as you're going through this.
Now, if it was that simple, then we would all just be out on the golf course just ripping away at it, right?
It's not that simple and so as I said to you guys when we opened up the drill today or opened up the webinar, I should say, is that I was going to give you a simple little drill that you can try out.
So the wrist and forearm rotation is something that I want you to be able to do, But now what I want you to do is I want you to start learning how to time.
Up your right hand and your right arm down through the bottom without getting your shoulders to turn.
And so there's a drill that I did a number of years ago, and I think Chuck also did a drill very similar to this, is where you can take a tee and you can stick it in the ground, okay?
And you can flip the club over.
And what I want you to do is I want you to do some reps where you pull your left hip back and away, but you're going to snap your wrist in the butt end of the club down at the tee.
So you're going to just try to snap everything down there and you're going to try to hear that whoosh sound, right, down at the bottom.
I know these are little small swings, it'll get longer here in a minute, And so what you're feeling there is now how your right hand and right arm are going to function.
Now if you look at this very closely from a down-the-line what you're going to notice is when I'm snapping down, what are you noticing about my shoulders, okay?
When my arm is going down, what do you see in my shoulders?
Well, my shoulders aren't turning open, right?
You see that my shoulders are trying to stay fairly square.
If you're actively trying to turn through the hitting area, then you're going to be very, very late to release the club.
When you're late to release the club, where is your max speed point going to be?
Well, it's going to be somewhere out here, right?
We want max speed to be down here where it matters the most.
So this drill is a multifaceted drill.
It's a drill that's helping you sync up the hips with the downward movement, okay?
It's helping you create snap down at the bottom, and it's helping you stop the number one problem that you guys all deal with, and that is too much body turn when it's time to let the club release.
Now, I know a lot of you at home feel very powerful when you move through your golf swing like this, when you move into finish.
I get it.
It feels, excuse me, it feels powerful, okay?
But you have to remember, as playing professionals, we will move to that position much later than you guys do at home.
As we release the club, then the club is moving us into this finish.
We're not trying to turn through that spot.
We are trying to get on the brakes and let the club go.
That's it.
So that little drill right there, it might seem a little bit hokey, but what it does is it helps you feel what it's like to let the arms start to release down here, and it helps you keep your shoulders from wanting to turn.
Now, how many of you at home have ever done a left arm only golf swing, right?
And you start feeling the freedom for your left arm to swing through, and you feel how fast the club can go.
It feels really fast.
But the second you put your right hand on the club, it feels like it kind of slows things down, right?
Try it out at home.
I do a left arm only swing, and then take your right hand and let it follow along.
It feels like it slows the club down dramatically.
Now, what if I told you that in this drill, you can start using your right hand to help propel the left arm through the hitting area?
And this is where you start getting a lot more speed.
Trust me.
I think that any of you that actually pick up a golf club and do this drill, where you let the thing fly, and I'm going to be very careful in here because I don't want to break things, okay?
You'll start feeling like the club is going really fast down here.
Now, how many of you have seen Freddy Couples, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson?
Have you seen what their trail hand is doing on the golf club as they're releasing the club?
Their trail hand is coming off the club.
So that just shows you that you don't really need to use it, okay?
It's just there to help transfer speed.
So as you come down in the hitting area now, what you can do is you can start syncing these things up.
Put the left hand back on there, and you can start really kind of flipping the club down here at the bottom.
Now you can hear that I'm really getting it fast down here.
I'm not going to be able to make full swings in here and show you this, but this is a good, simple little drill now that syncs your hips up, gets your shoulders to stop rotating, and gets you to start releasing the club.
It's okay to feel that movement from the right side.
It's not taboo at rotary swing to use your right arm.
If you use your right arm, you just need to use it properly.
That's why the throw the ball drill was such a huge success for us with students that were so lead side dominant, but really kind of stuck in the mud, right?
They were kind of capped out on distance, right?
They've already made these really beautiful, you know, lead side dominant swings that were really free flowing, but they were lacking speed.
And so the right arm in your golf swing when you're first starting out.
This process with us is more or less a conduit that's helping you transfer energy from your body, right?
So as you're going through the swing, you've got these angles between your forearm and your bicep.
You've got an angle here between your wrist and your forearm.
And what's happening is as your body is getting out of the way, those angles are now depleting.
But now, as you start getting really proficient with this, you can start making an active you're going to get a very, very big thrust and speed.
Now, the kicker to that is, is you have to make sure that you don't start sacrificing control, right?
Well, how do I know if I'm sacrificing control?
Well, when you start looking at the club face and maybe it's rotating shut too quickly, your ball is kind of flying a little bit more to the left-hand side, or maybe you create too much resistance in the left hand, or maybe you're starting to get the club head too high, then take the right hand and do less with it, okay?
Get yourself to feel a little bit more of the left arm swinging freely and then get the right hand back on there to try to add some more thrust to it.
I know that's way easier said than done, but the whole purpose of what we're trying to give you here today is some freedom of change within your setup.
Because questions that we get all the time is how high should I tee the ball and how wide should my stance be, right?
So you can widen your stance up based off of what you need on the golf course.
Remember, if you go narrow, right, if you go to that stock shot and you have the ball teed low, your subconscious, the tendency is to be a little bit steeper, hit down on the golf ball a little bit more, okay?
So you're going to see that the ball is going to come out a little bit lower.
You'll see that there's a little bit more spin on the ball.
I, again, will make sure that when I'm hitting that shot specifically that I will keep a little bit of the face rotation off of there.
So what that means is instead of it being toe up on the lead side, you'll see that the face is a little bit on the open side, just a fraction, just a few degrees.
A few degrees means a world of difference down here.
Face angle is 80% of your shot shape.
So I will hit a little bit of what we call a squeeze cut.
Now, as I start getting wider, what that's going to do is it's going to start shifting the swing plane a little bit flatter, so a little bit more in to out, and it's going to give me the ability to start hitting more up on the ball, right?
So when I start hitting more up on the ball, now I can let the club face rotate a little bit harder, and now I can start hitting those little bit higher draws.
So stance width and ball position and tee height all play a very dynamic role in how you're going to hit the golf ball.
It's always going to change based off of what you are doing with your swing at home.
So play around with it.
So play around with your tee height.
Play around with your ball position.
Then start doing those drills where you start getting your wrists and your forearms to rotate toe up to toe left.
Then start using your right hand as a thrust drill, right?
So have the club flipped upside down.
Start syncing this up so your left hip's pulling back and away.
You're starting to sync it up down here, okay?
Now you put it back on with the left hand.
You start doing those things together, okay?
And then you can start making the swing a little bit longer and faster.
And you're going to go out there and start seeing shots that have a little bit more zip to them.
Simple as that.
So who's got questions for me?
Because I know that you guys have a lot of questions and I know I talk really, really fast.
So if this is your first time meeting me, welcome to the speed zone.
All right.
I know it wasn't mind blowing information today.
I just wanted to talk to you about the freedom of being able to change your setup, being able to change ball position and understanding how tee height can ultimately affect what you're doing as far as angle of attack is concerned.
Wind the base up a little bit, create a little bit more secondary axis tilt, get the club more on the ascending blow, and you will see that because you are hitting more up on the golf ball and being able to release the club a little bit harder, that you start getting more distance on the same club head speed.
Pretty crazy, right?
So, questions.
When you start to tee the ball higher, is it recommended to create some additional axis tilt in your setup to encourage an additional path upward?
So, this is a tough question to a certain degree, Patrick, because of the fact that too much secondary axis tilt can lead us into a lot of big issues that I, if I went into all of them here in today's workshop, we would be here for about three hours.
So, some people will want to set up with a little bit more tilt.
Why?
Well, because when they're getting over on their right side, their tendency is to start moving harder off of their right side to their left, and so it just helps them not get out in front of the shot.
So, I don't really advocate a huge increase to it, but I will say this, that it is super important when you go to a wider base that you're still shifting your weight to your trail side, because a lot of times people will feel like that's too much movement to get to this lead, and so they'll start staying really centered, and then you start running into reverse pivot territory.
So, you can play around with it at address.
I'm not a big advocate for it.
I like to keep the axis tilt exactly the same as it would be when you're in stock shot format.
So, if I widen my base a little bit, and my ball position is more forward, it's still going to be the same.
Weight distribution, same thing.
Discuss wrist cock and the driver's swing.
So, discuss wrist cock and the driver's swing.
Okay.
So, wrist cock or wrist set, what we're going to do is we're going to have a gradual amount of set as we go back.
So, at hip high, the club is going to be parallel to the ground.
Okay?
As we start going back, that wrist set starts to increase.
I'll show you what that looks like from face on.
So, as we start our takeaway, we start to get a little bit of support.
It's not active movement.
It's just support.
And as we continue to turn our body, that angle starts to increase a little bit.
Okay?
So, I'm not going to get to full max range of motion with my wrist at the top of the golf swing.
Why?
Well, if I go to the top and I start actively cocking my wrist, okay?
If I start actively cocking my wrist up there, guess what you're doing?
Well, you're starting the stretch shortening cycle.
So, you start stretching out those muscles in the wrists and the forearms, guess what they want to do?
They want to start moving out away from you.
And that can start the release too soon.
When you start releasing the club too soon from the top of the swing, your body is going to stop doing its thing, right?
Because the club's already on its way down.
So, it's very hard to get things synced back up.
So, obviously, with the driver, we want to make sure that we have lag.
We want to make sure that we have that wrist angle in place.
But we also want to be able to get rid of it in time.
And that secondary axis tilt will help you promote an earlier release of those wrists for sure, all day long.
So, definitely keep yourself at about 80% max range of motion at the top of the swing.
So, it's going to be a little bit of set at takeaway.
As the lead arm is parallel to the ground, it starts to increase.
Then at the top of the swing, it's like, this would be 100%.
This is like 80%.
Okay?
And then just try to preserve it your best and get rid of it at the bottom.
So, any comments for push-release players?
My comments for push-release players are, if you want to turn your body and fire your right arm down through the hitting area to release the club, you can still do that here.
That's totally fine.
You're going to find that a push -releaser is always going to have less secondary because they're doing what with their chest down through the hitting area?
Well, they're turning.
So, with a driver, I'm not a huge advocate for push-releasers.
I gave you a function of what your right arm can do in this swing because, again, I know that you guys are looking to hit the golf ball further, right?
With a push-release, when you're turning through the hitting area, you're tending to delay off the face rotation.
And so, with somebody that's really releasing the club hard in the world of golf, and you'll see every single playing professional when they have a driver in their hands doing this, right?
When you see this happening, you have to remember that the toe of the club is moving eight miles an hour faster than the center of the face, right?
Is that right?
I think that's what it was measured as.
So, it's moving pretty fast.
If you're delaying off that rotation, then you're relying on your body rotation to be able to promote the speed for you.
So, I'm not shying you away from a push 1000 -release.
1001 You can do that with your irons, your 1002 fairway woods, but with your driver, I 1003 would start trying to take advantage of 1004 you can use your right arm but just stall 1005 the body out down to the bottom.
And 1006 that, again, is allowing you to use that 1007 dominant side of your body.
1008 Okay?
1009 So, any topics or discussion points you 1010 want to see?
Ah, yes.
1011 Thank you, Craig.
1012 So, Craig and I are looking for topics 1013 that you guys want us to discuss.
Like, 1014 today, I know this wasn't one of those, 1015 like, mind-blowing topics and probably 1016 stuff that most of you have heard at home 1017 before, but I just wanted to kind of re 1018 -emphasize a few points here, right?
So, 1019 having the freedom to be able to move 1020 your ball position around, having the 1021 freedom to widen your stance, having the 1022 freedom to be able to move the tee height 1023 up and down, and understanding that you 1024 can develop different shots for different 1025 parts of the golf course, 1026 right?
Doing that is paramount, right?
If 1027 you're getting stuck in a vacuum and 1028 you're just always doing things one way 1029 with this club in your hands, 1030 okay, then you're just a one-trick pony.
1031 Golf is a sport where we've got to go out 1032 there with an arsenal of tools, right?
1033 So, you'll see that simple little drills 1034 like wrist and forearm rotation and then 1035 adding some thrust from the right side to 1036 it, and then, you know, tying that back 1037 into some of these adjustments that we 1038 talked about actually gives you this real 1039 big burst in speed, and it's kind of fun, 1040 right?
Because who wants to go out there 1041 and hit the ball short, 1042 I don't.
1043 And so, like I said, I want 1044 to create a little bit more secondary.
1045 I'm going to release the club really 1046 hard, and I'm going to try to get the 1047 ball going at a big, big height with a 1048 lot of low spin on it.
So, optimally, 1049 you'll see that 1050 driver's spin needs to be down in that 2 1051 ,800-degree mark, and you'll want to see 1052 about 13, 13.
5 degrees of launch angle.
1053 A good fitter can set you up for that, 1054 but that doesn't mean that that launch 1055 angle is going to be the one that you're 1056 going to use all day long.
I have plenty 1057 of driver swings where you'll see my 1058 launch angle at 14, 15 degrees, and the 1059 golf ball is going way further than it 1060 was at 13 degrees, 1061 okay?
1062 So, don't get, don't buy a lot of the 1063 hoopla that's out there, okay?
You've got 1064 to go out there and experiment with this 1065 stuff and play around with it.
1066 1067 does, what causes pop-up drives?
I'm told 1068 it comes from too steep takeaway.
Can you 1069 address how to address this?
Yes.
1070 So, pop-up drives, this is a fun one, 1071 right?
Because this is, there's nothing 1072 more annoying.
1073 So, it's not too steep of a takeaway, 1074 right?
That can be a contributing factor, 1075 but the number one thing that you're 1076 doing on the way down is you're 1077 steepening the angle of attack, right?
1078 So, when you come down, you either have 1079 pulled the handle and you're in front of 1080 the golf ball, right?
1081 Or you've turned your chest to get your 1082 hands in that position.
So, when you're 1083 hitting down on your drivers as sharply 1084 as you are, then the ball is going to hit 1085 really high on the face and you're going 1086 to hit a pop-up.
That's the predominant 1087 miss that we would see, which a lot of 1088 you at home are like, well, I would think 1089 that if I was popping it up, that it 1090 would be like this and I would be hitting 1091 way underneath it.
Absolutely not.
I can 1092 assure you that that's not where your pop 1093 -up is coming from.
For those of you that 1094 have ever had what we call an idiot mark, 1095 right?
Anybody know what an idiot mark 1096 1097 That's when you hit the ball on the top 1098 of the face and you get the little 1099 dimples on the top of the club head.
And 1100 every one of my friends that comes into 1101 my house and tries my golf clubs out 1102 knows that if they put an idiot mark on 1103 my club, they're in big trouble.
I let 1104 them hit it.
They've all stole all my 1105 golf clubs over the years, but I said to 1106 them, you don't put an idiot mark on my 1107 club.
So it's just coming in too steep, 1108 right?
So the ways that you would get too 1109 steep on it are on the way down, you 1110 would either pull the handle in front of 1111 the ball, okay?
Or you're turning your 1112 body with the handle in front of the ball 1113 and you're going to hit down on it, okay?
1114 This is a club that you don't want to do 1115 that.
So I know it's counterintuitive 1116 because I've seen this way too often.
You 1117 hit the pop-up and then they start trying 1118 to tee the ball lower and instead of 1119 trying to fix the issue, 1120 right?
Don't, if you hit the ball high in 1121 the face, don't tee the ball lower to try 1122 to fix it.
Get the correct secondary axis 1123 tilt in place and don't turn your 1124 shoulders through it.
And let the club 1125 release, and you'll start hitting the 1126 club more in the ace inning blow and hit 1127 it more in the middle of the face, okay?
1128 All right, so I know there's an RS video 1129 there about how to warm up a routine 1130 prior to a round.
Give ourselves the best 1131 opportunity to play our best day.
So, 1132 yeah, so I have, I was supposed to do the 1133 trustline video a couple, a few weeks 1134 ago, but I ended up getting COVID and I 1135 was real sick.
1136 And I know Chuck did his rendition of, of 1137 that topic.
I have a very, very different 1138 spin on it and it also talks a little bit 1139 about how to warm up and practice and 1140 stuff 1141 because I think that's a huge viable part 1142 of it.
So I'm going to be actually 1143 introducing that to our, our webinar list 1144 as we come up, as we move forward.
1145 Stopping the ball on the green.
1146 I don't know.
1147 How do you stop the ball on the green?
1148 Wrong workshop.
1149 I'm just kidding.
So you need backspin, 1150 right?
So how do you get backspin?
Well, 1151 you have to hit down on the golf ball.
1152 So it's, there's a balancing act of that.
1153 So sometimes people want to try to get 1154 the ball launching really high in the air 1155 with their irons.
And they start leaning 1156 back on the right side and helping it.
1157 And then they're just decreasing the spin 1158 that the ball has.
1159 Any distance from the ball, tips of the 1160 driver, any different from other clubs?
1161 Really, really good question.
And I am so 1162 freaking sorry that I didn't address this 1163 in the session today.
You have to 1164 remember I was set up to do this 1165 outdoors.
1166 And when the rain came in, I had to 1167 quickly make some adjustments here.
And 1168 so I've been a scatterbrain mess.
1169 So distance from the golf ball.
1170 The only thing I want you to remember is 1171 when you hinge to get yourself over the 1172 ball.
Okay.
So your shoulders are going 1173 to be back in a neutral position here.
So 1174 butt back, chest over the ball, your arms 1175 are hanging down freely.
The clubs should 1176 just rest in your hands.
Okay.
1177 There's no way that I want your hands out 1178 away from you.
And there's no way I want 1179 your arms pulled back into your body.
I 1180 want your hands and your arms hanging 1181 down freely underneath your chest.
Okay.
1182 Underneath your shoulders in neutral 1183 position.
1184 So when you start to hinge forward, you 1185 have to remember that your shoulders bear 1186 mass and they're going to try to get 1187 rounded.
Okay.
So you just keep your 1188 shoulders back, let your arms hang and 1189 let the club rest in your hands.
If you 1190 start moving your hands and your arms out 1191 away from your body, then what you're 1192 going to do inherently is you're going to 1193 start creating a flatter, more rounder 1194 swing plane.
And sometimes that's not to 1195 your advantage.
1196 That can force you to get deep and that 1197 can force you to become really rotational 1198 on the way down.
And I know very, I know 1199 some specific people that are in this 1200 room that are a little bit too rotational 1201 on the way down.
1202 Wink, wink.
1203 Okay.
1204 So I know there is a series already, but 1205 refresher on green side, bunker play, 1206 uphill, downhill side.
Awesome.
Those are 1207 great ideas because 1208 those topics right there are often 1209 overlooked.
I think everybody wants to go 1210 out there and have this sort of notion 1211 that we're going to be living in the 1212 world of perfect lies every time, but 1213 we've got to learn how to hit it out of 1214 all these crazy lies.
Uphill, downhill 1215 lies, we face that stuff every single day 1216 on the golf course.
So those are 1217 definitely good topics.
We will address 1218 that for sure.
1219 So I think there was another question up 1220 here that I missed.
If I missed any 1221 questions, please feel free to fire those 1222 back in.
1223 Otherwise, I think we're kind of winding 1224 down.
1225 Any more questions?
1226 Hitting into the wind.
When it's breezy, 1227 swing easy.
And I'm dead serious.
So if 1228 it's directly back in your face, the 1229 number one tendency, great question, 1230 Barbara.
The number one tendency is that 1231 we start trying to swing harder to try to 1232 make the golf ball go further.
When we 1233 start trying to swing harder, where do we 1234 start trying to swing harder from?
1235 Well, we start trying to swing harder 1236 from our hands and our arms.
So I tend to 1237 try to make the easiest swing that I 1238 possibly can.
I try to stay within 1239 myself.
I will not go to the ball being 1240 real low in this format because that does 1241 produce a little bit steeper of an angle 1242 of attack.
And that does produce a little 1243 bit more spin.
Now, there are some 1244 circumstances where I've hit knockdown 1245 drivers before.
But it would have to be 1246 very, very windy for me to do that.
In 1247 most cases, what I'm trying to do, and 1248 because I know that my spin is optimized, 1249 I know that I'm right around that 26 to 1250 2800 mark, what I'm trying to do is I'm 1251 hitting that second mark.
So I'm half on, 1252 half above the face.
Ball position is 1253 just slightly inside of the instep.
1254 And I'm trying my best at this point to 1255 just release the club as hard as I 1256 possibly can.
I'm probably not going to 1257 have as much secondary because that 1258 secondary axis tilt is going to 1259 tend to get the club a little bit more on 1260 the upward swing.
So I'll try to feel a 1261 little bit more upright with my spine.
So 1262 what I mean here is this.
1263 If I widen my base up for more stability 1264 and more secondary, what I'm going to try 1265 to do as I come down is I'm going to try 1266 to feel a little bit more upright with my 1267 spine.
So it's going to essentially maybe 1268 take out that four and six degrees of 1269 upward that I have in my swing and move 1270 it down to like one and two degrees.
1271 Okay?
Which is totally fine.
And that's 1272 all just a little adjustment that I'm 1273 doing with my spine.
I'm not thinking 1274 about anything with my hands.
It's all 1275 just done with spine and then just 1276 letting the club release.
1277 What usually causes hitting off the heel 1278 of the driver?
Great question.
So I 1279 battled with this myself when I was 1280 playing professional because I got too 1281 far from the inside.
So the number one 1282 cause for people hitting it towards the 1283 heel is this movement on the way down.
1284 See that?
1285 And you see the right leg and right hip 1286 moving forward.
Look what my chest does.
1287 So if I'm here and you look at that.
1288 Okay?
So my head and chest move 1289 vertically.
So when you're driving off of 1290 your right foot, okay, you have to 1291 remember that what that's going to do to 1292 swing plane.
So if this is on plane, 1293 right?
1294 Coming down into the hitting area.
And 1295 then I take my right leg and my right 1296 foot and I start moving this way.
See 1297 what it does?
See how it moves the swing 1298 plane kind of back and behind me.
So when 1299 you start coming in a little bit more 1300 from the inside because your posture is 1301 moving vertically, then in turn, you're 1302 going to start exposing the heel of the 1303 club to the ball.
So a good way to kind 1304 of overcome that is when you're doing 1305 that right arm release drill.
So when 1306 you're pulling the left hip back and 1307 you're snapping down, if you look at my 1308 head and my chest, 1309 okay, you can see that I'm staying down 1310 in the shot.
You start coming up with 1311 that movement.
1312 You're creating little bits of plane 1313 shift, right?
So a lot of times people 1314 think about swing plane from here to 1315 here, right?
I don't think about swing 1316 plane from there at all, right?
Well, I 1317 do, right?
But most of it's being 1318 measured down, down at the bottom of the 1319 swing arm.
And so if you make a little 1320 adjustment at the bottom, it leads to a 1321 lot of little chaotic things that can 1322 come out of it.
So generally speaking, 1323 it's too much right leg, hips moving 1324 forward, spine coming up and out.
So tie 1325 a new piece into that right arm drill and 1326 just keep the head and chest down.
1327 This week, actually next Thursday, 1328 they're going to be releasing a video on 1329 Luke List, which they just released.
It's 1330 a drill that coincides with it that I 1331 just, I just filmed.
So you're going to 1332 see how to make the post-up move happen 1333 and how to get yourself to stay in 1334 posture with it.
1335 So can you please review the three tee 1336 ball positions and when to use each?
1337 Absolutely.
1338 So this ball position, the first one is 1339 the one I use the least.
1340 It's in the middle of the club face.
So 1341 it's going to be teed very low.
1342 Okay.
Depending on the depth of your 1343 face, this, this Cleveland driver, that's 1344 really old is really deep.
So it's really 1345 tall.
Okay.
1346 So I'm going to be in the middle of the 1347 face.
This is when I'm trying to hit a 1348 really kind of spinny cut, right?
If 1349 anybody's ever heard that expression.
So 1350 the ball, I'm going to be hitting a 1351 little bit more down on it.
I think my 1352 angle of attack last time I measured it 1353 when it was in the middle of face was 1354 down in the ballpark of two degrees.
1355 Right.
1356 swing at all.
Okay.
This is when I'm 1357 going to be in stock shot or stock swing.
1358 So what I mean by stock swing, My stance 1359 with is going to be just as it would.
1360 With a pitching wedge or a nine iron, 1361 ball position is going to be the exact 1362 same as a pitching wedge or a nine iron.
1363 Okay.
So when you're hitting this shot, I 1364 also tend to hold the face rotation off 1365 because I don't want to hit low draws.
I 1366 like to hit a low cut.
1367 Nobody perfected the lower, the low cut 1368 better than Forrest Fessler.
If you don't 1369 know who he is, look him up on YouTube.
1370 Rest his soul.
So he's a great guy.
I 1371 actually used to work with him.
He's a 1372 fantastic, fantastic ball striker.
Crazy.
1373 The shots this guy could hit.
1374 Okay.
1375 1376 so then the second one would be half on 1377 half above, right?
This is the one that I 1378 use the most.
This is the, if you were to 1379 go out and play golf with me and we were 1380 getting on the first tee, you'd probably 1381 see me hit this shot the most.
So half on 1382 the half on the face, half above some 1383 people like being full ball above the 1384 face in that, in that territory.
And then 1385 the monster one, when I'm trying to 1386 launch it, like I'm fully, I'm getting 1387 as, as far up as I possibly can.
And 1388 that's when my base gets the widest, 1389 right?
So if you've seen these long drive 1390 guys, you look at the tee heights that 1391 they use, right?
So the tee heights are 1392 like really high.
I don't have anything 1393 that high here in the house.
1394 So the tee height is going to be really 1395 high and their stance gets really, really 1396 wide.
Right?
So why is that?
Well, 1397 because they're hitting tons and tons of 1398 positive angle attack.
Look at Kyle 1399 Berkshauer's numbers, right?
He's insane.
1400 He's upwards of 10, 11 degrees, right?
1401 He's hitting up on the ball, 10, 11 1402 degrees.
How is he making that happen 1403 with all of that crazy rotational force 1404 and all of that parametric acceleration?
1405 Well, if you look at it, he's staying 1406 back and behind it and letting the club 1407 release upward.
Okay.
1408 Definitely a good way for a lot of speed 1409 to come out of it.
1410 So any other questions?
1411 Thank you guys very much for joining me 1412 on this Saturday and thank you for 1413 putting up with the chaos that you didn't 1414 even see ensue.
It was hard to get 1415 settled in this morning and deliver the 1416 information that I wanted to.
So I 1417 apologize if I missed something on like 1418 something easy like setup, right?
I don't 1419 want your hands and arms pushed out away 1420 from your body.
1421 So hopefully, thank you, Patrick.
1422 Always awesome working with you.
1423 So how to manage a swing that is falling 1424 apart during a round.
Tom, I love that 1425 topic.
I love that topic.
In fact, I just 1426 had about a 45-minute chat with one of my 1427 students yesterday.
I love that.
So I 1428 think that's a great idea.
Thank you very 1429 much.
Jimmy, thank you.
Mitchell, thank 1430 you.
Aloha.
1431 You guys are awesome.
Thank you very much 1432 for joining me this lovely Saturday.
1433 Well, rainy Saturday.
I don't know what 1434 the weather is like in your neck of the 1435 woods, but it is not beautiful here.
1436 Oh, thank you, Craig.
1437 If you guys need any further assistance 1438 or you want to talk about this further, 1439 then by all means, post up comments in 1440 the community.
We'll definitely have some 1441 open discussion about this stuff.
1442 If you want to show us some of the T 1443 height adjustments that you're making or 1444 some of the stance width adjustments that 1445 you're making, show them, right?
We'll 1446 take a look at that real quick and we'll 1447 give you our assessment and say, hey, 1448 yep, make this, go out there and try to 1449 make this work for you.
But I think if 1450 you were to kind of put it all together 1451 with, you know, Playing around with the 1452 release stuff that I gave you.
And then 1453 adding a little bit of thrust from the 1454 right hand and then playing around with 1455 stance, width with it, you're going to 1456 see some good results.
1457 All right.
Thank you guys very much for 1458 all of the topics.
I think we asked the 1459 last boot camp where there was quite a 1460 few people in there.
We didn't get one 1461 freaking discussion topic.
1462 All right.
So you guys are awesome.
I 1463 hope you guys have a great rest of your 1464 weekend.
We'll see you soon.
Gerd Helene
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)