Problems Driving

[dustklose]

I went to the course today for only the 3rd time all year, justgetting back into the sport. I have went to the driving range plenty of times the past few weeks, even spent one day hitting bout 120 balls with just the driver. I did just fine, a slight slice but not as bad as before.

Well today I couldn't drive a ball for the life of me. Every drive I hit went about 120 yards, which is half of what I normally hit, AND every drive went prettymuch straight up from when I hit it. I have never seen my Driver arc like a PW. It got quite embarrassing so I used my 5 iron the rest of the day to tee off.

Could ball placement in my stance(i try to get it just inside my left foot) affect i? how about the fact that I normally use 3 1/2" tees and only had 2 3/4" tees on me? Any answer would be really helpfull thank you

 

[amollerud]

My first thought is ball position. Make sure that the ball is on the left heel as a general referance point. In terms of how high to tee the ball. As a general rule with todays 460cc drivers I like to see about 1/2 of the ball above the driver. Meaning tee it up and set the head behind the ball and you should be able to see about half of the ball above the crown of the driver.

 

[dustklose]

I went to the course again today. I watched more carefully on the position of the ball and how high i teed it up. I sliced the first few tee shots quite badly. Once i slowed my swing down and told myself I had to turn over my wrists, I hit a nice fade shot. I only hit the shot about 200 but I liked the trajectory and the shot shape. Is there something I can do to help work on a fade shot, and a way to increase my swing speed withough losing control of the club?

Also, on my irons I noticed I was topping almost every ball, any hints on how to stay down on them so I can keep hitting the nice shots? AND... how different is the swing to hit a fade iron shot compared to the driver? I'm sure my wrists needa turn over in a different spot.

Thanks again

 

[amollerud]

The fade with the driver is related to the path of the club and the position of the club face. The reason you go from fade to slice with the faster club head speed is you are losing control on the way down...meaning that with the increase in club head speed you are allowing the club to travel more out to in. When you slow it down you can control the path better.
Fix: Work on swinging more in to out. The baseball diamond drill I have used in many threads is a great one to help you get a repeatable more controlled path for the club head to travel along. If you cannot find it in a thread PM me and I will lay it out for you.

Contact with the irons. Normally when we hit topped shots with the irons there is a break down in posture due to the swing path and plane of the club. The same drill as above will help as well.
Fix: In addition to the baseball drill. To help fix impact posture there are a couple of simple drill to help the body feel the proper lower body movement through the ball. Take a low back chair and set it behind you in your set up posture. The back of the chair should hit the back of your thighs or you butt. On your way to the top of the backswing make sure you keep your right pocket on the chair (right handed players) and as you swing down feel the transition to the left pocket on the chair. The important part of this drill is to make sure that part of your backside maintains contact with the chair throughout the entire swing. I hope this helps and let me know if there is more I can do to help.