I've added distance to my shots this year. A lot.

[Good.Shepherd]

One of the things I was always told--the big "trueism" of golf--was that you can't add that much distance. If you don't get it when you were young, you won't get it.

That's false.

Three times in my life I've either started golf as a beginner or taken 4+ years off and had to restart. Each time I went from 100s in my scores to the mid 80s (and this round, I've broken into the 70s for my first time). Having had to dig my game out so many times like that, I can smell myth from a mile away.

But this is the first time I've increased my distance this dramatically. it's at least 20-30 yards per club since last fall.

For me, I did it via efficiency. Losing even 5% swaying back (often much more), 5% moving the head, 5% in poor divot contact, and etc, all leads up to a huge loss of distance. It's taken a lot of work on body control and training at FEELING where my body is and how it is moving, but the results have been intense.

The short cheat sheet for me:
*Maintain perfect spine angle. Don't move even 1% if you can help it (at least in how it f e feels).
*Keep your forearms together back and coming through. Don't bleed.
*Wrist hinge well, but don't over-manipulate it and drag your swing as it comes down.
*Sway 0% in the backswing.
*Rotate to initiate a swing, don't "move" with the swing.
*Knees follow the correct coiling of the swing, but they never move with autonomy.
*Forward heel on the ground, no lift.
*Rhythm matters. Bring the head down when physics wants it to--don't force it or beg it.
*Maintain forward weight but cheek behind ball (or COG on a wood or driver). This promotes
compression.
*20% strain in my swing, tops. Smooth as silk. It's hard as hell to maintain, but I've had to tell myself, "I may miss this shot, but I'm going to miss it swinging like Bobby Jones not an ounce of strain more". Especially in my drives, when combined with the other efficiency pieces, my drives are noticeably longer.
*When these come together, I actually use MUCH less energy per swing and the ball goes a lot farther. It's kind of crazy.

I know this is all standard stuff, and I did most of it and had a good enough swing before. But when I got really serious about doing it EXCELLENTLY well, and not just "sorta", and viewing it not as mechanical elements but as efficiency, my distance has gone nuts. There's no magic or new equipment or myth or selling my soul--just longer distances.

I notice it most in my 5 iron through driver. If you bleed off 10% efficiency in a 9 iron shot, you may be 13 yards short--but still on the green. If you bleed off 10% for a 5 iron or 3 iron, you can now miss out on 30 yards or more (losing both raw carry and lack of roll) and often bring hazards into play if you're attacking.

I post this in hopes of encouraging people who are shorter than they feel they should be but have been fed that line of "you can't add distance to your game". In all my years of stopping and starting and having to rebuild my game I was told this many times, and also was never given the "efficiency" perspective from any of the instructors I worked with. Not as a focus, at least. I was given many things "to do", but I was never told, "don't do anything new or different, just do these same things more efficiently." 1% here, 3% there, and the compounding effect of them working together creates a big affect.

I can attest, first person, that even as a mid handicapper with a decent swing you can absolutely go out and find distance unless you're as tuned up and as efficient as your body can be in it's swinging motion already.

 

[Jman]

Nice dude, pretty impressive to see the gains you have. Has definitely got to make the game more fun.

 

[Brianbigoats]

Very cool adding distance is always fun

 

[deuce]

So there is hope for me! I cling to the comments my instructors make that with practice, distance will come.

 

[CAA_Beat]

Good Stuff Shepard. You're posts are always full of good solid information. Thanks!!

 

[evand23mc]

Awesome job, interesting stuff you mentioned, thanks for sharing.

Curious as to how you improved your feeling and body control. Were you spending a lot of range time, were you using mirrors, just curious as to methods.

 

[Good.Shepherd]

Awesome job, interesting stuff you mentioned, thanks for sharing.

Curious as to how you improved your feeling and body control. Were you spending a lot of range time, were you using mirrors, just curious as to methods.

For me, and we're all different, but for me it was a lot of focused range time. I'd park myself out there with a range finder and find a target at an exact and specific distance. Say 200 yards. Then I'd take my 4 iron and find a way to get it there with that 20% strain rule (very important for me as if I let strain come in it would disfigure my swing in 20 places and I could never isolate a variable). So I'd get 10 good contact shots, with low strain, keeping my forearms together. Or playing with earlier or later wrist hinge. I'd practice trying not to move my chin a single millimeter or trying NOT to move my knees at all (of course they move, but there's a difference between natural movement and lazy or manipulated movement). The big idea was to isolate specific variables in a low strain environment and see how that affected compression, distance, accuracy, etc. Over time you see that bleeding your forearms, or crashing into your body, or failing to hinge, or swaying even a little, when compounded with other things, causes a much bigger loss than you feel like it should in your head.

The other really important point here is to clean your clubs after every hit. Because if you can see where you hit the ball on the club (from driver to wedge), then you'll know how these different movements are affecting impact. A big "for example" on this was that, when I keep my forearms together more, I get more power. But it can also give me an extra inch of extension over a more lazy or less efficient swing. By looking at my driver I saw that when I was efficient on this, I needed to stand an extra 1 inch from the ball at address. If I wasn't watching my driver face, I'd think the forearm discipline made me more likely to slice. In fact, when I'm careful about impact with it, I'm 20+ yards longer and LESS likely to slice, but I had to understand this body discipline in the context of my impact.

I tried not to use mirrors too much because I don't have mirrors on the course. This is the big lesson I learned restarting so many times--nothing wrong with cameras or mirrors, but if you get dependent on them then you're screwed if your swing disappears during a round. Contact is all that really matters. The ball can tell you all you need to know. It won't tell you how pretty you look, but it will tell you about your impact.

That was my approach. I know there are probably much easier ways to learn, but it's a way I feel like I can take out on the course with me and diagnose and treat issues as they arise during a round.

 

[Daddio]

Well done, sounds like you put in a ton of targeted work but wow is this ever an encouraging post for someone like me! I see a similar handicap and also consider myself shorter than I should be. I've been working on things mechanically but I never really thought about it from the efficiency perspective. Small step by step gains in efficiency adding to significant gains. I see many opportunities in your narrative. Thanks for the outline!

 

[Chickopher]

Awesome Shepherd. I have recently noticed the same and have been focussed on basically the same as you list. I agree with all except the left heel down. Different schools of thought on that. As long as you don't sway and it is down at impact it.
http://www.golf.com/instruction/bubba-watson-jack-nicklaus-golf-swings
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/swing-sequences/2006-07/watson_gd0607

 

[darnall]

Well done, sounds like you put in a ton of targeted work but wow is this ever an encouraging post for someone like me! I see a similar handicap and also consider myself shorter than I should be. I've been working on things mechanically but I never really thought about it from the efficiency perspective. Small step by step gains in efficiency adding to significant gains. I see many opportunities in your narrative. Thanks for the outline!

Oh you sandbagger you.... Looked to me like that Cobra Bio driver put you in pretty good shape off the tee more often than not..... hahahahaha... hope you're feeling OK in the knee area bud...anxious to get together again sometime

 

[iSukGolf]

Great info and I really like bullet items ... easy to understand.

 

[Good.Shepherd]

Awesome Shepherd. I have recently noticed the same and have been focussed on basically the same as you list. I agree with all except the left heel down. Different schools of thought on that. As long as you don't sway and it is down at impact it.
http://www.golf.com/instruction/bubba-watson-jack-nicklaus-golf-swings
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/swing-sequences/2006-07/watson_gd0607

Great points and links. And I agree. For me--and I'm only speaking personally--the heel was a big one because I find I lose 20 yards on my long irons very quickly if I sway even a little bit. What I discovered what that raising the heel, or allowing it to raise, encouraged a sway.

With 5% sway, I seem to lose 20 yards (just speaking in how it feels, as I have no way to measure).
With 4% , still 20 yards.
With 0-1%, I get it back. It's that weird line where all your gains come by doing it precisely.

But I now know that feeling of seeing the 4 iron shot bleed off at 180 yards and die and knowing I was swaying. I'll keep my heel down and try not to sway even 1% and that next shot goes to 200 or 210. I don't mean I always hit it right, only that I can feel when it was a "mishit" or a bad hit and when it was a decent hit--but inefficient. Sometimes the results look the same, but they're very different causes.

So for me, the heel mattered. But that is by no means universal.

 

[darnall]

And nice job GoodShep... noticeable improvement is one big thing that keeps us hooked on this game...congrats man

 

[Chickopher]

Great points and links. And I agree. For me--and I'm only speaking personally--the heel was a big one because I find I lose 20 yards on my long irons very quickly if I sway even a little bit. What I discovered what that raising the heel, or allowing it to raise, encouraged a sway.

With 5% sway, I seem to lose 20 yards (just speaking in how it feels, as I have no way to measure).
With 4% , still 20 yards.
With 0-1%, I get it back. It's that weird line where all your gains come by doing it precisely.

But I now know that feeling of seeing the 4 iron shot bleed off at 180 yards and die and knowing I was swaying. I'll keep my heel down and try not to sway even 1% and that next shot goes to 200 or 210. I don't mean I always hit it right, only that I can feel when it was a "mishit" or a bad hit and when it was a decent hit--but inefficient. Sometimes the results look the same, but they're very different causes.

So for me, the heel mattered. But that is by no means universal.

Fully understand. I, too, have a tendency to sway. Raising my heel used to aggravate it. However, when I started stopping short and not finishing, I had to find a way to force my finish so I started stepping through my swing and a by product was lifting the heel. Not sure why, probably because I am only thinking about maintaining spine, relaxed arms and follow through. I found myself overshooting the green with previously appropriate irons for the distance.

 

[evand23mc]

Great thread and I really appreciate the info Good Shepherd. The efficiency is a way of looking at my swing that I had not really thought of....plenty to think about and work on next time at the range.

 

[Tadashi70]

30 yards is conciderable distance. If I'm reading correctly you now hit your 4i 200 yards? I would say that you didn't add distance but learn the proper way to maximize the effectiveness of your 4 iron.

It's sound like you dialed in your swing and are hitting the clubs their designed distance for you. Now let's say you were hitting the 4i 200 yards and learned to hit 230, that would be a distance gain.

The average golfer can not hope to add distance of that measure with out serious hands on training. Heck pro might add 15 yards tops with woods and 7.5 with irons. At that level that's a lot.

I think it's great you discovered your game and unlocked your inner golfer. I hope everyone can experience this in their golfing life. But adding these gains is not close to the norm.

 

[Good.Shepherd]

30 yards is conciderable distance. If I'm reading correctly you now hit your 4i 200 yards? I would say that you didn't add distance but learn the proper way to maximize the effectiveness of your 4 iron.

It's sound like you dialed in your swing and are hitting the clubs their designed distance for you. Now let's say you were hitting the 4i 200 yards and learned to hit 230, that would be a distance gain.

The average golfer can not hope to add distance of that measure with out serious hands on training. Heck pro might add 15 yards tops with woods and 7.5 with irons. At that level that's a lot.

I think it's great you discovered your game and unlocked your inner golfer. I hope everyone can experience this in their golfing life. But adding these gains is not close to the norm.

As always I love your comments here on the site.

Regarding the 4i, there are many ways to look at it. But for me, I've never hit a 4 iron reliably to 200. I was 180. And that's for a decade. So to now be hitting it 200+ (some days 215) with almost no strain is a fundamental addition of distance for me.

Again, I didn't go to the distance store and buy it. It came via efficiency work in my swing. I wasn't doing all the wrong things, I just wasn't doing the right things well enough to maximize distance.

I've come to believe 2 things about the "average golfer" as a result of these processes. Debate is welcomed and I'm sure there will be dissent:

1. Unless a golfer is already quite efficient in their swings, there are yards being left on the course that they can go get. Call it optimizing, call it getting to where the "should be". Call it whatever, but if 9 times out of 10 you hit a club to less than the distance you feel you are capable of, I'd go looking in efficiency before equipment, major swing changes, or etc.

2. The "yips" are likely more in this genre of thinking than in others. Over time a golfer's swing will obfuscate. We may lean 1% more per week and not notice the laziness creeping in. Finally, one day, we go the final 1% more that actually begins to grind our swing to a halt. To our brains the difference in the 1% from a week ago and the 1% this week is imperceptible, but it's there all the same. So we believe we are "yipping" in that our results have degraded even though we can't feel what is wrong. Again, I would suggest looking here first before spending $1000 on new equipment or packages of lessons (no issue with lessons, but the better body awareness and discipline you have the more meaningful lessons can be and the more you will see a coach as a consultant sent to assist you than a black magic wizard of some sort).

 

[Tadashi70]

As always I love your comments here on the site.

Regarding the 4i, there are many ways to look at it. But for me, I've never hit a 4 iron reliably to 200. I was 180. And that's for a decade. So to now be hitting it 200+ (some days 215) with almost no strain is a fundamental addition of distance for me.

Again, I didn't go to the distance store and buy it. It came via efficiency work in my swing. I wasn't doing all the wrong things, I just wasn't doing the right things well enough to maximize distance.

I've come to believe 2 things about the "average golfer" as a result of these processes. Debate is welcomed and I'm sure there will be dissent:

1. Unless a golfer is already quite efficient in their swings, there are yards being left on the course that they can go get. Call it optimizing, call it getting to where the "should be". Call it whatever, but if 9 times out of 10 you hit a club to less than the distance you feel you are capable of, I'd go looking in efficiency before equipment, major swing changes, or etc.

2. The "yips" are likely more in this genre of thinking than in others. Over time a golfer's swing will obfuscate. We may lean 1% more per week and not notice the laziness creeping in. Finally, one day, we go the final 1% more that actually begins to grind our swing to a halt. To our brains the difference in the 1% from a week ago and the 1% this week is imperceptible, but it's there all the same. So we believe we are "yipping" in that our results have degraded even though we can't feel what is wrong. Again, I would suggest looking here first before spending $1000 on new equipment or packages of lessons (no issue with lessons, but the better body awareness and discipline you have the more meaningful lessons can be and the more you will see a coach as a consultant sent to assist you than a black magic wizard of some sort).

I can get down with this, gains are gains. And there are always two sides to every coin. You found distance with a more efficient swing and that in itself is a feet. Most get more efficient and gain accuracy but don't pick up any additional distance.

I'm glad you have found this and through it will play much better golf.

 

[DawgDaddy]

Enjoying the thread Good.S, quite the food for thought contained in this one. Good post!

 

[thug the bunny]

The short cheat sheet for me:
*Maintain perfect spine angle. Don't move even 1% if you can help it (at least in how it f e feels).
*Keep your forearms together back and coming through. Don't bleed.
*Wrist hinge well, but don't over-manipulate it and drag your swing as it comes down.
*Sway 0% in the backswing.
*Rotate to initiate a swing, don't "move" with the swing.
*Knees follow the correct coiling of the swing, but they never move with autonomy.
*Forward heel on the ground, no lift.
*Rhythm matters. Bring the head down when physics wants it to--don't force it or beg it.
*Maintain forward weight but cheek behind ball (or COG on a wood or driver). This promotes
compression.
*20% strain in my swing, tops. Smooth as silk. It's hard as hell to maintain, but I've had to tell myself, "I may miss this shot, but I'm going to miss it swinging like Bobby Jones not an ounce of strain more". Especially in my drives, when combined with the other efficiency pieces, my drives are noticeably longer.
*When these come together, I actually use MUCH less energy per swing and the ball goes a lot farther. It's kind of crazy.

These are spot on. Great job at articulating. I never separated everything out to this level of detail. Kind of agrees with my swing thought of 'swing like an old lady', which when combined with my tendency of trying to hit too hard equals a nice tempo, and center contact is achieved with proper sequencing, and the result is 20 - 30 yds further than when I try to crush it. And usually pretty dead straight. Funny how slower = farther. It is crazy.

 

[Good.Shepherd]

These are spot on. Great job at articulating. I never separated everything out to this level of detail. Kind of agrees with my swing thought of 'swing like an old lady', which when combined with my tendency of trying to hit too hard equals a nice tempo, and center contact is achieved with proper sequencing, and the result is 20 - 30 yds further than when I try to crush it. And usually pretty dead straight. Funny how slower = farther. It is crazy.

Exactly. When you're more efficient, you can tend to hit it more consistently. This gives you more distance just as a matter of physics (the ball rolling straighter after a good hit as opposed to rolling sideways on a hook or slice). This tend to instill confidence, and many of us respond to this by back off swing strain.

So efficiency work can both increase distance but also seems, in my case at least (and a few others I've spoken with), to result in slower and more accurate swings that are achieving greater overall distances statistically.

 

[WMac19]

In 2011, following a rigorous off-season workout schedule, I saw a considerable jump in distance. I'd always been a gym rat but I specifically concentrated upon increasing core strength.

I've allowed myself to get a bit softer lately but I've still maintained probably 75% of the increase.

 

[tzeboss]

Nice. I added 20 yards going from mx 23s to x2 hot pros. Yes loft is different but just being fitted has made a huge difference. Was bizarre adding 20 yards to My 7 iron but always wondered why i was 10 yards shorter than My friends. Now i am longer


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BuckeyeMark]

I have trouble with sway and raising my head. What did you do to eliminate that? Do you have specific drills you do to work on it?

 

[Good.Shepherd]

I have trouble with sway and raising my head. What did you do to eliminate that? Do you have specific drills you do to work on it?

Just work on the range. The biggest hurdle to climb is body awareness and discipline. You have to teach yourself to feel when you're doing it, and then isolate those feelings into motion or limitation of motion.

Strangely enough, I find that strain lessens that body awareness. The harder I strain, the less I can feel what I'm doing. So as I really slow down and cut the strain out, I tend to be able to feel what I'm doing more acutely.

It's not a drill, but the sway and head were a big problem for me so I started by trying to make sure they don't move AT ALL. In my mind, I don't want my knees or my head to move even 1mm. In practice, they will. But in terms of FEEL, in my head, it had to be zero. Practicing that developed that sense for when I was moving and what the effects were. I still screw it up all the time, but I can FEEL when I do it now without anyone ever having to tell me.

This is where film can be useful, to sync up what you feel to what is actually happening. I don't like using video to build a swing because that's too aesthetic. It's 100% about impact on the ball, not being pretty. And no video teacher would have given Hogan or Palmer or Trevino their swings. But as a way to understand how something FEELS as opposed to how it plays out in the swing, I think video can be really helpful. But the goal isn't to "pretty up" the swing, the point of video is to help it inform your ability to have body control and awareness.

Then, once I have that body awareness, that's when the efficiency work comes in. Instead of trying out 30 different things at 30% margin of error, I tried to pick out the 5 or so things that were most pivotal for me and doing them at 1% error.

I don't like drills too much, as a rule, because they tend to cause you to focus on the drill itself and not on that body awareness and discipline. Not for everyone, and some drills are brilliant, but more often than many realize they get caught up makeing the drill "work" rather than using the drill to inform their awareness of themselves. It's like putting drills--it's easy to cut out that .25 inch club face bleed on your 10th putt from the same spot. But that's a whole world away from stepping up to a putt that matters and being able to make it go where it should when you only get one shot.

I tried this out in a friendly bet yesterday with a friend. His wife had never hit a golf ball in her life. He bet me that I couldn't get her to hit a ball more than 40 yards in five tries. She took a shot and it was just brutal--terrible swing that evolution gave her and the ball barely went 5 yards at contact.

I asked her some questions, found out she was a dancer, and used the language of body control with her. I set her up, showed her the basic swing motion, and said this, "Okay, now, keep your forearms together, and don't move your head or knees even 1 mm. Keep them frozen".

Then I put my hand on her head, gently, so she wouldn't dip it. She swung with my 7 iron and sent it 90 yards and within 20 yards of her swing line. She squealed. Then she did it again without my hand on her head and only the admonition of "forearms together, and keep your knees and head completely frozen." Her next shot was about 60 yards but dead straight.

Now this woman is a long way from being a golfer. But the point was that I approached it very differently with this new point of view than I did when I viewed the swing as a bucket of parts you have to put together correctly as opposed to being agnostic about all of the parts on some level, just channeling them toward impact on the ball with very little error when it comes to sway, compression, and spine angle.