Control Your Centre Of Gravity For Better Driver Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
Control Your Centre Of Gravity For Better Driver Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if we understand that the angle of attack as we come into the golf ball with the driver is one of the primary reasons why sometimes we get onto the ball and pop it up and sky it off the top of the gold club, we can understand now how the center of gravity of our body in relation to the golf ball can help us change the angle of attack. So if I was to take an iron swing, I have got a club laid down here so you can see where the ball position is going to be. If I have got an iron, I am going to play the ball around about the center of my stance for this experiment here. I am going to position myself nicely, I am going to hold the golf ball just off my sternum and I can see that the center of gravity hangs down pretty close to the golf ball. And then during my swing I get to the top, I drive my body weight forwards and now hang the club down from my sternum and now I am in front of the cane on the ground here by a couple of inches, therefore my center of gravity has moved left in front of the golf ball encouraging me to have a hit down, because generally speaking the lowest part of your swing should be where the center of gravity is where the middle of your body is, so I have moved my body weight into my left side, I am going to hit the ball then I am going to carry on down hitting into the turf. And that works quite nicely for an iron, but actually we need to be quite specifically different when we are hitting a driver.

When we are hitting a driver we want to hit this on the way up or certainly with a shallower angle of attack. So the first thing is to change the ball position, I am going to position the ball well forwards in my stance, my center of gravity now is way behind that cane, that club, and actually it needs to stay there during the swing. So from a good address position I turn back to my right side, center of gravity now from my sternum almost by my right foot. I then drive my lower half forwards, but because I am hanging back with my upper half, my center of gravity still stays back behind the shaft on the ground. Therefore, my center of gravity is back behind the ball, the club will bottom out here and start to rise up. If I have the wrong ball position and the wrong body position for a driver I am going to find the driver is coming down into the back of the ball, gets under the ball, hits the crown of the leading edge, pops the ball up in the air and actually lose my upwards angle, my angle of attack is too steep, I hit the ball off the crown of the club, ball pops up in the air. So improving the center of gravity and moving that ball position and center of gravity around together to help improve your angle of attack, is a great way of avoiding hitting the top of the golf club and skying the ball into the air with your driver. 2015-10-16

So if we understand that the angle of attack as we come into the golf ball with the driver is one of the primary reasons why sometimes we get onto the ball and pop it up and sky it off the top of the gold club, we can understand now how the center of gravity of our body in relation to the golf ball can help us change the angle of attack. So if I was to take an iron swing, I have got a club laid down here so you can see where the ball position is going to be. If I have got an iron, I am going to play the ball around about the center of my stance for this experiment here. I am going to position myself nicely, I am going to hold the golf ball just off my sternum and I can see that the center of gravity hangs down pretty close to the golf ball. And then during my swing I get to the top, I drive my body weight forwards and now hang the club down from my sternum and now I am in front of the cane on the ground here by a couple of inches, therefore my center of gravity has moved left in front of the golf ball encouraging me to have a hit down, because generally speaking the lowest part of your swing should be where the center of gravity is where the middle of your body is, so I have moved my body weight into my left side, I am going to hit the ball then I am going to carry on down hitting into the turf. And that works quite nicely for an iron, but actually we need to be quite specifically different when we are hitting a driver.

When we are hitting a driver we want to hit this on the way up or certainly with a shallower angle of attack. So the first thing is to change the ball position, I am going to position the ball well forwards in my stance, my center of gravity now is way behind that cane, that club, and actually it needs to stay there during the swing. So from a good address position I turn back to my right side, center of gravity now from my sternum almost by my right foot. I then drive my lower half forwards, but because I am hanging back with my upper half, my center of gravity still stays back behind the shaft on the ground. Therefore, my center of gravity is back behind the ball, the club will bottom out here and start to rise up. If I have the wrong ball position and the wrong body position for a driver I am going to find the driver is coming down into the back of the ball, gets under the ball, hits the crown of the leading edge, pops the ball up in the air and actually lose my upwards angle, my angle of attack is too steep, I hit the ball off the crown of the club, ball pops up in the air. So improving the center of gravity and moving that ball position and center of gravity around together to help improve your angle of attack, is a great way of avoiding hitting the top of the golf club and skying the ball into the air with your driver.