Causes and Cures - Low Short Drives - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Causes and Cures - Low Short Drives - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

Clearly, nobody likes to be out driven on the golf course and certainly, nobody likes to be out driven by somebody that's smaller and and looks weaker than they do. But when you go down out on the driving range, you'll often see a lot of really big guys, stout guys, athletes, guys that are in the gym and they're hitting the ball and it's just not going very far and then you get down in the end, there's a little 40, and you know, a lot of good play, a little whippersnapper and he's there and he's out driving, all these big neat heads. And they're looking out and going, how's he hitting it further than me.

Well, it's good technique that's the difference. It's not just brute strength and power. It's good technique that will actually help you hit the ball along the way and I would encourage you to watch young golfers sort of 15, 16 and 17-year-old people who haven't fully developed. They're not big, they don't have big chest, big shoulders, big back, but they have good technique, hence, they can hit the ball a long way and here's a couple of parts of that good technique that could help you.

In a good address position, you want to create a nice big full shoulder turn. This is something that the young golfers find easy to do because they're quite supple, quite flexible. You might feel that if you're strong, you don't really have the flexibility and you're turning but you're not really getting your shoulders back very far. That's really going to soften with your lack of power, so if you can make a nice big shoulder rotation, create lots of flexibility, that's great for you.

The next thing that young golfers use to generate maximum power, creating maximum power is good transfer of body weight, so in the addressed position when they're setting up, there's maybe with a driver, 55-60% body weight on the right leg already, so they're very slightly back behind the ball then in the back swing, there's more body weight moving into the right leg, so it's transferring the body weight back to the right side. That's storing up power and then moving yourself back into your left hand side, releases that power. If you're a big guy, you stood strong over the ball, you might just be standing there, whacking it with your hands in your arms. You're not using your body weight to maximum effect to generate the most efficient use of power.

The next thing is a similar idea that from this top position, it's using that power on your downswing by clearing your hips, starting your downswing with a nice big lateral shift into the left hand side, turning your hips through and then releasing the power into that left hand leg. What we don't want to do there is stand on the back leg and just standing back to the golf ball. That's not going to help you.

So again, take your lead from the younger athletes and watch how they use that flexibility to generate loads and loads of power and hit the ball further than you can even though you're standing there and hitting as hard as you can. Turn your shoulders, transfer your body weight, release with your hips and that's a really good exercise to help you hit the ball further.

 2013-01-18

Clearly, nobody likes to be out driven on the golf course and certainly, nobody likes to be out driven by somebody that's smaller and and looks weaker than they do. But when you go down out on the driving range, you'll often see a lot of really big guys, stout guys, athletes, guys that are in the gym and they're hitting the ball and it's just not going very far and then you get down in the end, there's a little 40, and you know, a lot of good play, a little whippersnapper and he's there and he's out driving, all these big neat heads. And they're looking out and going, how's he hitting it further than me.

Well, it's good technique that's the difference. It's not just brute strength and power. It's good technique that will actually help you hit the ball along the way and I would encourage you to watch young golfers sort of 15, 16 and 17-year-old people who haven't fully developed. They're not big, they don't have big chest, big shoulders, big back, but they have good technique, hence, they can hit the ball a long way and here's a couple of parts of that good technique that could help you.

In a good address position, you want to create a nice big full shoulder turn. This is something that the young golfers find easy to do because they're quite supple, quite flexible. You might feel that if you're strong, you don't really have the flexibility and you're turning but you're not really getting your shoulders back very far. That's really going to soften with your lack of power, so if you can make a nice big shoulder rotation, create lots of flexibility, that's great for you.

The next thing that young golfers use to generate maximum power, creating maximum power is good transfer of body weight, so in the addressed position when they're setting up, there's maybe with a driver, 55-60% body weight on the right leg already, so they're very slightly back behind the ball then in the back swing, there's more body weight moving into the right leg, so it's transferring the body weight back to the right side. That's storing up power and then moving yourself back into your left hand side, releases that power. If you're a big guy, you stood strong over the ball, you might just be standing there, whacking it with your hands in your arms. You're not using your body weight to maximum effect to generate the most efficient use of power.

The next thing is a similar idea that from this top position, it's using that power on your downswing by clearing your hips, starting your downswing with a nice big lateral shift into the left hand side, turning your hips through and then releasing the power into that left hand leg. What we don't want to do there is stand on the back leg and just standing back to the golf ball. That's not going to help you.

So again, take your lead from the younger athletes and watch how they use that flexibility to generate loads and loads of power and hit the ball further than you can even though you're standing there and hitting as hard as you can. Turn your shoulders, transfer your body weight, release with your hips and that's a really good exercise to help you hit the ball further.