How can I launch drives on the upswing? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How can I launch drives on the upswing? (Video) - by Pete Styles

You’ll often hear golf commentators on the TV talk about the guys that hit the biggest and the longest drives, how they really caught it sweetly on the up stroke. And that might seem counter intuitive because everything else people are talking about is how we hit down on the ball and take a divot. So how do we hit one club on the upswing and the other clubs on the down swing?

Well particularly with the driver we can focus on hitting on the up stroke and the biggest difference though is that thing, the tee peg, the fact the ball is actually lifted off the ground already so with the ball being lifted off the ground we can now hit it with an upwards blow, we can have the club below the level of the ball here and rising into the level of the ball as it comes up through impact. A couple of things you’ll do in your setup to help you do that. First thing you set the ball up a long way forwards in your stance, so position the ball just nicely up against your left instep. So having the ball against your left instep for the right handed golfer makes the ball forwards in your arc, makes your arc of stroke be more rising as you hit it. The next big thing particularly with a driver is to tilt your spine angle, and actually tilt your spine angle away from the target. So during the set up phase here I'm going to drop about 60% body weight onto my right leg and lower my right shoulder, my spine angle now tilts slightly away from the golf ball. That encourages the lowest part of my swing arc to be back here and then rising as my swing arc hits the golf ball. So effectively I feel like I'm leaning back. Now I stress am not putting more than an extra 10% body weight back here. It’s not like I'm 16% back at all, I'm sorry more than 60% back, I'm only 60%, 40% back, spine angle is tilted away from the target. If I then make a little swing here without the ball I would actually feel the club bottoming out here before it gets to the tee peg. Now stress when I hit the golf ball yes it bottoms out there but it doesn’t actually bottom out on the ground it misses the ground by maybe a centimeter. Misses the ground by a centimeter then rises into the golf ball as I strike it. So I'm striking the ball on the way up but I'm not actually hitting the ground on the way to the ball and that’s a great way to feel like you can stay back with your driver, tilt your spine over with your driver and launch it high into the air to hit your best and longest tee shots. 2015-03-26

You’ll often hear golf commentators on the TV talk about the guys that hit the biggest and the longest drives, how they really caught it sweetly on the up stroke. And that might seem counter intuitive because everything else people are talking about is how we hit down on the ball and take a divot. So how do we hit one club on the upswing and the other clubs on the down swing?

Well particularly with the driver we can focus on hitting on the up stroke and the biggest difference though is that thing, the tee peg, the fact the ball is actually lifted off the ground already so with the ball being lifted off the ground we can now hit it with an upwards blow, we can have the club below the level of the ball here and rising into the level of the ball as it comes up through impact.

A couple of things you’ll do in your setup to help you do that. First thing you set the ball up a long way forwards in your stance, so position the ball just nicely up against your left instep. So having the ball against your left instep for the right handed golfer makes the ball forwards in your arc, makes your arc of stroke be more rising as you hit it.

The next big thing particularly with a driver is to tilt your spine angle, and actually tilt your spine angle away from the target. So during the set up phase here I'm going to drop about 60% body weight onto my right leg and lower my right shoulder, my spine angle now tilts slightly away from the golf ball.

That encourages the lowest part of my swing arc to be back here and then rising as my swing arc hits the golf ball. So effectively I feel like I'm leaning back. Now I stress am not putting more than an extra 10% body weight back here. It’s not like I'm 16% back at all, I'm sorry more than 60% back, I'm only 60%, 40% back, spine angle is tilted away from the target. If I then make a little swing here without the ball I would actually feel the club bottoming out here before it gets to the tee peg.

Now stress when I hit the golf ball yes it bottoms out there but it doesn’t actually bottom out on the ground it misses the ground by maybe a centimeter. Misses the ground by a centimeter then rises into the golf ball as I strike it. So I'm striking the ball on the way up but I'm not actually hitting the ground on the way to the ball and that’s a great way to feel like you can stay back with your driver, tilt your spine over with your driver and launch it high into the air to hit your best and longest tee shots.