Comments on: Back on Track (Man)

By: A Man

A Man — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:10:00 +0000

You’re killing yourself in this current setup. With a swing speed of 105 and ball speed of 150 you could easily be hitting it 290 consostently with the proper setup. Increase your launch, decrease your spin and you’ll see instant results. In this case I would say a proper shaft would make a huge, immediate difference for you. I am speaking after viewing your Tracman numbers. Do you own your own Tracman? That must be awesome if you do. I have to pay hourly access to one, which isn’t cheap.

By: Justin M

Justin M — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:15:00 +0000

Try checking the loft on the club face. If you’re getting that much backspin your shots must be going very high or ‘ballooning’. I’m an exceptionally hard swinger myself ~120mph, and with ball speeds in excess of 155mph and up, having that much backspin will just make the ball go higher and higher. I was recently fit for a driver (I’d been swining a 10.5 degree loft as well) and was able to reduce my backspin off the tee on ascending attack angle drives by almost 1000rpm. At your swing speed you should be in the 8-10 degree loft range.

By: Jason (UK)

Jason (UK) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:17:00 +0000

Dan, there’s a very strong negative correlation between swing speed and smash factor in you stats. It’s obvious to me that you need to NOT try to smash the skin off the ball as this is killing your smash factor and reducing the lengthnf your drives. I’m in the same place: swing speed of 107.9mph but a low smash factor of 1.42 which I’m now working to improve. I also had a negative AoA but have corrected this by making sure my centre pivot stays behind the ball at impact and consciously aiming to hit out and up. You must continue to initiate the downswing with the forward move of the hips or roll of right ankle (left in your case I guess) towards the target. Let us know how you progress.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:51:00 +0000

Hey Dan, if you like Trackman you should check out @trackmanmaestro on twitter, he is Brian Gay’s golf coach and I’m pretty sure he’ll be a massive name in instruction in the coming years. He is always looking to increase his following on twitter so perhaps you could pool resources and he might give you a free lesson in return for a bit of exposure. I’d love to see him give you a lesson on one of your course vlogs!

All the best!

By: Richard Chen

Richard Chen — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:06:00 +0000

Offhand, hitting down at impact is having the hands in front of the ball at impact, usually, by having the shoulders closer toward the target with the leading shoulder in front of the ball, and with the trailing shoulder also closer toward the target (That’s why most golfers place the ball more toward the center of the stance for short and mid irons, so that the leading shoulder is way in front of the ball during setup to encourage hitting the ball with the leading shoulder way in front of the ball to get the hands way in front of the ball at impact with short and mid irons.) When the hands are in front of the ball at impact, the top end of the club will be in front of the bottom end of the club at impact creating a forward leaning club shaft at impact resulting in the clubhead still going downwards at impact to hit down on the ball.

Page 191 of Woods book shows his leading shoulder is not in front of the ball at almost impact. The outer edge of his leading shoulder is about even with the ball. This prevents to the hands from getting too much in front of the ball, if any, at impact for the driver. His trailing shoulder is also kept fairly back (both from the target, and from the target line) to help keeping the hands from getting too far in front of the ball (if any) at impact. For trailing-hand-dominant players (players swinging from their natural side,) the pros keep their trailing shoulder back, and from swing to far out (coming over the top) by turning down.

The shoulders are turned to slightly opened during the final release to pull the leading arm in to clear the path for the trailing hand, and forearm to swing through, and to swing the arms and hands up to the impact position, but the shoulders do not open too much (nor sway toward the target to much) to cause the hands to swing too much in front of the ball.

Conforming to the physics Law of the Conservation of Linear Momentum, most pros do sway slightly toward the target at the beginning of the downswing in shifting their weight back to the leading side. After that, they “sway” slightly back during the final release. According to this law of physics, the body “sways” in opposite directions to the arms, hands, and club to “balance” out the forces to center the swing.

By: 3foot1

3foot1 — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 03:18:00 +0000

To state the obvious, to get the best equipment for your game you need to find the best fitter. Because there are so many variables in the shaft — stiffness, torque, tip softness, length of tipping, PURing — off the shelf stuff simply won’t do. But because your swing is still changing, an optimal setup may last you only for 3-6 months. I don’t know what your arrangement with Nike was, but at this point I’d choose whatever company is willing to tweak your setup regularly.

I personally think that the equipment itself matters almost nothing and the correct fit (including lie, length, loft, gaps, bounce, grind, etc.) matters a LOT. Asking your fans how we choose clubs will generate interest and posts, but we can’t provide you with any good suggestions — unless, of course, companies aren’t willing to support you.

If that’s the case, two of the best independent fitters in the country are Dana Upshaw of Warner Robbins, Georgia (now retired) and Jacques Intriere of Greenwich, Connecticut. As far as equipment, if the major companies don’t want to help, two of the most regarded “boutique” lines (and less expensive that the biggies) are Tom Wishon and Ralph Maltby. Surely the big name companies will help you, though.

By: Double Bogey

Double Bogey — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:17:00 +0000

Dan, Check out the new Callaway Razr Fit Extreme, and the Nike Covert with an Oban Devotion 6 shaft, and you will be ready to rock and roll. Key is to find a low spin head, low spin/stable shaft, and then up your loft to 10.5 or 11.5 even