Hi Joe. I am a 30ish, female beginner student-five feet tall, very fit, strong, and very flexible. My only drawback is that I have a hurt left knee that forces me to point my left toe forward in order to complete a full follow-through like the 60-year old men around here do. I've been taking lessons for two summers now. Last week I was hitting with each of my clubs and
noticed that my full swing distance was exactly the same for my driver as for my 9-iron and everything in between. I reported this to my teacher and he smiled and nodded knowingly. He said that almost all women he's come across have had the same complaint. He said that I need to hit with more focus and intent. I'm wondering, if all my shots look exactly alike regardless of the club, why do I need more than one? Anyway, I've scoured all those insulting golf books for women that talk down to us like we're lost and helpless five-year-olds and found nothing on the universality of this problem amongst my gender. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Using the same swing with each club, shouldn't I be getting more distance out of my longer clubs?
Thank you in advance.
Tracy
Tracy:
Since you have already been taking lessons, I have to assume you can strike the ball with some consistency. Anyone who gets the same distance with all clubs must have a swing speed that needs improvement. Most people who have this problem, regardless of age or gender, are usually using too much arms and not enough wrist. Watch the slow motion replays of the pros' swings on TV, and you will notice how the wrist on the downswing is delayed until the last possible instant before striking the ball, and then it explodes into the ball. Here is a drill that should help build up some strength in your wrists. Take an ordinary hammer and pound some nails into a board, making your stroke in the same direction as your golf swing. In other words, stand the board up vertically and pound the nail in horizontally. The more you do this, the stronger your wrists will get. Gene Sarazen attributes his golfing ability to the wrist strength he developed during his carpentry jobs.
Monday, September 08, 2003
Joe,
I recently bought a different spec of the same driver that I used before, hoping to get more distance with stiffer shaft and lower loft.
Here is what I have noticed in the last 3 weeks at the practice tee.
*The club seems heavier and harder to bring around.
*It seems more difficult to make the transition for the down swing
being on the right path.
*My balance is more off and less stable on the down swing
*I have had to move to a slightly stronger grip to stay on line, which of course makes the swing inconsistent because occasionally I get this hook.
*I do not believe that I am trying to swing harder, trying to keep it at the same tempo and force.
Is the shaft making that much of an impact to my swing?
What do you suggest me to experiment with when I go practice again?
I would appreciate your comments, for now, the club will not go to the course until I figure this out.
David H
Hello David,
Do you still have the older driver, or did you trade it in? If you still have it, compare results the next time you go to the range. Assuming you are swinging OK with your irons, it would be nice if you did not have to tweak your swing just for a driver. So if the older driver goes more consistently to the target, the extra yards that you may sometimes get with the new driver may not be worth it. Let me know if you have similar problems with 3-wood, 5-wood, etc.
Joe
Hi Joe,
I went to the range this weekend and did a small experiment.
I hit both the old and new drivers and compared the results. In essence, my swing with the 3 wood (from the ground and tee) is acceptable. The old driver, for some reason, I am hitting farther than I did before. Not dramatically, but enough to notice. I am also hitting it with more consistent results and ball flight than before. The new driver with the same swing as the old driver, is tough. I am truly not sure why the results are much less consistent. Obviously, the shaft is stiffer, so it feels a little heavier, but that is truly about it. The flight of the ball is unpredictable so I cannot even give you a general trend, other than inconsistent.
Anyways, for the time being, I will go back to the old driver and use it on the course and not use the new one. I agree with you that changing my swing for just one club is ridiculous. Oh well, live and learn.
Hi David,
Apparently there really is such a thing as a shaft that is too stiff. I used to think that stiffer shafts were always preferable because they theoretically would reduce an unwanted variable, that being the flex translating to variations in clubface positions. But now the shaft technology has introduced the low-torque concept which helps keep the clubface square while the shaft is flexing but not twisting. This allows us to take advantage of the shaft's spring-effect without sacrificing accuracy. So now it is less dangerous to optimize your swing speed by experimenting with different amounts of shaft flex. How in the world did
those old time golfers ever shoot par with wooden shafts? It gives you a sense of how good those guys really were. No fancy technology, no matched sets of clubs, just a stick with a hunk of metal on the end, playing on scruffy fairways and greens. Wow.
I recently bought a different spec of the same driver that I used before, hoping to get more distance with stiffer shaft and lower loft.
Here is what I have noticed in the last 3 weeks at the practice tee.
*The club seems heavier and harder to bring around.
*It seems more difficult to make the transition for the down swing
being on the right path.
*My balance is more off and less stable on the down swing
*I have had to move to a slightly stronger grip to stay on line, which of course makes the swing inconsistent because occasionally I get this hook.
*I do not believe that I am trying to swing harder, trying to keep it at the same tempo and force.
Is the shaft making that much of an impact to my swing?
What do you suggest me to experiment with when I go practice again?
I would appreciate your comments, for now, the club will not go to the course until I figure this out.
David H
Hello David,
Do you still have the older driver, or did you trade it in? If you still have it, compare results the next time you go to the range. Assuming you are swinging OK with your irons, it would be nice if you did not have to tweak your swing just for a driver. So if the older driver goes more consistently to the target, the extra yards that you may sometimes get with the new driver may not be worth it. Let me know if you have similar problems with 3-wood, 5-wood, etc.
Joe
Hi Joe,
I went to the range this weekend and did a small experiment.
I hit both the old and new drivers and compared the results. In essence, my swing with the 3 wood (from the ground and tee) is acceptable. The old driver, for some reason, I am hitting farther than I did before. Not dramatically, but enough to notice. I am also hitting it with more consistent results and ball flight than before. The new driver with the same swing as the old driver, is tough. I am truly not sure why the results are much less consistent. Obviously, the shaft is stiffer, so it feels a little heavier, but that is truly about it. The flight of the ball is unpredictable so I cannot even give you a general trend, other than inconsistent.
Anyways, for the time being, I will go back to the old driver and use it on the course and not use the new one. I agree with you that changing my swing for just one club is ridiculous. Oh well, live and learn.
Hi David,
Apparently there really is such a thing as a shaft that is too stiff. I used to think that stiffer shafts were always preferable because they theoretically would reduce an unwanted variable, that being the flex translating to variations in clubface positions. But now the shaft technology has introduced the low-torque concept which helps keep the clubface square while the shaft is flexing but not twisting. This allows us to take advantage of the shaft's spring-effect without sacrificing accuracy. So now it is less dangerous to optimize your swing speed by experimenting with different amounts of shaft flex. How in the world did
those old time golfers ever shoot par with wooden shafts? It gives you a sense of how good those guys really were. No fancy technology, no matched sets of clubs, just a stick with a hunk of metal on the end, playing on scruffy fairways and greens. Wow.
