TGM Shortcomings in Driving??

[Seanmx]

The average player needs to produce a minimum of 13 degrees of launch angle. If your driver has less than 10 degrees of loft, what must you do to produce the lift? Swing up? bend the left wrist? Bend the plane line? Why not just put more loft on your driver and produce the same alignments that you produce with your other clubs.

Very interesting idea. Thanks Jeff.

[Richw]

Rarely if ever does a ball get squeezed between the clubface and turf. It does get severely compressed (pancaked) against the clubface though and is usually gone before the face is taking up turf. It's a good swing thought because a decending blow is what you want with all clubs, even a teed up driver.

MAJOR LIGHT ON HERE! *bing* I can see it better now, thanks Bagger!

[Bagger Lance]

MAJOR LIGHT ON HERE! *bing* I can see it better now, thanks Bagger!

Cool! My pleasure. I really enjoy those swingvision slomo's of clubface/ball compression.

Hence the TGM mandate, "sustain the line of compression".

It truely is a line, and a very precise one at that.

[libero]

Hi KOC,
as I don't take lessons either,can you explain in more details how you
hit your driver? Do you feel anything different in hitting your driver than,say,
your 9 iron? Are you hitting or Swinging?
Thanks for your reply.

[jamnet]

Just to give you a follow-up .....
I took Bagger’s advice and went to the practice range and hit many drivers of the deck, after hitting pretty much every shot either low left, low right or just a plain old top and running out of daylight I was thinking that maybe this was not going to work for me and I would have to have two swings, one for the Irons and one for the Driver. However, I don’t give up that easy, a couple of days later I went back to the range and it was the same old story, low right, low left or top... then all of a sudden the ball started flying straight for a pole about 260 yards away, one after another flying straight for the pole either with an ever so slight draw or fade .... and remember this was of the deck .. so then I switched to a teed up ball ... the same result, but, about 20 yards further and all struck with that unmistakable sound of compression. AMAZING!!
Thanks Bagger for the great advice and I will incorporate this drill in all my practice time.
My keys for the driver now are:
Set up more in an impact fix position, however, with a square stance.
Extensor action maintains the right wrist angle and the shaft on plane to the top of the swing.
From the top pressure point 3 sustains the lag all the way down and through the ball.

If I try and over power pressure point 3 the ball usually ends up going to the left, which feels like a slight pull hook.

Thanks again Bagger!!

[Bagger Lance]

.. so then I switched to a teed up ball ... the same result, but, about 20 yards further and all struck with that unmistakable sound of compression. AMAZING!!
Thanks Bagger for the great advice and I will incorporate this drill in all my practice time.

Wow! 20 yards.
That's great to hear and thanks for the feedback.

The last time I got together with Yoda, one of the things that I came home with was teeing the Driver lower. Maybe an inch high at the most.

I was hitting the driver with long tees and he walked up, pushed my 3 inch tee about two inches lower, looked at me with his green grin and said, "That's all you need Bagger, now hit down, out and forward". Instantly I was getting true loft out of my 9.5 degree Driver instead of 11. I was creating loft by making swing compensations. Those compensations were hurting me with every club because I was "hanging back" rather than "getting through" the stroke.

[EdZ]

My first post and just wondering, does anyone else have issues when it comes to driving the ball? Does TGM work really well for Iron play, but not so good for Drivers?
Before I got into TGM, about a year ago, I was a 10 handicap struggling with golf my 7 iron went about 150 yards, now I’m a 6 handicap payer with a 7 iron flying 165 to 170, and it’s all to do with compression and lag and a flat left wrist, so I agree 100% that using TGM for iron play (and actually putting) woks really well.
However, I cannot keep my driver on the golf course, it sprays all over the place, my really low scores come only when I employ “course management” which is another phrase for being too scared to hit a driver of the tee I use a 3 wood or hybrid or iron, which is no fun at all. Is there anyone else having Driver issues, can anyone point us in the right direction?
Thanks

Post a clip of your motion if you have the chance. A few areas to look in the meanwhile.....

Are you as 'in balance' and stable with your driver as your wedges?
Is your motion smooth? or does it have wobbles?
Are you maintaining a stable center?
Are you supporting impact?

If all that is true and you still have issues, you potentially either have a Rhythm problem, or you have gear that doesn't fit your motion\loading.

[jamnet]

Edz, here are videos of my swing, I posted them on Youtube,

Driver Face On

Driver Down the Line

Iron Down the Line

Any help anyone, any drills I should work on, Please??

[Bagger Lance]

Really nice swing Jamnet. Nothing to be ashamed of there.

The first thing I noticed with your driver face-on was your setup. Your shoulders are very level.

With your right hand lower on the shaft than the left, there should be a slight tilt rightward in your shoulders at setup.

Should assist with better hip action and axis tilt on the downswing.

[EdZ]

A very nice motion there Jamnet. A couple things I see. First, you are having a chin/shoulder collision on the backswing with the driver which tends to pull your head off of center.

A slight swivel of the chin to your right will give your shoulders more room to turn 'under' the chin. You can see by the right foot's finish that you are round housing as a result - the right shoulder needs to go more down plane.

That leads to a fair amount of a snare - the bob. A focus on a more stable center should help a lot. Check your knee\hip action as well. The more stable the knee/hip motion (pivot), the easier it is to maintain your center.

More focus on the pressure points in the hands, and a stable center. The rest is in great shape. Very nice work.