Gain 30 Yards on Your Next Drive

January 13, 2008

Have you ever seen this advertisement for a book, ebook, training aid, dvd series, or anywhere else? I am going to tell you what you will get if you decide to fork out the cash for one of these resources.

The vast majority of secret moves are referring to the move through the ball with the club trailing your hands. This is the anti-over the top secret, which has never been a secret. The cause of the over the top move is mental. You can spend hundreds of dollars on training aids and dvds to help learn something I can tell you in a few sentences. Golfers swing over the top because they are trying to do something other than use the face of the club to hit the ball at the target, or because they lack the flexibility or strength to wield the golf club the way they their minds want them to.

Some other references to the secret to distance, such as used by AJ Bonar in his dvd series AJ Reveals the Truth about Golf, are referring to the delay of the release in the downswing. In reality this tip is only useful in the same sense that the first tip is useful. If you are coming over the top, then delaying the release properly will help you gain an extraordinary amount of distance. Thinking about delaying the release, however, will not help you in the slightest. Golfers with good swings do not think about delaying the release. They think about the club, the ball, and the target.

It is true that the longer the club head trails the hands - note the difference between this and saying the more the club head trails the hands - the more acceleration is produced through the hitting zone. But to delay the release and still release the club on time to swing it towards the target requires strength in the hands, wrists, and forearms. When athletes swing as hard as they can, they are instinctively delaying this release for as long as the can. This is called timing.

It is important to realize that timing is a function of swing speed, and no tht eother way around. Timing merely refers to the amount of delay a golfer needs given their swing speed on any given swing to release the club down the target line. That is one of the key reasons why timing cannot be taught by a training aid or a dvd. You won’t be swinging as hard at a 60 yard wedge as you will at a full six iron. Timing is unique to every swing you make.

As a closing thought, I want you to think about other sports. Is there a secret to throwing a baseball 100 miles per hour? Is there a secret to hitting a tennis serve 140 miles per hour? Is there a secret to running a 4 minute mile? Is there a technique that will allow anyone to bench press 300 pounds?

The answer is no, of course not, and also, yes. There are techniques that allow pitchers to maximize their power and accuracy. The same goes for tennis players, sprinters, and weight lifters. These techniques revolve around the principles of balance and focus. The same is true in golf. But the real secret, as any successful athlete knows, is blood and sweat. And that’s the secret of gaining 30 yards on (not even close to) your next drive.

Written by John at 2:16 pm. Full Swing