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The Smart Path To Better golf

The Driver - Timing

BY GEOFF GREIG

One of the biggest obstacles to solid ball striking with the driver is hurrying the swing. On the backswing we rush because our confidence level is low and we want to get the swing over with. On the downswing we rush because we want to get the clubhead moving as fast as possible, as soon as it starts moving toward the ball. Learning to take your time with the driver swing will help your direction control and increase your distance.

How do we learn to take the right amount of time to swing the driver? Let's start with the backswing since it is the easiest part of the swing to control. As we progress through the bag each club is longer than the one before it. This means even though we are trying to swing each club through the same positions, the swing will take more time with the longer clubs. Time is very difficult to visualize so we can not use our primary method of learning. It is also relatively difficult to feel time accurately, otherwise we would not be hurrying the swing in the first place. This leaves us with sound.

When musicians are trying to keep accurate time they listen to a metronome or vocally call off the beat. In order to make sure our swings are keeping accurate time, we need to call off the beat on the backswing. It is most effective to do this out loud but, if you are self conscious you can count to yourself quietly.

It is not necessary to have a different backswing count for each club in the bag. We are going to divide the clubs up into three separate groups. With the short irons from address to the top of the backswing, count to three. With the mid and long irons count to four and with the woods count to five. The key to this drill is to be very accurate with the speed of your counting. The more you develop an internal clock for each group of clubs the sooner you will be able to feel the proper backswing. Being able to hear the correct backswing is good, being able to hear and feel it is much better.

Remember, the longer the club the bigger the arc it must travel through and the more time it will take to do it correctly. Next time we will figure out how to take our time on the downswing.

Have Fun Out There.