Everyone is searching for distance. From Tour Players to Amateurs, they all want to hit the ball further, and as a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, I help my students hit the ball longer every day. Over time I’ve noticed that there are 10 common things that I see when golfers struggle with distance.
Before you get going, I’d recommend picking one or two of these and work on it for two to three weeks. Any change takes time and give yourself a chance. Take the time to really improve in that one area and see if it makes a difference. You should see improvement if you put the focus and the time in on making the change.
Center contact is so important for golfers. It makes the shot feel great and it is where you optimize your distance. There are two problems that I see most amateur golfers have. They either hit the ball all over the club face or they hit the same area but it’s the wrong spot. If you are about 1 inch off of the center, you are losing about 10% of your distance.
You have to practice swinging faster to speed up your swing. If you are trying to get stronger, you have to increase the weight. The goal is to get you comfortable swinging the club faster and be able to hold your finish. Not swing out of control.
The goal for golfers is to have the shaft leaning more forward than when it started. Lots of golfers have their shaft leaning back at impact. This adds loft and also affects contact on the golf ball. Lots of tour players have a 7 iron and turn it into a 6 or 5 iron. Amateur golfers do the opposite, they take a 7 iron and turn it into a 8 or 9 iron. Just by improving your impact, you can gain distance without swinging any faster.
Having great footwork is really important to help gain distance. The ground is a huge power source for a lot of golfers. At the tour level, you have Justin Thomas, Phil Mickleson and Lexi Thompson who really used the ground for power. Kyle Berkshire, winner of the Long Drive Competition, utilizes the ground to generate power. You can watch how he works back into his right side, then back to his left and an upward push off of the ground to smack the ball.
Having a faster tempo can gain distance in your swing. Too often players are told to slow down. Swing slower. You can not gain distance swinging slower.
