Why Don’t Your Drives Go Far? They Only Go 200 Yards For One of These Two Reasons!

there is perhaps no more frustrating a thing in golf than struggling to get any distance with your driver off the te hitting a poor Drive is bad enough but it can feel even worse if you hit the ball as well as you can but you still don't get much distance leaving you scratching your head as to why your drives don't go very far the golfing stat gurus are all now clear that distance is a critical Factor when it comes to player scoring capabilities and if you're not able to hit the ball longer distances there will almost always be a ceiling as to how low you can score an extra 20 yards in driving distance for example will reduce a typical 100 scoring golfer score by 2.3 Strokes per round so the prize is an offer for being able to hit the ball further when it comes to better scores are significant so in this video we explore the key reasons drives don't go far including the most common and crucially what you can do about [Music] it welcome back to the golfing Focus Channel everybody and when it comes to driving distance the two key reasons your drives don't go for far it's firstly going to be your swing speed and secondly a poor strike looking firstly at swing speed or Club head speed as it is also referred to how fast you swing the club is the core component for determining how far you can hit the ball and adding 1 mph swing speed can increase Distance by up to three yards according to trackman you may also have heard of the term ball speed which is the speed of the ball immediately after impact and thanks to launch monitors and golf today we now know that ball speed is the single biggest factor in determining distance that statement in itself does not tell the whole story however because while ball speed is the biggest factor in how far the BL ball actually carries Club stroke swing speed is the key element for determining a golfer's potential distance how far you hit the ball therefore is mainly affected by your ability to convert Club speed into ball speed the launch angle and spin rate you drive the ball with are also important and we'll come to why po launch conditions cause a lot of golfers to lose distance with their driver shortly but if you can't swing much faster than 80 mph for example you'll not be able to hit your driver more than 200 yard no matter how well you hit the ball for a lot of golfers not being able to swing faster and add Club head speed is what is holding them at or below the 200 yard mark But for others the frustration lies in having the required Club head speed on paper to reach and even get well beyond that distance but still being stuck hitting drives that don't go very far and this brings us to the second of the main reasons why golfer driving distan are on the low side and that is scale ball speed as we have already identified is the key factor in determining how far a golf ball actually goes and in Practical terms that simply as a measure of how well a golfer strikes the golf ball lots of golfers out there have the swing speed to potentially drive further than they do but can't hit their drives more than 200 or 215 or 230 yards Etc because they strike the ball badly various common swing faults lead players to hit big hooks or slices after striking a glancing blow off the tow or heel of the driver and as a direct consequence of that their ball speed and therefore the distance they actually hit the ball reduces and to highlight how much of a distance difference scale in good ball striking makes looking at the difference between the average male golfer and the average LPG tour pro gives us an almost near perfect comparison case because the average male amateur has an average driver swing speed of 93.4 M an hour that is almost identical to the 94 mph average driver swing speed of the average LPG a tour pro according to trackman these players therefore as we have already noted have the potential to drive the ball the same distance however when we then consider the LPGA Pros average a total driving distance that is 38 yards further than the average male amateur with essentially the same swing speed we can see what impact skill and the quality of ball striking has in ball speed and the actual distance players hit a driver indeed skill has such an influence in driving distance that aros's analysis of millions of amateur golf shots found that a scratch handicapp 70-year-old male golfer will hit the ball further than a 20-year-old 20 handicapper because skill is twice as impactful as age when it comes to driving distance so when you find yourself wondering why you can't hit your driver more than 200 or 215 or 230 yards or whatever the number is it's more than likely because you haven't reached the swing speed or skill level yet that will let you hit the ball much further well it is all very well to know that your ability to convert swing speed into ball speed is what will mainly affect the distance you get with your driver it is not the complete story to maximize both the carry and total distance you hit your driver you need to hit the ball with the best flight trajectory and that means driving it with the best launch conditions dictated by your swing speed and attack angle at impact because if you don't that will be another part of the reason you're losing distance with your driver talking about launch conditions and attack angles may sound overly technical for many when it comes to hitting a golf ball but it's a flying object like any other after it is hit and the basic physics that it apply to how far the golf ball goes is the same as it would be for anything else launched into the sky and thanks to launch monitor data in modern golf everyone can now clearly measure that hitting down on the golf ball with your driver and therefore creating a negative attack angle impact is a big reason why so many golfers are losing so much distance with their driver and I should know because I am one of them in a recent lesson with my coach we found that when I hit down on the ball with my driver creating a minus 2.4 de angle of attack impact I lost over 32 yards of carry distance and 43 yards of total distance compared to driving with a positive 2.3 de attack angle with almost comparable swing speeds of just over 100 mph and whatever your swing speed the results the same for example if we now take a look at this graph from trackman one of the industry leaders in launch monitor technology analyzing the optimized numbers for an average male amateur with a swing speed of 95 m an hour we can clearly see how much distance is lost with a negative attack angle compared to a positive one between the extremes of minus 7 and plus 7° attack angles there is over 30 yards difference in both carry and total distance off the T which I think we can all agree would make a huge impact to scores when translated onto the course and this rule also applies to the pros in a recent session with trackman two-time PGA Tour winner Kevin stman hit one 109 mph Club head speed drive with an attack angle ofus 1.3 de and carried his ball 21.9 yd rolling it out to a total distance of 274 yards however when hitting his next drive with a near identical Club speed but this time with a plus 1.9 de attack angle he launched it to carry 281.50 yards and a total distance of 304.8 yards so as we can clearly see from these three examples of dries with very different swing speeds it doesn't pay in terms of distance to hit down on the ball and if you're losing a lot of distance with your driver it's something worth checking especially if swinging faster is not an option for you because of time and or physical constraints but what if you're not like most golfers and have a positive angle of attack rather than a negative one and are therefore still wondering why you're losing distance with your driver when compared to others with a comparable swing speed if that's the case it is most likely because of a Failure to Launch because while driver distance is primarily affected by a golfer's ability to convert swing speed into ball speed and the higher the swing speed the better as we've already seen they must also do this while launching the ball at the optimal angle and spin rate which produces the best flight trajectory for carry and roll and if you don't hit your driver with the best launch conditions you will lose distance no matter what standard of player you are and irrespective of your swing speed we cover the topic of Ideal launch angles and spin rates in detail in another one of our videos which you can watch after this video through the link in the screen now but in straightforward practical terms what golfers should be aiming for is to get the ball up in the air I.E with an optimal launch angle as quickly as possible and not have much spin in the ball I.E a low spin rate when it comes to Golfers wondering why their drives won't go very far one thing is for sure there will be no shortage of advice coming their way we all get all sorts of tips and advice all the time especially from our playing Partners on these sorts of subjects whether that be to tilt your shoulders more or lift your left foot up in the back swing or lots of other so-called helpful inverted commas hints but if you do think your driving distance is too low and you want to do something about it one of the best things you can do is to get a lesson or a club fitting or both and make sure it is one where the instructor or fitter is using a launch monitor because with the numbers they provide there's no need to guess anymore as to why you're hitting the ball as far as you do a good coach or fitter knows what all these numbers mean in relation to your own individual swing can help you hit the ball further if you're willing to do your part and put in the required amount of practice to change the things that need to be amended you never know also you may be one of the lucky ones who will find out it's not you but the club you are using that's causing you to not drive the ball as far as you should so that's it for this look at driving distances and why your drives may not be going far as ever most importantly we hope you're enjoying your golf and if you like this video tap on one of those boxes in the screen and we'll see you over in another one [Music] shortly

Channel: Golfing Focus

Views: 117,639

Keywords: golf, golf tips

Id: lYzSl523imA

Length: 9min 38sec (578 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2024