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HIT THE BALL FARTHER!
By
Deb Vangellow
LPGA Teaching Professional

Many of us are getting our golf games ready for a busy Spring and Summer Season. As students come to the lesson tee, I often hear that they would like to hit the ball farther. Most do not have unrealistic expectations for distance, rather they feel they have some "power leaks" in their golf swing, contributing to inadequate and inconsistent distance. After watching a few swings, it can be obvious if there are some things contributing to a "power leak". Looking at a few possibilities may help you to hit the ball farther, a wonderful thing if you are using effortless power and not sacrificing direction. We would like to swing the club to hit the ball, building clubhead speed through efficient use of the body, arms, and hands. Think about the following in your golf swing to determine if you can hit the ball farther.

GOLF CLUBS

Be sure that your equipment fits you, especially in terms of shaft and lofts on your woods. If your shafts are too stiff for how you swing, you will have difficulty creating speed smoothlyyou will have to work harder to load and unload the shaft, an important thing for creating distance. Additionally, if you are playing with too little loft in your woods, you may be sacrificing distance due to loss of trajectorythere is a relationship between carry and roll on a well executed tee shot.

THE CORRECT PIVOT

The proper pivot is a compound action entailing a lateral movement of the hips in either direction (up and down on the diagonal), shifting of weight (going from a 2 foot balance at address, to a right foot balance, and then to a left foot balance), turns on the backswing and downswing, and rotations around an inclined spine. During the backswing, the right hip tilts upward and moves laterally to the right until the hip socket is over the right ankle and in the downswing, the left hip tilts upward while moving laterally towards the target. During both of these "shifts", the top of the spine remains in a fixed position, acting as a fulcrum for the swing. It does not move laterally along with the hips. A good pivot, essentially, is a shift, turn, shift, turn sequence. This order of movement is a continuous flow that uses momentum to create clubhead speed Doing this will get your weight working for you through the impact zone, increasing clubhead speed. A proper pivot could mean a better back for golf too. Do not confuse the pivot with a "sway"this motion happens when the top of the spine

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