1st Tee Talk
Free golf tuition
Join the **LIVE** YouTube 2020 winter online coaching programme with Head PGA Professional Richard Harrison
I will soon be embarking on a regular winter programme of live online tuition, free to Members and very similar to the videos I posted during lockdown, which were an absolute joy to do and I loved the interaction with those of you who participated.
The videos have been viewed over 14,000 times and are free to review: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuNJ9YrriVnYau5-5EMc0gg/videos
With this in mind, I would love for the Roehampton Club golfing membership to decide the topics for me to discuss for our winter programme, so please think of all the mysteries of the game and email me your questions: richard.harrison@roehamptonclub.co.uk
Once I have read your requests, I will collate a programme and get us all started. The coaching is absolutely free, open to all abilities and questions can be as simple or complicated as you wish – this forum is entirely for you.
Unashamedly technical article this week
Question: would you let me experiment on your swing if you were hitting the ball 275 yards in the air and 298 in total?
Don’t worry Dear Member, I can guess your answer! Since retooling my coaching beliefs and vocabulary three years ago, I have obsessed with gaining distance for Members. So who did allow me into their precious golf swing? Step forward Tom Reed, one of Roehampton Club’s Scratch Squad players and what a swing and powerful hitter. His data is below and it is comparable with the averages of PGA Tour professionals:
275 yards in the air, and 298 yards total. That is not exactly a polite request to the ball. It is a barked order.
This was Tom’s best drive during our measurement process, but not a lot different to his main body of shots, therefore Tom is a consistently long hitter. I am working with all the Scratch Team just now on their distance for our winter improvement programme. The premise to the work is that we simply experiment on discovering if extra distance is achievable for them. I have worked with seven of the team so far and each has found extra distance off the tee through one of several routes:
- Ball position change. Moving the ball a long way forward to meet the ball with an ascending blow.
- Extra mass at impact, through a change in swing path. A critical measurement.
- Change to upright in the plane of their swing (Tom). All the bombers have very high hands at the top of their swing.
- Increased movement of their left leg and heel on the return to the ball. Active legs create so much force when used properly.
All of the above underpin the principles of power hitting. The Scratch Team have been open to experimenting, with many sizable gains off the tee for them, so a big thank you to them all and that shows the stability of their self-belief as well as their inquisitive nature to improve. A lesson for us all.
So what did we do with Tom? In the pictures below, Tom’s new swing is left and his old swing is on the right in each of the double images below. Just check out the angle of his left arm, which has swung on a more upright angle by a whopping 29 degrees. This widens and steepens his swing arc, thus giving the club head more time and space to develop and increase its speed. The longest lever in the bag is from the left shoulder to the club head, so we worked on making that lever have as much range space as possible.
High hands above the head = massive power increase. Just check out the picture of distance master Dustin Johnson at the top of the article, his hands are very high above him and the left arm almost vertical.
Below is Tom’s new best shot data:
New data: 286 yards in the air (11 yards increase) and 308 yards total (9 yards increase)
This is an incredible achievement for an already long hitter. More importantly, Tom added 10 yards of carry, almost 10 yards of total distance to his averages, as well as an uptick in average swing speed by 2.6mph and ball speed of 3.9mph (circled in red). If he adds an average of 10 yards per drive, then each game he plays from herein he has shorter clubs into the greens as well as having 140 yards less of a golf course to play. Factor that in over a season and his gains are substantial, especially at his already professional level. Also, breaking the 300 yard barrier is seductive for an aspirational bomber. Well done Tom.
What does this mean to you?
The route to Tom’s low handicap has been experimentation, letting go of old habits, willingness to adapt and being inquisitive about what is possible. This is the approach of all good players, so let yourself go and embrace improvement. In Tom’s case, it is very simple to see the improvement and even stands a comparison with the world’s best.
To improve your distance, you may not need to go to such lengths as there are many sources to draw from. If a long hitter can find distance, so can you. Let me know if you need some extra yards: 07974403289 or richard.harrison@roehamptonclub.co.uk
Enjoy your golf.