Drive the Ball Farther: 5 Effective Ways to Get More Distance with Your Driver
Part of being a golfer is wanting to hit the golf ball far. Even if you already get above-average distance from your drives, wouldn’t it be great to add an extra few yards?
Aside from swinging faster at the golf ball, there are some ways to add distance that are potentially more effective and certainly more reliable.
Let’s look at how to add distance to your driver using these five effective ways.
Increase Distance with Your Driver (Key Takeaways)
Save this article for the next time you go to the driving range. Bring it with you and work on the drills, tips, and ideas we gave you. Until then, here are a few of the most important points to remember.
- Wearing your HackMotion as you practice adding distance to your driver is like bringing your golf coach with you. You’ll have an easier time keeping track of your wrist angles and how they are impacting the shots.
- Proper wrist action at the top of your swing and then again at impact can help to straighten out your drive and increase the total distance of your shots.
- Use the ground as your friend. Push down into the ground as you approach the golf ball you’ll have a more stable base and a chance to increase power.
- Get the path right using drills with head cover and alignment sticks, if you can eliminate the fear of the hook or slice as you come through impact you’ll add more speed and a centered strike.
Contents
5 Proven Ways to Get More Distance with Your Driver
Get the Swing Path Right
Have you ever tried to hit your drive further but then found you ended up with a slice or a hook?
This is a very common mistake for players, and comes from losing track of the proper path for the club as you attempt to add power.
To get the swing path right, you can use a combination of HackMotion, headcovers, and alignment sticks.
To start, you’ll want to ensure your lead wrist position is flat at the top of the golf swing. The flat lead wrist position gets the club on the plane and makes it easier to improve your path into the ball.
Place a headcover about a foot from the ball so it will get in the way of your downswing if you are not on the proper path. This is a great way to warm up before a round to visualize what the golf club should be doing on the downswing.
Then, place an alignment stick that helps you move the club left after impact. Many golfers looking for power try to swing in and out, which creates issues with direction.
With the proper path into the ball and correct wrist angles, your ability to strike the center of the clubface will be greatly improved.
Arms and Body Need to Work Together (Skip Stones)
Your arms and your body should work together if you want to generate the most power.
Many golfers looking to add distance to their driver start to incorporate the arms too much. The body stalls, and you’ll lose both directional control and distance.
The key is to get a feel for the impact where the body and arms work together to strike the ball.
As you move into impact, you should feel the trail arm stay close to the body. The trail shoulder will drop to allow you more of an upward strike on the golf ball. When you swing down on the drive, you’ll create too much spin and lose distance.
A great drill to get this feel is to hold your driver with the club head on the ground and your lead hand balanced on the top of the grip. You’ll take some imaginary swings where you pretend the club is in the trail hand, swing it back, and then pass it under your lead arm.
You’ll notice your shoulder drop into place, and you’ll even feel a better transfer of weight.
Extend In the Follow Through
Another issue that causes a loss of power for some golfers is letting the lead arm collapse just after impact.
You’ll want to feel that lead arm extend longer as it moves left after the ball. If your elbow is collapsing after impact, it’s costing you yards.
Taking some half swings with the driver and trying to feel that extended position is a great way to work on this feeling. You’ll also have to ensure the clubface is square, which can teach you better rotation through the ball.
As you’ll see in the video, the goal is not to push the club further out towards the target; the extension can happen even as the club moves to the left and wraps around your body.
Improve Forearm Rotation
Forearm rotation is incredibly helpful in increasing power and consistency in your driver.
Even though you are working on increasing distance with your driver, when you start playing around with forearm rotation, work on it with something like a 7-iron.
One of the best drills is to hit shots with your feet together and swing waist high to waist high.
As you do this pay close attention to the way the club head is rotating. You’ll feel like your forearms are having to turn over with the trail forearm coming over the lead forearm through impact.
Forearm rotation helps with squaring the clubface, but if you can do it consistently and correctly, you’ll also notice more distance.
Ground Reaction Force Training
The ground is your friend.
Yes, you want to get the golf ball up off the ground, but if you are not pushing off the ground when you hit shots, you are not utilizing it correctly.
To increase ball speed and carry distance with your driver, you should push off the ground as you go through impact. You’ll need to make sure some weight shifts over to your lead leg, and you’ll have to rotate your hips cleanly through impact.
Ground reaction force training can add significant distance to your drives simply by pushing off the ground during impact.
Final Thoughts
At this point, you have a few great drills that will help you add distance to your driver.
You’ll notice we stayed away from covering topics like increasing swing speed and getting a new driver—these are obvious fixes for adding distance.
If you’re truly committed to increasing your driver distance, working on wrist action, forearm rotation, swing path, and improving the way your arms and body work together is the best approach.
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