How to Reduce Driver Spin: Actionable Tips & Drills

HackMotion

May 22, 2024 . 8 mins read

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Drivers that spin too much fly too high and don’t travel as far as they should.

These are two strikes against you when standing on the tee box.

If you want to lower your driver spin rate, you’ll have to look a little deeper than simply replacing the club head with a new one.

We will give you some of the best ways to reduce spin in your driver and a few drills you can work on to get this worked out today.

Reduce Spin with Your Driver (Key Takeaways)

If you don’t have time to read through our entire guide on how to reduce spin rate with your driver, here are the key points to walk away with.

• Too much spin in your driver can reduce total distance and make you hit the ball too high.
• Your angle of attack is likely too steep when hitting your driver, which creates too much spin loft and causes your driver to spin more than it should.
• Your lead wrist may be too extended at impact; hitting up on the ball is important with the driver, but you need a square clubface to ensure this happens.
• Work on feeling like you keep the handle ahead of the ball; it’s not a forward press, quite like you see with irons.
• Check your equipment to make sure that the shaft and clubhead are a good fit for your golf game.

How to Reduce Spin with Your Driver

Too much spin in the driver can really cause problems when it comes to distance and accuracy. We mostly like to see spin under 3000 rpm but for amateur golfers getting more than 5000 rpm can be common.

Here are some tips, drills and concepts to use to reduce the spin in your driver.

Stop Hitting Down Into the Ball

If your angle of attack gets too steep, you’ll get too much spin on your driver. The angle of attack needs to be more shallow if you want to lower spin rates.

Some golfers set up to hit a drive the same way they set up to hit an iron. If you do this, you are already promoting that steeper angle of attack. With iron shots, this angle could give you some extra backspin and more control of your irons.

With the driver, it’s a mistake.

Make sure that when you set up to hit the driver, you have a little extra weight on your trail side. In addition, it feels as though your trail shoulder drops a little lower than your lead shoulder.

This position is one you will want to recreate as you come through impact.

With this position your angle of attack will be more of an upwards angle of attack which will lower the spin rates. Some players worry about popping the ball up too high in the air but this should not be the case if you are smart about rotating and releasing the club.

Your weight still transfers forward. You just have a different angle of attack at impact.

Get a Little Bow in the Lead Wrist

After years of studying HackMotion, we know that the wrist angle controls the clubface.

This becomes very important in chipping, putting, and even approach shots with the irons to the green. However, we can’t discount the wrist’s role in the driver swing.

As your golf club comes through the impact position, having a little extra flex in the lead wrist is a good thing.

When the lead wrist is too extended, you’ll hit the golf ball with an open face, create higher spin rates, and usually hit that high right fade shot.

This is a weak drive that can cost you 20 or even 30 yards.

Instead, start recording your wrist position at the top of the backswing and see if the HackMotion shows you as excessively extended. If it does, you may be carrying that extension down through impact with the driver.

Instead, get to a flatter wrist position at the top of the swing and see if that lowers your spin rate.

Hit the Ball in the Center of the Face

The closer you hit the ball to the center of the face, the more optimized the spin rate.

Hitting the ball in the center of the face helps you keep the ball with a more penetrating flight and an easier time getting extra distance.

To strike the ball in the center of the face more often, work on the fundamentals.

Make sure your setup is consistent, ensure your wrist position is flat at the top of the backswing, keep your head behind or over the golf ball at impact.

You can use alignment sticks when you practice and simply get comfortable with your driver to strike the center of the face more often.

Handle Forward with Clubhead Moving Up

In this video, you can look at what it looks like to strike the driver with the handle forward and the clubhead moving up. You can do both, but you’ll have to practice with some shorter swings to get the feeling.

The most common mistake that players make is letting their hands fall behind the clubhead because they are trying to hit up and through the ball.

It’s very possible to have that handle forward yet still be swinging an upward angle through the ball. When you practice this on the shorter shots don’t focus on distance at all, simply make it about a clean strike of the ball.

Play with the Right Equipment

If you have done everything that you feel you can to reduce spin with your driver, it may be time to look at the club that you have in play. Sometimes, the equipment itself causes you some trouble during the course.

Three things you should consider here are the clubhead, the shaft, and the golf ball you are playing.

You may not get an exact match for your game, but there are times when you are a high-spin golfer who may play with a high-spin ball only to find out it’s costing you too much distance.

High spin golf balls are best for around the greens, but when you spin your driver too much look for something that is lower spinning coming off the tee.

Again, if you go too far in one direction with the spin rates, you’ll have a hard time getting the ball up in the air. If this is the case, go back the other way a bit.

Drills to Reduce Spin with Your Driver

Once you have these key fixes, you can start working on additional drills to help you reduce spin with your driver.

As you work through this process, you may find that you start having spin that is too low on the club. The good news here is that you can find that medium and maximize your distance.

Pull the Trail Foot Back

The trail foot is typically parallel to the lead foot. However, when you want to reduce the driver’s spin, the angle of attack with the clubhead could cause some of the issues you are experiencing.

To give yourself some more space to shallow that angle of attack and hit the drive from the inside, drop the trail leg back a few inches.

Try this for a few swings, and then play around with this position until you find the right spot.

Object in Front of Ball

Another great drill is to put an object a few inches in front of the golf ball. I like to use a headcover for this one and place the headcover about ten inches in front of the golf ball.

When you do this, you’ll want to swing up and over the clubhead. If your angle of attack is too shallow, you may actually hit the headcover.

It won’t damage your club, but it may damage your ego when you see that high right weak fade again appear as your standard golf shot.

Final Thoughts

Now, you should have some great tips and tricks to reduce spin with your driver. The process may take a few driving range sessions, but it’s an easy way to pick up distance and accuracy.

Using HackMotion can help you reduce your driver spin faster; you’ll have an easier time narrowing down where your wrist angles are incorrect and how you can quickly get them to the proper position.