Joel Tadman talks through six gear hacks that have the potential to generate more distance for you off the tee!
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00:00Now, we all want to hit the golf ball a little bit further.
00:02The stats tell us that that is the quickest way to lower scores.
00:05But what if I told you there were six easy ways you could get more distance out of your driver
00:10without changing your swing or without taking expensive lessons?
00:14Well, that's what we're going to cover in this video on the driving range here at the beautiful Gogmagog Golf Club
00:18is going to talk you through six gear hacks that are going to give you more distance.
00:22So without further ado, let's get started.
00:24Now, the first gear hack for more distance, and arguably the easiest to implement, I think,
00:29is just raising the tee height of your golf ball.
00:32So typically, amateur golfers tend to tee the ball quite low with the driver,
00:36and that encourages an attack angle that is too steep into the golf ball.
00:39It's going to generate a lot of spin, and it also causes the path to often come out to end.
00:44So going too far to the left is going to cause a slice and rob you of distance
00:47by implementing a glancing blow on the golf ball.
00:50So with the tee height, raise it up a little bit.
00:52Try and have at least half the ball above the crown of the driver.
00:55That's going to encourage more of an upward hit on the golf ball,
00:58and that increases launch, and it also reduces spin.
01:01That's a recipe for more distance with your driver.
01:03One thing to think about if you do change your delivery into the golf ball
01:07and you have more of an upward attack angle,
01:09you might want to think about reducing the loft of your driver.
01:11You've got long drivers.
01:12They have two to three degrees of loft on their driver because they hit up on the ball so much.
01:17So you might need to tweak the loft to get the best results if you do raise your tee height.
01:21But if you have half that ball above the crown of the driver, it should lead to longer drives.
01:30Now, the second gear hack, we've kind of already mentioned it in the first one,
01:33it's all down to adjusting the loft of your driver.
01:35Most drivers these days are adjustable for loft via the hosel.
01:39And while I would recommend doing this in consultation with a PGA Pro,
01:43there are some gains that you can make by adjusting the loft of the driver,
01:46not only to suit a change in your swing, but also the conditions that you typically play.
01:51And if you're changing golf courses a lot,
01:53it might be worth making tweaks to the loft of your driver to increase that distance potential.
01:57For example, if the conditions of the course that you're playing are quite wet,
02:02and there's not much run out, you might want to think about adding a little bit loft
02:06to give you a little bit more height and a little bit more spin,
02:08which can increase your carry distance through the air.
02:11And obviously, yes, you're not going to get as much rollout,
02:12but the conditions are going to negate that.
02:14So that's one way you can get more distance.
02:16On the flip side of that, if your course is quite firm or quite windy,
02:20you want to keep the ball flight down.
02:23Lowering the loft will give you lower launch, lower spin, a lower ball flight,
02:26and that should help you get more run on your drives and therefore more distance.
02:30And if it's keeping it down below the wind, it should also help accuracy as well.
02:34So play around with the loft again, get on the driving range,
02:36think about the conditions that you're playing in,
02:38make that tweak to that ball flight, and it should give you more distance.
02:43Now, while most modern premium drivers are adjustable for loft,
02:46a lot of them also have adjustability in terms of weight settings within their head,
02:50whether it's at the back or interchangeable weights on the front.
02:53There's different ways you can move weight around
02:55to give you more distance potential.
02:57Yes, most drivers that you get fitted for,
02:59you often just leave the weight settings where they were,
03:01but there are ways you can change it to give you more distance potential.
03:04So for example, you know, on adjustable drivers,
03:06you might be able to move more weight into the forward position of the head.
03:10That's going to give you a lower centre of gravity,
03:12going to lower the spin.
03:13It's going to give you more ball speed and distance.
03:15Yes, you might also see a reduction in your accuracy
03:19because of that less forgiving setting,
03:20but it's definitely a way you can achieve more ball speed and distance.
03:24Another way you should be able to get more distance via sliding weights that move laterally
03:29is by getting the weight more aligned with your common strike location.
03:33So if you know that you're hitting the ball a lot in the toe portion of the face of your driver,
03:37having more weight in the toe is going to get more mass behind where you're striking the ball,
03:41and that's going to give you more ball speed and hopefully more distance.
03:44So really think about whether your strike pattern is moving around,
03:47especially if it's moving around based on where it was when you got fitted.
03:50It might mean that you need to make a change to give you a little bit more
03:54stability and distance from your driver.
03:55So think about the movable weight options within the head could give you more distance overall.
04:01Now, one pretty simple gear hack that's going to give you more club head speed
04:05and therefore more distance potential is to lengthen the shaft.
04:08We've seen the governing bodies out on tour reduce the maximum shaft length
04:12from 48 down to 46 inches.
04:15And that's because they know a longer shaft will give people more club head speed and therefore
04:19more distance, and they're trying to counteract that.
04:22You think about, you know, the longer the shaft, the further the club head is away from your hand,
04:26the more distance is travelling.
04:27Therefore, it's got more time to generate more speed.
04:30So definitely something to consider.
04:31We see stock shaft lengths going up a little bit,
04:35often with generation and generation of product launches.
04:38So think about what length of your shaft is.
04:41Definitely a longer shaft will give you more speed potential.
04:43The only caveat to it is you may well have a reduction in the control and the delivery of
04:48the club face.
04:48For example, you know, this driver shaft that I've got is actually a little bit shorter than
04:52the one I had before because I wanted to have a little bit more control of the direction the
04:56golf ball was going.
04:57So it's definitely a trade-off.
04:59So while a longer shaft might see you lose a little bit of control of where your golf ball is going,
05:04it's definitely going to help you increase your club head speed
05:07and therefore give you potential for more distance.
05:13Another gear hack that might help you get a little bit more distance without changing your swing
05:19is to opt for lighter components within your club and especially the grip.
05:23You know, we see often grips can come in at standard around 50 to 60 grams and there are
05:28lightweight options out there that might help you reduce the overall weight of the club
05:33and help you swing it faster.
05:34Generally speaking, the lighter something is, the easier it is to move.
05:37There are some caveats to that obviously will affect the swing weight.
05:40And there are is an area of kind of diminishing returns when you're taking weight out.
05:44They might get to a point where actually it's more difficult to swing faster,
05:47but definitely experiment with potentially trying a lighter grip,
05:50maybe taking a little bit of weight out of the shaft that might help you swing the club a little
05:55bit more faster and therefore translate into a bit more distance.
05:59And the final gear hack to give you more distance, it comes down to these golf balls
06:03and specifically changing into a more distance orientated golf ball.
06:07One that's typically a two or a three piece, often has an ionoma or a surlin cover
06:12and certainly has a higher compression than most golf balls out there.
06:15That's going to give you more ball speed, more distance, often lower spin as well.
06:20Yes, it does have a firmer feel, so you're going to be sacrificing control in and around the greens,
06:25but if distance again is your number one priority, switching golf balls is a really easy way to achieve that.
06:30And don't forget, the rules of golf allow you to change, make a model of golf ball on every hole
06:36that you're playing. So every tee shot you can switch into a more distance orientated golf ball
06:40on a par four or a par five, it's going to give you more potential of getting on the green in two
06:45or on a par five, reaching the green in two and give you a better chance of a birdie.
06:48So take advantage of that rule in golf, switch the golf balls if you want to on an appropriate hole,
06:53but generally speaking, a more, a distance golf ball, a firmer golf ball,
06:56it's going to give you a bit more distance and as an added benefit,
06:59they tend to be a little bit cheaper as well. So there you have it, six quick and easy gear
07:03hacks that could potentially give you more distance. I hope you enjoyed this video,
07:07do comment down below. Are there any that I've missed? Is there any that you're really excited
07:11to try? I'd love to hear from you, but hopefully you've taken away one or two really good pointers
07:16that you're going to implement in your own games that are going to give you more distance off the tee.
07:20But that's all for me from the range here at Gogma Gog Golf Club in Cambridgeshire. I'll see you next time.