Power

If you want to send the ball into orbit, or you're just looking for a few extra yards. These tips are for you.

Drive your right knee to unlock the secret power in your swing

This story is for you if...
• You make contact all over the clubface, but rarely in the center.
• You tend to slide your hips rather than turn them on your downswing.

Try this!

STICK a shaft or dowel into the ground at a 45-degree angle (I've added a yellow foam pad to better illustrate the drill in this lesson), and take your stance over the shaft as shown. Set your feet so that the shaft bisects the middle of your body.

Now make your swing.

What It Does

This drill lets you know if you're correctly driving your right knee past the midline of your stance. This is an important downswing move that allows you to turn your torso through impact and get solid contact in the middle of the clubface and a penetrating ball flight. You know you're doing it right if you feel your right knee hit the shaft just before impact. If you don't drive your right knee, it's impossible to turn through the ball. Your thighbone plugs into your pelvis, so if you don't drive it toward the target, your pelvis — and core — can't turn.

The Move That Makes It Happen

If you have difficulty driving your right knee forward on your downswing, you're stranding weight on your right side and swinging with just your arms and hands. At the top, make sure your weight is on the inside rim of your right foot, and then drive your right thigh toward the target. Setting your weight like this and driving your thigh gives you the leg lean you're looking for, and automatically unlocks the power of your core.

No If your right knee doesn't drive past the midline of your stance on your downswing, your ballstriking will suffer.

This story is for you if...
• You lack distance because you release the club too early...
• ...or you don't release it at all, which robs you of clubhead speed.

The Conventional Wisdom

Keep your left wrist flat through impact.

Why It's Wrong

You forget about releasing the club with your right wrist, which slows down your clubhead speed through impact and costs you distance.

What to Do Instead

Your waggle is a rehearsal for hinging your right wrist in your backswing.

At address, make a couple of smooth waggles, focusing on how you're going to hinge your right wrist in your backswing. Make sure you start your downswing with your hips, with your arms naturally following. When you approach impact, release hard with your right side and snap your right wrist through impact.

Learn This Move

This is the same motion as an infielder making a sidearm throw to first base. You know you're swinging correctly if your right wrist is flat just after impact and the butt of your club points to the center of your body.

This story is for you if ...
• You don't feel a "snap" at impact
• The ball doesn't come off your driver with much power
• You mix pop-ups with weak slices

The Problem

Your drives lack distance. You're turning your hips, but not in the right way.

The Solution

This all happens pretty fast, so practice these moves in slow motion.

Step 1: Start down from the top of your swing by moving your hips toward the target slightly.

Step 2: With your hips set forward, turn them toward the target as normal and swing the club down with your arms.

Step 3: When your hands reach waist high, start moving your left hip up while continuing to turn it behind you. Your left leg should straighten as a result.

By moving your left hip up and straightening your left leg, you do two important things. First, you create resistance that your right side can smash through as you turn toward the target. Second, you ensure that your release happens at the bottom of your swing, not before or after. The combination gives you the explosive power you've been missing.

How to Add Yards to Your Irons

This left-foot trick helps increase your turn

This story is for you if...
• You don't hit your irons as far as you used to
• Your backswing is shorter than it used to be
• You'd play and practice more if it didn't hurt your back

The Problem

You're a full club shorter with your irons than you were five years ago because you can't turn back as far as you once could. The reason? Your back feels stiff. The result? You hit longer irons into the greens.

Shifting your weight allows for a fuller turn without pain. Raise your left foot for proof.

Why It Happens

If you don't have severe back problems but your back still feels stiff, you're turning but not shifting your weight as you do so. That's why your backswing — and distance — are shorter.

The Solution

Make your normal backswing and hold it at the top. Now, raise your left foot a few inches off the ground. Notice how this frees you up to turn a few degrees more and — voila — makes the pain in your back disappear. That's because all of your weight — and the stress that comes with it — went to your right foot.

Use a variation of this drill during play. Instead of raising your left foot, roll it to the right and lift your heel slightly. Feel like you're pushing off with your big toe and moving your weight into your right foot. This should help relieve the pressure from your lower back and allow you to make a full turn.

How to Set Up for 20 Extra Yards

Three one-inch changes will turn your address position into a launching pad

This story is for you if...
• You want to hit shorter irons into par 4s.
• Shorter irons? I just want to cream it!

Try This!

The next time you really need to bomb one off the tee, or if you're in desperate need to hit your driver 20 yards longer than your current average, make the three one-inch changes to your setup pictured here. They may be small (notice the subtle difference between my "normal" address below and and my "power" address at right), but they pay off in serious extra yards.

Power Change #1

Pull your right shoulder back one inch from its usual setup position. This move points your swing plane slightly to the right, which will help you swing right of target and increase your chances of adding draw spin.

Power Change #2

Move the base of your spine one inch closer to the target, which will tilt your spine slightly to the right (upper body leaning away from the target). This encourages an inside-out swing, an upward strike and more yards.

Power Change #3

Play the ball one inch back of where you usually position it in your stance. This is another setup change that will get you in the habit of swinging slightly right of the target on your downswing and adding the right-to-left spin common to mammoth tee shots.

How to Add Juice to Your Irons

Tap the hidden speed in your release to use one club less into every green

The Problem

YOU'RE hitting 6-irons into greens when your buddies are hitting 7- and 9-irons from the same distance.

The Solution

Simple: speed. Adding extra miles per hour to your swing is the only thing that's going to allow you to hit each of your irons farther. Most amateurs think of speed as something they generate from the top, but that's a recipe for almost every bad shot you can imagine. The secret is to maximize the fastest part of your swing, and that comes after you strike the ball. Copy the release positions here and you'll learn to accelerate through the ball and into your follow-through, making your impact faster and adding yards to your irons.

CENTERED HEAD It's important that your keep your head centered over the impact area. This allows you to make your swing as wide as possible on the target side of the ball (just like you should on your backswing). If your head moves in front of the ball, then you're limiting the radius of your through-swing and robbing your swing of crucial miles per hour of speed.

LEVEL AND STEP Swing into your release with level hips (or as close to level as possible) and steep shoulders. Notice how much lower my right shoulder is compared to my left — that's evidence of my right shoulder working under my chin, not in front of it. This right-shoulder-under move allows you to move your club at a right angle to your spine, which is the fastest route possible.

RIGHT-HAND SLAP Notice how far the clubhead has traveled from impact to its position in the release, but how my hands have only moved a few inches. The difference between these two distances is what makes your release the fastest part of your swing. You can achieve this hidden speed by giving the ball a right-hand "slap" through impact, and continuing the slap in your release so that your right arm gets very long with the club as far away from your head as possible.