Motorcycle with driver

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Motorcycle with driver  

  By: Gene P on March 17, 2022, 10:56 a.m.

The last few weeks, I've started to work on hitting a draw with my driver. Prior to that, I had been mostly hitting a slight fade with decent distance, but sometimes I found myself getting the path way too much outside-in and slicing drives, and losing distance. So I went back to basics, started focusing on the motorcycle move at the top of the backswing and getting my path more inside to out. On the range, I began to see an immediate change in ball flight and contact quality with good swings: lower flight, slight push with a nice draw. Bad swings I think were what I should expect with the changes I was making: some smother hooks, some heel shots when early extending into the ball, some big high pushes when the face was left open. After a few weeks of practice and integrating it onto the course, here's what I'm finding:

-- I can perform this swing pretty consistently if I use a shorter backswing and try to swing without adding power with my arms/shoulders. I have to feel like I'm swinging at 60% power.
-- If I try to take a longer backswing and/or add power with my arms/shoulders, it usually results in a big high push with a slight fade at the end.

My self-diagnosis here is that when I try to add power, I'm losing the motorcycle move as I come into the ball and I'm leaving the face open, because the path is starting on the correct line but it's fading instead of drawing. Based on what I'm describing, does that seem like the right diagnosis? Also, what do you recommend I should train from here? My current thinking and game plan is to just keep working and training this swing with motorcycle, a shorter backswing and less power, because I like the ball flight, contact and even distance is good. It just feels weird that I am dialing it back to what feels like 60% power to be able to hit it properly. Or perhaps I was powering the swing all wrong before (too much arms/shoulders)? Does adding power the wrong way make it harder to hold the motorcycle?

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Re: Motorcycle with driver  

  By: Tyler F on March 25, 2022, 1:26 p.m.

Hi Gene,

Sounds like some good discoveries. A couple of important things to consider:

Point one - you mention feeling like you're swinging at 60%. One of the most common ways that I use a launch monitor is helping a student feel speed vs effort. Perhaps getting on a launch monitor would help you see if you are actually swinging at 60%, or if it's just a feel%.

Point two - video is helpful when you "feel like you're swing short" to compare and see how much shorter it actually is. What feels short just might be more symmetrically loaded.

Point three - if you hit the face open when swinging harder with your upper body, it's likely a timing issue that the arms are too early and working in too much of a steep motion pattern. And then you're getting steep early and shallow late causing the high push miss. Also, pulling down typically causes extension of the lead wrist which negates the motorcycle.

So I would start with - Take a video of your "short-swing" vs "long swing" to see what's actually different. It may just be a feeling. If you have access, you could also look at a launch monitor to see how much speed your "short swing" is actually producing. If it's less than 2 or 3 MPH slower than your normal, I would stick with it.

With adding speed, I would focus on legs, then core, then arms last. So if you can add more speed other than with the arms. I'd start there.

Good luck!

Tyler

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Re: Motorcycle with driver  

  By: Gene P on March 28, 2022, 8:13 a.m.

Thanks Tyler, great advice. I'll work on these and reach back out if I have more questions.

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