Are you fed up of your playing partners knocking their tee shots past yours? Well don't worry, we can help! Specifically, Top 50 coach Trey Niven, who in this video outlines five easy drills and swing feels that should help you generate more speed and power in your golf swing, resulting in longer drives. Filmed in Hawaii courtesy of adidas golf, these tips should help you get further down the hole and leave you with a shorter iron in your hand, which is a sure-fire way to start shooting lower scores.
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00:00Right Trey, hello. Thank you for joining us.
00:02How are we? Appreciate it, good to see you again and Hawaii.
00:04Worst place is to be then.
00:06Clang, pick that one up.
00:07Let's get people hitting the ball a bit further.
00:09It's something people are always chasing.
00:11It's probably easy bits that I think we can give people today.
00:13Start with alignment.
00:18Typically, people start off wrong so they don't get the setup right
00:22in terms of how the body is actually aligned, like knees, feet, knees, hips, shoulders,
00:27kind of building it from the ground.
00:29I think when I see it often, especially with drivers, that people will be all kind of weird.
00:35Feet will be left.
00:36Funky positions.
00:37Yeah, hips will be left and then the shoulders will be here and then tilts and everything are all out of sync.
00:42So I think really easy, ball position needs to be up with a driver.
00:46Depending on what shot shape you're hitting, I like to see pretty neutral shot shape
00:50maybe just inside the left heel as one.
00:53As this happens, what tends to happen with golfers is they move it forward,
00:57shoulders then start to aim left.
00:59So I think as we move the ball forward, be weary and aware that the shoulders are going to move left.
01:03So we have to just adjust this slightly.
01:05So right hip back and maybe just feeling the right hips back.
01:08And then we've kind of neutralized everything.
01:10And with that as well, my body's tilting.
01:13So I'm then encouraging that angle of attack to go up.
01:16So ball position and then just being aware of knees, hips and shoulders to get back to neutral.
01:22It's a few nice easy bits, isn't it?
01:24That I think people at home can work on that, get the basics right, get your alignment right.
01:28Sweeping the ball, you hit it a bit further.
01:29Yeah.
01:33Okay, next up Trey, let's talk about the backswing.
01:35Lengthening it a little bit and helping people hit the ball a bit further because of it.
01:39How are people going to do that though?
01:41Yeah, I think it's important to note we're not generally golfers aren't full time players.
01:45So we're not hitting balls all day, every day.
01:47So I think mobility is one.
01:49If you can work on your ability with stretches, with a personal coach or whatever, that's really important.
01:53But if we're not going to do that and we want some help to create a longer backswing,
01:57so arm swing, swing length, essentially the longer we can get the arms back there.
02:02If you want some more yards, we're going to be able to have more opportunity to create speed on the way down.
02:07So if you're struggling with your mobility, generally it's coming from kind of hips and thoracic regions,
02:12so upper body.
02:13A good way to increase the backswing length is one, I like to just turn this foot out a little bit.
02:18Okay.
02:19It just helps us turn into the right hip.
02:20So that's kind of working in the first early phase of the swing to create this.
02:24I think the next part really simply is if we try and stretch all the way up to the top,
02:29we get a little bit tight in this kind of left side and left glute here.
02:33So maybe just raising this left heel a little bit.
02:35To begin with, it might feel like you're a little bit out of control and out of sync,
02:39but we've seen some great players do this in the past when they've got to kind of senior level,
02:44start to have a little bit of left heel lift.
02:46And all of a sudden that's freeing up my kind of thoracic area, rib cage,
02:51to be able to create more turn so then I can get my arms way up in the backswing to create more speed.
02:57That's a nice ease when I think people at home are told, could you show us you're doing that?
03:00Yeah.
03:01Do you want to whack one for us?
03:02Into the middle of nowhere it seems.
03:04The middle of Hawaii.
03:06So I'm just going to feel that.
03:08Right foot's out a little bit.
03:10Starting to that left heel lift to create that momentum and motion.
03:14Bosh.
03:20Sent well into the sky.
03:21You can see that.
03:22I might start doing that.
03:23I might start doing that.
03:24Start listening to yourself mate.
03:25That left heel one's really interesting.
03:26Well I've not tried that before so I'll check it out.
03:28But some easy things you can do there, even if you're not a really flexible person,
03:31I think that's very doable and something's going to get you hitting the ball as far as that.
03:35Okay, next up Trey, we've done alignment, we've done a bit of backswing.
03:41We're coming back down now.
03:43Let's talk about hand speed and getting more speed anyway.
03:46Everyone's trying to chase it.
03:47But I think even not the quickest swingers at home now can up their swing speed a bit.
03:50How are they going to do that?
03:51Yeah, I've got some really good drills actually.
03:53One in particular, a lot of long drivers use this.
03:56Long drive coaches that I've spoke to as well, kind of found out that long drivers
04:01or the quickest in the world are the quickest from P4 right at the top of the backswing to about P5.
04:07So just about left arm parallel from the top in that space with the hands.
04:11Yeah.
04:12So the hand speed's the quickest there in that phase.
04:14So it's not to get Yankee with the handle to the top.
04:17It's got to be all the way down to feel that.
04:19Yeah.
04:20So a really good drill.
04:21You can split the grip.
04:22So left hand or lead hand at the top, trail hand between the grip and the shaft.
04:28And you're just going to start to set it here, there, to the top.
04:33And then what are we trying to do?
04:34I'm trying to feel the waggle at the end of the clip there.
04:37Yeah.
04:38So almost trying to, you see Rory do this as well with the iron,
04:40but trying to feel that you're going to snap the clip, like break it at the bottom.
04:44And if you can pull that down quick, you can start-
04:47You can really see that there as well.
04:49That whip on the waggle, can't you?
04:51And that's just to me, feeling that I'm delivering the arms really fast and down.
04:56Most people go out and they slice it.
04:59And that's sort of training your brain a little bit, isn't it?
05:01Yeah, it is.
05:02To keep the speed up there, which is so interesting, I think.
05:04And you can see the waggle there.
05:05You can see it, can't you?
05:06So something you can try there.
05:07So you can go, try it at home.
05:09Careful, don't snap the head.
05:10It's not going to snap the head, right?
05:11Hopefully not.
05:12If you're too quick, if you're doing it right, you might snap it.
05:15But hopefully no broken driver shafts.
05:17Give it a go, though.
05:18It's going to help you hit the ball a lot further.
05:20Typically for me, I see this in beginner golfers a lot.
05:27Especially beginner golfers, they grip it way too tight.
05:30I'm a strangler trainer.
05:31I want to bomb it, so I want to hold the club really hard.
05:33I don't know what it is.
05:34People just think it needs to go far, so they grip it tight and grip it hard.
05:38But that is counter-intuitive, isn't it?
05:39Yeah, it is.
05:40I think as soon as you start to relax the grip, you can allow the release to happen.
05:44So you allow the club to get past the hands, and then the speed increases.
05:48When people squeeze hold of the grip, they don't release the golf club.
05:52So they yank their arms up, and it looks like it's...
05:55From this camera angle, you'll see the club head in frame,
05:58and you'll see my arms starting to get out the left side of my shoulder.
06:02So as soon as I start to relax this and just make some short and easy swings
06:06and just build up, you can see the flow of that golf club.
06:09No hanging on through here.
06:11You've seen the passive release and the club head release,
06:14and straight away there, I can feel not much effort, but a very quick swing.
06:19So I think that is point one.
06:21And then I think the next one for me is just finishing the swing.
06:25Getting right through it.
06:26Yeah, they just hold on, and they're kind of like that old Seve follow through.
06:31I think I like to feel for people to release it,
06:34and actually to increase chances of hitting draw or straighter shot for your slices,
06:38is relaxing the hands, releasing it,
06:41and then feeling like the club is scratching your back on the way through.
06:44And that's just freeing everything up on the way through.
06:48Go on then, give us a nice languid, big swing down there again.
06:50Hit it to the distance.
06:51Lazy swing.
06:52You hit the other one nicely, but real lazy.
06:53Cool.
06:54Softest hands I've got without letting go.
06:57Beautiful.
06:58Again, you see how much speed you build up, and that to you is a soft, languid, easy one.
07:05Speed comes anyway, doesn't it?
07:07Soft and easy, yeah.
07:08Great tipster.
07:13Right, lastly then Trey, for helping people hit the ball a bit further.
07:16Bit of a mental one.
07:17We were just chatting about it off camera.
07:18Really interesting one about playing with your shot shape, right?
07:20How is that actually going to help people in the long run out on the course?
07:24Yeah, I think it's like, what is your body built to do and move?
07:28Right.
07:29So, a lot of golfers, they fight things that are natural to them.
07:31So, typically I see people move the ball left to right.
07:34They come for a lesson, and they don't want to do it, and they want consistency.
07:38I'm like, the most consistent part about your game is the ball fight that you hit left to right.
07:42So, let's not get rid of it, let's just harness it.
07:44Nice.
07:45So, typically here we've got a bit of wind off the left.
07:48Most golfers carry on with that shot shape, just aim a bit further left.
07:53Play with it, get it right in the wind, and then the odds are going to come out of that.
07:58So, I mean, let's have a go.
07:59Have a little fame, mate.
08:00So, it's off the left at the minute, you're just going to want to sort of go with it.
08:04Yeah, so maybe aiming towards the white flag big tree.
08:08Yeah.
08:09Moving it onto the blue.
08:10Lovely.
08:11Flag if I can.
08:12I'm just going to aim everything out there, and just see it and feel it.
08:14Play with the shape that is natural.
08:22And that is...
08:23Bit of a bigger cut, but...
08:24Bit bigger than you'd like, but still, like you said, you're going with what your body feels like.
08:27Yeah.
08:28For the serial slicers watching, is that still going to work as well?
08:30I think...
08:31You don't want to be fully chopping it.
08:32Yeah.
08:33For people who are like, renowned slicers, but the whole point about getting people better at golf is to reduce the bad shot.
08:42Yeah.
08:43So, if a slicer came to me, I'm not instantly trying to get rid of it.
08:46I'm trying to see how we can curve it less.
08:48Because as soon as the path and the face are separated, the more that kind of dispersion between the two are,
08:55the bigger that is going to curve, which means that less distance we'd like to have.
08:59So, if we can square face and path up a little bit for your slicers, it's going to make it go a little bit further.
09:04And for the drawers and the hookers out there, same thing, right?
09:08Go with it.
09:09Aim it a bit further right.
09:10Yeah, this one...
09:11Probably a bit easier in this wind for this one, really.
09:12Yeah.
09:13If you're a right to left player, wind off the left, it's a weird one because you feel like sometimes you get in here and hit it right.
09:20What I like to do is almost picture what do I need to do aggressively to hit a neutral shot.
09:27Right.
09:28And that typically is just a normal swing.
09:29So, my natural shot is right to left.
09:31So, here I just feel like I'm going to aim straight.
09:34Normal shot should give me more neutral ball flight.
09:36Let's see one.
09:37Let's have a go.
09:38Let's see one.
09:39Blue flag.
09:40Aiming at it, to be honest.
09:41It should just counteract each other.
09:42Yeah.
09:49Oh.
09:50Oh.
09:51And that's dead straight, yeah?
09:52That's quite pleasant.
09:53That was alright.
09:54Pleasant to watch and hear.
09:55But there you go.
09:56I really like that one.
09:57I think one I've not heard really before.
09:59That mental side of it.
10:00Play with your shape.
10:01Yeah.
10:02And embrace what your body is asking you to do.
10:03I guess there's something for that.
10:04Yeah.
10:05Brilliant.
10:06Well, five awesome tips there from Trey.
10:07Thank you, mate.
10:08How to hit the ball a little bit further this year.
10:09Take it to the range view.
10:10Take it to the practice area.
10:11Really easy things to work on.
10:12And let us know if you start hitting the ball a little further.