If you’ve been around instruction for more than 10 minutes, you’re going to get asked what’s the best way to learn how to swing a driver in golf. Not only how to swing a driver but what’s the difference in an iron swing and a driver swing. The answer is honestly, not a thing! There’s literally nothing you need to do that’s different. You actually want to try and swing the driver in the same way you’d swing an 8 iron. Of course the driver is a different club and there’s subtle changes. But those are in your setup more than anything else.
When you go to swing a driver in golf, you’re going to hit it higher up on the club face simply because it’s set up on a tee. But the actual swing itself does NOT change. You don’t want it to change. Really the only other change you’re going to make is moving the ball up in your stance and a little bit inside the target line. Other than that, is there anything you need to do differently? Nope! The entire “trick” of learning how to swing a driver verses how to swing an iron is learning what you have to do to get them to FEEL like the exact same speed.
How To Swing A Driver In Golf VS An Iron Swing
By default, the driver is your longest club in the bag. For every extra 1/2 inch a club has in length, you’re picking up about two miles per hour of swing speed. This is why you’ll find that your clubs usually vary by a half inch as you go up from pitching wedge. Now, obviously you have different lofts on the clubs, but if each club had the same loft and only varied the length of the shaft, you’d hit he longer shafted clubs further. Take the difference in your 8 iron and your driver. If your driver is a foot longer than your 8 iron, that means an extra 24 MPH by default.
Now some of you may be thinking that this isn’t adding up. You’ve been on swing speed monitors and you swing your 7 iron at 80 and your driver at 86. Where’s the extra 24 MPH? Why? Simple! You’ve got a habit of thinking when your driver is in your hand that you need to swing it like you need to kill it. Wrong! It’s the fact you’re trying to crush it that’s slowing you down! When you swing a driver in golf, you want to swing it the same way you’re swinging your 8 iron. You’re not trying to kill an 8 iron are you? Of course not! That’s why sometimes when you’re really smooth, you can crush one and you don’t know how you did it.
The trick is to learn how to properly sequence the swing so it can come back down naturally. In other words, without you trying to crush it from the top. Try and feel the exact same body speed no matter if it’s the iron or the driver. You’ll obviously have days where everything is just lining up perfectly. Those are the days you can really try to go after if you want to. But in a normal round, you want to try and keep the feelings of all your clubs the same. So what’s the difference in how to swing a driver in golf vs how to swing an iron? There isn’t any!
