3 ways to find more distance … without more effort, according to top coach

The question seeks help, and it also speaks to being efficient. Eric Cogorno says he hears it often. 

The top teacher says his students ask:

“How can you hit the ball farther without feeling like you have to swing any harder?”

Cogorno’s talking on a video recently posted to his Instagram account — which you can watch in full here — and he says he can answer the question positively, should you not be doing three mostly simple moves already. One happens at address, one occurs on the backswing, and one takes place at contact. 

Below are the three as described by Cogorno, along with some thoughts. 

1. ‘Tilt at setup’

“This comes from your right shoulder getting closer to your right hip,” Cogomo wrote. “Put your hands on your quads at setup, ride the trail hand down just above the top of the kneecap — that’s about the right amount.”

Editor’s note: The thought is you’ll improve your attack angle.  

2. ‘Press into trail foot and feel like you’re tossing the club away from the target to start the swing’

“This helps shift your pressure early and get good width,” Cogomo wrote. “The key here is the trail arm stays pretty wide and there isn’t a ton of early hinge.

“This all helps create a reaction in transition and the downswing that will give you more speed ‘for free.’”

Editor’s note: The thought is momentum creation. 

‘3. Head back through impact’

“This will help with your angle of attack — hitting more level or up on the ball will help max out your distance relative to your speed,” Cogomo wrote.

“Lots of the best drivers of the ball will have the head actually working back away from the target a few inches through impact. It can release up and forward into the followthrough but from about left arm parallel in the downswing until arms parallel in the follow-through (halfway down to halfway through), your head should stay where it is or even work back a little.”

Editor’s note: The thought is another move toward bettering attack angle. 

At the end of his post, Cogomo also admitted the steps can’t conceal swing blemishes. For example, if your grip is wrong, fix it.  

“If you have any other glaring swing issues causing big contact or direction control issues,” Cogomo wrote, “of course you have to fix those as well. 

“But these pieces will help with more distance without more effort or force pretty much regardless of where you’re at.”

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.