Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

One key for hitting longer drives is getting an optimal angle of attack with the big stick. While your angle of attack will be negative for most clubs, when it comes to the driver, you want to be hitting more up on the ball.

Now, how much you swing up on the ball will differ from person to person and swing to swing. And the faster you swing, the less you’ll need to swing up on the ball to generate distance.

According to GOLF Top 100 Teacher Dave Phillips in the video below, PGA Tour pros have an average angle of attack of about +1 with the driver, while for LPGA pros that number is closer to +4. The reason for this discrepancy is that the LPGA pros are swinging slower, so they need to hit up on the ball more to generate the distance they need.

Hitting up on the ball isn’t always as easy as it sounds. For lots of recreational golfers, thinking about swinging up on the ball causes them to hang back and fail to transfer their weight properly, which leads to some serious issues.

To guard against this, you need to copy the key move that pros use to hit up on the ball properly. Phillips explains the move below starting at the 5:00 mark.

The key move for positive AoA

To practice this key move, make a backswing to the top and then stop. From here, you want to slightly “bump” your hips forward and then begin to rotate to initiate the downswing.

As the downswing begins, push into the ground with your lead foot. This will start the chain reaction that helps you properly hit up on the ball.

“You’ll see this lead shoulder move away from the chin, which gets the club down in front of [the body], and then as they push, you’ll see the lead shoulder work up and back,” Phillips says. “And the grip end of the club works up and in, which gets the clubhead to work around. This is the correct way to hit up on the ball.”

When you use the lead leg correct to push into the ground, you’ll be forced to pull your lead shoulder up and away from the ball. And in doing this, you not only will properly shift your weight forward, you’ll also create a positive angle of attack when coming into impact.

“You’ve gotta get your force into that lead foot early,” Phillips says. “Then once you feel like you can push yourself backwards because you’ve got enough force in that lead foot, you want to feel like you push and get the lead shoulder working more up and around you.”

If you can implement this key move into your swing, you’ll create a higher angle of attack in the correct manner, which will lead to longer drives.

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