A loose left heel leaks power

If your left heel comes off the ground on the tee, you're almost guaranteed to make a reverse weight shift (a huge power leak). Plus, planting that foot means you have one less moving part to worry about in your downswing.

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Neil Beckerman	Neil Beckerman
Keeping your left heel flat allows you to tightly coil your shoulders around your hips.	An elevated left heel destroys coil and will prevent you from building up power.

You've heard about the need to create coil and resistance in your backswing, and the only way to do that is to keep your left foot on the ground while you swing back. At the top of your swing, feel the tension build in your left hip —- that's potential energy that can be unleashed into the ball.

A shorter driver shaft provided some unexpected benefits for Rich Beem. Wire Image

Although Rich Beem is still looking for the magic that fueled consecutive victories in 2002 (including a win at the PGA Championship), he picked up a massive increase in distance off the tee this year.

"I'm driving the ball farther, really, without changing my swing. At the start of the year, [Callaway Golf Director of Tour Operations] Joey Sprayberry shortened the length of my driver shaft from 45 inches to 441.4 inches. Just that small change in length gave me more control, and now I'm making contact in the sweet spot more often, which always means max distance."
-Rich Beem