The truth behind distance.....Do you have to be fit and work out?

[nilssoa]

Overspeed swings has helped me in a big way to stay more relaxed. Swinging a shaft with no head attached helps me to identify parts of the swing where I need to stay more relaxed to be able to swing at my full speed. Have read people claiming that overspeed work is so great because it activates fast twitch muscles. That might be true but I think the big thing is it helps groove a faster movement.

[joekelly]

Anyone who hits the golf ball successfully 35 times during a round of golf (not counting putts) does not need a superior body.  But he/she must have the ability to move the lower body correctly and superior synchronization of body parts.  Absolutely best learned when young.

What minute fraction of golfers averages 270 yards? Who needs it?  I would guess not one person here is a pro for dough. Pro for teach, yes.

[Osmond]

Anyone who hits the golf ball successfully 35 times during a round of golf (not counting putts) does not need a superior body.  But he/she must have the ability to move the lower body correctly and superior synchronization of body parts.  Absolutely best learned when young.

What minute fraction of golfers averages 270 yards? Who needs it?  I would guess not one person here is a pro for dough. Pro for teach, yes.

Define successful :)

The fraction that wants to play good enough golf to some day maybe succeed.

[Crim]

From what I've read and heard from experts, that's a big part of it. Kids should basically play a bunch of different sports and then specialize (if they want to) in their early-mid teens.

We all know Jack played basketball, and Tiger's dad was an excellent baseball player...but did Tiger or Rory play anything besides golf?

[Patch]

Speaking only from my own, older golfer's view, I think the older we get, the more we need to take care of our legs. This is the one area I constantly work on just to keep playing golf in general. I do have decent upper body strength, but I don't work on that part of my body that much. I chop my own fire wood once, or  twice a month which helps I'm sure.

I do a lot of hiking for my legs, and I use two walking staffs when on most of my hikes  Using two staffs, in conjunction with my walking, gives my arms, shoulders, and chest a decent work out.  On other hikes I will take a golf club, a few balls, a little mat, and hit balls while I am walking up/down a sandy dry wash. those are usually in the 5 mile range. This time of year is great for hiking in my area, because it's too cold for snakes to be out.

No, I don't know the young lady in the video. Wish I did.

[inthehole]

I think it's not all about being fit, its how much dedication you want to put into developing a controllable golf swing when you swing REALLY hard.   If I swung Hard, I'm talking really hard, there's no doubt that I could hit it 30-40 yards farther than my usual 240 or so.

Easily.    I've done it at long drive holes at scramble events.

Having said that, I know I would not be able to control it, so I never do it during an actual round.     It all comes down to how committed a person is to the game - if they really feel a need to swing near their theoretical potential and are willing to put in the time necessary to develop that swing that they can control at that maximum swing speed, more power to them.    Assuming a person has fairly decent coordination and muscle mass, its dedication and practice that matters most to gain length, being fit helps of course, but isn't required.

[inthehole]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mvmac

From what I've read and heard from experts, that's a big part of it. Kids should basically play a bunch of different sports and then specialize (if they want to) in their early-mid teens.

We all know Jack played basketball, and Tiger's dad was an excellent baseball player...but did Tiger or Rory play anything besides golf?

I"ve seen Rory throw a golf ball into the crowd after a win ... safe to say he's never put on a baseball glove

[dunlucedreams]

Doesn't take a genius to work out what these boys work on during their strength training. Legs like footballers these days. I believe this is where you can gain some distance if you wanted to do some power/heavy work to boost your distances. Check out any pic of Justin Rose 10 years ago Vs now - some serious leg strength gains.

[DrvFrShow]

Damn, reading the definitions of long hitter, the only way I'll ever get there is if I start juicing.

[nick1998bunker]

I think distance comes from flexibility and strength. It's possible to combine the two but harder. At a junior level most of it comes from flexibility until about age 16 or 17 where it stays the same. I can relate to the lpga in that I am 5'2 and can easily knock it over 250-60 but probably have much more chest leg and overall strength. Dj is flexible and strong. My father is my height but significantly stronger and struggles to hit it 230 lol so flexibility is still important

[Lihu]

I think it's not all about being fit, its how much dedication you want to put into developing a controllable golf swing when you swing REALLY hard.   If I swung Hard, I'm talking [U]really[/U] hard, there's no doubt that I could hit it 30-40 yards farther than my usual 240 or so.   Easily.    I've done it at long drive holes at scramble events. Having said that, I know I would not be able to control it, so I never do it during an actual round.     It all comes down to how committed a person is to the game - if they really feel a need to swing near their theoretical potential and are willing to put in the time necessary to develop that swing that they can control at that maximum swing speed, more power to them.    Assuming a person has fairly decent coordination and muscle mass, its dedication and practice that matters most to gain length, being fit helps of course, but isn't required.

Why not just hit driver 270-280 all the time? 4 clubs is a lot to give up.

[JonMA1]

Why not just hit driver 270-280 all the time? 4 clubs is a lot to give up.

Unless I'm not understanding his post, he answered that here...

I think it's not all about being fit, its how much dedication you want to put into developing a controllable golf swing when you swing REALLY hard.   If I swung Hard, I'm talking really hard, there's no doubt that I could hit it 30-40 yards farther than my usual 240 or so.

Easily.    I've done it at long drive holes at scramble events.

Having said that, I know I would not be able to control it, so I never do it during an actual round.     It all comes down to how committed a person is to the game - if they really feel a need to swing near their theoretical potential and are willing to put in the time necessary to develop that swing that they can control at that maximum swing speed, more power to them.    Assuming a person has fairly decent coordination and muscle mass, its dedication and practice that matters most to gain length, being fit helps of course, but isn't required.

[Lihu]

[QUOTE name="Lihu" url="/t/70976/the-truth-behind-distance-do-you-have-to-be-fit-and-work-out/36#post_1090865"] Why not just hit driver 270-280 all the time? 4 clubs is a lot to give up.[/QUOTE] Unless I'm not understanding his post, he answered that here...  [QUOTE name="inthehole" url="/t/70976/the-truth-behind-distance-do-you-have-to-be-fit-and-work-out/36#post_1090791"]   I think it's not all about being fit, its how much dedication you want to put into developing a controllable golf swing when you swing REALLY hard.   If I swung Hard, I'm talking [U]really[/U] hard, there's no doubt that I could hit it 30-40 yards farther than my usual 240 or so.   Easily.    I've done it at long drive holes at scramble events. Having said that, I know I would not be able to control it, so I never do it during an actual round .     It all comes down to how committed a person is to the game - if they really feel a need to swing near their theoretical potential and are willing to put in the time necessary to develop that swing that they can control at that maximum swing speed, more power to them.    Assuming a person has fairly decent coordination and muscle mass, its dedication and practice that matters most to gain length, being fit helps of course, but isn't required. [/QUOTE]

Regardless, if he can reach 270-280 then better mechanics would make that distance more controlled. That's more on the lines of my question.

[JonMA1]

Regardless, if he can reach 270-280 then better mechanics would make that distance more controlled. That's more on the lines of my question.

I'm not terribly knowledgeable about this and certainly am not looking for argument, but isn't it possible that the best ball strikers in the world can get more distance but it would come at the expense of lesser control? And we're talking about folks who devote most of their waking hours into being the best they can.

For me personally, I can get the driver club head to move faster by "reaching back". When everything is synched and I hit the sweet spot on the face, I get longer drives that stay in play. But I only try this at the course when I'm feeling like everything is working and I have a wider fairway.

On these shots, the difference in effort may be 10 to 20% (pulling those numbers out of my ass), the results in yards gained may be 20 - 30 yards, but with that comes the far greater increased risk  of throwing off my timing and/or hitting off-center. The result is less yards or an OOB. I believe most of us are familiar with our games and use pretty good judgement on when to pull this swing out.

As far as developing this, of course we all want a longer drive that we can keep in play. But I think there's a point where most of us can only advance at a certain pace due to available practice time or in my case, having to learn on my own and with perhaps limited physical ability.

Sorry, this is a bit

[Lihu]

[QUOTE name="Lihu" url="/t/70976/the-truth-behind-distance-do-you-have-to-be-fit-and-work-out/36#post_1090926"] Regardless, if he can reach 270-280 then better mechanics would make that distance more controlled. That's more on the lines of my question.[/QUOTE] I'm not terribly knowledgeable about this and certainly am not looking for argument, but isn't it possible that the best ball strikers in the world can get more distance but it would come at the expense of lesser control? And we're talking about folks who devote most of their waking hours into being the best they can.  For me personally, I can get the driver club head to move faster by "reaching back". When everything is synched and I hit the sweet spot on the face, I get longer drives that stay in play. But I only try this at the course when I'm feeling like everything is working and I have a wider fairway. On these shots, the difference in effort may be 10 to 20% (pulling those numbers out of my ass), the results in yards gained may be 20 - 30 yards, but with that comes the far greater increased risk  of throwing off my timing and/or hitting off-center. The result is less yards or an OOB. I believe most of us are familiar with our games and use pretty good judgement on when to pull this swing out. As far as developing this, of course we all want a longer drive that we can keep in play. But I think there's a point where most of us can only advance at a certain pace due to available practice time or in my case, having to learn on my own and with perhaps limited physical ability. Sorry, this is a bit :offtopic:

I don't think this is off topic anymore So, now I'm wondering what people consider 100% effort. A bunch of my friends and I talked about swinging as fast as they can versus a controlled swing. I took this to the test with a swing speed radar that I happened to put into my bag (one reason my bag weighs 50 pounds). The fastest anyone swung out of their shoes from a sample of about a dozen or so people I tested was about 5%. The whole business of swinging 80% might be "effort". I know that when I swing about 100% effort versus 25% effort that the swing speed might only be 5% different. Maybe the adage is to reduce the effort to 80% to feel more relaxed?

[inthehole]

Quote:

Originally Posted by inthehole

I think it's not all about being fit, its how much dedication you want to put into developing a controllable golf swing when you swing REALLY hard.   If I swung Hard, I'm talking really hard, there's no doubt that I could hit it 30-40 yards farther than my usual 240 or so.

Easily.    I've done it at long drive holes at scramble events.

Having said that, I know I would not be able to control it, so I never do it during an actual round.     It all comes down to how committed a person is to the game - if they really feel a need to swing near their theoretical potential and are willing to put in the time necessary to develop that swing that they can control at that maximum swing speed, more power to them.    Assuming a person has fairly decent coordination and muscle mass, its dedication and practice that matters most to gain length, being fit helps of course, but isn't required.

Why not just hit driver 270-280 all the time? 4 clubs is a lot to give up.

I just don't have the mechanics to put that swing on the course - timing isn't reliable enough ... just way too much that can go wrong.    My putting is so bad, I just can't afford to not keep the ball on the fairway - as for my game, I've come to realize GIR's are paramount, as my putting is the weakest part of my game.   Plus as it is I have to take ibuprofen prior to a round, no way my back would hold up to that hard of a swing over time.

[Lihu]

[QUOTE name="Lihu" url="/t/70976/the-truth-behind-distance-do-you-have-to-be-fit-and-work-out/36#post_1090865"]   [QUOTE name="inthehole" url="/t/70976/the-truth-behind-distance-do-you-have-to-be-fit-and-work-out/36#post_1090791"] I think it's not all about being fit, its how much dedication you want to put into developing a controllable golf swing when you swing REALLY hard.   If I swung Hard, I'm talking [U]really[/U] hard, there's no doubt that I could hit it 30-40 yards farther than my usual 240 or so.   Easily.    I've done it at long drive holes at scramble events. Having said that, I know I would not be able to control it, so I never do it during an actual round.     It all comes down to how committed a person is to the game - if they really feel a need to swing near their theoretical potential and are willing to put in the time necessary to develop that swing that they can control at that maximum swing speed, more power to them.    Assuming a person has fairly decent coordination and muscle mass, its dedication and practice that matters most to gain length, being fit helps of course, but isn't required.[/QUOTE] Why not just hit driver 270-280 all the time? 4 clubs is a lot to give up.[/QUOTE] I just don't have the mechanics to put that swing on the course - timing isn't reliable enough ... just way too much that can go wrong.    My putting is so bad, I just can't afford to not keep the ball on the fairway - as for my game, I've come to realize GIR's are paramount, as my putting is the weakest part of my game.   Plus as it is I have to take ibuprofen prior to a round, no way my back would hold up to that hard of a swing over time.

That makes some sense. Giving up that much distance is such a painful thing to do.

[JonMA1]

I don't think this is off topic anymore

So, now I'm wondering what people consider 100% effort.

A bunch of my friends and I talked about swinging as fast as they can versus a controlled swing. I took this to the test with a swing speed radar that I happened to put into my bag (one reason my bag weighs 50 pounds). The fastest anyone swung out of their shoes from a sample of about a dozen or so people I tested was about 5%.

The whole business of swinging 80% might be "effort". I know that when I swing about 100% effort versus 25% effort that the swing speed might only be 5% different.

Maybe the adage is to reduce the effort to 80% to feel more relaxed?

Maybe, I'm sure that's a large part of it. But the effort I'm referring to occurs towards the bottom of the DS where I really try to increase club head speed with weight forward, hip then body rotation. Feel ain't real so all I can go by are the results. Only on those swings is 240-250+ in total distance possible (measured by GPS). Going by videos of my iron swing, I'm certain my head moves much more when I try to put everything into a driver swing (hence the inconsistency). On my normal swing I average less than 220.

I just don't have the mechanics to put that swing on the course - timing isn't reliable enough ... just way too much that can go wrong.    My putting is so bad, I just can't afford to not keep the ball on the fairway - as for my game, I've come to realize GIR's are paramount, as my putting is the weakest part of my game.   Plus as it is I have to take ibuprofen prior to a round, no way my back would hold up to that hard of a swing over time.

This will be me soon I'm sure.

Much in the way that I'll never be able to dunk a basketball, bench press twice my weight or run the 40 in under 4.5, I should accept I will never be long hitting a golf ball. Oh well, there are worse things in life. Lol.