Article on Hank Haney Saying Clubhead Swing Speed is a Key Part of the Game

Alas....  the real reason why I will never be any good at this game....

I totally agree with his and your fundamental sentiment but I think there's a qualifier that needs to be added and that's making sure that the act of adding of speed itself isn't causing problems. Like when I get on the driving range and I'm hitting it great, occasionally I feel like trying to swing out of my shoes and try to murder the ball. This invariably ends badly for me and my driver because I start doing things differently to add that speed.

Faster and harder are not the same thing.

Hank has said this forever, was saying it in '95 when I met him. Did it take 20 years to get the news out?

While I do not like Haney's instruction methods, more speed is good, and swinging faster from the beginning seems to speed things up. Even at my old age, I am still striving to get back to 100 driver ss.

Yeah, that's all we can do. We try to learn the mechanics that will generate our highest club head speed and then refine that to the point where we're consistently hitting the center of the face.

Having a higher club head speed may be the only way to obtain a certain level, but that doesn't assure you'll be at scratch with it. I promise you that if I possessed a 110mph swing, I'd still not be at scratch.

Maybe....but for your average Joe, swinging out of your shoes and hitting it all over the park isn't good either...and that's what people who hear this will do. You know why? Because they ALREADY DO IT. This just solidifies that approach for them.

People dont realize the number one reason for loss of distance is not hitting the ball in the sweet spot. Swinging like a monkey pretty much ensures that trend will continue.

I don't see anything in Erik's post where he advocates swinging "like a monkey"....

Stupid monkey..... maybe.....

Haney is spot on. What he didn't say that 'trying' to simply overpower a club actually reduces the club head speed. In other words you cannot simply overpower the club handle to make the club head move faster. Doesn't stop the 99% of golfing population from trying, myself and I am sure many low handicappers included. The urge is just too great.

People who can efficiently (a relative term in the context) move the entire club have both faster and repeatable swings. Usually better ball strikers and hence equitable to HCP. I want to be grow up to be able to do that without thinking one day.

LOL...well played. Not implying he said that, I am. I'm saying Haneys comments that swing fast and don't worry about balance is a green light for most Joe to continue doing what they already do.

I don't see how anyone can disagree, swing speed is super important for the longer clubs, if you ever want to be a good golfer, forget scratch, just a bogey golfer, you need good speed with the driver, metals/hybrids and long irons, those clubs don't even work correctly without good swing speed.

But I disagree with his balance shrug-off, balance is very important to the swing and I challenge him to show me one Pro without good swing balance, it's key.

IMO, the vast majority of scratch golfers first shot par at under the age of 18.  As kids, they learned some basic, but un-natural skills, which allowed them to swing fast.  Those of us who did not learn these skills early in life, won't be getting towards scratch.

A corollary to this is that scratch golfers generally do not and cannot understand why other golfers don't do like they do: swing fast.  It's kind of like language.  Some 8 yr old Hungarian kid is making sounds which an adult learner can NEVER learn to make correctly.

So we play the best we can, and communicate as we are able. Improvement is always possible but some goals are not attainable.

I am not sure of this either, but I would think this is probably right.

Would be interesting to see some facts on this.

We all know that club head speed equals longer distance. Now, what many don't realize is that it's not all that easy. You have to match up a seriously good body turn (belt buckle facing the target) with another serious amount of wrist lag time on the down swing. I'm sorry to say that the vast majority of golfers, myself included, just are not athletic enough to pull it off. This is not to say that we stop trying, but at some point we must come to the realization that although we can make some small advances, we're not going to become a tour caliber player or even a top ranked amateur.