Want a Faster Downswing? Make a Faster Backswing (Real Lesson Results)

[iacas]

I helped a very good female player out today, and we raised her 7I swing speed from 74.6 MPH to 83.8 MPH.

Here's how we did it.

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The short version? This right here.

The (slightly) longer version? Here we go:

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Essentially… the nut of it all is this:

If you make a faster backswing that seeks to reach peak speed earlier, you must apply more force to STOP the club. That force is applied in the downswing direction. Thus, you put more force into the club in the downswing direction.

I see a lot of slow, long, saggy backswings. This golfer had a LOOOONG backswing. It both took a long time, and the club traveled well past parallel (blue = before, yellow = after):

What's interesting is the yellow backswing reached a peak grip speed that was nearly 30% higher:

You'll also notice how much EARLIER the player reached the peak grip speed — just above belly button height (yellow) instead of shoulder height (blue).

What's also interesting is… a backswing that used to take over 1.4 seconds… now took less than one second (0.994s).

The end result?

A nearly 10 MPH jump in clubhead speed, from below LPGA Tour average to 5 MPH above it.

All from making a FASTER backswing, that reached peak speed EARLIER, requiring the player to apply more force in the downswing direction for longer, shortening the backswing (length AND time), leading to a massive jump in clubhead speed.

I posted a Twitter thread about this. Please read it here.

[saevel25]

The force thing makes sense. If you fling it back faster, you need more in reverse to stop and send it down in the downswing. 

It's also a tempo thing right? Like, being athletic, if you fling the club back fast you are not going to suddenly slow it down. 

[iacas]

4 hours ago, saevel25 said:

The force thing makes sense. If you fling it back faster, you need more in reverse to stop and send it down in the downswing. 

It's also a tempo thing right? Like, being athletic, if you fling the club back fast you are not going to suddenly slow it down. 

It's a bit of both, yes. Stretch-shorten cycles, too.

[colin007]

https://archive.ph/2025.10.08-040340/https://www.golfdigest.com/story/jon-rahm-forget-low-and-slow-snatch-it-back-instruction-cover-story