swing speed for better drives

[agengo02]

i feel like im swinging as hard/fast as possible on my drives, but im only getting out to sometimes 250 on a really good drive. most of the time its between 200 and 250. should i maybe twist my wrists at the bottom or right before contact to up it that much more? im already pretty far back in my stance and i do the 60/40 weight distribution towards my back leg. i start right, and end right. thanks for any help or tips or something.

[NorCalGolfer]

I'd honestly start with your body. Assuming you're not already, get your body into golf shape. Flexibility is a huge plus with it comes to golf. I noticed a huge difference when i started working out more. I know what you're going to say "what about all these out of shape johnsons out there that hit the ball a mile?" freaks of nature. lol. try widening your stance a little. flatter swing plane. equipment? is it time for an upgrade? If you have the proper coil (ie: hips and shoulder turn) and swing mechanics, you should be good.

[agengo02]

i used to do yoga and i got really flexible. ive been meaning to start that up again. ya my club is a $29 knight wally world special. im pricing some online right now. maybe ill start swinging slower but try to make it more smooth and work from there.

[bruce]

Problem is your swinging to fast,swing speed comes from lag,not how fast you swing your arms e.t.c,the faster you swing your arms the more power you loose and more than likely will slice or a strong fade to the ball.Read up about the golf swing and understand it,lashing at a ball as hard as you can will get you nowhere,tempo,lag and patience.Always remember you have enough club in your hand to meet the required distance.

[Franco!]

Well, if you're swinging as fast as you can, you're probably not hitting the sweet spot.
Try to make a more controlled swing, you won't really lose a lot of speed and you'll hit closer to the sweet spot or on it.

[ZaPPPa]

I've been swinging out of my shoes trying to get distance for weeks. I finally got frustrated with balls flying all over the place, so I decided to work on accuracy first, then distance. Lo and behold.. a half-shot (arms not past 9:00) carried 200+ yards dead straight. Ball mark on club head indicated ball hit in middle of sweet spot.

Conclusion: Why try to gain 10mph swing speed, when you can achieve the same result by hitting the ball 1/2 inch closer to the sweet spot.

Accuracy first, speed second. Use hitting tape to find out where you hit the ball. Unless you are consistently on the sweet spot, work on accuracy first.

[Spence17]

Post a video. I'm 17 120 some odd pounds and I CAN and have hit over 300 yards before so I honestly believe I could help if I just saw your swing Face on and Down the line. PM me.

[titaniummd]

i feel like im swinging as hard/fast as possible on my drives, but im only getting out to sometimes 250 on a really good drive. most of the time its between 200 and 250. should i maybe twist my wrists at the bottom or right before contact to up it that much more? im already pretty far back in my stance and i do the 60/40 weight distribution towards my back leg. i start right, and end right. thanks for any help or tips or something.

The power is stored from the coil from the shoulders against the resistance of the hips on the backswing. The power is unleashed from uncoiling the body.

You should not end on the right side on the downswing. Read the 5 lessons by Hogan.

[leftypro]

Post a video, it could be multiplue things but no one will be able to nail what it exactly is without a video

[agengo02]

ok so i hit the range today. no video yet sorry because im always by myself. first few swings were my old way and were a bit dicey. then i got into my rhythym and hit it pretty well. there was a really strong wind blowing right in my face so anything i hit would just sail upwards and stop just about 200 yards. then i started thinking "coil." i did a few half swings where i tried to swing my hips around and was hitting the ball well. a few slices but still rolling them out to 200 on a half swing! when i started doing full swings i was hitting well. if no wind i would have hit 250 pretty consistantly. so now im going to mainly focus on spinning my hips and shoulders around. maybe ive finally figured out this whole driving thing. thanks guys.

[justinmill14]

I've been swinging out of my shoes trying to get distance for weeks. I finally got frustrated with balls flying all over the place, so I decided to work on accuracy first, then distance. Lo and behold.. a half-shot (arms not past 9:00) carried 200+ yards dead straight. Ball mark on club head indicated ball hit in middle of sweet spot.

u said that u could see a ball mark on the club head, how could u see that? ive never seen a ball mark on my club head and i'd like to, maybe it could tell me how im hitting it.

[ZaPPPa]

u said that u could see a ball mark on the club head, how could u see that? ive never seen a ball mark on my club head and i'd like to, maybe it could tell me how im hitting it.

My driver has a black clubface, so the faint mark the white balls leave behind is quite easy to spot. I just wipe the face clean every once in a while.

You can buy special hitting tape for $10 for ~20 stickers at a golf store or you can buy 60 yards of Scotch Masking Tape for a buck or three at Home Depot and use that instead.

[justinmill14]

alright thanks, i think im gonna go with the scotch tape first! lol

[Finnstang]

On my TaylorMade R7, I can see like a ghost image on the clubface from where the ball hit.

[LongIron]

Post a video. I'm 17 120 some odd pounds and I CAN and have hit over 300 yards before so I honestly believe I could help if I just saw your swing Face on and Down the line. PM me.

Downhill with wind. Good job.

Swinging hard isn't necessarily bad. Swinging hard when you have poor mechanics just magnifies your existing problems. Are you hitting them straight, just not far, or are they slicing/hooking all over the place? Is it ballooning?

[Uber$winG]

alright thanks, i think im gonna go with the scotch tape first! lol

Instead of tape you can also smear sunscreen on the club face (I think that suggestion was in July's Golf Digest - or maybe it was some other associated periodical), I use cheap & chalky deoderant because it's easy to whipe off... and my clubs smell fantastic.

[lolzzlolzz]

It comes down to:

-strength
-power
-how good your swing is

Since you're a beginner, I recommend you swing at the ball as hard as you can while you practice. Really... swing out of your shoes. Many make the mistake of swinging too easy when they start golf. Then when they become better, it will be hard for them to reach their swing speed potential without tough swing changes.

Also, when you swing hard, you really get a feeling if you're improving or not. With a sound swing, you know, you will be able to swing as hard as you want.

I feel I can hit it longer and straighter the harder I swing at the ball, because my muscles will be working together and moving freely.

Also, I don't think flexibility plays that big of a role in it. Part of having a powerful swing is limiting your range of motion to create power. You don't really need more than 90 degrees of shoulder turn to drive it 300+

[Spence17]

Downhill with wind. Good job.*

Only slightly downhill. I have a good swing is all. I'm tall and strong and so I have a lot of leverage. I'm gonna start taking a camera on the course and start taking pics of my big drives. No one believes anyone without proof here.