Fast Swing Speed, why not me?

[Golfer71]

I swing irons at about the same speed as you (70-74mph) but i'm not too worried, at this time, for my handicap I get enough carry from my shots. I'm using my practice time to try and work on improving my ball striking (my faults include breaking wrists at impact and late release leading to an open club face). If I can minimise these faults i'm hoping my stats improve without even thinking about swinging harder / faster.

I think the fitness ideas yoga, stretching are also helpful.

[golftrainer]

Also work on wrist strength. The stronger your wrists are, you will be able to hold your lag longer into the downswing, then release it through impact for maximum clubhead speed and distance.

I have a great wrist exercise on Youtube if you want to watch it. My channel is MikePedersenGolfTips. There's a ton of great videos to improve strength and flexibility for golf. I hope it's okay to state this in here. If not, my apologies in advance.

I think I can insert the video...I think. I'll try it below.

[golftrainer]

I would have to disagree with that. I'm 5'10" and weigh 150 lbs after a 3 course meal. I can

You are blessed with awesome swing speed, but most golfers, especially the older ones have declining physical capabilities keeping them from playing better golf. The golf swing requires a certain level of strength and flexibility, and if you don't have it, you won't be able to perform proper swing mechanics, especially for 18 holes of golf.

[Chas]

Clubhead speed is mostly to do with rapid, coordinated hip/shoulder rotation coupled with lots and lots of lag. As you're relatively new to golf, an analogy from tennnis might be helpful. Then again it might not be, but it might help some others ..... [apologies to you in that case]

Watch top tennis players hit their serve (if you've played a lot of tennis you've probably figure it out already): to really crank a serve in tennis, I mean to ace the guy on the other side so badely that he's hardly moved a muscle as the ball streaks by him untouched, you must not - you absolutely MUST NOT, EVER - use your forearm and bicep muscles to force the racket through. Instead, use rapid shoulder rotation and LAG LAG LAG to develop the clubhead speed - along with good weight shift which you need to get those hips and shoulders moving. It's easier to see this watching a tennis serve than a golf shot somehow, at least I find it so. Put it another way, if you've still got that nice angle going between arm and shaft late in the stroke (no "casting"), the clubhead has only one choice: it's gotta accelerate massively before it hits the ball, assuming your form doesn't break down. Physics demands it.

In the olden days or yore when I played a lot of tennis, I could always tell: those days that I was feeling relaxed and sort of fluid, and was letting the lag angle develop nicely on the serve, I would really crank it ..... aaaaaaah. Those days when I was trying to "force" the racket using arm strength and NOT lagging (too often for my liking .....), I wouldn't get anything like the rackethead speed going and if there was a decent player on the other side of the net I'd get smoked with the return of serve.

So it's -
1) rapid hip and shoulder rotation;
2) lots of lag and a passive wrist snap just before ball contact.

THAT's how those spindly young chaps hitting next to you on the range pound their balls waaaay out there, with seemingly little effort. You can do it too, in time.

Easier said than done of course. It's still a work in progress for me in my golf game though - my speed isn't what it might be, but it's getting faster.

[wannabe]

take a lesson, or better yet, a series of 4 -- tell the pro you wanna get more distance -- let him/her review your swing and help point you the way to getting more out of it.

Given what you've shared about your physique, age, hcp, etc., you're leaving a lot of distance somewhere in a swing fault. Fix that, & voila, you'll be murdering the ball.

It'll be the best $$ you've ever spent on the game.

[blackxpress]

I've been having a little trouble in this area myself so far this year. What I've come to realize is that most of my trouble has to do with a lack of flexibility in my midsection. Too much inactivity during the winter I guess. Anyway, I'm really having to force myself to take the club all the back without bending my left elbow and/or swaying. Both of those bad habits are caused by my body trying to get the club back without putting undue strain on my abs, hip flexers and lower back. What's really helping me is to concentrate on feeling the tension in my core at the top of the backswing. If I can keep my right leg stable (knee flexed), my left elbow nice and straight and still get the club back to parallel there is an enormous amount of tension in my core, which is a good thing by the way. If I can hold that tension at the top for a split second before I start the downswing I get a lot of power through the ball.

From there it's a matter of getting my hands turned over at impact. I'm struggling with that more than anything right now. I like what a couple of people have said about developing more wrist strength. As a former tennis player, that makes a lot of sense to me.

[RC]

Wrist strength is one of the last things to worry about for golf length.

[golftrainer]

Wrist strength is one of the last things to worry about for golf length.

Well, it seems many golfers know it all

So they will all give their "2 cents" worth, but unless the golfer narrows it down via video, it is all just a guessing game right?

[Chas]

Have to agree about wrist strength - it isn't very important. You shouldn't have a deathgrip on the club, nor use your forearm muscles much as you come down. If everything else is done right (spine angle, right elbow position, etc) the wrists cannot fail to snap through resulting in good contact - they should be loose and passive - tension will actually slow down the snap.

[pshizz]

Wrist strength is one of the last things to worry about for golf length.

i laughed when i read this. Wrist strength is probably the most important thing aside from flexibility when it comes to hitting the long ball.

[pshizz]

Have to agree about wrist strength - it isn't very important. You shouldn't have a deathgrip on the club, nor use your forearm muscles much as you come down. If everything else is done right (spine angle, right elbow position, etc) the wrists cannot fail to snap through resulting in good contact - they should be loose and passive - tension will actually slow down the snap.

yes, but wrist strength helps perfrom a faster snap, plus the stronger your wrists the longer you can keep the lag in your downswing. Keeping lag in the downswing is how sergio gracia hits 350 yard drives.

[golftrainer]

Many golfers in this thread continue to discount the importance of wrists for more distance. I heard somewhere (I'll find the source) that the study of golf swing biomechanics showed that 78% of clubhead speed came from the hingeing and unhingeing of the WRISTS!

This is not me saying this, this is biomechanical studies of the golf swing, by specialists who know what they are talking about.

I do agree, that swing mechanics, sequence of motion, and other issues need to be correct, but many older golfers have weak and very inflexible wrists, and will never be able to retain lag and release it for maximum clubhead speed.

These forums make the world go around, meaning many, many different opinions and thoughts. I like it when I find scientific documentation for biomechanical data as you cannot ignore it.

For the average golfer who is not Obsessive Compulsive like me, would never need to take it this far, but I'm a bit different that way

[Zeph]

I don't think much about wrist action, but I've found that the separation of shoulders and hips is where my swing speed has been hiding all this time. By starting the hips just before I reach the end of my backswing it creates a lot of speed, which also helps releasing the hands properly.

I'm also working on not trying to hit the ball, but simply swing the club through the ball. The release should come after the ball, but you must of course turn the wrists before to get the clubface square.

[TMO]

I didn't realize there was a debate about wrists but just for fun I'll chime in. Your wrist strength is pretty darn important when you are hitting the ball out of thick rough. Your ball speed is determined by when you start to make impact but also when the ball releases from the club.

All that means to me is that you have to have something behind the ball that is keeping the clubhead going. I have heard the wrists argument before but I tend to leave my wrists out of it. That "whipping" action can generate a little bit more but I will always choose torque over wrists.

Oh, and before I hurt my back I was 145-155 pounds with swing speed average over 115 and could go up to 125 if I really, really needed to. My wrists were tiny so if it was my wrists generating the speed I would be shocked.

[wareagle777]

There are many things that do generate swing speed. But it is going to require practice and the right attitude to wait on the results. It needs to be practice on the right things and that is where a teaching professional comes in to play. You can get advice from many, read a whole bunch, even hit a lot of balls, but it will not help as well unless you have someone watching you. Don't give up...but get someone helping and watching you.

[Ian]

how do you think tiger hits a long ball??

Its obviously all those wrist workouts he does.
core strength, legs, back, and arms dont do anything to generate power, its all in the wrists. STOP DOING SITUPS!!!> only do wrist curls now.

I hit the ball 900 million yards (average) and i dont even move anything but my wrists.

nuff said.

[wannabe]

a drill my pro has me working on to generate some extra speed is to perform 3 practice swings before each shot at the range -- 1 slow, 1 medium, and 1 rip-your-ankles-off fast. Then back off from the ripper and hit a ball. Fun.

[grantc79]

Technique aside.... how do you increase swing speed?

I disagree sorry.

There are plenty of power drains and power additions that anyone can add into their swing to change their distances. Here are a few: 1: Angle of attack. If you are wide going back and narrow coming down you will hit the ball further. Flip those two and you will hit it less far. 2: Squatting. If you stand up in your swing you will lose distance. If you can squat a couple of inches in your swing you will add club head speed. 3: Flat left wrist. If you are a rightie with a bent left wrist at impact you will lose lots of distance. 4: Swing plane. If you swing inside out you will generate more speed. Outside in and you will be slower. 5: Body movement. Your swing should start from the ground up when you come to the ball. If it doesn't you aren't reaching your potential here. I could keep going and going and going and going. You need a certain amount of flexibility to swing the club. Past that you need proper technique. Until your alignments and sequences are spot on I wouldn't even try to gain distance by going to the gym. How do you think Ochoa hits the ball 300 yards?