How to increase club head speed???

[jallen100]

Ok I lack some distance with my drives and was told that faster club head speed means longer drives. From the Bridgestone ball fitting I learned that my club head speed was about 85 MPH. I have read I should be around 105 as an amateur. What are some ways to increase my club head speed. The main thing I am working on now is freeing up my wrists a little more but that is making my slice worse.

[westcyderydin]

steroids. steroids. steroids.

[Tugglife2]

Where did you read that your swing speed should be 105 mph? That's a pretty fast swing for most amateurs. I'm not expert on this matter but I believe if you improve technique and your shoulder/hip turn you can generate more speed without consciously having to swing harder.

[RC]

A big hint about club head speed: it comes from the ground up.

[gspjeb]

I think most folks confuse swinging faster with swinging harder. Smooth is fast and if you have control and hit the center of the club face with a smooth relaxed swing you will hit it pretty darn far. 105 would be a high estimation of what an amateur "should" swing. I would guess that low 90s would be closer to average for the masses....at least those that have some control.

I started knocking it out to 275ish fairly consistenly only after I stopped trying to kill it and started relaxing my hands through the impact zone and letting the force of the swing and leverage increase my swing speed. I picked up at least 10mph just by not trying to kill it. counterintuitive but worked for me. Good luck to you.

[out_in_30]

LAG=clubhead speed. creating lag in your swing is what produces speed. many amateur golfers cast the club which creates the highest speed not at the bottom but before the bottom of the swing. creating lag in your swing will make it so the speed of the club is highest at the ball and not before. u want the butt of the shaft to be pointing at the ball before you release the club.

[$2 Nassau]

get the club to come from the inside and it'll swing itself, fast. Finally figuring this out myself...I thought I was coming from the inside then I saw myself on video down the line...Umm no, not even close. Takes some getting used to but when you do it right the clubspeed and contact is amazing.

[oneoverwrx]

I would say the majority of clubhead speed comes from the hips and thighs. Not really sure on this but i feel like that where my power comes from. I will also tell you that it wont happen over night. You have to slowly work at turning. If you try to turn a lot and you are not used to it you will be out of control and your timing will be way off. Slowly you will feel more comfortable and you will be able to turn more and your club head speed will increase. Oh...and accuracy>distance!!! thats my issue.

[Clambake]

Where did you read that your swing speed should be 105 mph? .

I agree with this...there is no "should be" answer here. Don't worry about what it "should" be...just work at building the best swing for you. Which brings me to my answer to your question....and you're not going to like it. There is no technique or exercise you can do. Forget lag, or ground up, etc. Not that they're wrong, but that they're all correct. The golf swing is the most complex series of movements of any sport, and they are all interconnected. You can work the hips and legs all you want but if the hands aren't working properly you'll just be strong but wild and still may not gain speed. You can do lag drills until your hands bleed but if your footwork is wrong or your plane is off you'll hate the game for all the balls you lose. There are no easy answers in the swing....period.

My advice is two-fold. First, get some good instruction to help you build better overall swing fundamentals. With this, you have a foundation that you can build upon to improve clubhead speed, and in the process your game will just be more solid and enjoyable. The second part is to get a weighted club and practice a lot with it. While some think that a weighted club is to help build strength, I disagree - I think it is to better let the club do the work and help you feel what the club should be doing better through all parts of the swing. With a normal club it is light enough that you can do all sorts of subconsious manipulations that are counter to an efficient swing, but with a larger mass to move around the big muscles will have to do more and the small ones will be more passive. This makes more efficient use of the power you have, which is really what swingspeed is all about - delivering the club efficiently to the ball in the proper position.

[Zeph]

I would not worry about swing speed at your handicap. Start working on getting the swing in order, things happening in the right sequence etc. From doing this, your clubhead speed can start increasing. You won't be hitting it 250 at handicap 30 (with some rare exceptions perhaps), just accept the fact and take one thing at the time.

[og512]

I think most folks confuse swinging faster with swinging harder. Smooth is fast and if you have control and hit the center of the club face with a smooth relaxed swing you will hit it pretty darn far. 105 would be a high estimation of what an amateur "should" swing. I would guess that low 90s would be closer to average for the masses....at least those that have some control.

Same here... my ego led me to believe that harder meant faster. I started stretching more and became more fluid and I learned to relax it was like a whole new world opened up.

[CPT]

Clubhead speed can't increase 1-2 mph in a heartbeat. It just doesn't happen.

I found that by swinging a weight club, or ride a bike to strengthen my core strength, I can hit the ball with firmer base and I felt like I had a bit more speed.

[jallen100]

Strength is not an issue for me. I work out 4 days a week so I feel I have a pretty good foundation.
I have had an instructor for the last 3 weeks, 1 hr a week.
We have spent a lot of time straigtening out my swing to go straight, or out towards 1st base. Then we started working on freeing up my wrists and letting them hinge more. He told me that this is where club head speed comes from. He said your arms will only ever go so fast and your wrists is what creates that additional speed.
Yesterday we learned my grip was to tight which was causing my wrists to tense up which is the opposite of the effect we were looking for.
I believe that i read the 105 mph in Golf Digest and it said that was average for an amateur and about 115 mph for the tour pros.
Does this all sound right?
I don't expect to get better over night but would like to know I am on the right path.

[rafal]

Average for an amateur on Internet forums is about 125mph. They have to tip X-flex and still find it whippy.

[westcyderydin]

105 is definately on the high end of amateur golfers. while there are a lot of good golfers, you have to remember that there are tons of bad golfers. there are a lot of golfers with 100 plus mph swings, but there are tons of bad golfers, old golfers (who might be good but still dont swing as fast as they used to), and flat out hackers who still use wooden woods with socks as headcovers but have fun and could care less. i dont know how you could find any type of average for ameteurs for anything.

[Stu.C]

One way, I find, of creating/increasing lag is, at the top of the backswing to bend your thumbs back. You can do this and still keep your leading forearm straight.

[ks8829]

I believe you can create more club head speed by doing a few things:

1) flexibility, pilates helped me
2) know how to set the wrist to give you added club head speed. this is the snap when you crack a whip, throw a baseball and you snap your wrist, when you swing a baseball ball, all these thing that you wrist helps when you are just before the ball and you snap your wrist naturally without any extra effort.
3) I found it when I tuck my rear elbow closer to my body then my front elbow and slightly lowered my rear shoulder. this help me get into a position where I can stay behind the ball and the wrist snaps naturally and generate more club head speed effortlessly. I hit my driver farther, the sound at impact was different, the ball shoots off the club face with the irons and the fairway wood goes farther.

[Beady]

Lag is the easiest way to do it, but once you create it I see alot of people let it go to waste.

Create the lag through your backswing so that once you are at the top of your backswing you have created as much as you can. From there DO NOT let it go. Just swing the club and maintain that lag. As you come to the bottom of your swing, the lag will release on it's own from gravity/force of your swing. Do not, I repeat do not try to cast that lag downward at the ball with your wrists. Just let it happen.