Have you ever swung as hard as you can, and made good contact?

[RPMPIRE]

Originally Posted by tuffluck

honestly i swing about 70% on irons and maybe 80% on my driver.  i average 260 off the tee and 150 with an 8i with this method, which is plenty long for what i need to do.  but my ball striking suffers greatly when i swing an iron more than about 80%, and a driver over 90% is always a pull slice.

i guess i wanted to figure out if my percentages are low, i.e. i need to learn how to control a faster swing.  i can swing faster, i just can't control it.  if the pros are swinging 90% every time and controlling it, i'd say i have some work to do from 70%.

I watched a video of a Tiger Woods clinic and he said he swings about 80% each time. Usually if he swings out of his shoes at 100%, he does lose some form or balance and it's pretty obvious when he does. I think instead of putting a percentage on it, just swing at a speed/tempo that's comfortable for you. I like what zipazoid said about carrying 14 clubs and the reason behind it. You don't have to muscle a certain club when another club in the bag can do it just as easy with the same swing.

[colin007]

tigers range swing is prolly 80%, but we have all seen the 110% swing that might put it off the planet.

[phillyk]

I would say I swing my driver at 90% and my irons at like 80%.  I remember one distinct time when I tried to swing as hard as I can and it actually worked great! All I tried to do differently besides, you know swing hard, was to focus more on keeping my head steady in the backswing.  It kept me from swaying too much, lean back and hit the ball who knows where.  But this time, I carried the ball about 15yds further than I normally would have and the ball flight was a lower rocket like flight with a little right to left draw.  It looked beautiful, but I wouldn't bet that I could do it often.  Then again, sometimes my drives go further than that without me trying to swing out of my shoes, mostly because I made better contact.

[Chunky]

Okay you want some swinging out of your shoes info. When I was in my30's I was having timing issues with my 3 wood (who doesn't) so I decided what the heck and took it back as far as I could, aka John Dally, and let her loose. I hit 285 to 300 yards off tees for the rest of the day and straight, my three wood at the time was 250 yard club from the tee.

Last year on the last  hole a par five, I was having a bad day and figured let's punish this ball. I rared back with the driver and give it my all, a slight pull on the left of the fairway 330 yards. My typical driver distance is 265 at the range.

Swinging hard is a calculated risk, you have to look at where you are, what kind of a chance you are willing to take and where will a bad shot end up. Sometimes the odds are good that your bad shot will end up nearly as good as a layup.

Yesterday, I was in the rough and the grass in front of my ball was 8 inches long and bent over, thick enough to kill a low shot to a few yards. Behind the ball the grass was little thinner and I knew I could swing through it without getting hung or slowed up much. I took an extra club, my eight and gave it the hardest swing I could, viola, six feet from the pin 140yds with a beautiful high shot. If it hadn't worked I would have been maybe 130 yards from the hole, so the risk was worth it.

So it's all about sizing up the miss and the risk/reward. My driver shot was to a generous fairway, a bad eight iron from the grass would have been marginally worse than a lay up, my three wood  was a desperate move in a game that was already crap. If I am having a good day and my game is on, the less likely I am to try shots like that. As for how far you're going to hit a ball with a given club under the circumstances is a feel thing, but you can learn the feel by grabbing a club and slamming it at the driving range. If you are in good shape this a good thing to do a couple of times a week because it will strengthen you body to swing faster and add distance ot your regular shot.