Drills or equipment to increase club head speed for driver?

[broombroom]

I want to increase my driver clubhead speed any drills or equipment you recommend? I would average 100mph

[mvmac]

I would first make sure your angle of attack is positive.  Can be tough to increase speed.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/44307/hitting-up-or-down-with-the-driver-in-an-inline-pattern

[jaacobbowden]

Quote:

I want to increase my driver clubhead speed any drills or equipment you recommend? I would average 100mph

Depending on how much time and effort you're willing to put in, there's quite a few things you can do to increase your swing speed.

First, simply practicing swinging fast helps.  I know it sounds simple and obvious, but most people beyond professional long drivers don't do it.  If you want to get better at something, it only makes sense to practice it.  So I would say at least a couple times a week, hit some drives as fast as you can while still staying under control.  If possible, use a radar on each swing for the immediate feedback.  Personally, the one I recommend on my site and to my pro and amateur students and clients is the Sports Sensors Swing Speed Radar.  It's relatively cheap, accurate, and portable.

Second, equipment-wise, that sort of depends.

There's training aids, of which there are three common types that are good for swing speed training...heavy clubs, overspeed clubs, and wind-resistance clubs.  Personally, I don't really favor heavy clubs because you need to swing them fast for building swing speed...which can cause injuries if you are not careful.  You don't necessarily need to buy actual training aids if you don't have them.  Often times there's homemade type of things that you can build at home that essentially do the same thing.  For example, instead of using a Swing Fan, you can cut a 8-10" section of a ribbed pool noodle (will only cost you a few bucks), slide it down your driver shaft, and make fast swings with that on top of practicing swinging your normal driver fast.

Resistance bands are not too expensive and nice as well for improving the strength of your golf swing...and if you have a gym membership, there's quite a bit of things you can do there like ballistic training, speed/shadow reps, isometrics, isokinetics, etc.

Beyond that there's also sports supplementation (protein, creatine, etc), visualization, body work (Ex. neuromuscular reeducation), etc.

If you're willing to put in a bit of effort, it's pretty easy to pick up 12-16 mph in a month.  :)

[saevel25]

1) Start working out, it will increase your range of motion, your strength, yoga is good as well

2) Work on balance, my previous swing i could swing at a high speed and just be in balance, lets say that's 100%, now that 100% is my 90%, and i am totally in balance, and gained probably another 10% because i am not worried about loosing the swing. Balance really unlocks hidden power.

3) Get some impact tape, spray, masking tape, dry erase marker, something so you can tell if your hitting the center of your clubface. If you miss the sweet spot, you can see a good 10-20 yards loss of distance. That right there could be about 10 mph of clubhead speed

4) Get a solid swing, were your hitting from a more neutral swing path, with a clubface that is close to square. For a draw, a swing path that is inside to out 2 degrees, and a clubface open 3 degrees. Get a good motion of starting with the hips first

5) Get fitted, you can kill distance and clubhead speed with the wrong golf shaft

6) Positive angle of attack helps, it decreases spin rate

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by jaacobbowden

If you're willing to put in a bit of effort, it's pretty easy to pick up 12-16 mph in a month.  :)

Find that hard to believe, that's a huge increase in swing speed.

[jaacobbowden]

Originally Posted by mvmac

Find that hard to believe, that's a huge increase in swing speed.

Hehe, I know.  I get that reaction quite a bit.  ;-)

Trainers these days do well with general fitness, flexibility, injury prevention, etc...but what lacked was an expert in swing speed training, so that's an area I've been focusing on for years.  Not increases in swing speed from technical kinds of things (which is most of what you find), but rather making improvements to what your body can physically do.

Believe it or not I've actually had numerous people go up over 30 mph over several months of training and dedication.

[saevel25]

Well you are swinging only a 200 gram driver head, and most people being sedementary for there whole lives, its not shocking to see big spikes in club head speed. They say your muscle gains in the first year are the most you will ever get, and it decreases steadily until year 4, then you hardly get significant gains after that. So i am not shocked, but i would doubt your claim of 30 mph, that means if someone was swinging at 90 mph, they are swinging at 120 mph, that i can not see happening to often. If you say, majority of those people were swinging 70 mph and jumped to 100, that is more likely.

[jefkve]

Originally Posted by saevel25

4) Get a solid swing, were your hitting from a more neutral swing path, with a clubface that is close to square. For a draw, a swing path that is inside to out 2 degrees, and a clubface open 3 degrees. Get a good motion of starting with the hips first

Me thinks you might have the wrong numbers there....more like swing path 3 degrees in to out and a 2 degree open club face for a draw???

[jaacobbowden]

Originally Posted by saevel25

1) Start working out, it will increase your range of motion, your strength, yoga is good as well

2) Work on balance, my previous swing i could swing at a high speed and just be in balance, lets say that's 100%, now that 100% is my 90%, and i am totally in balance, and gained probably another 10% because i am not worried about loosing the swing. Balance really unlocks hidden power.

3) Get some impact tape, spray, masking tape, dry erase marker, something so you can tell if your hitting the center of your clubface. If you miss the sweet spot, you can see a good 10-20 yards loss of distance. That right there could be about 10 mph of clubhead speed

4) Get a solid swing, were your hitting from a more neutral swing path, with a clubface that is close to square. For a draw, a swing path that is inside to out 2 degrees, and a clubface open 3 degrees. Get a good motion of starting with the hips first

5) Get fitted, you can kill distance and clubhead speed with the wrong golf shaft

6) Positive angle of attack helps, it decreases spin rate

With respect to your comments about increasing club head speed...

Yes, increasing range of motion and strength can help with swing speed, but the effects of yoga on swing speed are negligible.

Improving balance also has it's benefits and is important, but getting better balance won't necessarily increase swing speed.

Hitting the ball in the center of the club face versus hitting off-center has influence on ball speed, but not swing speed.

Swing mechanics are obviously important and, yes, certain aspects of various mechanics can lead to higher swing speeds...but a neutral swing path and square clubface won't change swing speed.  For a draw, perhaps you accidentally got the numbers backwards because a 2* in-to-out path with a clubface that is 3* open to the target will produce a ball that fades for a right-handed golfer (assuming good contact).

I agree with you about shaft fitting and it's potential effects on swing speed.

A positive angle of attach can help you hit the ball farther provided optimal launch conditions, but it doesn't necessarily change swing speed nor does it change the spin rate.

[jaacobbowden]

Originally Posted by saevel25

Well you are swinging only a 200 gram driver head, and most people being sedementary for there whole lives, its not shocking to see big spikes in club head speed. They say your muscle gains in the first year are the most you will ever get, and it decreases steadily until year 4, then you hardly get significant gains after that. So i am not shocked, but i would doubt your claim of 30 mph, that means if someone was swinging at 90 mph, they are swinging at 120 mph, that i can not see happening to often. If you say, majority of those people were swinging 70 mph and jumped to 100, that is more likely.

True, there is certainly that aspect of increasing swing speed...that is, getting a big gain right off the bat for those that have been sedentary.  But that actually goes for anyone that doesn't practice their speed, even Tour players who have been playing a long time and have been stuck at what they may perceive to be their maximum speed.

30 mph is rare, yes, but still possible.  Three that come to mind are 105 mph to 139 mph, 95 mph to 139 mph (4 months), and 93 mph to 138 mph (over 5 months).  20 mph is more common.  10 mph is relatively easy to achieve for almost anyone.

[logman]

Thanks Jacob, great knowledge and advice

[saevel25]

Quote:

but the effects of yoga on swing speed are negligible.

Are they, when they can increase shoulder rotation and more leverage in the swing? I doubt any of the long hitters in the game would hit it long if they were not able to have good rotation, and leverage the club.

Quote:

but getting better balance won't necessarily increase swing speed.

No but when lack of balance causes a person to fall over when they are even swinging slower than there max speed possible, this can act as a governor on the golf swing. Not to mention balance will help increase the likely hood of hitting the ball consistently in the center of the clubface for maximized smash factor.

But still, you can have all the swing speed out there, but if you can't harness it, its just a waste.

Quote:

Me thinks you might have the wrong numbers there....more like swing path 3 degrees in to out and a 2 degree open club face for a draw

Yes you are right, thanks :)

[x129]

Depends what you mean by minimal. Studies have shown yoga giving ~2-5mph over a 12 week program.  That is either really nice 10 yard improvement or a minimal one compared to a 30+mph one. I think part of it that people. My experience with stretching (not so much yoga) is that when I did it religiously ever night, I got a lot better over 10 weeks but after that I sort of plateaued. For example I was able to go from barely able to touch the floor with my finger tips to be almost able to palm the floor but I wasn't able to get to the point where it wasn't a major stretch.

I sort of question anyone claiming to swing 140mph with something like a normal golf swing. The number of guys that swing that fast with <46" drivers with playable control is about 0.  There are not many guys out there driving the ball 370+ on the course. If your swinging 140mph and not squaring the club with centered contact, you are not doing a golf swing. You are playing swing a stick fast. Do I think the reports of people with 140mph are all lies? Nope. However a lot of times there are details left out. Some are dry swings. Some are using the swing speed radar (thought to be ~10% high at the higher swing speeds from people posting 110mph trackman versus the 120 they measured). And so on. And I have no idea how many students Jacob has had but if you get a couple thousand people, you will always come across some high responders who have some majors flaws.

I am guessing it is very easy to get most under 60 guys up to around 100mph, a few more to the 110 range and then it will be outliers getting up to 120.

Originally Posted by saevel25

Are they, when they can increase shoulder rotation and more leverage in the swing? I doubt any of the long hitters in the game would hit it long if they were not able to have good rotation, and leverage the club.

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by x129

I am guessing it is very easy to get most under 60 guys up to around 100mph, a few more to the 110 range and then it will be outliers getting up to 120.

You're probably 10 mph too fast in your guesstimates, and it would not be fairly easy.

[jd924]

Originally Posted by mvmac

Find that hard to believe, that's a huge increase in swing speed.

This guy picked up 22 mphs.

Go ahead and watch all long drive videos if you dont believe me :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/myswingevolution

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by jd924

This guy picked up 22 mphs.

Go ahead and watch all long drive videos if you dont believe me :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/myswingevolution

Ben Hogan picked up 22mph watching that guys swing?

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by jd924

This guy picked up 22 mphs.

Go ahead and watch all long drive videos if you dont believe me :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/myswingevolution

Wish we had a better angle on your guy, with a different color shirt, and  view of the golf ball.

[Mr. Desmond]

For the OP, I'd say if you have good fundamentals, and know power emanates from the lower body and then upwards, that helps.

My son had 110+ mph swing and he weighed 135 without much muscle in his senior year in high school - he had great fundamentals and flexibility.

It is only after he graduated that he took the advice I gave him during his freshman year in high school - hit the weights. He began P90X , gained strength and kept his flexibility.

Then he commented how he wished he'd done it sooner - it was now so easy to swing a club at great speed that he became more accurate.

Hope that helps.