My 6 iron swing speed is about the same as my driver. Any ideas as to what I may be doing wrong with the driver?

[divotedgolfer]

I was on a launch monitor yesterday and my average 6 iron swing speed was around 94 and topped at 97. My average driver swing speed was  around 95 and topped at 101. The iron was a steel shafted mp 4 while the driver was a stiff graphite r1. I was pushing off my right leg as hard as possible while maintaining balance. My arms were completely inactive until I got into the impact area. Any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong with the driver as I feel like my swing speed with a club thats lighter and about 6 inches longer should be at least 10 mph more, not 1 mph

[Hacker James]

I have no idea as to what my swing speed might be. Lately, after doing much practice into my hitting range, trying to focus on the correct aspects, my swing thoughts on the course are pretty simple:   "me hit ball, make ball go".  with occasional lapse "Why ball go there?".

[divotedgolfer]

I definitely agree that having more than one or two swing thoughts at a time gives me worse results

[RandallT]

Seems like your 6iron is quite fast. Are you swinging out of your shoes? Not that we should have exact same numbers but my 6iron was mid- to upper 80s as I gave the TrackMan guy a baseline swing. My driver, was mid-90s, and he said he thought I was swinging too slow on my driver relative to how I swung my 6iron. He thought I was self-regulating my swing because of inconsistencies I had on the course (he might be right). As he handed me new drivers to try, they felt straighter and my swing naturally got faster as I gained confidence. When I got to low 100s routinely, he seemed to think that was a more normal pattern compared to where I swung my 6iron.

[RadarNinja]

Monitor is inaccurate, find a Doppler system somewhere near you

[divotedgolfer]

I was making sure my weight didnt go outside my right foot during the backswing but to start the downswing i was shifting it back to my leftside as fast as i could while trying to maintain my posture. Also, I'll try to get to a doppler system this week. Thanks guys

[Mr Smell Good]

Maybe you just don't feel comfortable swinging the driver super fast yet? It might be a good thing for control.  I've hit some clubs recently with the trackman and my 7 iron was around 90-92 and my driver was 110-115 but I don't have full control with my driver when I swing it that hard.

[Lihu]

Monitor is inaccurate, find a Doppler system somewhere near you

Althought RadarNinja's answer might sound a bit biased, I did some research on this topic. My motivation for doing the research is because of a recent incident I had at Golfsmith. I had many misreadings that stated my drives were 150 to 180 yards, and the salesman was saying that those are my true numbers. Of course, I later debunked this on the range and on the course that evening and the next day. The reason for this is the touchy nature of setting up the optical systems. If the optical system is setup too far back, it just won't work. If set too far forward it won't work either. Worse yet, if it is setup just a little too far forward, it gives misreadings. This is because of the assumptions that have to be made on the setup angles and location of the impact. The optical system has a limited field of view. It needs to make certain assumptions on setup because can't see outside of a certain angle. Therefore, it requires more effort to setup the machine, and is prone to misuse. The Doppler radars on the other hand have a much wider field of view, so to speak, and are much less prone to error based upon setup. A simple radar might not be good enough, like the little swing speed radar units, because of the ambiguous signal obtained from the radar. Some swings might be reported much higher because the ball is the highest signal. However, the array radars have more of an "image", and can distinguish the difference. Optical systems are prone to error because they are limited in their field of view. This limitation requires that the user is knowlegable in setting up the equipment. Under these conditions, it could be better especially if they are being used in adjacent stalls in a store. I would go with the Doppler for situations where the setup operator is not all that technical, so the error is reduced.

[RadarNinja]

Originally Posted by Lihu

Althought RadarNinja's answer might sound a bit biased, I did some research on this topic.

My motivation for doing the research is because of a recent incident I had at Golfsmith. I had many misreadings that stated my drives were 150 to 180 yards, and the salesman was saying that those are my true numbers. Of course, I later debunked this on the range and on the course that evening and the next day.

The reason for this is the touchy nature of setting up the optical systems. If the optical system is setup too far back, it just won't work. If set too far forward it won't work either. Worse yet, if it is setup just a little too far forward, it gives misreadings. This is because of the assumptions that have to be made on the setup angles and location of the impact. The optical system has a limited field of view. It needs to make certain assumptions on setup because can't see outside of a certain angle. Therefore, it requires more effort to setup the machine, and is prone to misuse.

The Doppler radars on the other hand have a much wider field of view, so to speak, and are much less prone to error based upon setup. A simple radar might not be good enough, like the little swing speed radar units, because of the ambiguous signal obtained from the radar. Some swings might be reported much higher because the ball is the highest signal. However, the array radars have more of an "image", and can distinguish the difference.

Optical systems are prone to error because they are limited in their field of view. This limitation requires that the user is knowlegable in setting up the equipment. Under these conditions, it could be better especially if they are being used in adjacent stalls in a store.

I would go with the Doppler for situations where the setup operator is not all that technical, so the error is reduced.

Camera/Optical based systems use primarily algorithms based on photo snaps in a small window of space vs. Doppler systems that actually track the clubhead into impact and lock and follow the ball in flight. It's not the 'set up' that makes it harder, it's the fact that it's not really measuring/tracking much other than what it 'sees' for a split second prior to impact. In terms of accuracy a Doppler system like Flightscope or Trackman is light years ahead of a camera system.

[Lihu]

A bit biased, only because of your name, but I think you're probably right that the radar can be inherently more accurate. The only issues with doppler arrays are if you have many in close proximity.

[inthecup]

An optical monitor and it can be wrong but it can also be very correct.  I own an optical system and I can set it up correctly and get good numbers from it.  Are they trackman correct probably not but they are darn close and a great learning tool.

[inthecup]

To the OP, shifting your weight "as hard as you can" does not sound like a formula for clubhead speed to me.  Is that how you hit the ball on the course?

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by divotedgolfer

I was on a launch monitor yesterday and my average 6 iron swing speed was around 94 and topped at 97. My average driver swing speed was  around 95 and topped at 101. The iron was a steel shafted mp 4 while the driver was a stiff graphite r1. I was pushing off my right leg as hard as possible while maintaining balance. My arms were completely inactive until I got into the impact area. Any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong with the driver as I feel like my swing speed with a club thats lighter and about 6 inches longer should be at least 10 mph more, not 1 mph

That is odd.  Kind of have to agree with the sentiment that the monitor is probably wrong.  Otherwise, to get the same speed out of a 6 iron and a driver, I'd imagine that you'd have to be consciously swinging out of your ass with the 6-iron or in slow motion with the driver.  Unless you choke way up with the driver?

[Lihu]

An optical monitor and it can be wrong but it can also be very correct.  I own an optical system and I can set it up correctly and get good numbers from it.  Are they trackman correct probably not but they are darn close and a great learning tool.

Right, you are much more competent than many of the employees at Golfsmith.