Drill for club head speed

[gregsandiego]

A local PGA instructor once told me there is no practice drill to improve club head speed? True? And if not then what is the drill?

[Mr. Desmond]

Some think a combo of hitting light clubs with slightly heavier clubs will get you speed. Tour Tempo has a club with velcro on the end in which you hit it into a velcroed fabric square with streamers - the streamers at impact slow you down slightly - intermix short with long streamers. Can't tell you if it works...

[Patch]

I am of the opinion that increased club head speed alone, does not always relate to a longer distance.  I say this because there have been many times I have swung my driver much faster than I normally would, but did not see that much of a distance increase. I am assuming that when I swing faster, I am using more arms and less "other" body parts. My timing/rhythm is off, and I am not swinging in balance.

I remember reading something in Harvey's Little Red Book where he had a student swinging for all he worth. The student was complaining about all the errant shots. Harvey's reply was that student needed distance first, and that accuracy would come later.

Perhaps that's a viable swing speed drill. Distance first, accuracy later once all the swing body parts start working together. 

[colin007]

Overspeed training. Swinging something heavy will only make the normal club feel lighter, but it won't make you swing it faster. 

You could just flip your driver around and grip it just above the hosel. This will be effectively just swinging a shaft.

[gregsandiego]

3 hours ago, colin007 said:

Overspeed training. Swinging something heavy will only make the normal club feel lighter, but it won't make you swing it faster. 

You could just flip your driver around and grip it just above the hosel. This will be effectively just swinging a shaft.

Actually there is a whoosh drill I've seen on Golf Channel just like that.

[mvmac]

Whatever you do, don't use a heavy club or a swing fan.

I think something like the overspeed training can help but you have to stick with it. Generally if you want to swing faster look at improving your mechanics (full turn, using the ground, good sequencing with the arms).

[iacas]

4 hours ago, Patch said:

I am of the opinion that increased club head speed alone, does not always relate to a longer distance.  I say this because there have been many times I have swung my driver much faster than I normally would, but did not see that much of a distance increase. I am assuming that when I swing faster, I am using more arms and less "other" body parts. My timing/rhythm is off, and I am not swinging in balance.

Then you weren't actually swinging faster.

If you swing faster with the same impact conditions, you'll hit the ball farther. Period. If you swing faster and it causes you to mishit the ball more, you may or may not hit the ball farther (or shorter).

But swinging faster and all else being equal is always going to result in more distance (for any kind of normal drive).

[SavvySwede]

 

[gregsandiego]

1 hour ago, SavvySwede said:

YouTube video - see above

Thanks for the share. Wow that was like a movie in YouTube time, but I get the idea. Swing something really light so your body gets used to the motion.

Interesting and contrary (of course) to other advice. My home course has one of those fans stationed at tee box #1. I liked it until all the dire warnings scared me from using it.

[RayG]

Interesting- swing a "light" object to get used to the motion... That may be a thing, but I was just thinking about his while working at the range over the weekend. What I'm struggling with is actually "feeling" the club head as I did with the older technology. Clubheads these days are so light, I'm losing awareness of where the head actually is. The first generation "metal head" drivers were not THAT different from the wood drivers and such. I KNEW where the clubhead was because the momentum of the swing helped get the club to parallel (or near enough) and I could feel where it was and if it was a bit 'out of position', so to speak. As I've found, when I use my FtiZ 13*, the head is much more compact and dense so there is a definite momentum effect of the head getting it further back. Which results in a bit of a kick up in clubhead speed at impact. As a result, I'm getting nearly the same distance (well, less of a distance difference as one would expect) from THAT as I do with the R11s with a 10* setup.

[Lihu]

On 12/27/2015 at 7:17 AM, gregsandiego said:

A local PGA instructor once told me there is no practice drill to improve club head speed? True? And if not then what is the drill?

There isn't a real drill. Improved mechanics is the way to get your swing speed to its maximum.

I suppose you can do some resistance training to "activate" the muscles. My son and his team used resistance bands at the performance center during team workouts. After two seasons of this training he's a lot stronger and hits really far. Gained maybe 40 yards, but it might also be that he grew bigger as well? Not sure how much to attribute to the training and how much to starting to hit puberty?

 

On 12/27/2015 at 7:35 AM, Mr. Desmond said:

Some think a combo of hitting light clubs with slightly heavier clubs will get you speed. Tour Tempo has a club with velcro on the end in which you hit it into a velcroed fabric square with streamers - the streamers at impact slow you down slightly - intermix short with long streamers. Can't tell you if it works...

This is what I did. I switched from steel clubs to graphite, but I'm not so sure that the swing is the same or not? It seems like I am doing different things with my muscles using heavier clubs versus lighter ones.

I am currently training with only my i25 with a 55gm shaft, and still gaining some distance (except it's shorter now due to the weather changes).

 

20 hours ago, mvmac said:

Whatever you do, don't use a heavy club or a swing fan.

I think something like the overspeed training can help but you have to stick with it. Generally if you want to swing faster look at improving your mechanics (full turn, using the ground, good sequencing with the arms).

Is this in general, or specific to the person asking? I suppose it's not good because different muscles are used for heavy versus light? Or is it something else?

 

19 hours ago, SavvySwede said:

 

Nice video. Meandmygolf have a similar one.

 

 

[ZappyAd]

21 hours ago, iacas said:

If you swing faster with the same impact conditions, you'll hit the ball farther.

...

But swinging faster and all else being equal is always going to result in more distance (for any kind of normal drive).

Does spin have an effect ?  If you hit the ball with a certain club head speed then presumably you add a velocity and some spin.  If you hit the ball with a faster club head but the same impact conditions then would you have some proportion more ball speed and more spin?  More spin might be good and help get longer distance but might there be an inflection point where more spin causes some effect (is it ballooning ?) that works against more distance?

Edited December 28, 2015 by ZappyAd

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, ZappyAd said:

Does spin have an effect ?  If you hit the ball with a certain club head speed then presumably you add a velocity and some spin.  If you hit the ball with a faster club head but the same impact conditions then would you have some proportion more ball speed and more spin?  More spin might be good and help get longer distance but might there be an inflection point where more spin causes some effect (is it ballooning ?) that works against more distance?

He stated with all else being equal, so I assume that means path to face and impact location on the face?

[ZappyAd]

39 minutes ago, Lihu said:

He stated with all else being equal, so I assume that means path to face and impact location on the face?

Yes that is what I understood it to mean - all the inputs are the same except club speed.  But it seems to me that the outputs are not just ball speed they would be ball speed and spin (and maybe other things like sound, heat, whatever) and all of these would change with higher club speed.

[mvmac]

3 hours ago, Lihu said:

Is this in general, or specific to the person asking? I suppose it's not good because different muscles are used for heavy versus light? Or is it something else?

General. Swinging something heavier just teaches you to swing slower.

1 hour ago, ZappyAd said:

Does spin have an effect ?  If you hit the ball with a certain club head speed then presumably you add a velocity and some spin.  If you hit the ball with a faster club head but the same impact conditions then would you have some proportion more ball speed and more spin?  More spin might be good and help get longer distance but might there be an inflection point where more spin causes some effect (is it ballooning ?) that works against more distance?

Ball will still go farther. If you swing 5mph faster (same impact conditions) the spin isn't going to increase so much that you start ballooning it and don't see distance gains. The added speed will still get the ball "out there".

[Lihu]

15 minutes ago, mvmac said:

General. Swinging something heavier just teaches you to swing slower.

I think I was also prone to casting, like when I first went to the lighter club it was so bad I sliced big and could feel the club flip. Possible that the heavier club "holds me back" artificially?

[mvmac]

2 minutes ago, Lihu said:

I think I was also prone to casting, like when I first went to the lighter club it was so bad I sliced big and could feel the club flip. Possible that the heavier club "holds me back" artificially?

I'm going to guess no, I don't think a few grams or swing weight points is the difference between casting and not casting. The faster you can move your arms down to the ball the less likely you are to flip.

[Lihu]

2 minutes ago, mvmac said:

I'm going to guess no, I don't think a few grams or swing weight points is the difference between casting and not casting. The faster you can move your arms down to the ball the less likely you are to flip.

This is definitely something that I am doing more with the 55 gram shaft versus the 135 gram one.