What's Your Swing Speed?

[golfmonke]

I never said being athletic didn't help, I said there is no correlation between weight, benching and driving distance (swingspeed).

I also didn't correlate benching , weight with swingspeed.

I correlated overall fitness, strength and athleticism with increased swingspeed. Flexibility is also part of being athletic. There can be little argument that if you take two identical guys, both with the same build. And one can bench press 100 lbs, the other can bench press 300. We know who will hit it farther, assuming all the other factors are the same. Strength and athleticism is an advantage.

[golfmonke]

I never said being athletic didn't help, I said there is no correlation between weight, benching and driving distance (swingspeed).

Like I said in my original post, weight is not an indicator. Strength and athleticism are.

I've seen 150 lb guys bench press 300 and i've seen close to 300 guys not even come close.

[Surefire]

Not doubting the swingspeed, but what do weight and bench ability have to do with swingspeed, or the capability to achieve a certain swingspeed?

IMHO, it has a great deal with being able to generate speed.

I also didn't correlate benching , weight with swingspeed.

Thats not what you said first time round! Why would all factors be equal? What if one guy can bench press 300lbs but is average flexibility, and the other benches 100lbs but is above average flexibility? speed and strength aren't the same thing. Someone strong can swing a heavier object. Someone fast can swing a light object fast.

[golfmonke]

The motion of benching has nothing to do with the golf swing. The main strength you need is to be able to maintain posture. Flexibility is also a big factor.

REALLY?

I beg to differ, you don't use your shoulders, triceps or forearms in the golf swing?? Maybe we've found the problem with your swing Not to mention that just balancing the bar will increase your core strength.

[golfmonke]

Thats not what you said first time round!

I never correlated weight with swingspeed, read again.

Why would all factors be equal, because you need controls to have a valid test. Speed and strength are not the same thing, agree, which is why I said strength and athleticism.

[Surefire]

I agree you use these muscles, and many others but not in the same motion as a bench press.

I actually work out for golf, but benching isn't a part of my workout as there are better ways to develop strength that is more suitable to golf.

[golfmonke]

speed and strength aren't the same thing. Someone strong can swing a heavier object. Someone fast can swing a light object fast.

And someone strong and fast (athletic) will swing even faster.

Strength and speed are not mutually exclusive either. Kinda like, Mark McGuire without steroids == Pretty damn good. Mark McGuire with steroids == Monster.

[golfmonke]

I agree you use these muscles, and many others but not in the same motion as a bench press.

I couldn't agree more. There are more effective ways to generate golf strength and power.

But if you're options were to do nothing, or only bench press, you'll see some results from your efforts. And you've got to put on a HELL Of a lot of muscle to lose your flexiblity. And if you stretch also, you'll probably not only keep your flexibility, but actually increase it. I've been anywhere from 195 lbs all the way up to 250lbs, benching 250 and 315 respectively. My swing speed was MUCH higher when I was 250 than 195. ( AGAIN, i'm not attributing it to bench press, I worked out my whole body, and all my other muscles got stronger as well) My overall strength was greater, my swing was the same, hence the added distance. Just FYI, I did NO stretching during this time, of course I kept swinging the golf club which kept those muscles stretched I guess.

[golfmonke]

I agree you use these muscles, and many others but not in the same motion as a bench press.

The most effective way i've found to increase clubhead speed is to swing a heavy club and/or a swing speed fan.

It makes sense to me, how do sprinters get faster, they sprint. How did great volleyball players jump so high, they jumped alot growing up. :) Why would it be any different in golf. However, there is a lot of stress in jumping, which will build the muscles, in golf you need to add some resistance to build the muscles, like a weighted club. It may not sound like your building muscle, but are. Let me give you an example, I played quarterback in football in college. We used to throw 100 balls a day EASILY. By the end of football season, when I looked in the mirror, my right chest was double the size of my left. You wouldn't think you'd see that just from "throwing a football" would you? Same thing will happen when you swing the weighted club. My forearms get bigger, so will your triceps, your lats, your core. Now, if you had simply gone into a gym and did a full body work out, you would have strengthened these same muscles, but it would have taken longer and been less "effective" (only in the sense that you had to do more) I see a huge increase in my swing speed after a winter of doing nothing but swinging the weighted club (really heavy, it's heavier than medicus) and the swing speed fan. It's fun too. Part of generating club head speed is also in building up tension and getting some power from the separation of your lower body which then pulls your upper body around. For me, when I started playing golf I never needed to first of all learn this move, nor strengthen it, because I had been playing baseball for 8 years. A baseball swing and golf swing are very very similar except for the swing plane, and the aspects to generate power are the same.

[Surefire]

Yes, but if you swing a weighted club, you will swing it slower (laws of physics). You will therefore train your muscles to fire slower. Yes you will be stronger, but slower.

[golfmonke]

Yes, but if you swing a weighted club, you will swing it slower (laws of physics). You will therefore train your muscles to fire slower. Yes you will be stronger, but slower.

You're right, you will swing the weighted club slower.

You'll swing your regular (lighter) clubs faster, because your muscles will be stronger and will be able to generate more force. Are you serious with this argument or just have no clue? From this argument i'd be willing to go out on a limb and say you've never trained for anything involving generating power. I have, both throwing and hitting a baseball. Throwing a football (throwing a heavy basketball works wonders btw) Vertical jump training ( added 10 inches to my leap and was able to dunk) Shot put (throwing a heavier ball, works great) Golf swing speed training (swinging a weighted club, works wonders, and that's all I did all winter)

[Surefire]

I am serious.

Same reason a sprinter trains by sprinting, and overspeed not by running marathons.

[Surefire]

I think you confuse strength and power.

Strength allows you to apply a big force - not amazingly useful for golf.
Power allows you to apply a force quickly - This will help your golf.

[golfmonke]

I think you confuse strength and power.

I think you're missing the point that strength and power are not mutually exclusive. And the more strength you have, keeping everything else the same, you will have more POWER!

[golfmonke]

I am serious.

You're right, i've done my fair share of sprint training. And running for miles won't help, it's not even close to being the same analogy as swinging a weighted club. The same analogy would be swinging a LIGHTER club SLOWER hundreds of times, obviously won't help.

Me and world class sprinters, football running backs, train regularly sprinting uphill, which reduces your speed while doing the activity. This was just last year actually, I did nothing but this uphill training, and took .2 off my 40 speed. Are you even basing your arguments on first hand experience or are you just guessing, cuz it sounds like the latter. there is A LOT of junk information and MYTHs which get passed down from generation to generation, which have been scientifically proven to be false. I personally love the one that said: "Dont workout with weights for golf, you'll lose all your speed and flexibility" I think we've seen that for the myth it was. Actually, I have and all the tour pros who workout like crazy now, apparently you haven't. Why don't YOU do some ACTUAL testing, i'll show you the weighted club to get, and the power swing speed fan. I'll give you roughly what I do (nothing concrete actually, I just swing it whenever I feel like daily, till i'm tired) Do this for 1 month, and show me your slower swing speed LOL. More like you'll show me an increase of 3-5 mph. I'm not talking about little relaxed swings, sure you do those to get warmed up or you'll hurt yourself. But once you're warmed up, you need to go at it aggressively.

[shortgrass lover]

mine's about 105 in normal play. but when I try to turn it up I can get about 120. this is according to "the speed stik"

[st0wgolf08]

Hitting fairways is highly overrated.

Ok so first of all your hitting about as far as most PGA pros, now your hitting just as good from the rough as they are? I highly doubt this, you might but hey it's not too good of chances. Pros always say it's very very hard to make a birdie from the rough, but way easier to make one from the fairway. You might be playing some really short rough or something, but I know when you talk to pros about it, they say being in the fairway helps a ton.

[907golfer12]

Ok so first of all your hitting about as far as most PGA pros, now your hitting just as good from the rough as they are? I highly doubt this, you might but hey it's not too good of chances. Pros always say it's very very hard to make a birdie from the rough, but way easier to make one from the fairway. You might be playing some really short rough or something, but I know when you talk to pros about it, they say being in the fairway helps a ton.

And yet again I'm with stow here.

Also golfmonke would you stop quoting the same post in 2 different posts with different replies. I'm sure this is adding to some of the confusion with what you are saying.