Swing slower for more accuracy?

[David in FL]

5 hours ago, Patch said:

A slower club head speed, made possible by gripping down on the shaft, might be a better discription for "....slower for more accuracy...." 

Agree, in that I think that when most of us try to "slow it down" we have a tendency to decelerate.  At least I do, and it leads to a pull more often than not.  By gripping down, I'm able to take something off a club while retaining consistency in my mechanics (such as they are) and thus, I'm more accurate.

[Club Rat]

Quote

Swing slower for more accuracy?

In relation to golf, this might pertain to the amount of spin which will vary with individuals.
Generally, older players do not have the swing speed of younger players and they tend to be more accurate.

A higher swing speed will produce greater distance with the potential of spin effects moving a shot off target.
I'll still take the distance any day. If I were to swing slower, I would need to move up to shorter courses.
Not that that's a bad thing at my age, but I still enjoy the challenge playing regular mens tees while I'm still able.

[TN94z]

2 hours ago, David in FL said:

Agree, in that I think that when most of us try to "slow it down" we have a tendency to decelerate.  At least I do, and it leads to a pull more often than not.  By gripping down, I'm able to take something off a club while retaining consistency in my mechanics (such as they are) and thus, I'm more accurate.

Agree as well. I tend to grip down rather than slow a swing down because of how easy deceleration creeps in.

I like to think smooth swing rather than slow swing. I also find that if I slow my backswing down and try to really accelerate with the downswing, it gets my entire body out of sync and I would render a guess that it actually slows my clubhead speed down considerably.   I don't feel like I ever hit a ball as good as I do with a "smooth" swing rather than a "slow" swing. Of course, this is just all my opinion of that feel.

[Buckeyebowman]

Many years ago, while playing in a league, I had a fellow competitor tell me, "You know, you have a good looking swing, but the ball doesn't go anywhere!" I had fallen into the habit of getting slow and "careful" with my swing, putting a goofy little "steer job" on it!

I was again reminded of this just a couple years ago, I, and some buddies, were able to play the day after Thanksgiving. We finished with enough time left for a third nine. Since that would probably be the last time we could play that year (it was), we went for it. I told my friends that I was just going to cut loose with the Driver every time I swung it. Not only did I hit the ball farther than I was used to, I was also more accurate!

And by "cutting loose" I don't mean tensing up and trying to swing "harder". I mean being relaxed and taking a full swing at the ball.

And I was reminded of it again last year when I played in the TST outing at Eagle Creek and watched Iacas' video of it here! Amazing how these pernicious things can repeatedly creep into our swings!

[Jack Watson]

My take is that you would never want to consciously swing slow.

My idea is swing comfortably;  the club still needs to be accelerated through the ball to a full finish.

You never wanna steer the shot but imo you don't need to give 100 percent speed on a typical shot.

Its taken me a long time to realize what this means to me.

[span3636]

I think that the topic of swinging slower is a hard one.  I have slowed down my swing on my irons and seen great results.  I am hit it more flush and straighter with better distance control.  This may not work for everyone.  I am still generating plenty of clubhead speed.  I still swing hard with my driver.  Not sure if this helps.

[Vinsk]

I think it may be case of 'feel ain't real' as well. Like Haney says, most of us don't have near as much club speed as the pros, why in the world would we want to swing slower? It may be that you're using your body to perform better sequencing which is giving you better ball striking. 

I was swinging on the TrackMan with a 7i and was posting club speeds around 85-87. My instructor had me 'slow' my swing by having me focus more on slight pause at the top and really feeling I was swing with my core and not my arms.

i 'felt' like I was swinging more gracefully, shorter bs and of course....'slower.' Lo and behold he said look at the screen.....88-90.

golf is hard. *

* all credit to Erik Barzeski for the most accurate and precise sentence to summarize golf.

[JonMA1]

When I talk about slowing down or swinging easy, it's more of a description of tempo not club head speed.

I don't know much about others and absolutely nothing about tour pros. But my guess on why slowing down seems to work for me is that trying to swing fast from the top just screws everything up - again, that's just me. I've seen other amateurs use a faster tempo and that probably works better for them.

If I'm having problems making good contact during practice, then I will actually slow everything down including the club head speed. Once good contact returns, I'll start to ramp everything back up.

There's a point however where more effort just doesn't bring any return. At that point, mechanics, or timing, or sequencing, or whatever starts to breakdown. When I can slow down a little on the backswing and start of the downswing and - through better mechanics - create more club head speed then I know my swing is at it's best.

That's the tempo I try to emulate and maintain on the course. I often tell myself out loud to slow down.