Using Wrist Weights to Increase Swing Speed?

[308 Ragin Cajun]

Having just returned to golf after a 10 year layoff at 65, I find my distance is sadly lacking. A good drive is about 180 yards. and my irons are 2-3 clubs shorter than what they used to be. i have been singing a weighted driver to try to gain some club speed and retain flexibility. In my younger days, my good drives were going 230 to 240, and iron were about average-7 iron 150 yards, etc. I see some progress, but it's real slow. i got the idea of getting some  wrist weights and actually hitting balls on the range  with them.. I am going to try it today. Hopefully i won't pull of dislocate anything. Has anyone seen or heard of this? What do the swing gurus here think?.

Edited August 4, 2018 by 308 Ragin Cajun
Correct mispells

[scotth]

I came back to golf after a 15 year layoff last summer, and feel your pain about the loss of distance.  Think I would stick with the weighted club.  Something about the wrist weights doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

[billchao]

54 minutes ago, 308 Ragin Cajun said:

Having just returned to golf after a 10 year layoff at 65, I find my distance is sadly lacking. A good drive is about 180 yards. and my irons are 2-3 clubs shorter than what they used to be. i have been singing a weighted driver to try to gain some club speed and retain flexibility. In my younger days, my good drives were going 230 to 240, and iron were about average-7 iron 150 yards, etc. I see some progress, but it's real slow. i got the idea of getting some  wrist weights and actually hitting balls on the range  with them.. I am going to try it today. Hopefully i won't pull of dislocate anything. Has anyone seen or heard of this? What do the swing gurus here think?.

I've read some studies that show swinging a weighted club regularly actually decreases swing speed. I think you really want to use them only to loosen up and stretch the muscles out.

I'm not sure using wrist weights would help anyway because the part of the swing where you need to train your arms to swing faster is the downswing and the weights wouldn't be providing resistance during that time.

[dennyjones]

Super Speed Golf

[iacas]

Do not swing with wrist weights.

https://superspeedgolf.com/collections/all-products?aff=40

[308 Ragin Cajun]

Update: tried the wrist weights. hit about 20 balls with a 9 iron, about 1/2 or 3/4 sings. No damage done. I noticed right away that my contact improved. Probably because the weight forced me to stay in the shot. Hit more 9 iron and 7 iron shot without the weights, and was able to see some improvement in contact. I concentrated in staying down and through the shot, and made solid contact. Couldn't  really determine change in assistance because i was hitting range balls and there was a stiff breeze in my face, but overall i was pleased with the way i was making contact.

Edited August 4, 2018 by 308 Ragin Cajun

[Grizvok]

Sounds like an awful idea.

[Vinsk]

7 hours ago, 308 Ragin Cajun said:

Update: tried the wrist weights. hit about 20 balls with a 9 iron, about 1/2 or 3/4 sings. No damage done. I noticed right away that my contact improved. Probably because the weight forced me to stay in the shot. Hit more 9 iron and 7 iron shot without the weights, and was able to see some improvement in contact. I concentrated in staying down and through the shot, and made solid contact. Couldn't  really determine change in assistance because i was hitting range balls and there was a stiff breeze in my face, but overall i was pleased with the way i was making contact.

Hello my friend. FWIW, I’m a physician and I don’t recommend you swing a golf club with wrist weights on. You’re just increasing the chances of a nice case of tendinitis or worse. 

[PraiseKek]

My swing speed in 2001 at 18 was up to 127mph (no control), and I averaged about 119mph. I used to train with four golf balls duck taped the hosel of a laminate driver. Then I stopped playing golf (constant back injuries, wonder why?  ) and hadn't tested it until couple days ago when my launch monitor came to the country I now live in, which has exactly one golf course. I realized I was quite a bit shorter, and the 106mph max, and 102 average confirmed what the video of my garish and not even 3/4 maximum swing told me. I'm old and now an average amateur. Being 40lbs overweight doesn't help the cause either, but golf is helping change that.

My back has felt fine after a month of playing every day, but I have a strange and painful wrist tendon issue now. As soon as I felt pain I removed the Fitbit Blaze from my left hand (I'm RH) as I felt the extra weight of that might have contributed to the trauma. For the last ten years or so I play tennis regularly, and my right wrist is about 1cm larger than my left wrist, which in my golf days used to be the opposite. It's weird now to say the least, but I would not recommend wrist weights. I believe the fitbit was a contributing factor to my current injury on my atrophied wrist, as was my much stronger grip to compensate for all the middle age compensations. 

I'm a 0.5 index now, which is about three shots worse from when I played. That's pretty much just the lost distance, but still I don't think distance matters enough to risk getting injured. If I were capable of winning at the elite level, I would've been doing that long ago, so just being able to play is happiness enough for me. Many of the new long courses I see today just make you hit irons and <280 yard shots off the tee anyway. Short-siding greens in odd spots is surprisingly enjoyable to me now since I find the short game a much more worthwhile investment of time and I like the practice. I'm sure the swing speed will improve slightly as I train. 

[Valleygolfer]

I too have dreamed of longer arms.... If really want to do something like this plyometrics or resistance bands are a much better choice. 

[tinker]

Weights has nothing to do with it. Work on as full a turn as you can get and as straight a left arm as possible. This creates a larger swing arc which produces club head speed. Justin Thomas has arms that look like spaghetti noodles.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, tinker said:

Weights has nothing to do with it. Work on as full a turn as you can get and as straight a left arm as possible. This creates a larger swing arc which produces club head speed. Justin Thomas has arms that look like spaghetti noodles.

If the goal was to create as much clubhead speed as possible I would actually recommend bending the left arm to add another lever and extending it out at impact. That is the only time when the radius is important.

[Fourputt]

On 8/4/2018 at 6:42 AM, 308 Ragin Cajun said:

Having just returned to golf after a 10 year layoff at 65, I find my distance is sadly lacking. A good drive is about 180 yards. and my irons are 2-3 clubs shorter than what they used to be. i have been singing a weighted driver to try to gain some club speed and retain flexibility. In my younger days, my good drives were going 230 to 240, and iron were about average-7 iron 150 yards, etc. I see some progress, but it's real slow. i got the idea of getting some  wrist weights and actually hitting balls on the range  with them.. I am going to try it today. Hopefully i won't pull of dislocate anything. Has anyone seen or heard of this? What do the swing gurus here think?.

 

I don't know your situation as far as general physical condition, but your layoff was at the age where distance starts to drop off dramatically for most people even when they play fairly regularly.  I only had  a 2 year period when I just played a few rounds during a week each year when back to the US on vacation after I was in my mid 60's - didn't have quite a full year between golf outings, and it still showed up in my length in a big way.  Now at 71, I'm probably about where you say you are.  It's frustrating, but it's just part of being an aging golfer.

[p1n9183]

Are wrist weigths allowed in competition? I know that trainning aids are not allowed but they are just dead weight like using a heavy watch. 

Why you ask? I have a really fast tempo, i can rotate my body and arms really fast but my hands can't handle it so the club is always late to delivery. I noticied that adding 50g to the grip (with coins like nicklaus) slowed down my arms and body enough to let the hands catch up and deliver the club at the rigth time. Despite rotating slower I  was averaging 5 miles more of ball speed with a little higher launch all because the movement was a lot smoother.

This works like a charm but its kind of a cheap fix, buying all the weigth to install inside the shaft and new grips is going to be really expensive. If this is all about slowing down the arms, therefore the body rotation, wouldn't a couple of wrist weigths do the trick?

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by p1n9183

[iacas]

Not legal, I'd say, unless they're installed in the clubs like a counter-weight. I don't think you can just put wrist weights on, especially since you know what the purpose is.