Stop Lying About Your Distance - It's Pissing Me Off (Rant Thread)

[Righty to Lefty]

  On 10/26/2018 at 12:57 PM, iacas said:

OMG a sample size of 1! Stop the presses! Throw away the sample sizes of tens of thousands!

Dude.

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I will agree with that swing speed gives you a better shot to be a good golfer because as you get reps in if you have any kind of talent you will learn to keep the ball in play and of course you can hit shorter clubs into greens from further away.  But your graph doesn't show a 15 handicap moving toward scratch's swing speed increasing as their handicap drops. The golfer that plays to a +5 swinging at 110 mph was likely swinging that fast, or faster when they started playing the game but they are talented at getting to impact so they play to a lower handicap. Conversely someone that swings it at 95 mph isn't condemned to being a 15 handicap either !!

[Lihu]

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:16 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

I will agree with that swing speed gives you a better shot to be a good golfer because as you get reps in if you have any kind of talent you will learn to keep the ball in play and of course you can hit shorter clubs into greens from further away.  But your graph doesn't show a 15 handicap moving toward scratch's swing speed increasing as their handicap drops. The golfer that plays to a +5 swinging at 110 mph was likely swinging that fast, or faster when they started playing the game but they are talented at getting to impact so they play to a lower handicap. Conversely someone that swings it at 95 mph isn't condemned to being a 15 handicap either !!

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Statistics is s funny thing. It shows trends and allows you to make generalizations, true. However, the data is not causal. It’s simply an average of what’s out there. The longer you hit, the better your handicap.

Your case is somewhat exceptional, I’d say less than 0.1% swing 129mph on average.

And even less swing 129 and shoot 100s

Edited October 26, 2018 by Lihu
Not sure why p.1 replaced 0.1 Apple strikes again :-P

[DaveP043]

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:16 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

I will agree with that swing speed gives you a better shot to be a good golfer because as you get reps in if you have any kind of talent you will learn to keep the ball in play and of course you can hit shorter clubs into greens from further away.  But your graph doesn't show a 15 handicap moving toward scratch's swing speed increasing as their handicap drops. The golfer that plays to a +5 swinging at 110 mph was likely swinging that fast, or faster when they started playing the game but they are talented at getting to impact so they play to a lower handicap. Conversely someone that swings it at 95 mph isn't condemned to being a 15 handicap either !!

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Your contention is that, as a general rule, players do not increase their swing speed as they play and  improve.  Do YOU have any statistical evidence that supports your contention?  It seems pretty counter-intuitive to me that improvement in swing mechanics doesn't generally result in improvement in both swing speed and in consistent contact. 

And nobody has ever said that a specific swing speed imposes a specific limit on your scoring potential, there's lots of scatter in the data.  But for someone with a 95 mph swing speed, he'll have to really excel at other facets of the game to ever get below scratch.  In general, hitting shorter shots into greens results in lower scores.  

[TN94z]

Just my opinion here, only an opinion, but I do not see how one's swing speed would NOT increase as they get better, to be honest. When your swing gets more technically sound and in all of the right positions, it is much more efficient. This efficiency is going to make the swing more free flowing with less effort spent on club manipulation that will in turn free up more swing speed. I actually had this conversation with my club fitter a few weeks ago.

[Righty to Lefty]

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:55 PM, DaveP043 said:

Your contention is that, as a general rule, players do not increase their swing speed as they play and  improve.  Do YOU have any statistical evidence that supports your contention?  It seems pretty counter-intuitive to me that improvement in swing mechanics doesn't generally result in improvement in both swing speed and in consistent contact. 

And nobody has ever said that a specific swing speed imposes a specific limit on your scoring potential, there's lots of scatter in the data.  But for someone with a 95 mph swing speed, he'll have to really excel at other facets of the game to ever get below scratch.  In general, hitting shorter shots into greens results in lower scores.  

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The evidence is all around you. I'll give you an example...you are either fast or you are not.  I can go train with the best track coaches in the world and I will never be a world class sprinter.  I can clean up my technique and find incremental improvement but a superior athlete will have likely been a superior athlete all their life in comparison to their peers. If you have average speed at 90 miles per hour, no amount of training is going to get you 130 mph.  You will never attain anything athletically in any sport that you didn't already have the potential to do. You may be able to get to 100 mph but you will never attain elite level speed.  You either have it or you don't. I bet a lot of LPGA pros would beg to differ with your assertion of a "slow" swing speed ever attaining a scratch handicap or better.  

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:16 PM, TN94z said:

Just my opinion here, only an opinion, but I do not see how one's swing speed would NOT increase as they get better, to be honest. When your swing gets more technically sound and in all of the right positions, it is much more efficient. This efficiency is going to make the swing more free flowing with less effort spent on club manipulation that will in turn free up more swing speed. I actually had this conversation with my club fitter a few weeks ago.

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Your swing speed isn't increasing...your smash factor is what is increasing.  Your body is finding the coordination to swing the club and you are maximizing your efficiency.  Unless your body hasn't fully developed yet and you haven't reached your athletic peak, your swing speed will decline as you get better simply because getting better takes time...and no one is getting faster as they get older. 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Righty to Lefty

[TN94z]

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

The evidence is all around you. I'll give you an example...you are either fast or you are not.  I can go train with the best track coaches in the world and I will never be a world class sprinter.  I can clean up my technique and find incremental improvement but a superior athlete will have likely been a superior athlete all their life in comparison to their peers. If you have average speed at 90 miles per hour, no amount of training is going to get you 130 mph.  You will never attain anything athletically in any sport that you didn't already have the potential to do.

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I agree about the world class sprinter, but I would almost guarantee that if you went and trained with the best track coaches in the world, you would get faster just from them cleaning up technique. I have seen these kinds of examples far too many times in various sports. The part about potential is just too vague because there is no way to measure how much potential in any one thing you have. You can look at someone and say they have potential but that's just an opinion.

  Quote

You may be able to get to 100 mph but you will never attain elite level speed.  You either have it or you don't. I bet a lot of LPGA pros would beg to differ with your assertion of a "slow" swing speed ever attaining a scratch handicap or better.  

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You can't compare a good increase in swing speed from cleaning up technique to reaching elite level swing speed though. There are factors that come into play from the more athletic person to the less athletic person and there are always the "gifted" players in any sport. But to use that to say that one will not get a good increase in swing speed from better mechanics is just not valid, in my opinion.

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

Your swing speed isn't increasing...your smash factor is what is increasing.  Your body is finding the coordination to swing the club and you are maximizing your efficiency.  Unless your body hasn't fully developed yet and you haven't reached your athletic peak, your swing speed will decline as you get better simply because getting better takes time...and no one is getting faster as they get older. 

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So then why, when I was getting my fitting, did I swing at my normal effort (which has swing flaws at full speed) and hit X swing speed, but when I dropped to a 3/4 swing (which allows me to get in better positions and a more efficient swing) did my swing speed increase on Trackman?

I disagree with getting faster as they get older to a certain extent as well. I am 40 years old and just got bumped into stiff shafts because my swing speed has increased since my last fitting a few years ago..

Edited October 26, 2018 by TN94z

[iacas]

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:16 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

But your graph doesn't show a 15 handicap moving toward scratch's swing speed increasing as their handicap drops.

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Sure it does. There are two sets of data and a strong correlation between them.

Also, that's not what I wrote before:

  On 10/25/2018 at 8:51 PM, iacas said:

Better players tend to swing faster, and players who swing faster tend to be better players. That's a correlation.

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I didn't say "as you get better you swing faster, and as you swing faster you get better."

Until now: as a player tends to get better technique, they tend to swing better, and as a player tends to swing faster, they tend to get better.

I see this all the time with juniors. Natalie improved by two or three shots just by getting longer clubs. She swung faster - that was the only change. In fact, her ball striking probably suffered a little bit, and her drop in handicap (two shots) was almost entirely due to the driver being 20-25 yards longer.

But I'm not using her as the only example: I see it in almost all juniors. They almost never get worse as they get older. Yes, some of the improvement is from having played golf for another year or whatever, but a lot of it is from "I couldn't reach five of the par fours in a round, and now I can reach all of them and some of them are with wedges."

I see it in my better, established, fully grown players, too. As technique improves, as sequencing improves, swing speed can climb. Some new or poor golfers can swing fast, and many look like they're swinging fast when really they're just off balance, but even those players, as they improve, swing faster.

Since you seem to think well of tiny sample sizes, @mvmac is swinging faster now than a few years ago, and he's playing better golf.

I could show you a graph of handicaps dropping as speed increases (or vice versa - the same graph shows both). It wouldn't have an R² value of 1.0 or anything, but it wouldn't be 0 or negative, either.

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:16 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

The golfer that plays to a +5 swinging at 110 mph was likely swinging that fast, or faster when they started playing the game but they are talented at getting to impact so they play to a lower handicap.

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No, they weren't. They were almost surely swinging slower.

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:16 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

Conversely someone that swings it at 95 mph isn't condemned to being a 15 handicap either !!

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It's far more likely they'll be a 15 than a +5. (The Trackman chart puts them at about an 11.)

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:55 PM, DaveP043 said:

Do YOU have any statistical evidence that supports your contention?

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He does not.

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:55 PM, DaveP043 said:

It seems pretty counter-intuitive to me that improvement in swing mechanics doesn't generally result in improvement in both swing speed and in consistent contact.

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It's counter-intuitive because your intuitions are correct.

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:55 PM, DaveP043 said:

And nobody has ever said that a specific swing speed imposes a specific limit on your scoring potential, there's lots of scatter in the data.

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It does provide a limit, but it's a pretty broad one on the top end. A guy who swings 90 MPH will never play the PGA Tour. Maybe even 100 these days.

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:16 PM, TN94z said:

Just my opinion here, only an opinion, but I do not see how one's swing speed would NOT increase as they get better, to be honest. When your swing gets more technically sound and in all of the right positions, it is much more efficient. This efficiency is going to make the swing more free flowing with less effort spent on club manipulation that will in turn free up more swing speed. I actually had this conversation with my club fitter a few weeks ago.

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Yep.

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

I can go train with the best track coaches in the world and I will never be a world class sprinter.

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No, but you can get faster.

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

If you have average speed at 90 miles per hour, no amount of training is going to get you 130 mph.

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That's not at all what this discussion is about. Someone who swings 90 MPH with poor technique could get to 100. Maybe even higher. Hell, @mvmac had trouble hitting 100 MPH, and now is up to 108 or something, and he was a 2 or so when he was swinging 98.

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

You will never attain anything athletically in any sport that you didn't already have the potential to do. 

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Again, not at all the discussion being had here.

  On 10/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

I bet a lot of LPGA pros would beg to differ with your assertion of a "slow" swing speed ever attaining a scratch handicap or better.  

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That's not comparing apples to apples. A scratch female golfer is about a 6 handicap golfer from the men's tees. Their definitions of "slow" and "fast" are quite different. C'mon man. What are you even talking about?

Here's what's happening: you've dug yourself into such a hole, that you've lost sight of the forest for the trees. Here are some facts:

• Better players tend to swing faster, and faster swinging players tend to be better players.
• As you improve your golf swing, your speed tends to increase as well.
• The above two statements are true at every level of the game, with the lowest correlation (but still a positive correlation) in those very new to the game (for obvious reasons).
• There are exceptions to these generalities, but these generalities have existed over sample sizes of thousands and thousands if not millions.

[DaveP043]

  On 10/26/2018 at 1:55 PM, DaveP043 said:

Your contention is that, as a general rule, players do not increase their swing speed as they play and  improve.  Do YOU have any statistical evidence that supports your contention? 

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  On 10/26/2018 at 2:34 PM, Righty to Lefty said:

The evidence is all around you.

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What you seem to be saying is that you don't actually have any statistics to back up your contention, just an opinion based on personal experience.  And even that "experience" seems to ignore the gains that an athlete can attain by improving his mechanics.  Personal experience is fine, but it doesn't represent global trends.  Statistics can, and often do, illustrate global trends, but all general trends have exceptions.   I know I'm an exception in a few ways.  I'm longer than average for my age (62), my handicap is way lower than average for my age (3.4 index), my driving distance and clubhead speed is relatively short for my handicap (maybe 240 carry, just under 100 mph).  None of that makes the statistics or the correlations wrong, I'm just one data point among thousands of them.

[DrMJG]

I returned to golf, as many know here, after decades off with a body that had suffered a lot.  My speeds were not good at all.  Given my age and ability, I moved into senior clubs which help give faster speeds and I had settled into faster speeds because of that.  Indeed, after about a year, technique has improved a lot and I have become aware of significant speed increase over all the clubs and not just the driver. Yardage increased quite well, as well as what I can do through allowing for different speeds (especially with wedges).

I will admit my speeds did not increase a high percentage. It went from low 80 to high 90.  The result for me is also the result of building up a lot of old flabby muscle in my golfing body. When I try to swing harder to smash a shot, the results are usually not good.

I may never see consistently high over 100 speeds again because of personal limits.  I golf better when not trying to push.  I may see a few more MPH as I continue to build up unused lazy muscles. I am a better player now because I have increased my swing speed while learning to add to that better everything through technique.

 

 

[mvmac]

  On 10/26/2018 at 3:00 PM, iacas said:

That's not at all what this discussion is about. Someone who swings 90 MPH with poor technique could get to 100. Maybe even higher. Hell, @mvmac had trouble hitting 100 MPH, and now is up to 108 or something, and he was a 2 or so when he was swinging 98.

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Yeah and that's with a club that's a little heavier than the one where I couldn't get to 100.

Probably 95% of the improvement is due to better swing mechanics and practicing to swing faster. Like taking eight balls, getting the Mevo out and swinging as fast as I can. Other 5% would be some mobility work and the Superspeed Training aids, which I don't do as often as I should. Got it up to 113/114 a few months ago on Trackman, never swung that fast in college, I'm 35 now.

Distance is huge in this game. I'd love and working hard towards another five yards, even as small as that can seem would make a big difference in my game. At my home club five more yards completely takes out three bunkers on par 4's that now I either have to play a bit away from or can get over with a good swing or right conditions.

Speaking of small sample sizes:

There is about 20 guys in our weekend group (regulars), most are 5 indexes or lower, four are plus handicappers. One hits it about 5-10 yards behind me, he bounces between 0 and +1. Myself and the other two guys hit it almost exactly the same, I'm trending to a +3 and they are both +2's. We're the longest out of the twenty guys by a decent margin.

Every few months a kid who plays for San Diego State joins us, he's plays as a +4 and he hits it 15-20 past me. He's average, even a little short for college. His older brother who played for USC is on the Japan Tour, hits it a little farther than his younger brother, and as much as I like him, he has no chance to make a living playing golf. Biggest reason is because he doesn't hit it far enough and/or doesn't have Zach Johnson's wedge/putting ability. Xander Schauffele grew up at our club, he hits it 20-30 past the former USC guy and he's become one of the top players on tour. Our head pro played with both of them about a year ago and said the places that Xander can fly it and how high he can hit his long/mid irons (another example of speed) make it a different game, and he has an extra gear if he needs it.

We also have two community college kids play with us every once in while, I hit it a little farther than both of them, they are 1 and 2 handicappers. 

  On 10/26/2018 at 3:00 PM, iacas said:

Here's what's happening: you've dug yourself into such a hole, that you've lost sight of the forest for the trees. Here are some facts:

• Better players tend to swing faster, and faster swinging players tend to be better players.
• As you improve your golf swing, your speed tends to increase as well.
• The above two statements are true at every level of the game, with the lowest correlation (but still a positive correlation) in those very new to the game (for obvious reasons).
• There are exceptions to these generalities, but these generalities have existed over sample sizes of thousands and thousands if not millions.

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QFT

[Righty to Lefty]

  On 10/26/2018 at 3:29 PM, DaveP043 said:

 

What you seem to be saying is that you don't actually have any statistics to back up your contention, just an opinion based on personal experience.  And even that "experience" seems to ignore the gains that an athlete can attain by improving his mechanics.  Personal experience is fine, but it doesn't represent global trends.  Statistics can, and often do, illustrate global trends, but all general trends have exceptions.   I know I'm an exception in a few ways.  I'm longer than average for my age (62), my handicap is way lower than average for my age (3.4 index), my driving distance and club head speed is relatively short for my handicap (maybe 240 carry, just under 100 mph).  None of that makes the statistics or the correlations wrong, I'm just one data point among thousands of them.

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The evolution of the athlete proves my point for me and I studied this in college and it is true across all sports.  No one without the use of performance enhancing drugs, is performing above what they were already capable of doing in the first place.  If you were swinging at 100 mph as an untrained athlete, and you got some coaching, cleaned up your technique, and then got yourself into condition specific to your sport, and now you swing it at 115 mph, all you just did was realize your potential that you already had. Of course as you dedicate to a sport and train specifically for that sport you will find improvement. This is true of any sport...if you work at it... you will find improvement...until you reach peak performance. The only thing you can hope for is that your physical peak occurs in sequence with your comprehension of the sport you are participating in relation to your peers and that you can make the inevitable physical performance loss curve as shallow as possible through focused physical training.  

 

[Slim_Pivot]

It’s a shock to the system to play with one of these guys and you’ll know it. Imagine there’s an uphill, barely drivable par 4 that only the very longest hitters in your group can get to a few times a year...this guy flys it over the green and over the trees 20 yards behind the green....and you go wtf

[Vinsk]

  On 10/27/2018 at 10:08 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

  No one without the use of performance enhancing drugs, is performing above what they were already capable of doing in the first place. 

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And how exactly was that ‘capable’ limit set? You’re just assuming an elite athlete reaches a limit then saying it was predetermined. And an athlete is certainly able to achieve peak performance by intense training/practice rather than just taking what comes natural and hoping it’s enough. That’s the unpredictability of this. Humans, hell all animals, have a limit to certain abilities based on their physiology but those limits are not the same across each person/animal. Pushing one’s limits is part of being a superior athlete. Making the effort to achieve it. 

[iacas]

  On 10/27/2018 at 10:08 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

The evolution of the athlete proves my point for me and I studied this in college and it is true across all sports.  No one without the use of performance enhancing drugs, is performing above what they were already capable of doing in the first place.  If you were swinging at 100 mph as an untrained athlete, and you got some coaching, cleaned up your technique, and then got yourself into condition specific to your sport, and now you swing it at 115 mph, all you just did was realize your potential that you already had. Of course as you dedicate to a sport and train specifically for that sport you will find improvement. This is true of any sport...if you work at it... you will find improvement...until you reach peak performance. The only thing you can hope for is that your physical peak occurs in sequence with your comprehension of the sport you are participating in relation to your peers and that you can make the inevitable physical performance loss curve as shallow as possible through focused physical training.  

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That’s got nothing at all to do with the recent topic of discussion.

You’ve lost this one. Badly.

I will never swing a regulation driver 135. So what? Not the discussion here.

[Righty to Lefty]

  On 10/27/2018 at 11:37 AM, Vinsk said:

And how exactly was that ‘capable’ limit set? You’re just assuming an elite athlete reaches a limit then saying it was predetermined. And an athlete is certainly able to achieve peak performance by intense training/practice rather than just taking what comes natural and hoping it’s enough. That’s the unpredictability of this. Humans, hell all animals, have a limit to certain abilities based on their physiology but those limits are not the same across each person/animal. Pushing one’s limits is part of being a superior athlete. Making the effort to achieve it. 

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Absolutely it is predetermined before you are born through genetics and the playing field is not equal at birth.  Achieving peak performance is through training is an attempt to bring out max performance but my max performance is different from your max performance and we all have a limit.  I will never be as fast as Usain Bolt and there is nothing that could have been done about that even if I was groomed from birth to be as fast as I can possibly be. 

The will to achieve can't be measured and there is where Zach Johnson comes in because he is not athletically superior any aspect of his game but he is determined to be successful so he is getting the max out of his skills and sustaining it over time. However at his peak and Tiger's peak, Zach is no match for Tiger because Tiger is athletically superior. 

The next "Tiger Woods" of golf will be a bigger, faster, and stronger version of Tiger that is obsessively driven to be great.  Dustin Johnson is physically superior but not mentally, so he can dominate he game for spurts but never sustain dominance like Tiger did...same with Rory, etc. All cheetahs are fast...but if they all had a race at the same age they wouldn't all tie.  One of them is genetically superior and nature will do its best to pass on those genes for the survival of the species because the prey is doing the same thing and getting faster. 

I don't care how bad you want it...If I am bigger, faster, and stronger than you I don't have to care as much to be better than you.  But if I am athletically superior AND I am just much or more driven than you to be great...you have no chance and your victories will be few and far between. This is life. 

[iacas]

  On 10/27/2018 at 11:58 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

The will to achieve can't be measured and there is where Zach Johnson comes in because he is not athletically superior any aspect of his game

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It's WAY off topic, but yes, he is, if you define "superior" as something like "top 25 in the world" or something. (He may not literally be top 25, but he's top 25 with enough of the other skills to be among the top 100 in the world in general.)

  On 10/27/2018 at 11:58 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

However at his peak and Tiger's peak, Zach is no match for Tiger because Tiger is athletically superior.

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Again OT, but there are different kinds of "athletic" skills. It's not just about speed.

Anyway, @Righty to Lefty, none of that stuff is on topic. Or, if you think it's on topic, then you've really lost sight of the forest. You argued against my statements, and those of others (unsuccessfully), so now you're shifting the topic to talk about someone's potential or "max skill level"? That's not the topic here.

You've run out of rope. Get back to the actual topic, please.

[billchao]

  On 10/26/2018 at 4:10 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

I would actually hypothesize that the fastest speed most people have, if they pick up the game as and adult, will be just after they first start playing.  If you hand someone a stick and tell them swing it...they will in most cases swing it freely and without worry.  It's when you add impact into the equation that it all goes out the window.  The second you go from "just hit the ball anywhere" to "hit it here specifically," the golfer is immediately going to begin sacrificing speed to find solid impact. I'd be willing to bet that very few golfers swing it faster on the course in comparison to the driving range. All golfers do this to manage their way around the golf course but the amount of speed given up will be a few miles per hour and not 15 or 20. .  

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When I first started playing at 23 I didn't have a driver, so as a complete novice I went for a driver fitting and was clocked at an average of 95 mph. Ten years later, I now average 110 mph. I can likely gain another 2-5 mph as my swing improves.

  On 10/27/2018 at 10:08 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

The evolution of the athlete proves my point for me and I studied this in college and it is true across all sports.  No one without the use of performance enhancing drugs, is performing above what they were already capable of doing in the first place.  If you were swinging at 100 mph as an untrained athlete, and you got some coaching, cleaned up your technique, and then got yourself into condition specific to your sport, and now you swing it at 115 mph, all you just did was realize your potential that you already had. Of course as you dedicate to a sport and train specifically for that sport you will find improvement. This is true of any sport...if you work at it... you will find improvement...until you reach peak performance. The only thing you can hope for is that your physical peak occurs in sequence with your comprehension of the sport you are participating in relation to your peers and that you can make the inevitable physical performance loss curve as shallow as possible through focused physical training.  

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I'm not even sure what you're arguing anymore but it seems like you're moving the goal posts a bit now. You started by stating an adult won't swing faster than when they first start and now you're saying people can swing faster as they develop better technique, which is exactly what everyone else was saying all along.

  On 10/27/2018 at 11:58 AM, Righty to Lefty said:

However at his peak and Tiger's peak, Zach is no match for Tiger because Tiger is athletically superior. 

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They both got the most out of their skillset. I disagree with the implication that Zach couldn't have beat Tiger, too. Yes, peak Tiger had more wins, but anything can happen in one round, one week of golf. Peak Tiger has lost tournaments and matches to less athletically talented players.

[Righty to Lefty]

  On 10/27/2018 at 11:41 AM, iacas said:

That’s got nothing at all to do with the recent topic of discussion.

You’ve lost this one. Badly.

I will never swing a regulation driver 135. So what? Not the discussion here.

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I'm not trying to win or lose. I have lived it both right and left handed in golf.  I played to a 5.5 handicap right handed swinging at 105 mph hitting a 7 iron from 150 yards to playing to a 5.2 handicap left handed swing at 120 mph hitting a pitching wedge from 150.  My best score with 400 rounds played on my home course in Kuwait is 2 over right handed and 1 over left handed. I wouldn't give up my speed that I have for anything because it has its place but it is only a weapon when it can be controlled through playing the game and understanding and accepting that and equivalent miss at 105 mph is going to be way worse at 120 mph. 

My "just missed" shot is in the rough at 105 mph but that same miss is in the next fairway over at 129 mph.  You are taking it for granted that accuracy will  remain in tact and will not suffer with added speed.  I hear it all the time "if I hit it as far as you I'd be scratch." I just laugh because I know it isn't true.  I fly the ball 30 yards further lefty than I did righty with every club in the bag and my handicap is roughly the same. A major gain in club head speed almost required learning how to play the game all over because that added distance changes all the rules which further sets back progress. Every aspect of you game has to be re calibrated and adjusted from tee to green.

  Sure I had the potential to be better lefty cause I have more speed but getting better at golf takes time and everyday after your physical peak you are losing some of that speed even if you don't notice it. even if the decline is barely noticeable it is still there and will add up over time just like gaining an extra pound a year seems like nothing until 70 years later! I hit the ball more purely than I ever have but I of course wish I was at this point mentally when I was 18 instead of 38. I learned how to hit the ball with leverage instead and all the injuries that I suffered right handed are gone. Speed is a gift and a curse and it is evident on tour. When they are on they obliterate golf courses but when they are off...they hit golf balls in places that blow a casual observers mind.  These are touring pros hitting these shots...what you think amateur golfers shots are going to look like?