jaacobbowden

I think it's pretty cool as far as heavy clubs go - like any heavy club it's nice for warming up with. I've seen a number of guys in the Remax World Long Drive Championships with them in their bags. Unlike something like the Speed Stik, which I think is too long and the handle is too big, the Power Hitter is more like a regular golf club. As for whether or not it adds yards, it depends. On one hand the weight of it kinda forces you to smooth out your swing (a swing with less tension in it makes it easier to make consistent contact) and use your body a little more. In that sense, for some people they actually could add 20 yards in 20 minutes. On the other hand, I'd be careful about taking too many slow practice swings with it because you might be building slow-twitch golf swing muscle strength. Beyond warming up with it, I think it's important to train fast. But don't sacrifice good swing fundamentals...and make sure you're warmed up first, though. I've jumped in too quickly and hurt my hands before. Accuracy-wise, I didn't find it helped. Actually, like Genericity experienced, for the first few swings of going back to my driver I got worse before finding my rhythm and swing again. Jaacob http://www.swingmangolf.com

Hey Andy, I've used a number of heavy clubs and I have mixed feelings about them. On one hand, they are great for warming up and can help you build golf swing strength...which is good. However, if you are doing a lot of slow training with it you might be building slow-twitch muscle in to your swing...not so good. So in regards to building swing speed, it's good to train fast with heavy clubs. The danger, of course, is injury. Personally, I've hurt the joints in my hands by swinging fast and not warming up properly. So I don't really use them much any more in my training. If you are going to get one, I'd recommend one that is most similar to one of your clubs. For example, I'd prefer something like the Power Trainer over the Speed Stik because I think the SS is too long and the handle is too big. The Power Trainer (or something similar) is more like a real golf club. Jaacob http://www.swingmangolf.com

Regarding the original question, regardless of what swing you use...think about where your body is positioned at the top of the back swing and where your muscles are at impact. These are some of the muscles that help take you from a starting point (where you are going 0 mph at the top of your back swing) to whatever your swing speed is at impact. The faster you can go, the farther you'll hit the ball (many amateurs swing around 70-95 mph, many pros swing around 105-130 mph, and the top long ballers can swing 135 to over 150mph). For me in particular as a right-hander and with my swing-style, some of these downswing muscles are: Inside of my left forearm Outside of right forearm Right triceps Right chest Right obliques Left quad Left adductor Right abductor Right hamstring Doing exercises to strengthen these muscle groups will help out quite a bit. It was mentioned to stay away from bench presses, but I think they are fine because they work your chest and triceps. But regardless of the exercise, be careful how you train. You can certainly add muscle, mass, and strength...but if you are training slowly you will be building slow-twitch muscle fibers and may actually slow your swing down. To get fast, train fast. Some of the other posts here are good too. Golf fitness has become really popular in recent years, but being fast and fit are two different things. You can be the great shape and not hit the ball far at all, and you can have a big ol' spare tire around your belly and crush the ball. Don't sacrifice swinging fast at the expense of good contact. You can lose 20 yards on your drive by missing the sweet spot as little as 1/2 an inch. And getting your equipment custom-fit and possibly going with a shorter driver to make good contact are good thoughts. I've hit two drivers that looked very similar but were different in loft, weight, length, shaft flex, and I literally hit one 50 yards further than the other. Hmmm...although I DO advocate and enjoy flexibility and stretching, I don't agree that flexibility is absolutely necessary to hit the ball a mile. Neither Sean Fister (a Remax World Long Drive Champion) or JB Holmes (PGA Tour) swing to parallel...and they have plenty of distance. And I have mixed feelings about heavy clubs. While they can help your golf swing strength, if you train slow with them you may be getting stronger but slower. Like I mentioned above, to get fast you must train fast. The danger of this with heavy clubs is you can get injured if you don't warm up properly first. So use them with caution. For those that are interested, I've got a whole web site dedicated to building swing speed. Jaacob http://www.swingmangolf.com

schyler's suggestion about switching to graphite is a good idea to increase swing speed without any other investment of time. And chingali is right about the importance of solid ball contact - you can lose 20 yards on your drive by missing the sweet spot as little as 1/2 an inch. Getting your equipment custom-fit and possibly going with a shorter driver are good thoughts. I've hit two drivers that looked very similar but were different in loft, weight, length, shaft flex, and I literally hit one 50 yards further than the other. I don't necessarily agree that you need to slow your swing down, though. Rather, I think it's more important to remove tension from your swing. Tension makes it more difficult to keep your balance and it changes the measurement between you and the ball. Often times slowing your swing down does remove tension, which is good...but you don't have to give up speed at the same time. It's okay to swing fast, just don't swing hard. You don't need to be able to swing to parallel to hit the ball a mile either. Neither Sean Fister (a Remax World Long Drive Champion) or JB Holmes (PGA Tour) swing to parallel. That said, I do advocate stretching, flexiblity, and most definitely warming up before-hand to prevent injury. Also, I think that either being born with swing speed or not is a common misconception (even Tiger mentioned this on the pgatour website). While it is true that some are naturally faster than others, that doesn't mean you can't significantly improve on what you've got. For those that are interested, I've got a whole web site dedicated to building 'usable' swing speed and/or getting back the swing speed that you've lost with age. The basic program is a minimal investment in time and yet gets great results. Phil, 55, went from 100 mph to 116 mph in 30 days. At 2.5 yards per mph, that's a 40 yard increase. You should've seen his excitement to be hitting the places he began hitting (without losing accuracy) on his home course. Jaacob http://www.swingmangolf.com