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Increased swing speed

Tadashi70

Tadashi70

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I am wondering what the general view is on increasing swing speed. If you need some extra yardage how do you go about it? How do you pump it up?
Faster arms? More torque? Swing harder and faster from the top? Tell me
how you go about it.
 
Aim for the cart path. Or kick it when noone is looking...:act-up: the ball not the cart path.
 
I found out last weekend that it seems to be mostly from loose wrists and getting that whip. I dont know why no one told me this before.
 
Standard swing I use 80% effort, at least that is my feel in my mind.

To up it, I keep the same tempo on the backswing and then give it 100% on the downswing.

For a driver, I widen my stance, turn my head behind the ball at address, and think "keep your weight back". For irons, I think of more of a driving motion forward with my weight and down into the ball with my hands...helps me to deloft a little and increase my club lag/hands ahead of the ball at impact.
 
Tadashi70 said:
I am wondering what the general view is on increasing swing speed. If you need some extra yardage how do you go about it? How do you pump it up?
Faster arms? More torque? Swing harder and faster from the top? Tell me
how you go about it.
Click to expand...

I try to take a bigger turn with the same tempo as my normal swing. My swing thought is to get my hands/arms just a bit further back/up in the backswing. The hard part is to NOT get too quick in the swing.
 
I searched around the internet for this topic myself and really haven't found much that looked helpful. Adding strength and flexibility are probably what came up the most. If I'm on the course and I really need to dig for more power I'm pretty much asking for trouble so I tend to try to stay away from that option if at all possible.
 
You know what's funny freddie? When I swing harder, faster or try to get more, I get less. I'm finding that if I can put a good swing on it, and center the ball, I get better distance. Funny how that works.
 
Okay, this will be fun.

Let's start with my normal swing. I have a very quiet lower body normally, but compensate by having a powerful shoulder turn. I am very compact and fast paced. Think JB Holmes.

For my power swings, I bring the legs and hip MUCH more into play. My body feels like it is racing the clubhead around my axis, and I visualize throwing the club through the ball. My backswing becomes much longer, but much slower paced. As I swing down, the hips lead, yanking the shoulders along with them. I hit through and finish with a very coiled position, club pointing at my target from behind my head.
 
More turn in the backswing
 
TC said:
You know what's funny freddie? When I swing harder, faster or try to get more, I get less. I'm finding that if I can put a good swing on it, and center the ball, I get better distance. Funny how that works.
Click to expand...

Exact same here. Going harder at it just destroys my tempo and I see a big slice.

Honestly, I have zero reason to attempt to increase my SS for a specific shot during a round. Pull the 7 instead of the 8 if you need more distance.
 
I just think to myself... WWJD? (what would JRod Do?) Then I do that! Good for an extra 10-15 yards for sure.

In reality - I just swing harder, makes me feel better but I likely don't get much extra distance.
 
TC said:
You know what's funny freddie? When I swing harder, faster or try to get more, I get less. I'm finding that if I can put a good swing on it, and center the ball, I get better distance. Funny how that works.
Click to expand...

It's funny how that happens. Sometimes the most power just comes from slow concerted effort
 
If you're talking about increasing swing speed overall, a combination of strength training and over-speed training seems to work for many people.

If you're just looking for ten more yards on a drive, I have found that playing the ball off my left big toe and flattening my backswing works, probably just often enough to keep trying it. A big flare to the right is often the result though.

I've also found that picking the club up right away and bending my left elbow increases my swing speed, along with decreasing my chances of making good contact. When I pull it off though, my swing speed goes up and the ball does go further.
 
I've fallen in love (figuratively) with Shawn Clement's teaching videos on YouTube. He integrates anatomy and physics and how they both relate to the golf swing. Here's a seven minute video where he talks about increasing swing speed, and according to him, it's mostly in the legs.

I personally have just been trying to swing harder and faster, with mostly poor results. I'm working on my leg motion as Shawn describes below.

[video=youtube;wTZ-2C-O0u8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTZ-2C-O0u8[/video]
 
tadashi70 said:
i am wondering what the general view is on increasing swing speed. If you need some extra yardage how do you go about it? How do you pump it up?
Faster arms? More torque? Swing harder and faster from the top? Tell me
how you go about it.
Click to expand...



Hmmmmmmmm......I think one approach I took was to go out and buy new irons.
 
I throw it further down the fairway when none of my playing partners are looking. It's good for at least another 20.

How do you do it Freddie?
 
TC said:
You know what's funny freddie? When I swing harder, faster or try to get more, I get less. I'm finding that if I can put a good swing on it, and center the ball, I get better distance. Funny how that works.
Click to expand...

It is funny how often times all that extra effort results in missing the sweet spot, which = wasted effort.
 
Nothing about trying to incease swing speed for a single shot is a good idea for me.
 
Forgot to mention: Ultralight driver increases my swing speed by ~3-4 mph with no (perceived) extra effort.
 
I am generally only swinging at about 80% effort, so I do have some reserves if I really need to go after one, but as everyone said that is sometimes asking for trouble. I also try to make sure my hands are out in front of the clubhead to see if I can deloft the club a little at impact...I think about trying to turn my 6 iron into a 4 iron, although I'm probably not even giving it 5 iron loft. I think that little swing thought helps my delay my release just a little bit.

In the end, though, I would rather just club up. If its a big drive or fairway wood I need distance from, less is more. Relax, get a full shoulder turn, swing through with my right shoulder going towards the target. If I don't top the ball, I will probably catch it pretty solid.
 
I was at a demo last week and tried everything mentioned above. The reader showed ball speed not swing speed and I did best when I just concentrated on a full shoulder turn back and a smooth swing. Speeding everything up or ripping my hips around actually didn't affect the ball speed, only brought a hook or a mishit into play. Cleveland had a monitor in the driving range stalls, what a blast that was. If I need more speed a pro is going to have to show me how.
 
I move the ball up a bit, tee it a little higher, open and widen my stance a tiny bit and focus on swinging straight back from the ball as far as possible and try to push my arms up as high over my head as possible making a bigger turn than normal with a little more leg action before coming back down and hit a high power fade. As long as I don't try to swing too hard, just swing full, I can get another 20 yards at least that way over my normal more controlled driver swing which is a lower trajectory draw.
 
I'll share something that I learned long ago in my competitive tennis days, which always helped me stay in control. Hitting the ball harder (in tennis as in golf) isn't about swinging hard - it's about swinging fast. Lots of people try to swing a racket or club HARD, but if you think FAST instead, it might limit the number of things that break down in your swing as you tense up while swinging HARD. For me, I spread my feet a bit more, and start with a slow tempo. Nothing changes until the club is dropping into the slot, then I let my weight transfer happen with a bit more violence onto the left heel and accelerate onto that front foot, letting my arms follow. I might lose a bit of precision, but if I'm after raw carry, it works for me. I only do this with the driver - with my irons the only time I'm thinking about extra yardage is when I have a flyer lie; in that case I might go after it a bit more to make sure that the more lofted club does the job it's supposed to. Otherwise, my 'smooth' swing gets me more yardage with all but the driver.
 
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