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Do you swing at or near 100%?

85/90% for me. Hard to swing "guts out" and have tempo.
 
When I need to step on it I have coincidence I could 100%. I am focusing on getting a bigger shoulder turn, so my swing is about 90% but seeing very good results.
 
I agree. Tempo is far more important than going after it 100%. I try to be at 90% and then if I need that extra few yards or if I'm trying to do a large hook, I go at at!!!
 
I overdo it a lot and I think it hurts me most with tempo. Primarily on the backswing which doesn't allow my weight to get forward and my club swinging enough to the right.
 
I swing as hard as my body will allow while staying balanced. That is definitely less than 100%. If I can be balanced at the top of my backswing, I am putting 100% of my momentum into the contact point, and not wasting any on getting back in balance. Oftentimes I will pause briefly at the top. That will equate to hitting the sweet spot more often, and that is what leads to distance and accuracy. Let the club do the work.
 
I love the numbers being thrown around. 75%...80%....I don't even know what those mean. When I think of taking something off my swing, I'm more thinking that I'm not going to take it back as far, which means very little to me in terms of 75% or 80%. It's just not something I've figured out.

Bullfrog said:
If I do it winds up being a snap hook or a push right. So I try to swing fast not hard. There is a difference. If I was guessing 85% speed works best for me.
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This is me as well. When I'm playing my best golf, which still sucks, this is my swing thought. "Fast, not hard."
 
All goes back to adhering to proper swing fundamentals. The more I groove the proper fundamentals the faster I can swing. When my fundamentals break down I drop it down a few gears. Golf is a game of adhering to proper fundamentals, once they are grooved the game is a heck of a lot more fun
 
I just made this comment in a different thread........I think the goal is to swing as fast as we can while within our limits of control.
And I think tempo can be had at different speeds if one is capable.
I think too many people slow down way too much. Of course very many overswing too but I think vary many others have a misguided logic of what it means to swing within ones means. Just like one may struggle to find tempo at higher speeds I believe many also ruin their tempo by going too slow. How many people think they discovered something by taking the club back in slow motion only to change speeds with no fluidity or tempo at all. With that said, we are so very different and what works for some may or may not work for another.
 
I think your right. Too slow is as difficult for me as too fast.
 
I gotta try this whole less than 100% thing. It sounds promising.


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No very rarely will I swing 100%. If 100% is as hard as I can swing a golf club. In scrambles off the tee is probably the only time I do that. Never with an iron will I swing 100%.
 
Molten said:
I gotta try this whole less than 100% thing. It sounds promising.
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You and me both. But it felt wrong not to swing...out of my shoes.
 
I think this is a very misunderstood issue. When people think of swinging 100% they think of pulling the club down hard from the top which lead to OTT move and early extention which in turn leads to inconsistent contact. What I try to do is get the club in a good position at the top, make a good transition leading with lower body and pulling the lead hip clear out of the way, then I can swing as hard/fast as I want while posting to a stiff left leg. Well that's what I TRY to do anyways lol. My issue especially with longer clubs is that I yank on the handle from the top of the back swing
 
I swing hard, but rarely at 100%. When I really need to get after something, that's when I get in trouble. Take it easy and club up, because staying within myself is better than taking a club less all out.
 
I very rarely swing more than 85% and when I do it almost always produces a shorter than average shot. If I want to hit it max distance off the tee I swing longer focusing on a bigger turn, not harder.
 
I suffer from huge hit impulse which leads to OTT and weak fades. I slowly learned that backing off to an 80%-85% swing leads to just as much distance and far better dispersion with my irons and fairways off the deck. Driver I still pretty much mash, though. Maybe that's why I still have a two way miss :alien:
 
Currently I probably swing closer to 100% most of the time, even when I think I am swinging 75-80% Plus what 100% means in a golf swing is in itself an interesting topic. Full backswing and follow through? Maximum club head speed? High swing tempo?
 
One of my biggest swing issues is overswinging and tempo. Personally I think how hard you swing only matters if your tempo/sequence/timing are off. Now if consciously thinking 80%/swing easier helps with getting that right then I'm all for it. Problem is too many times that goes out the window and that's when I snatch it and get quick.
 
For me, hitting 80% too often leads to not finishing my swing. If I can get into that easy swing with finish, I find my best results.

I find hitting 6/7 iron from a tee is a really good way to work on tempo and get positive feedback that technique with a controlled swing is a more reliable way to generate distance than muscling a shot. The problem with driver practice on the range, for me,is that I can lengthen out my distances by swinging harder when I get in a groove but that can get me in trouble if I take that faster tempo/harder swing to the course. I've taken to not hitting more than 4-5 drivers at a time on the range as the temptation to pick up the tempo is too easy. With clubs hit to a distance, it keeps me more in tempo.
 
I'm trying to find a feel for my swing speed (as well as dang near everything else in the game). I started my golf journey by going at it as hard as I could, and getting poor contact because of it. I backed way down after some lessons and have gotten the contact part more or less under control. I'd say I've probably been swinging my irons at 65-70% the last few months.

Yesterday I tried picking up the pace a bit...maybe around 85% or so. I had some of my best iron strikes ever doing that. It's definitely still a work in progress.
 
I go 90-100% with everything except for wedges and putter. I choke down to get the distance I need rather than slowing my swing down so my tempo stays the same.
 
I played with a younger fellow today (26) and not golfing that long. He had a monster swing but couldn't keep the ball in play. As we became friendly enough some how the conversation of the swing came up. He really tried to lace into the next shot and was worse than his other poor shots. I mentioned to him to take it easy and that in golf "less is more". He never heard that saying and really took it fwiw and swung so much more relaxed his next shot and it was the furthest and straightest shot of his round, and whats better is that he kept that thought the rest of the round and hit beautiful drive after drive the remainder of the round and man was he long. He just kept repeating with a smile "less is more" as he hit long and straight time after time. It was quite cool imo. he was like "wow" and would mention he never really thought of things this way. He was quite impressed with his own success from not trying to kill the ball. I guess he just never knew any other way. He aslo was now hitting much better approaches too because he had suffered from overswinging those too.

Now fwiw he didn't slow his swing down a whole heck of a lot. He simply just swung fluidly without extra force and without trying to kill anything and just let the clubs do thier job with the logic of "less is more". Found a great tempo in the process and you can just tell his swingspeed was still up there. Ya know the kind of swing that looks effortless and slow but really isn't at all and the ball goes a mile? he was really appreciative of that little bit of advice and man if he stays with it he will have some game cause he could really hit.
 
I swing hard. Basically, I'm swinging as hard as I can while staying balanced and in control. Aggressive is good.

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As Freddie Couples would say, "swing easy, hit hard".

I rarely swing at 100 percent, I'm more interested in getting the sequence correct.

Also, my errors with a relaxed swing are better than when I'm swinging till my bra snaps.

However, there are holes that reward a long drive, so I try to give it a little more in these holes. However, I try to give it more juice from lag release, to impact up to impact extension, but nowhere else in my swing should there be excess force.

The guys here are right - swing only as hard as you can finish balanced.
 
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The only clubs I ever really go after are wedges and short irons if I am trying to get the ball to hit and spin back. Even if I'm hitting driver in a scramble, I'm just putting my regular smooth swing on it. Sure, there's a slim chance that I'll still make perfect contact swinging harder than normal, but it's such a rarity that it's not worth it.

I've never been on a launch monitor but I'd bet that my "harder" swings often actually result in slower clubhead speed because my timing is off. I think this is probably true for most amateurs.
 
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