Swing speed thoughts - curious what you think.

[Luchnia]

Ok, I get it that the driver and fairway woods are swung at higher speeds than irons simply because of the length and style of club, but here is what I don't get with my swing. I swing my driver around 90-100, mostly around say 94. When I swing my irons I am swinging around 75-85.

When I did my CC fiting the scope showed that I was consistent at 80 mph for my 6 iron. That is easily 10 mph or more difference. Why is it so much difference? Is it because I subconsciously swing the iron that much slower, or is that to be expected? Should it be much closer swing speeds - maybe withing 5 mph?

 

[GolfTravelDude]

3 foot in a circle is about 9.5 foot......4 foot in a circle is about 12.5 foot.....same amount of time to cover a distance with 30% speed differential. It's physics.

 

[BigMac]

My numbers were about the same at my fitting - around 90 mph for my driver, 80-81 for a 7-iron. Like @GolfTravelDude said, it's physics.

 

[MWard]

Shorter clubs, less time for the club to build up speed. I thought it was something like a 5 or 6 speed is about 80% of your driver speed so the math seems to fall in line right there.

 

[TCB2010]

idk what my swing speeds are but i will say this the slower i swing the club the further and straighter it goes. im not saying my swing is crawling either but when i setup over the ball and go through my 5 second mental check of things the last thing i say is take the club back nice and easy and just follow through.

 

[BigMac]

idk what my swing speeds are but i will say this the slower i swing the club the further and straighter it goes. im not saying my swing is crawling either but when i setup over the ball and go through my 5 second mental check of things the last thing i say is take the club back nice and easy and just follow through.

True story. My worst shots usually come when I try to really get after it. But on the other hand, trying to baby a shot rarely turns out well either. I hit best when I just keep a nice, moderate tempo.

 

[Stryker]

A 37-37.5" length club is not going to be within a couple miles per hour of a 44.5-45.75" club. There is a huge difference there.

 

[Luchnia]

I suppose I just wasn't expecting so much of a differential. I think my mind was thinking the difference might be 3-5 mph between a driver and a 6 iron, not 10 mph. I understand SS is relative to club length and arc, but I guess as a mid/high capper I don't put the velocity behind an iron that say a low capper might.

I wonder how much of an SS difference golfers that are smacking 7 irons 160-170 yards have? I bet the differentials are much less.

 

[chile]

according to my sc300, I have a 12mph difference between my 7i (75) and driver (87)...

 

[InTheRough]

The problem I find with a driver is this: if I shorten a driver, I do not like to add weight. Why? When you shorten it, it does not change the mass of the driver head. However, if you add weight to bring the swing weight back up you can slow your swing speed. If your SS drops by 4-5 mph, that's a lot. If your driver head weighs 200 grams, and you add 8 grams to it to bring the SW back up to say a D3 from a C9, you're up to 208 grams, but your shaft is now 44.5" and say your swing speed was 95 with the 45.5" shaft and is now 91 with the 44.5" shaft.

p = mv

.2 kg * 42.46 m/s = 8.49 kg-m/s

.208 * 40.68 = 8.46 kg-m/s

But if you can maintain your swing speed due to a lighter swing weight, you'll have the same momentum impacting the ball. You may even pick up a mile per hour or two. Science!

In the end it's about making center contact.

 

[Luchnia]

I went to my shop yesterday to do some practice shots and just average out my swing speed. With a 6 or 7 iron my swing speed was around 80-82 consistently after about 10-15 shots. I did have a couple around 76 and a couple around 85. My driver was up around 95+ consistently with quite a few shots holding 97-102. The driver swing simply felt good yesterday and was average more in the high 90s.

I realize there is a physics principle at play here, yet there is a human piece at play as well which I think greatly affects swing speed. Physics doesn't swing the club, it basically deals with the mechanics of what occurs.

For instance, I noticed that I purposely swing my driver with more velocity through the ball than I do my irons because I am trying to obtain the most yardage possible from that club and simply get in the middle of the fairway. If I walk up and start swinging any of my clubs the effort on the irons is simply not the same effort as the driver as it is not always about hitting the iron as far as you can. To me, irons are more target based clubs.

I experimented yesterday by swinging my irons at impact faster with more velocity and speed and I could reach much higher swing speeds closer to 90 mph. I was hitting irons way further than my normal shots which certainly makes sense due to the increase in swing speed through impact. I could easily develop faster iron speeds if I practiced.

I plan to experiment more with this in the days to come to gather more info as it is really fascinating.

 

[DataDude]

Ok, I get it that the driver and fairway woods are swung at higher speeds than irons simply because of the length and style of club, but here is what I don't get with my swing. I swing my driver around 90-100, mostly around say 94. When I swing my irons I am swinging around 75-85.

When I did my CC fiting the scope showed that I was consistent at 80 mph for my 6 iron. That is easily 10 mph or more difference. Why is it so much difference? Is it because I subconsciously swing the iron that much slower, or is that to be expected? Should it be much closer swing speeds - maybe withing 5 mph?

Do you remember trigonometry? Your hands and arms are moving at the same speed, but every additional inch of of club length adds an additonal 2*Pi*inches to the circumference of the circle which is the path the head of the club is traveling. See below. Think about a driver being the outside of the circle, then a 6 iron being a circle inside of that circle. The same velocity (your force exerted on the golf club) is going to result in different clubhead speeds because the size of the circle is bigger for a driver than it is for a 6 iron. In simple terms if they both take the same amount of time to go around their own circle the driver had to travel faster because it's circle is bigger.