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Would you play better if you didn't try to swing as hard?

GraniteRoost

GraniteRoost

Flying Rocks
Albatross 2023 Club Albatross 2024 Club
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An experienced pro (around age 50) at a local course told me this summer that he enjoyed how his game improved when he stopped trying to hit it so far and focused on accuracy instead. I think everyone likes to hit it far, and certainly there is a lot to be said for the strokes gained mentality that further is better.

How does this play out for you? Do you already play within your swing? Which would help you more, dialing up your swing speed or potentially making more consistent, accurate contact?
 
I think I play within my swing but I should gear it down a little more for accuracy’s sake. I play my best golf when I take more club than I think is necessary.
 
I swing harder as the round goes on with the driver for some reason, i have to keep reminding my to swing easy.
 
As sometime who often swings way too hard my best results come when I focus on smooth instead of fast. With driver I just try to swing free and fast
 
Most definitely
 
Yep. Nice and smooth. Just hit the ball, let the club do the work. All excellent prices of advice.




That i ignore every time I play.
 
Yes, this is my plan to start this year. I really want to stay in play.
 
Interesting as I'm exploring this myself. I think with full clubs I do better with a full 'hard' quick swing. Its more repeatable for me. But once I get under 120 yds I'm starting to find I'm more accurate with partial shots.
 
Swinging easier has been a big change for the better the last month.

What am I really getting by swinging fast, lifting up my head too quick, or death gripping? I am going to hit a bad golf shot. And if I do catch it well, an extra 5-10 yards? Not worth it.
 
I generally don’t swing more than 80%. I am actually working on swinging faster to try and add some more distance to my game. I do that on the range though generally on the course except for driver I never try to hit the ball hard.
 
In an effort to remind myself to swing easier with less tension, I always tell myself it's a golf swing not a golf hit.
 
sometimes i think so
 
I started golf by reading Ben Hogan's 5 Fundamentals which I still re-read every year before season. Unfortunately, I jacked my game up as a youth when I read Jack Nicklaus' instruction book where he said you should hit the ball as hard as you can every time. I tried that only for a short time before trying to cure myself of that wrong (for me) swing thought. If you try this at the range, I think you will find that swinging less hard will make the ball go just as far and improve accuracy. at my age it is all timing and not forcefulness.
 
Some days I would play better and some days I wouldn’t that’s the beauty of Golf
 
I just need to figure out my swing so I can get some consistency. Then worry about the rest.
 
For me, it is more about swing length than swinging too hard. My "3/4" swing (in my mind), is really a full swing.

When I can commit to the shorter backswing, I almost always see better results.
 
Probably. Swinging too fast, or faster than normal can cause a golfer a lot of grief.

I know when I play an unfamiliar course, I hit a lot of 3/4 swing, punch shots for accuracy, and/or control.
 
Overswinging probably cost me 3 to 5 strokes per round but it's tough not try and hit something hard.
 
I have a hard time finding the sweet spot between swinging hard and swinging too slow and smooth. Too hard has it's issues, but too slow or smooth has it's issues for me as well. I lose the connection with body and arms and get too much with all arms rolling over and pulling and hooking. I play my best when I'm in the sweet spot of controlled aggression between too hard and too smooth or soft.
 
I have always swung too hard as my biggest problem. It tends to make me come over the top when I do and have inconsistent striking. I have really been doing much better with this the last month or so and honestly I have just been trying to relax and swing smooth. I will say I have not lost any distance at all with my irons especially by doing this because I am hitting the center of the face so much more frequently. I probably had more GIR in the last month then I had in any 6 months last year too.
 
I have two thoughts on this:

1. For Irons: In my head, I used to hit my 8 iron 150 yds. That required a perfect 100% swing. I took it down to thinking I can hit my 8 iron 140 yds, and adjusted all my other irons down accordingly. So now I swing instead of 100%, maybe 80-90%. Doesn't matter right, percentage wise, because I'm not up there thinking, "I really got to get ahold of this one to hit it 150", i'm thinking "Nice and easy and it'll go 140." This has changed my iron game in a drastic way. I used to be all over the place, but I had a round this past season where I hit the green on all the par 3's, and made at least par. Never had that happen before in my 20 years of golf. Always struggled with par 3's, now i'm hitting more and more of them. Same goes for approach shots. I've become far more accurate taking it down to more of a smooth swing, so I have less bad misses and more GIR.

2. For Driver: I tried to implement the same strategy as the irons, hitting it less than 100%. It did not work. I was always opening up and had a huge slice. Like I aimed 50 yards left of the left side of the fairway, and the ball would come back over. I was losing so much distance it wasn't funny. The less is more theory just wasn't working. I now think in my head, slow takeaway, then attack the ball. Not swinging 110%, but a controlled attack. I've been able to get in a better groove, and my last round of 2019 I hit all but one fairway. I've never been that locked in hitting off the tee. Still a bit of a fade on my shot, but nothing like before, not even close.

Too bad I didn't couple all those FIR with the hitting the par 3's in the same round, would have been a great score!
 
I actually have found that when I swing harder with my driver it tends to go farther and more accurately, yet the smoother the swing with everything else the better those go.
 
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