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"Club head speed determines your potential in golf". H. Haney

“Clubhead speed determines your potential in the game” I do agree with this - The "potential" part I think assumes all things being equal.

I grew up trying to hit the ball as far as I could, Jack was a big proponent of this, and ended up being decently long for my size. Still at 59 I average about 275 at altitude and can throw one out there about 300 once or so a round. If I just had the confidence in my irons I have in my driver I'd be down around scratch.
 
JB said:
Its hard to use the PGA Tour as a measuring stick because of how it is calculated and where it is done. Most golfers are not going to see 50 yards of roll ever.
Geography plays a huge roll in driving distance.
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That's a great point!
 
At least part of the theory behind Tour Tempo is that the average golfer swings too slow.
 
Swing fast, not hard, is one of my swing thoughts off the tee. Going back to when I played baseball in high school and college, that's always been a key. Good things happen when you are quick and relaxed, but as soon as you tense up and try to swing hard, mistakes take over.
 
Phil75070 said:
At least part of the theory behind Tour Tempo is that the average golfer swings too slow.
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I swing too slow. No doubt about it. But I swing slow because my release and sequencing is not at an excellent golfer's level, much less a PGA Tour pro. This is the point that Haney needs to emphasize that he's not talking about swinging your arms harder, which is what many amateurs would assume.
 
jmac said:
Swing fast, not hard, is one of my swing thoughts off the tee. Going back to when I played baseball in high school and college, that's always been a key. Good things happen when you are quick and relaxed, but as soon as you tense up and try to swing hard, mistakes take over.
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And just to add to that, some of my longest shots are always when I feel like I focused on getting the clubhead through the ball as quickly as possible--but with the least amount of exerted effort as possible. It sounds contradictory, but it's why guys who hit the ball 300+ on tour look like they're giving 85% in their swings. Fluidity.
 
totally agree with this. Last year I had grooved my swing to 21/7 tempo using tour tempo, a nice smooth easy swing. Then I took lessons, and my instructor goes, "there is no way I should be able to hit further than you, swing faster!", so I upped my tempo to 18/6, and my scores dropped, with less "shanks" (yes I still hit the odd one, lol). My distances increased, the difference helped my driver accuracy the most though.
I think the faster tempo, gets my weight shift starting sooner in the swing, which also increased my ball striking ability.
 
tahoebum said:
I listen to HH almost every morning because he is on when I'm in the car and at least a few times a week he talks about distance determines your potential in golf. I happen to agree with this 100%.

Here he explains.

“Clubhead speed determines your potential in the game,” he said. “At every level, distance is the determining factor. Swing it faster, get more distance.”
After stating that 86 mph is the average clubhead speed among amateur golfers (it’s around 115 mph for PGA Tour players), Haney fired away at slow swings: “Take a fast lousy swing, slow it down, and you’ve got a slow lousy swing. Too many people think speed causes mistakes. That’s wrong. It makes no sense at all to take an easy swing, particularly with a driver.”
He then presented his version of a slow-motion swing and contended, “You can’t swing like this and then have all hell break loose (speed up the swing) at the top. You need to swing faster from the beginning.
“I have great success getting people to swing faster, because they’re all trying to swing slower. You think you swing too fast? Well, you must be hitting the ball too far,” he added sarcastically.
Haney added a metaphor: “Taking a slow swing is closer to taking a nap. You must swing faster. To do this, stay soft and loose and do not tense up. I never said swing harder, I said swing faster.”
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The problem is that many people hear swing faster and the only thought that comes to mind is swing harder. A fast swing is as much technique as power and it's all about making the clubhead fast, not the arms.
 
I agree with the statement at face value. For me personally as long as I hit my driver 240 and my 7i 165 there's a ceiling I would hit eventually without more speed.
 
I absolutely agree with his premise. The problem is putting it into practice. It is very difficult to learn to increase clubhead speed without swinging "harder". Yet another of the counterintuitive things about golf.

I've recently somehow figured out how to be looser with my fairway woods, and it is paying dividends. Not only is my swing speed up, but so are my fairways hit (I don't carry a driver).
 
I don't often question other pros because they have they theories and they work for some golfers. But I couldn't disagree more with HH opinion. The golf swing is not just about speed but marrying the swing with the body. And you don't have to swing fast to have success in golf. I know some THPrs that don't swing fast and have great games. Games that I envy.
 
I see a lot of people talking about swinging faster, but I don't really see any discussion of how to swing faster. I am a very smooth and easy swinger. Once in a while I will try to increase my speed. I usually end messing up my tempo and hitting it off the extreme heel of the club.

Anyone have any tips on how to maintain a smooth tempo while increasing speed?
 
Tadashi70 said:
I don't often question other pros because they have they theories and they work for some golfers. But I couldn't disagree more with HH opinion. The golf swing is not just about speed but marrying the swing with the body. And you don't have to swing fast to have success in golf. I know some THPrs that don't swing fast and have great games. Games that I envy.
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do you think he's trying to free people up to swing more athletically? try to get people to turn their minds and just swing? i feel like that's a recurring theme you tell me when we are playing together.
 
c.a.eleric said:
do you think he's trying to free people up to swing more athletically? try to get people to turn their minds and just swing? i feel like that's a recurring theme you tell me when we are playing together.
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For you, I see the freedom to swing hard because your club is always in such a good place. But you don't trust the hard swing and that fine.

HH is is trying to establish himself and doesn't need to. He had the best in the world in his stable. He had mark omera who doesn't swing fast. Not sure why these top pros go against the grain when they don't need to.

Now I respect him because he has earned it but to me it sounds like a gimmick.
 
campilobaxter said:
I see a lot of people talking about swinging faster, but I don't really see any discussion of how to swing faster. I am a very smooth and easy swinger. Once in a while I will try to increase my speed. I usually end messing up my tempo and hitting it off the extreme heel of the club.

Anyone have any tips on how to maintain a smooth tempo while increasing speed?
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For training yourself to swing faster, I really like using a swing fan. Swing it 20 times as fast as you can and then immediately pick up a club and swing it 10-20 times or better yet, hit 10 or so balls after swinging the fan. Doing 4 or 5 sets of this a few days each week should have your clubhead speed up within a few weeks.

For me swinging this fan also forces me into starting the downswing with my legs and hips and really gets my swing synced up.

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Tadashi70 said:
I don't often question other pros because they have they theories and they work for some golfers. But I couldn't disagree more with HH opinion. The golf swing is not just about speed but marrying the swing with the body. And you don't have to swing fast to have success in golf. I know some THPrs that don't swing fast and have great games. Games that I envy.
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I agree some of the best golfers I've seen don't swing fast their really consistent and know their swing and when to cut it loose and when to throttle back


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campilobaxter said:
I see a lot of people talking about swinging faster, but I don't really see any discussion of how to swing faster. I am a very smooth and easy swinger. Once in a while I will try to increase my speed. I usually end messing up my tempo and hitting it off the extreme heel of the club.

Anyone have any tips on how to maintain a smooth tempo while increasing speed?
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grab your driver, and hold the shaft just above the head, so it's basically flipped around. now swing and see how loud you can make the shaft "woosh" in the air. flip it back around and swing the same way.
 
Buy a swing speed radar and you will quickly see hard doesn't always equal fast.
 
khaos288 said:
Meh, I don't really agree with this for everyone.

I used to hit my pw at 140 yard targets, and hit 4/10 greens. Ever since I slow my swing down and hit an 8 or 9 I hit 7/10.
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This right here is the gospel.
 
ArmyGolf said:
I agree with the statement at face value. For me personally as long as I hit my driver 240 and my 7i 165 there's a ceiling I would hit eventually without more speed.
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Seems slightly off to me with that 7i seems like 255-260 should be easily had.
 
Tadashi70 said:
I don't often question other pros because they have they theories and they work for some golfers. But I couldn't disagree more with HH opinion. The golf swing is not just about speed but marrying the swing with the body. And you don't have to swing fast to have success in golf. I know some THPrs that don't swing fast and have great games. Games that I envy.
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I'm not disagreeing with you and I certainly don't have anywhere the understanding of the golf swing that you do but I'll try to clarify my understanding of what HH is trying to get across.

I've heard Hank address the swing faster premise as also syncing the body, hips, and arms. He mentioned on the radio today that normally the arms are not swinging too slowly but the body and or hips are not moving fast or soon enough. He was basically stressing the importance of proper sequence but to fix things, most golfers need to speed up whatever body part isn't moving fast enough, not slow down the fast body parts to sync with the body parts that are too slow. Great golfers don't look like their swinging fast because everything is in sync. I've had the opportunity in the last month to play with a couple D1 college golfers who both comfortably hit tee shots over an uphill 267 yard bunker with their 3 woods and neither looked like they were swinging fast. Certainly both were swinging very fast but when all the parts are in sync it doesn't look fast.
 
tahoebum said:
For training yourself to swing faster, I really like using a swing fan. Swing it 20 times as fast as you can and then immediately pick up a club and swing it 10-20 times or better yet, hit 10 or so balls after swinging the fan. Doing 4 or 5 sets of this a few days each week should have your clubhead speed up within a few weeks.

For me swinging this fan also forces me into starting the downswing with my legs and hips and really gets my swing synced up.

43743c30445baa533631ac690211d86c.jpg



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Thanks for sharing this. I've always wondered how to work on generating more club head speed. I've never been over 98 on average and that seems pretty slow for being 6'2"
 
Tee/Ski said:
Thanks for sharing this. I've always wondered how to work on generating more club head speed. I've never been over 98 on average and that seems pretty slow for being 6'2"
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I've never been much over 108 mph but at age 52 I'm working harder than ever to maintain the speed and hold off Father Time. One of the local pros here who is an ex long driver competitor gave me the tip. He has several students that are current long driver competitors and according to him, they all use it. I've only had a few weeks with it and very little golf with all the rain but I played 3 holes yesterday after a range session and I did hit a 278 yard 2 wood off the first tee with only about 8 yards of roll which is one of my longest on that hole in the 6 years I've been a member.

The thing I like most about it is it forces me to start the downswing with the legs and hips first and it also encourages proper lag if you want to swing that fan fast. You will be surprised how fast your first few swings with a golf club will be after you take 15 or 20 reps with the fan. His recommendation was to swing your driver or 3 wood several times after the 15-20 reps with the fan, wait about 90 seconds, and then do another set until you've completed 4 or 5 sets. I'm actually in decent shape as a cyclist and I work up a sweat after a few sets. I'm not sure yet if it gives more speed by training the muscles/nerves to move faster like he claimed or it just helps build a swing that is more in sync. My guess is a little of both.
 
“Clubhead speed determines your potential in the game,” he said. “At every level, distance is the determining factor. Swing it faster, get more distance.”
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So quality of strike doesn't matter then?



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