Increasing club head speed

[phil lowndes]

What is the best way to increase club head speed? And is there any exercises or drills to aid this.

[Mizunoman]

Re: Increasing club head speed

ermmmmm, swing faster?????


The best way is to lighten the club. Next best way is to get a less stiff shaft. Then you could pump a little iron and increase your swing arc.

I find when I want to 'juice' up a shot I try and get the feel for really whipping the clubhead through with the hands from about a foot behind the ball on the way down.

Clubhead speed is an expression of overall swing power, generally the faster the clubhead speed the further the ball will travel. Its not always the case bt usually true.

Get yourself a pair of hand grips and strengthen your wrists and forearms, this helps you whip the clubhead through better. Swing a weighted club as well this will strengthen the exact muscles you use to swing.

A word of warning...dont go out and beef up too much, too much muscle can inhibit the swing as well as help it.

D.

[phil lowndes]

Re: Increasing club head speed

cheers lads.

[thebigman]

Re: Increasing club head speed

Why not swing faster?

Only thing u gota do is accelerate. If u start too fast and u cant keep that clubhead pace, then thats too fast. The club will catch you up. You will lose lag, hands will flip and you will lose distance anyway.
If you can start really fast from the top and still keep that clubhead pace up, then that could be faster than the next person, and still not "too fast"

[gord962]

Re: Increasing club head speed

My solution:

Lighten shafts, increase flexability and hold the release a bit longer.

The lighter the shafts, the quicker you can generate speed.

The more flexability, the more coil.

The longer you hold the release, the faster you will need to release the club.

As for strengthening, as Darryl said, don't beef up. The bigger the muscles, the less flexability, generally. Work on the wrists/forearms. The stronger the forearm muscles, the lighter you need to grip which will help release the club faster, which you need if you are holding off on the release.

[kiwi]

Re: Increasing club head speed

An exercise you can try is this

Have a box or chair about the same height as your knees this would be positioned in your release area of your swing. assume normal golf stance and place club on this box and pull through with the left arm, obviously you wont pull so hard that your unbalanced your just training the back of your left arm and the right forearm for a more powerful downswing and exeleration through the release area.(this is for right handers reverse for lefties)
Try it for a while and let us know if it helps.

[ph_kingston]

Re: Increasing club head speed

Here's my thoughts...

As scientists do, they analysed the crack of a whip and found that it's the tip going sonic and causing a small boom. The tip velocity therefore exceeds 650 mph and all this is achieved through a well-timed flick of the wrist.

So, club head speed is best increased through technique. You need to develop enough elastic energy and timed acceleration through the hitting zone to get a whip-crack like effect down the shaft and through the clubhead.

How do you achieve this? Some backswing key notes are: 1) Full shoulder turn 2) Less hip turn to build elastic energy in the arms and back 3) A wide arc and high-hands at the top. As for the downswing..accelerate and let it rip!

[Mr_Change]

Re: Increasing club head speed

To increase my club head speed I pull my left arm down as hard as I can using my whole left side of my body this generates heaps of club head speed, but to get the distance you need impact power, so about half way down ( hip high) I then use my whole right side to push the club through the impact area. by doing both of these I keep my club path on plane and get reasonable distance with all my clubs.

[GregJWillis]

Re: Increasing club head speed

How do you achieve this? Some backswing key notes are: 1) Full shoulder turn 2) Less hip turn to build elastic energy in the arms and back 3) A wide arc and high-hands at the top. As for the downswing..accelerate and let it rip!

And to further discuss PH's perfect explaination of the bullwhip affect...

To accelerate with your body as a whip, you look at the legs as the handle of the whip, the hips, shoulders arms and hands being the progressively smaller diameters of the long whip. As energy is thrown down the whip from the handle, that amount is conserved throughout the length of the whip. The diameter is smallest at the tip so that energy accelerates.

What this means: The harder and faster you are able to control you leg drive, the more energy will be available to you for the rest of the actions.
This also means the harder and faster you are able to control the hips, shoulders, arms and hands, the more energy will be produced to club...as PH pointed out is also a bull whip itself...thick handle and progressively smaller diameter shaft.

If one of the elements of the swing takes over performing their action prior to the preceding elements action, the preceding energy is lost and you start over with a shorter length whip. So starting the swing from the top with arms for instance, all you get is the arm's energy translating down to help and the hands. If you swing from the shoulders first, at least you get that energy + arms and hands.

To get all the energy you have available to you in its most efficient, start the swing with the legs simply by placing your weight to your forward foot as you do when you walk. This action is enough that starts the chain reaction that most of us know the rest...hips, shoulders arms and hands.

Timing is almost undetectable by the eye in real time. High speed cameras can catch what we need to see, but nothing is as perfect as the feeling you get when you do it all in perfect sync. It is a feeling of effortlessness. Each element not needing to stain at all when it makes its move creates the feeling that there was more energy there at that move then ever before.

There are few things more satisfying, in the swing ;-), then that.

[Mulligan Al]

Re: Increasing club head speed

What is the best way to increase club head speed? And is there any exercises or drills to aid this.

Graham Arnott suggested a book to me 'Tour Tempo' by John Novsel, there is some great stuff in this book. I've been working on many of the drills indoors and hopefully if the weather is nice tomorrow I'll be able to work on some of the tempo drills out on the range.

[Mizunoman]

Re: Increasing club head speed

I am beginning to understand why your pro doesnt like you Ricky......

Fred and Ernie (sounds like a cabaret act doesnt it?) swing real fast. If they didnt then they wouldnt propel the ball such vast distances, would they. It just looks slow because their arcs are so long. Swinging faster is the only way to increase distance....end of story. I was not advocating lashing at the ball. I just meant make your swing faster.

This doesnt mean I dont like you, Ricky.

D.

[TeachingPro]

Re: Increasing club head speed

Well, there are 2 sides to this 'swinging faster' story. Nothing in golf is ever simple. Easy? Yes, but never simple.

Side 1:
More club head speed will marginally increase distance. Around 2 yards per mile with a driver. Around 0.6yards with a 5-iron and 0.1yard with a wedge.

Scientifically it has been proven that: club head speed results in greater distance. But: greater club head speed and more energy transferred to the golf ball means it spins more. More spin = less distance and less stability in flight so it deviates (right/left) more too.

So, I suggest swing as fast as you can while you retain control of impact. A good connection and cleaner transfer of energy, resulting in less sidespin will always travel further than a poorly hit lashed drive.

Side 2:
Increased club head speed results from greater swing speed. Greater swing speed requires a faster tempo. Faster tempo requires that all the movements in the swing be increased by the same rate. To keep on hitting the ball consistently you need all 3.

So, boys, there's zero point in making those arms and hands swing the club faster ... you need to get everything going faster or else you're in real trouble. Ever wonder why when you take a lash at a big drive you spray it? Well, you probably lashed with the arms and hands but forget the body needs go speed up too!

Before you go and beef up and practice a lash swing, work out how much faster you can actually swing the golf club. Very rearly can a mid-low handicapper increase their clubhead speed by more than 10%-15%. So, assume you swing at 90mph at the very best you'll get it up to 103mph. Increase of 13mph = 26 yards (roughly) in driver distance and 8 yards (roughly) with a 5-iron.

If that's worth chasing after ... then go for it.

Go for it in of the following ways (preferabily in this order), assuming you want to increase chs to get more distance:
1. Delay the release of the golf club and clear the right side through impact at the same time as the club
2. Increase the tempo & timing of the swing
3. Develop a wider, flatter swing arc
4. Change to more flexible shafts but then lower the flex point at the same time to avoid skying them (golfers often forget this!)
5. Increase forearm and wrist stength that will help through impact

[Mr_Change]

Re: Increasing club head speed

I have worked out it's not how fast you swing the club, but how hard you hit through it. Don't get me wrong the club speed is needed to.

In simple terms you need to have the club head speed transfer to the ball and this is done by power created by releashing the club through the impact area.

[Melj]

Re: Increasing club head speed

I totally agree with GregJWillis's explanation and advice, but the key issue is then how to train the body to do this i.e. " gain that control of ones leg drive ". I have gained significant extra distance and marked increase in fairways and greens hit by progressively gaining a greater control of that leg drive and then hip turn. I do not think or even feel my arms/hands anymore as even though my back swing is slower and fully, from that point after my leg drive everything happens so quick and the arms & hands just seem to follow the drag.
The way I gained the feel - then control over this leg drive & hip turn was firstly and primarily training in the gym on an excercise I had seen in " 4 stages of increasing golf swing power" at
4 Stages of Increasing Golf Swing Pow...Strength Coach
The key element I found in these excercises was not the extra strength, but that with the weight used in the exercises, I could create and get a far better 'feel" of having my legs and then the hips initiate the action. After several sessions and particularly sessions the day before I went out to play, I could retain that "feel" of the leg and hip drive.
At times during a round at present, I can lose that feel and all of a sudden I lose distance and accuracy with my swing going back to being an arms swing, but I know now I can regain it and with more gym work, I believe I can soon set it in stone.
I have supported this with core strength and flexibility excercises, but am absolutely sure the primary increase in my distance and accuracy is the practicing using weight to gain that better feel and control of the leg and hips initiating the downswing.

[Ringer]

Re: Increasing club head speed

What is the best way to increase club head speed? And is there any exercises or drills to aid this.

Soooooo many theories.

IMO you have a maximum speed limitation. If you feel you have reached that then the only thing you can do is increase your strength and then increase the weight of your clubs. Something people don't seem to remember often enough is that swing speed isn't everything. There is also MASS of the club that contributes to the total force you can apply to the golf ball.