So a couple years ago I did a Trackman session and my driver swing speed was 102. I have always worked out and ran, but about a year and a half ago I got into Crossfit to improve my strength so it would translate into hitting the ball farther. My diet has also improved tremendously. I've never been crazy strong but I am definitely a lot stronger since getting into Crossfit. My body fat has also dropped from 18% down to 12%.

Its helped a lot in that my swing is a lot more stable and I don't get tired at the end of rounds like I used to. My handicap has dropped from about 2 to 0 in that time and I've been a lot more competitive in tournaments, so that's awesome and I'm happy with my overall results.

I was using a launch monitor today and was consistently right around.... When I tried to swing really hard the highest it got was 105. That was making a swing I wouldn't try on the course and didn't hit it solid anyway.

So WTF???? How do you learn to swing faster? My goal is to get it to 110, although I'd be pretty happy if I could just get to 106 which would match Zach Johnson.

I wonder if that's just something that you are naturally born with. I would check out some of the long drive competitors to see what kind of workout routines that they do. I think you would be doing the right thing with crossfit. Maybe adding yoga into it to increase flexibility?

I wish I knew what my ss was before I got in shape to see if there was a difference. Now I'm getting back out of shape for various reasons, the main one is getting older and every time I would go hard with workouts I would tweak or pull something.

Check out this forum. Sometimes they talk about workouts and drills for the range.

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/forum/...g-drivers-lab/

Over speed/under speed training. Take 10 swings as hard as you can with just a shaft, then 10 with a slightly heavier club as hard as you can and 10 as hard as you can with the driver. Do that for a month, would be amazed if you dont gain 5 mph.

obv more than 1 set a day but you probably get the point.

Simply working out and getting stronger will not affect swing speed unless you were extremely deficient in an area (core, glutes being most important).

The simple answer is that your swing speed will increase as your swing fundamentals improve. If you're < 105 you probably cast the club from the top; this is also known as lag or lack thereof. It comes from understanding and executing weight shift and staying relaxed during the transition, which is counterintuitive for most golfers.

It takes a different approach to practice (not pounding a bunch of balls) to get there but 99% of golfers lack the combined knowledge and discipline (heavily weighted towards knowledge).

So how would you practice this then?

OP, you're a scratch golfer - so you're obviously doing something right. Why worry about your swing speed?

While I am sure there is something that can be done to increase it I would assume it would have to be very specialized for someone at your level. I swing about 110 and while I have a big frame I have never done anything to consciencely improve or maintain it. It seems to be to be a pretty natural motion probably similar to pitching a baseball or something. Certainly not necessarily dependent on being in good shape.

My goal is to get to +2, and if I can hit it further I'll pick up fractions of strokes gained on each tee shot that will help me get there. Although based on my statistics my biggest leaks are in my short game. But I'm working on that too

I agree with most of this. I don't think the biggest problem is knowledge, though. I have known for years that the biggest power leak for me was a cast, and I have explored lots of drills to try and retain lag longer. It just isn't something that is coming naturally for me. At least not without a loss of accuracy and good contact.

The explanations and drills (knowledge) are pretty easy to understand regarding lag and swing speed. The ability to decrease tension in the right places, increase coil and resistance in other places in your body, and then swing without dumping your club is the toughest thing, imo. Applying the knowledge is way harder than understanding it, with respect to lag and casting.

This is especially true if any efforts to retain lag actually result in greater tension/more stiffness.

I would start here:



Full disclosure- this is a video from Chuck Quinton's teaching site. I use it. I happen to like it for a lot of different reasons. That being said, I don't have anything to gain, referrals or otherwise, for sharing that link or even the site.

To recap the video: many many many players don't realize how left side dominant the downswing, impact, and release are. This is a great intro to 1) rethinking how you swing the club 2) getting your brain and body comfortable with the feel. Even though the release is the final act of our play, I'd consider this the first building block for players that are extremely right side dominant throughout the downswing.

I'm also not a shill, and love Rotaryswing. For this forum in particular it would be something I'd recommend, it's basically cardrunners for golf. Although you can find a lot of stuff on youtube too, meandmygolf for example. has tons of really great stuff.

The Chuck Quniton video is a good one.

I like most of the Clay Ballard RotarySwing videos, and the meandmygolf ones.
Peter Finch is ok and some of Shawn Clements stuff is ok and some of his are no so great.

The nice thing is that if you are able to identify your issue, there are lots of free videos out there to view and take what you can from the ones you like.

This was eye-opening, thanks. And I should be able to get this quicker than most, since I'm actually left-handed but golf righty. When I hit a poor shot, it's almost always because I'm coming over the top and/or pushing my right side through the shot.

This drill has helped me A TON in the last moth.

I have also started swinging a Gold Flex to warm up and help me with my swing. It's awesome. For the first time, I can feel when I have lag. I highly recommend the GoldFlex. When I bought mine, I was looking for another aid that is more widely known, the Orange Whip. The salesman said there wasn't much difference between them; so I bought the cheaper one. Here's a comparison.

The aid doesn't work overnight. I tried using it every day for about a week, and I started noticing a big difference in my swing. After two weeks, I have added about 10-15% more distance.

I know I sound like a shill, but I am not. I just can't say enough about how great an aid this thing has been.

Oh, and here's the "bad" side effect. I have the typical high handicapper's slice that comes from casting on the downswing. This is one of the parts of the swing that the GoldFlex helped me the most with. In fact, now I have an opposite problem of pulling too much. The problem is that now that my swing is coming from the inside, I don't always fully extend on the release. But I'm working on it. That problem is much better than the now nearly extinct slice I had before.