Increasing Clubhead Speed

[Leek]

I read with interest another forum with some amazing claims of gains in club head speed by swinging a 6 lb. bar. Some posts:

"I went down to the 6lb'r, same length and size as a driver and easier to control, went home afterwards to swing the driver to keep loose and not tighten up when the driver felt like a feather and could swing it like it was nothing. Went on a launch monitor and picked up 4mph. Not bad for a start. It took me a couple of weeks to do this but I feel if I can keep up with this it could only get better right."

"I have been using one for about 5 month after reading the initial post. I started out with a 95mph club head speed and I am now 127mph with ball speeds of 165+mph."

After reading all of this, I ordered a weighted club with training system called SpeedSwing.

A guy on golfwrx uses it and recommends it very highly. He is an LDA competitor and seems like a very nice guy. If you want to see his posts or ask him any questions about how he trains, I think he would answer. His handle there is idrive400yds.

Anyway,when the device came, I thought it was pretty nice. About a 2 ft. long threaded shaft with a golf grip on it. I understand you can get either a training grip or a standard grip, I chose standard. Included were weight sets 2 2 lb weights and 2 1 lb weights. They thread onto the shaft and there is a "safety cap" to keep them from spinning off. He also sent a dvd with a training program and the same thing in written instructions.

Being an eager dummy, I immediately put ALL 6 lbs on it and swung it one time, very slowly. This ain't like a heavy Momentus. I have one, and with the 6 lbs on it, a Momentus feels like a feather.

I have been on a TM MAT-T system at PGA Village in Florida recently. I'm using that data as my baseline.

My average for the session was mid 90's, with a low of 89.6 . I figure I'm a good guinea pig, I believe mid 90s is about as average as they come.

A couple observations. The Swingspeed really helps in a couple of areas:

1. Plane- you will not be able to swing this off-plane. It's just too heavy for that.

2. Flipping- the weight, coupled with the drill instructions if you follow them, are another way and I might add very effective way to make you feel how to stop flipping. I have struggled with flipping, or more accurately hoisting (never a full flip, but a slightly cupped left wrist, coupled with a block) for a long time. This really ingrains a flat left wrist.

3. Pivot- you have to make a strong pivot. It's too heavy to muscle very well.

So, Frank Viola, a noted clubfitter suggested a Swing Speed Radar to measure club head speed. I bought a Speed + Tempo unit from Tim at MyOstrichgolf. As an aside, these boards are great for discounts on stuff we want. idrive400yards gave me a very nice discount on the SwingSpeed workout stuff, now Tim hooked me up with a discount on the Radar device.

Anyway, today after 3 weeks of doing the drills on the DVD that came with the SwingSpeed, I went to the range to monitor my results. I knew something was up when I was seeing mid-90s with my 6 iron during warmup. I don't what my 6 iron speed was before, but my driver was mid-90s (sometimes low 90s) three weeks earlier.

Then the driver- first swing- good contact 104! I then made a few swings that were NOT pretty- 98 and 100. Now, I'm pretty enthused- what happens if I swing OUT OF MY SHOES??? Take a couple big cuts- 104-107, but bad contact. Excitement is over, just normal swings. They stay from 101-105. Average is about 103 over 25-30 swings. That's about 8-9 mph in 3 weeks.

I don't know what to expect, will I stay there? Will I gain more speed? I don't know, but my goal was to gain 5 mph in a few months, and I'm past that.

I love this device and training program!

Is anyone else usin Swingspeed or another speed training device life Speed Chain?

I'd love to hear your results and maybe find out what I should expect going forward.

[Topflite_D2]

I have a swing weight thing like baseball players use and it seems to work.

[Leek]

Have you done any measurements to find any changes in your clubhead speed?

[kwcsports]

No one picked up 32 mph by swinging anything, that is complete BS.

[Topflite_D2]

No measurements but it seems to make it easier to swing the club. Yeah no kidding you wouldn't gain that much. Maybe 5mph at most.

[SilverUberXeno]

Why the BS flags? This is like saying "You can't increase the weight you can lift by 30%.. that's crazyness!" It's just working out. Muscles get stronger and faster. I'm not validating the claim, but it is feasible, based on biology, I would think.

[Leek]

Originally Posted by kwcsports

No one picked up 32 mph by swinging anything, that is complete BS.

I would have to agree with you. I sort of took that guy's claim with a grain of salt. My 8-9 mph is the real thing. I have no clue whether or not I'll gain more though.

[kwcsports]

Originally Posted by SilverUberXeno

Why the BS flags? This is like saying "You can't increase the weight you can lift by 30%.. that's crazyness!" It's just working out. Muscles get stronger and faster. I'm not validating the claim, but it is feasible, based on biology, I would think.

The guy claims to start with a SS of 95 mph and by swinging rebar for 5 months he went up to 127 mph. That's faster than almost everyone on the PGA Tour. It ain't happening, no way, no how. 5-6 mph maybe. That's my opinion anyway, if anyone else thinks it's possible, get swinging

[eclark53520]

Personally, i think it is very possible, but i dont think that 32mph is ALL from the swinging of the bar, some of it is probably due to mechanics of his swing getting better. Better lag more than likely...

I noticed when i was on the monitor that if i didnt hold my wrist ****, my speed came down ALOT(8mph), hold my wrists on the next one and it came right back up, so if i can gain 8 mph just by holding my wrist ****, i know i could swing alot faster/harder by doing golf specific workout like this. I think ill order one and do a training regimen and we will see if it works or not.

I was amazed at how much of the swing speed comes from your forearms, releasing that wrist ****, is all forearms and how many of us do forearm training? not many ill bet.

About the whole 5 months thing...that all depends on how dedicated he was during that 5 months, if he swung that bar 5 times a day, for 20 mins each time the whole 5 months, i could definatly see him gaining that much, and starting from that low of a swingspeed it is much easier to get to 127 from 95 than it would be to get to 147 from 115(although, that would be awesome if i could have a 147mph swingspeed)

[warbirdlover]

Lag is where it's at.

[Leek]

Originally Posted by warbirdlover

Lag is where it's at.

I have some lag. The lag mentioned above is actually lag pressure. Got plenty of lag pressure. When you see a Hogan or Garcia swing what you're seeing is accumulator lag, or trigger delay. Those come from either float loading or drag loading. Both Garcia and Hogan are Float Loaders.

I've been losing clubhead speed. I don't know what it was a few years ago, but I was pretty long (and wrong too). As I've gotten better, my driver distance has dropped. I used to carry my driver 245-250 and carry a 13 hdcp. Now, I carry it 225-230 and my hdcp index is 4.9. I want to get back as much clubhead speed as I can and get back to carrying the ball up to 250 yds.

After the tests last weekend, I was carrying it 250ish. Now it's like CRACK. Can I get another 5 mph? 7 mph? 10 more mph?
That's probably 12-14 more yards of carry if I just get 5 more mph!

And yes, I do understand how to create the different types of lag.

[ezra76]

It sounds interesting. I've heard some contradictory stuff about building too much slow twitch muscle with weighted clubs though. Personally I think building a stronger core, lower body, combined with stretching would be as if not more effective. I used a 3lb. piece of rebar with 2 rolls of electrical tape and an old putter grip to make a 44" "training club". I swung it a lot at the range one day and it really did a number on my right shoulder. I was actually pretty worried I'd done damage the next day. So be careful not to hurt a rotator cuff or your lower back.

[Leek]

Ezra, I think you are right about injuries. The LDA guys that have been advising me keep telling me to go slow. I am, but it's hard to go slow after seeing that initial burst.

[dave.]

I'm in two minds. Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely, no, in fact is highly unlikely.

Adding muscle will certainly increase speed, but if it was that easy every pro in the world would swing a 6lb club and all swing at 127, yet the best players in the world with the best mechanics in the world, average around 112. Monty is 110 for example and Stricker is 108, Di Marco is lower than my mother, probably 75. So using the best player/mechanics as a test, it seems a bogus claim. Pros leap onto anything that will help them and after 70 years of pro tour players mucking around with everything they can find, i can't believe this guy is the first to discover it.

[eclark53520]

Originally Posted by dave.

I'm in two minds. Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely, no, in fact is highly unlikely.

Adding muscle will certainly increase speed, but if it was that easy every pro in the world would swing a 6lb club and all swing at 127, yet the best players in the world with the best mechanics in the world, average around 112. Monty is 110 for example and Stricker is 108, Di Marco is lower than my mother, probably 75. So using the best player/mechanics as a test, it seems a bogus claim. Pros leap onto anything that will help them and after 70 years of pro tour players mucking around with everything they can find, i can't believe this guy is the first to discover it.

Do realize that LDA and GOLF are two entirly different sports...

The pga players dont win money by hitting the long ball, they win with wedges and putters...they would have no use for this type of training

LDA guys dont even know what a putter is, all they care about is hitting the ball as far as humanly possible...this is exactly the type of training needed to hit the ball 350+ yards