Don't swing slow!!!

[SilverUberXeno]

I hit about 120 balls at the range tonight after spending an hour on the practice green before work. Here's what I discovered:

Swinging too slow is JUST as destructive to your game as swinging too fast.

We have to define too fast and too slow though, as they're too relative on their own.

Too fast is a sequence of movement that throws the club off plane uncontrollably. This is usually the culprit of a slice. To be more accurate we could say that you're moving the wrong parts too fast. In the case of a slice, the hands and wrists are not only engaging where they shouldn't, but doing so much too early in the swing and throwing the club off line.

Too slow, in my experience, is generally the work of the body whereas too fast is the work of the hands. A "too slow" swing will let the hands get ahead of the body and hit nasty, vicious hooks low and left. The hands may be releasing when they should, but since the body is so far behind, the clubface is turned over before it hits the ball.

Today at the range, I decided I was going to reverse the too fast and too slow: I wanted to keep my hands slow and steady, but really power my body through the swing.

WOW.

Night and day.

I was hitting my irons 20 yards farther than I did last week, and 10 yards farther than I did yesterday. And my shots were FAR straighter than they've been in a long time. I was smooth on the backswing, but really shot down into the ball with my body, just letting my hands react. I really couldn't hit a bad shot.

I had 3 drivers in the bag: 44" 9.5* CT250 w/ VS Proto 65S, 45" 9* Geek DCT w/ accuflex icon S, and 45" 8.5* Nakashima NP-1 460 w/ BB Solution X-flex. Might as well roll the dice. The Geek probably hit the farthest, but I was CRUSHING shots with all of them. I'm almost certain I rolled a few out to the back of the range. Massive hangtime.

So my advice, fellow golfers, is to SWING! As delicate and graceful as the golf swing is, the purpose is to strike an object as hard as possible while still retaining control.

And you may not realize it, but in an effort to gain control, you are likely LOSING control. Swing a little faster, but stay smooth. Turn the body and watch 'er fly.

P.S.: I don't know if anyone remembers, but I had a 14* Maltby KE4 set up with a VS Proto 80X. Couldn't hit it for **** before today.

Hit two of the best golf shots I've ever seen with it today. Perfect draws. Carried between 240 and 250. Absolutely marvelous.

FIRE THOSE HIPS!

[King Par]

Extra 10 yards? Are you sure you just didn't change your grip to a Winn grip?

[JasonMacIsaac]

It depends how you practice it. If you just go on the course and really slow your swing down....yes you will hit horrible shots. What I like to do is go to the range and hit a bucket of balls at 50% untill I understand how everything should work together. It makes your swing look effortless and powerfull. When you have everything moving in sync thats when you hit the long drives.

[SilverUberXeno]

Originally Posted by King Par

Extra 10 yards? Are you sure you just didn't change your grip to a Winn grip?

I was thinking about them while I was swinging

[charnockpro]

You have to swing with your natural body rhythm, this is obvious in many players, Nick Price walks fast and swing fast, Freddie walks slow and swings slow, you have to work out you natural way of doing things and apply them

[Bignose]

The biggest culprit when you swing "too slow" is deceleration. Deceleration is unstable and essentially uncontrollable. It is possible to swing slow, and yet be accelerating, it just isn't super-easy. What is more typical is that you fully intend to swing slow, you start your swing, and your has enough time to go "Hey! We're supposed to be swinging slow, remember?!? I'm gonna slow your hands down now and make everything all better." And, so you decelerate, which as I wrote above is unstable so the club starts to move in random directions. Deceleration itself is bad, but deceleration into impact is really awful for a golf shot.

It is possible to hit slow shots, you just have to concentrate on starting really slow so that you can accelerate through impact, although woth not as rapid of an acceleration as your normal full speed shot.

[sssmokin]

It all comes down to TEMPO, TEMPO, TEMPO. Whatever tempo fits your particular body type.