Fast swings mean having a fast clubhead, and that translates to longer shots.
Despite what you read or what you hear about increasing the speed of your golf club, the truth is that for you to increase your club’s speed, you need to work on increasing the distance from each swing, something that will only happen once you increase the speed of the clubhead.
How then do you do that?
First, you need to master how to make the fastest clubhead at impact. We are talking about having more control, the right timing, and proper sequencing for a higher clubhead MPH.
Muscle strength is also important, but not as important as learning and mastering the right technique. Increasing the club distance is also important, which is why the tricks, tips, and drills below will come in handy in helping you swing the golf club faster.
How to Swing the Golf Club Faster
Set Yourself up for Speed
The first and the most important thing for you to do as you work on making your clubhead faster is to have the right setup. The setup plays an important role in determining the transfer of energy to the golf ball, which is why you need to work on having a good address to come up with the best angle of attack and a dynamic loft. These ensure excellent optimization of both the ball and the club’s speed.
To do this, you need to do the following
Keep your chest behind the golf ball by nudging your hips forward so that your spine leans away from the target. In this position, especially with the chest behind the ball, you create time and space that building up speed as you get ready for impact.
Angle your shoulders upwards – by angling up your shoulders, you create a tilt/ angling of the spine which encourages the upward sweep through your ball, making it easy for you to find the middle of the club’s face, at the same time, keeping your club’s angle of attack and the impact face loft very close together. This closeness is the key to an efficient energy transfer.
A backward K – This is the simplest move that will help you build up and attain a higher golf speed. It also allows you to attain the efficiency of your impact. All you need to do is to bend your hips in the direction of the target, while exaggerating this position so that when you take a swing, you will be leading with the hip, making it feel as if it sits higher.
At the same time, you shouldn’t keep your head in a fixed position and don’t let it move along with the hips. Keeping your head in a fixed position as you move the hips should balance out your weight in a 50-50 ratio, hence the perfect balance.
Get More Support – Allow your trail leg to create a sharper angle for more support during the backswing. When you do this, you will have to coil deeper into the trail hip, without having to worry about the risk of swaying.
Besides the stability created in this position, you also get to deliver more torque and a significantly more powerful rotation, translating into more speed on that backswing.
Check the gap – while you work on your upper-body tilt, you need to make sure that you are bending from your hips as the spine remains extended. In this position, maintain the position of the club as you take the address. For the best results, make sure that you feel your hands right under the chin, making sure that you have a fist-shaped gap between the thighs and your hands.
Training for Speed
Like several other sports, you have to train with lighter gear as a way of promoting and ensuring faster movements. To increase the speed at which you swing your golf club, you should apply the same approach.
Follow these tips to enhance your performance.
Hold your shaft horizontally – Here, you need to take a grip of the club driver by the head then hold its shaft horizontally, out and in front of you. This is an effective training position because you would be able to create and experience a lot more speed in the flat and baseball-style swing.
Find your maximum speed limit – to do this, you have to swing your club around you, with the shaft still in a horizontal position. In this position, try creating the loudest possible swish you can, then feel how your whole body wants to engage in the swing when you try to swing faster.
The Baseball Hit – for this drill, you’d have to flip your club the right way round, and just like in the previous move, you are aiming at finding the loudest possible swish. For that to happen here, allow for a complete lower body rotation to be able to pull up the club forward, with your arms and hands arriving at the golf ball later.
Mastering the speed of sound – in this last step, you need to make use of the speed of sound now locked in your muscle memory. So, with that memory, find the right posture then swing your club normally. Now, take the freedom from your baseball swing into action, then wait for that later swish, as well as the increased speed.
Firing up the big muscles
As mentioned above, the swing sequence is one of the most important elements that affect how fast you swing the golf club.
What it means, however, is that for you to throw the golf ball, you’d have to plant the front foot, then drive the hips forward, then fire your hand and the ball. But for all these to happen, you need to fire up all your big muscles.
Here are some of the things you could do to fire up the big muscles
The driving test – the goal of this drill is to get your golf ball skipping all the way down on the fairway, allowing it to bounce bomb-style, as fast as possible. This won’t happen overnight, though, and you need to spend a bit of time on it. For you to create more power and speed, you’d have to move your body from the ground up.
Working on a later release – When creating maximum swinging club speed, both your arm and hand feel like they are releasing the ball once your body has moved through. This feels a lot like the late hit where your body pulls through your arms then the club.
Getting ready to hurl – Here, you need to throw your golf ball as hard down as possible towards the target line, but you have to maintain the golfing motion. To do it right, hold the ball in the trail hand, fold the lead arm behind your back, then take on the golfing posture.
Repeating the ball throw, but with a driver – once you are used to developing the swing speed with the throwing action, it’s time to move to the club. Take a sturdy grip of your driver then make the practice swing, inside your golf ball. All you need to do is to replicate the ball-throwing motion, looking down the fairway.
The Club Thrower – Like the throw, you need to focus on ways of developing your speeds, as you would throwing the club as far down the fairway as possible. You really need to commit to this move by recruiting your glutes and hip muscles at the beginning of the downswing. Allowing all these movements to take place at the same time will add to your speed.
The Leading Role – Once you get used to the feel of your lower body during the drives, it’s time to hit the ball. You need to make sure that the throw, along with that aggressive practice swing is enough to automatically remind the lower body of its leading role when pulling your club through.
Progress – During the downswing, ensure that your club arrives later at the ball, with your weaker-hand-arm release, then return to the throwing drill to assert the dominance of your lower half.
It’s all about the timing
For the fastest club swings, you need to make sure that your movements are well-coordinated and smooth because it would be very easy for you to snatch the club back/ through.
For the best swing, you need to wait for that tap on the shoulder when you swing to the top, work on creating lag, and delay the release.
Weight Transfer
You need a perfect weight transfer to avoid the dreaded reverse pivot. Keep in mind that the right weight transfer involves having your weight moving back on the backswing and forward on the backswing. The opposite of these movements results in the reverse pivot.
So, for the perfect weight transfer and to avoid a reverse pivot, you need to take a normal stance and a normal address position. Do this by taking your club back, as you would normally, but at the top of the backswing, take the front foot then bring it back, keeping your feet together.
Just make sure that the swings are continuous and don’t lose momentum. Also, don’t square up your front foot, because losing momentum increases your risk of injury. For the perfect transfer of weight, flare out your front foot, allowing your hips to follow in this motion, as you transfer your weight completely in that forward position.
With a perfect weight transfer, you will be able to get your weight on the back foot fully, and also, it will be easier for you to transfer your weight appropriately.
Other Important Tips
- Learn from the pros by watching them swing, imagining how all their swings feel.
- Relax your whole body, but focus on the arms more. Tight muscles impede the speed of the swings, and relaxed muscles move faster. Relaxing the wrists also means faster cocking and uncocking, and a relaxed torso means less effort during full turns.
- Check the rhythm of your swings. For the best rhythm, you need all your muscles relaxed. The swings need to work more like a pendulum swing, and a relaxed body allows you to achieve that.
- Practice fast swings, and stay relaxed and maintain stability in your position.
- When addressing the ball, widen your stance.
- Exercise – work on your hip motion/ hip strength, arms, and shoulder strength, as well as the strength of your hamstrings and the gluteus maximus. Think of exercises like sled pulls and pushes, kettlebell swings, medicine ball drills, etc.
Conclusion
To make the fastest swings of the golf club (How to Choose Golf Clubs for Beginners) you need to try the drills above. You also need to remember that the downswing starts right off the bottom upwards to lessen the steepness and to develop a more desirable inside-out swing, and you need to pause at the top to maximize power, even as you maintain a high level of precision.
To learn more about how to increase your swing speed, check out this digital tutorial.