Have you wondered how to increase club head speed to hit longer? This question has been circling for far too long among golfers, especially beginners. The major contribution towards increasing club speed is actually your golf swing. Tuning your golf swing in a certain way will help increase club speed and hit longer.
We don’t need a launch monitor to tell us that if we move the ball faster we increase our potential for hitting the ball further. Boosting your speed, though, is not quite as simple as it sounds. Increased speed cannot come at the expense of a strike. The first thing to establish is that increasing speed doesn’t mean a faster swing; it only means a faster clubhead at impact. Read more on how to increase club speed to hit longer.
Drills To Increase Your Club head Speed
Set Up Swing
Chest Behind Ball: Nudge the hips forward and your spine begins to lean away from the target. This gives you the feeling of setting your chest behind the ball – and that creates space and time to build speed coming into impact.
Shoulders Angled Up: That spine angle tilt promotes a fluent upward sweep through the ball. This is how you find the middle of the face – but it also keeps the club’s attack angle and impact face loft as close together as possible – a key to efficient energy transfer.
More Support: That sharper angle in your trail leg creates more robust support for the backswing, allowing you to coil deep into your trail hip with less risk of swaying. This delivers a much more torquey and powerful rotation and one that translates into extra speed on the way down.
Make a ‘backward K’: To optimize impact efficiency, bunt your hips towards the target. Exaggerate the feel so your lead hip will feel like it sits slightly higher. Do not allow your head to move with the hips; it should retain its position, helping you keep your weight 50-50.
Gap check: Work on that upper-body tilt, making sure you bend from the hips and your spine remains extended. Then maintain it with the club itself as you take your address. Feel your hands are under your chin, and check there is a fist-shaped gap between your hands and thighs.
Physical Fitness and Flexibility
Unfortunately, not all golfers are in the best shape of their lives. Some extremely good golfers, for example, are overweight but have learned to perform within their limitations.
Professional golfers spend a huge amount of time in the gym, not for the good physique that it builds, but that helps as well. They understand the functions of each body part and muscle combination and target these areas with specific exercises.
Flexibility: Being flexible will enable you to optimize your turn in the backswing to create the largest arc and distance for the golf club to travel. Most top golfers can turn their shoulders 90 degrees or more enabling their backs to face the target at the top end of their swing.
Core: The swing rotates around your core and the more strength you have in your core muscles the more clubhead speed you will be able to generate. Stability and balance forms are key factors in a good swing, and you can improve both by exercising your core muscles.
How to Train Your Speed
Shaft horizontal: Grip your driver up by the head, and hold the shaft horizontally out in front of you. It’s much easier to create and experience speed when making a flat, baseball-style swing.
Find your speed limit: Swing the club around you, keeping the shaft horizontal. Simply try to create the loudest swish you can achieve. Feel how, the faster you try to swing the shaft, the more your entire body wants to engage.
Baseball hit: Now flip the club the right way round. Your goal is the same – to find your loudest swish. This will come when you allow your lower body rotation to pull the club forward, your hands and arms arriving later at the ball.
Speed of sound: Finally, with that feeling of speed fresh in your muscle memory, take your posture and swing the club normally. Take that freedom from the baseball swing into this action and you’ll hear that later swish… and more speed at the right time.
Tension in the Swing
Tension in the swing leads to a loss in swing and clubhead speed resulting in unpredictable results. To minimize the tension there are some actions that you can take before the swing and during the swing. Reduce tension before lining up your shot by regulating your breathing and taking some deep breaths. Deep breaths will calm you down and enable you to focus more clearly on the task at hand.
When addressing the ball take a few waggles to free up any tension still left in your arms. Having a fluid swing will aid you in getting the highest clubhead speed. Ensure that your grip pressure on the club is not too tight as this will restrict the flow of the swing. Avoid standing over your golf ball for too long as this will allow doubts and tension to creep back into your mind.
Improve Your Timing
Tap on the shoulder: Grip your towel like a golf club and address an imaginary ball, allowing the knotted end to hang. Swing back to the top. Wait to feel the knot hit your trail shoulder.
Create some lag: The weight of the knot in the towel will also help you feel the so-called “lag” approaching impact, the club lagging behind you. While this is key to club speed, it is a by-product of good sequencing and not something you should try to create.
Later Release: Now start down, using the ground-up feel you developed in the ball-throwing drill. Feel your weight plant over your front foot and your lead knee and hip start to unwind. But also, feel the towel stays on your shoulder as you start down.
New Order: Snatch the club down with your hands and arms and the knotted end of the towel comes away from your shoulder. By retaining that connection for a beat into the downswing, you ensure the lower body will lead and the hands and arms will follow.
The Downswing
For maximum power and speed, you should initiate your downswing with your lower body and not with your arms or upper body. For the ultimate in weight transfer to your leading leg, you should push off your trailing foot and extend your leading hips upwards. Rotate around your core and avoid swaying your hips too far forward.
Create lag by keeping your wrists cocked and pulling the grip towards your leading side and then upwards. See the video for more detail. Maximum speed should be a point of impact and not during your downswing. To avoid casting the club during your backswing it is recommended that you keep your wrists cocked until the last possible moment.
Summary of how to increase club head speed
There you go, now you know how to increase club head speed to hit longer. Most golfers are continually searching for a few extra miles per hour clubhead speed and ball speed for an extra few yards. Building muscle has proven through the years to be an effective way to achieve this.
First Tiger Woods improved his game by building his muscles, followed by Rory McIlroy and the finest example is the changes that Bryson DeChambeau has undergone recently. Finally, once you have worked on all the required areas it is highly advisable that you track your progress and identify areas that can be improved to achieve the extra miles per hour and the distance you want.
