Increasing Swing Speed

Tonight I was back in to my golf studio working on my swing around giving a fitness consultation to one of my students. My studio has been set up for about five weeks, and it includes a GSA/GGS golf simulator. Although I only purchased the bare bones simulator system, I have found it to be an incredible teaching tool. The simulator gives me information on swing path, club face angle at impact and swing speed. Based upon these items, and some assumptions on launch angle, it calculates the ball flight and distance, which is reproduced on the projection screen. More accurate feedback would be provided once I add a couple other sensors down the road.

Lately, I have starting lifting weights more heavily to regain some strenght I've lost in the last couple of years. However, I have not had a heavy lifting workout in about six days. I had chopped and pushed around some wood in a wheel barrow a couple days last weekend, but this week had not done any type of workout. Therefore, I was feeling quite limber and loose in the studio tonight.

Now, as of late, my swing speed had been maxing out around 117.5 mph. On Monday night, I started working on a new swing thought after reading a bit more about Hank Haney's work with Tiger, and reviewing my lesson with Hank in February. As such, I started working on a little bit more rotation with my hips in the back swing, as well as my left forearm. This results in a flatter swing, but more on plane, and I noticed, a bit higher swing speed! So, Monday night maxed out at 118.6 mph.

Tonight, I had a good bit of energy and my first swing with the driver was 116, when normally it would be about 114. Then I started hitting 117+ pretty easily, and once I got warmed up, 118.5 was getting to be the norm. This was giving me a carry of about 293 yards on the simulator. I have programmed in a bounce and roll of about 20-25 yards since our fairways tend to be pretty soft here in PA. So, most of my swings on the simulator were resulting in drives of about 315.

I then decided to see if I could crank it up another notch. I hit 119 mph on one drive, then followed that up with 120+. Finally, a couple swings later, I registered just over 121! And the beauty of all this was that these drives were going very straight, usually with a bit of a draw.

The moral to all of this is that 1) I know exactly what I want to work on with my golf swing 2) I get great feedback from the simulator and 3) Increased strength and flexibility is resulting in great results in regard to swing speed.

This is how I can help students in person, and through my online instruction. For more information, visit www.powergolftraining.net

Scott Cole