Golf Tip of the Day - How to Increase Your Swing Speed

I just read a forum post in a relatively popular golf instruction site and the golfer who wrote it was bragging about getting his swing speed up over 130 mph. The gentleman in question mentioned that he is 57 years old, and accomplished this by doing a particular workout for about a week and a half. He went from 106 to 131 in that period of time.

Time for a reality check folks. That swing speed would put him among the top 5 longest hitters on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson can get their swing speed up to that level when they go at it hard. They typically average about 125 mph. The average swing speed on tour is 112 mph.

A 57 year old man can not accomplish a 25 mph increase in swing speed in less than two weeks. I would venture to guess that there are fewer than twenty 57 year olds on the planet that can swing the club at 131 mph, if there are any at all. A 131 mph swing speed would translate into a carry of over 325 yards, and probably closer to 350 yards. Jamie Sadlowski, the two time defending ReMax world long drive champion swings the club at 145 mph. The funny thing is, the people in the forum were actually congratulating this guy, because they really have no clue.

It is possible to increase your swing speed significantly, but it takes a long period of time and work.

Here is what needs to happen to see a dramatic increase in swing speed.

1. You likely need to improve your technique. If you have a major swing flaw such as a reverse pivot or over the top swing, you will have great difficulty increasing your speed.

2. You need to increase your flexibility so you can swing the club on a bigger arc.

3. You need to increase your strength. Golf specific exercises will help, but you will really need to train like an athlete. Just look at today's long drive champions...they train hard!

4. You need to increase your body speed. This is done through the incorporation of plyometrics into the training routine.

5. You need to get on the range and learn how to swing the club faster without losing control.

I have had success with reasonably talented golfers in achieving increases of swing speed of near 10 mph in a single lesson, but that was due to an improvement in technique. I likely could not get another 10 mph in swing speed from them without training them like serious athletes.

I intend to put myself through more rigorous training over the winter to see what I can do about increasing my own swing speed. I could stand to shape a bit anyhow, so I will turn this into an experiment. My training will consist of a mix of typical free weight training, some P90X training which includes some plyometrics, yoga and some excellent core work, cardo training and more flexibility training. I take some measurements in the next week and follow up on this on a monthly basis.

Scott Cole
www.howtogolfyourbest.com\
www.powergolftraining.net