The Swing Speed Report Learning the Secrets of Longer Drives Table of Contents Learning the Secrets of Longer Drives... 2 1. Keep it Flowing... 4 2. Load the swing around the right leg... 5 4. Swing Faster Not Harder... 7 5. Lead with the hips... 8 6. Keep your head behind the ball... 9 7. Release Don t Flip... 10 8. Let Your Head Rotate... 11 9. Training for Speed? Train Specific... 12 10. Training for speed? Work Fast... 13 Page 2
The Swing Speed Report Learning the Secrets of Longer Drives It is no secret that diving the golf ball long distances, can help you improve your scoring providing the shots are relatively straight. Reducing the length of your second shot enables you take a shorter club, increasing your margin for error and control over the golf ball. However despite this, it still common belief that long hitters are born rather than developed and if you don t have natural speed, then you probably never will. Well I m here to tell you that you can!!!! By adopting the correct approach, you can increase your clubhead speed dramatically. The people who say that you can t train for speed have just been doing it wrong. In this report, I have listed 10 simple tips that will help you to increase clubhead speed and hit the ball further leaving your regular playing partners in awe. Enjoy Greg Smith (PGA Professional) Page 3
1. Keep it Flowing Tension in the golf swing is the biggest killer of clubhead speed. When muscles become tense, the rate at which they can fire is greatly reduced. This has a detrimental effect on swing speed. By having loose wrists, we can create a tighter angle between the club shaft and the left arm in the downswing. This angle is commonly referred to as the Snap Angle and by having a tighter snap angle, we can increase leverage during the swing. 1: Grip the club lightly. A light grip allows you to fully release the club and create a tight snap angle. 2: Waggle the club head before the takeaway. The waggle before the actual swing helps to prevent the muscles from becoming too tense during the swing. Page 4
2. Load the swing around the right leg Producing a large body turn is key towards increasing leverage and speed in your golf swing. Rather than minimising hip turn in the backswing, most golfers will benefit from increasing hip turn. Increased hip turn allows for increased shoulder turn, resulting in increased leverage. It is however important that there is adequate resistance by the right leg to provide solidarity to the swing. Any lateral movement of the right leg will compromise the accuracy of strike causing inconsistency in your golf swing. 1 Turn the hips and shoulders as far as you can as you take the club back. 2 Load the body weight onto the right but maintain the angle set at address with the right leg. This will provide enormous turn with adequate coil. Page 5
3. Don t Loose connection When the golf swing becomes loose, the energy stored up during the backswing, is lost through this sloppy connection. Keeping the swing consistently connected throughout allows you to release maximum energy into the golf ball at impact. Think of it this way; towing a car is much easier when the rope remains taught. Keep the left arm a consistent length all the way from set up, to backswing and then down into impact. Page 6
4. Swing Faster Not Harder A common characteristic of many club golfers is to try and swing the club much harder to gain more distance. The swinging harder technique in most cases actually reduces speed rather than increasing it. The whole process of swinging harder causes the muscles to become tense, reducing the speed at which they can fire. The increased muscular tension also reduces the co-ordination of the movement, resulting in un-centred ball striking. Try swinging faster, not harder. In other words try to speed up the transition from backswing to downswing while keeping the swing as smooth as possible. A slow backswing is essential! Page 7
5. Lead with the hips The transition from the top of the backswing to the downswing must follow a chain sequence which is started by the movement of the legs and hips. Studies have actually shown that increasing the separation of the hips and shoulders early in the downswing can have a huge effect on creating substantial clubhead speed. This separation is created by the hips moving first on the downswing leaving the shoulders trailing behind. This process stretches the muscles in the lower back increasing the torque of the golf swing. When the shoulders begin to catch the hips up and close the gap just before impact, enormous clubhead speed is created. From the top of your backswing, feel that the movement into the downswing is started with the right leg moving towards the target and the left hip unwinding. This will create the correct sequence for the downswing and develop phenomenal clubhead speed coming into the ball. Page 8
6. Keep your head behind the ball Allowing the body to slide forwards through impact inhibits the release of the clubhead resulting in an un-square clubface position and reduced clubhead speed. Sliding through impact is also a common cause of the slice shot and inconsistent ball striking. Keep your head behind the ball through impact. This will allow you to strike the ball more consistently, square the clubface at the moment of impact and deliver maximum clubhead speed into the ball. Page 9
7. Release Don t Flip A common fault of many golfers is to use the wrists to release and square the club through impact. This causes a golf swing where the club actually passes the hands before impact, resulting in very inconsistent ball striking. The correct position sees the hands actually leading the club through impact. Every single top professional will be in this leading position at the moment of impact, which is why they are able to strike the ball very consistently. Allow your body to turn through towards your target, and the club should follow naturally producing the correct chain reaction responsible for producing the ideal impact position. Contrary to what many golfers think, the release in the golf swing is actually created by the correct unwinding of the body, not the flipping of the wrists. Page 10
8. Let Your Head Rotate One of the most common faults I encounter when teaching amateur golfers is trying to keep the head down. This is usually as a result of a poor ball striking period and the golfer tries to ensure that he/she keeps their head down in order to achieve solid contact. The incorrect fix of forcing the head to stay down inhibits the turning of the body and usually results in poor ball striking and slow swing speed. If your head stays down past impact, your shoulders won t be able to unwind fully which in turn restricts the unwinding of the hips. Remember!!! Your head is attached to your body (hopefully)!!! When your right shoulder meets your chin at impact, allow your head to rotate with your body up into the follow through. Two former world number one golfers Anika Sorrenstam and David Duval don t even look at the ball at impact! Page 11
9. Training for Speed? Train Specific Every repetition that you make when training for clubhead speed must be specific to the movements made in the golf swing. Why waste precious time and energy on training muscles that aren t directly responsible for clubhead speed. Training the more active muscles during the golf swing with more specific exercises not only increases their strength, but also the supporting muscles around them. Choose exercises that are very similar to the movements made in the golf swing. Swinging with a weighted club is one of my favourite training methods as it produces the same movements made in the golf swing against a resistance. (Always consult your Doctor/ physician before undertaking any training of this type. Always ensure that you have performed a sufficient warm up before any training is undertaken). Page 12
10. Training for speed? Work Fast The reason many golfers fail to increase clubhead speed from gym training sessions, is that they work too slowly. You are trying to train the muscles to fire more quickly, so why would you try and slow down the movement? The fast twitch muscle fibres are responsible for producing clubhead speed, so your training session should be aimed at increasing the recruitment and quantity of these muscle fibre types. It is possible to train fast twitch muscle fibres using very heavy loads at slow pace, but this type of training should only be performed by experienced athletes. The risk of injury is great and gym sessions will be exhausting as heavy weights must be used when attempting this method of training. I much prefer my students to use lighter weights at a faster velocity. Perform your repetitions under resistance but at an explosive rate. Concentrate on increasing speed of movement rather than resistance or load lifted. However, please ensure that you work at a comfortable pace for you to avoid injury. (Always consult your Doctor/ physician before undertaking any training of this type. Always ensure that you have performed a sufficient warm up before any training is undertaken). Page 13
Final Thought This report acts as a guide, showing you which areas you need to concentrate on to gain improvement in driving distance. It is by no means the complete guide to long driving but will certainly help you improve. There is a lot of literature out there that can help you develop fast clubhead speed so don t be afraid to look. I have found lots of useful tips and drills which I have used myself and with my students time and time again and I would be happy to share them with you on request. For more information to further increase your driving distance, you can visit my website www.gregsmithgolfcoach.com I am currently in the process of re-writing my Long Drive Golf Swing video coaching series which should be re-launched in the very near future. This product consists of 8 simple lessons guiding you through the simple stages of how to develop a powerful, repetitive golf swing. There are also several bonus lessons which will show you how to really boost your clubhead speed, improve accuracy and become more consistent. I truly believe that this is the best way to swing the golf club and have enjoyed repeated success with my students who use it. Be sure to stay in touch for further details of the release for the Long Drive Golf Swing. Page 14
In the mean time, I hope you enjoy using the tips written in this report and achieve real gains in your driving distance and accuracy. Please keep in touch with our progress via Facebook and Twitter to hear more about events and seminars for the future. http://www.facebook.com/pages/greg-smith-golf-coach/310542598987842 https://twitter.com/#!/gregsmithgc Have fun bombing it! Page 15