Apparently on the Sport Science program, which is on the Fox Sports Network, they did an interesting experiment with golfers. The experiment was to get golfers to swing a heavy golf club and then after doing that hit a golf ball. And they found from doing this that golfers lost up to 30 yards in distance…even though the golfer felt as though they were swinging faster.
Now I say apparently because I haven’t seen that particular show. I’m just going off what a number of other people are reporting. However, I have since done some more research into this and found this article which outlines a number of different studies that have found basically the same thing.
Now in my experience with using a heavy club/device I have found that you do feel like you’re swinging faster when you immediately go back to a normal golf club, but the swing speeds don’t go up. I’m not sure what’s going on there but that’s my experience. And it seems like the research backs that up.
I don’t think that heavy clubs should be discarded completely though. Because these tests are showing the results immediately after swinging a heavy golf club and then hitting shots with a normal golf club. I haven’t’ seen any research into the long term affects on swing speed/shot distance by using a heavy club.
My gut feeling is that a heavy golf club doesn’t directly help a golfer to hit the golf ball further but indirectly it might. Here’s my thinking on this…
A heavy club does help to improve functional swing flexibility or in other words it helps you to swing longer. Look at John Daly for a great example of this. He started playing golf as a kid swinging his dad’s golf clubs, which obviously were way too long for him. That’s how he got the super long golf swing he has now…even though he’s a fraction overweight. 
Swinging heavy clubs will help you to become more flexible when swinging a real golf club as long as you swing fully and completely, finishing your backswing and follow-through with the heavy club. I do think you have to be very careful when doing this to swing within yourself however. Because a heavy club does put a lot more stress on your body as you’re swinging.
So I think you should use a heavy club as part of your flexbility program BUT not part of your speed program. If you’re training to hit the ball further I believe you should swing things that are lighter than your normal golf club. The excepted “best” for this is about 12 % lighter than your normal golf club.
Now in that tpi article that I have linked to above it concludes with this….
“Also using the heavy “donut” attachment that is still popular as a warm-up device is definitely not advised. The donut device has been shown to actually alter the swing motion pattern (Southard and Groomer) and decrease swing speed (DeRenne, 1991).
….but I think that needs to be qualified.
|
|
I wouldn’t advise the use of a weighted device immediately before hitting off the 1st tee. But if you’re just warming up on the range before you’re going to hit balls before playing I think a heavy club/device is fine. The thing you must make certain is that you hit practice balls after swinging the heavy club.
I would like to see a study that gets golfers that greatly lack flexiblity to use a heavy golf club for 30 days or more and then see if they hit the ball further. If you know of a study that has done this please post your comment on this blog and let me know. I would imagine that golfers doing that type of program would hit the golf ball further simply because they are swinging longer.
Anyway, I thought I would share this information with you so you don’t get caught in the trap of swinging heavy golf clubs immediately before hitting shots off the 1st tee. Because as I said earlier, you’ll probably feel as though you’re swinging faster straight away but if you check with a swing speed measuring device, you’ll probably find that that you’re not.
Tags: golf club, golf swing, golfers, heavy golf club, John Daly
August 28th, 2008 at 1:28 am
been using a heavy club for a while now. especially before the first tee shot. thanks for the headsup. great job, keep it up Nick.
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I just started using a heavy practice driver ( Momentos) to warm up before playing. After Just 2 weeks my drives are about 20yds longer, the club really loosens you up and I believe it increases your swing speed when you switch back to your regular driver. My major problem is in my swing. I am 5′10″ and weigh 205 lbs. but have hardly any neck, so when I try to bring the club back my left shoulder lifts my chin to the point where i cannot see the ball. So on my drives I am restricted on how far I can bring the club back. I have gone through tons of material but as of yet nothing addresses this problem. Any Ideas other then an instructor?
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I just started using a heavy practice driver ( Momentos) to warm up before playing. After Just 2 weeks my drives are about 20yds longer, the club really loosens you up and I believe it increases your swing speed when you switch back to your regular driver. My major problem is in my swing. I am 5′10″ and weigh 205 lbs. but have hardly any neck, so when I try to bring the club back my left shoulder lifts my chin to the point where i cannot see the ball. So on my drives I am restricted on how far I can bring the club back. I have gone through tons of material but as of yet nothing addresses this problem. Any Ideas other then an instructor?
September 9th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
i have watched mlb players swing the donut on the ondeck circle,if there were anything better i am sure they would know,these guys have millions of $$$ at stake.
September 24th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Nick:
I think the discussion about heavy practice clubs missses one important point. In addition to helping with flexibility, the idea is that the inertia created by the extra weight at the top of the backswing helps prevent starting the swing with the hands and delays hand movement until the hips get a chance to start moving first. This helps to improve the club head “lag” that is characteristic of a pro’s swing but conspicuously absent from the swing of most amateurs.
Most people don’t recognize that club head speed is less a function of swinging “hard” with the arms and hands and more a function of the wrists releasing just before impact instead of earlier in the downswing (“casting”). Increasing club head lag helps prevent early wrist release and should ultimately increase club head speed.
But certainly this is a long term benefit—it takes some time before the lag created by practicing with the heavy club is ingrained into the swing. Using the heavy club as a warm up tool only is not going to improve lag.
Bruce
September 24th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Good point Bruce…I agree!
-Nick
September 26th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Nick, I use an old fashioned corn broom to increase my swing speed. Its lite weight and it has a drag factor so when I swing my club my swing speed increases.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Nick, I’m a personal trainer and scratch golfer also. I agree that the “heavy” implement will slow swing speed immediately after use. THAT should not be it’s intended purpose. If a powelifter worked out for an hour BEFORE the competition and then tried his top lifts, he would fail miserably rather than do a warmup and then systematically work his way up to his best lifts for that day. You must have some degree of strength to generate high speed speeds. None(look at that word closely)of the top pro longdrivers on the LDA tour are 98lb. weaklings. I’ve found that under and over loading(lighter than driver and heavier than driver implements)coupled with sport specific speed workouts will produce significant speed increases, especially if the Speed Chain or Torso Burner is used. And the best part is, you can gain very good speed using just 3 or 4 thiry minute workouts a week. In fact, more is NOT better. Hope this helps, tenn