New Golf Swing Speed Test – 5th January 2009

Below is a video of my latest golf swing speed test that I have just completed.  This test is about a week later than planned (it was meant to be on the 29th of December 2008) because I injured my back about 3 weeks ago.   For a day or two I found it very difficult to walk so obviously I quit doing anything and just concentrated on getting my back better.   Surprisingly (to me) my back has recovered quite quickly.   It is still nowhere near 100% but I can swing a golf club without too many problems.  Having said that, I did find it quite difficult to swing hard out like I’m doing in this golf swing speed test…

OK, so as you’ve seen, today I averaged 114.4 mph with my driver.  That is clearly a long way away from my goal of averaging greater than 125 mph in one year.   I have tried so many different things over the last year and I have learned an awful lot about what I think it takes to hit the golf ball further.

From my research and testing I’ve found there’s endless theories on what you need to do to hit the golf ball further.  One person will say you need to lift weights and get strong.  Another will say you need to improve your flexibility.  Someone else will say you need to work on speed.   Another person will say you need to improve your core stability.

So who’s right?

Well, from my experience I think all of them are right…to a degree.  The problem is that most people promising you increases in distance are offering one way of doing it.  But from the last year of trying to increase my golf swing speed distance I think ALL of the following are very important components needed to hit the golf ball a long way:

• Flexibility (especially active)
• Core Stabilization
• Balance
• Strength
• Posture
• Power
• Speed

I have found that you’re going to get to a certain level with all of these different fitness components, and once you’ve done that then you’re not going to suddenly jump 10 mph in swing speed by trying to increase it.  For example: flexibility.

At the start of 2008 I was averaging 98 mph.   Then 4 weeks later I averaged 115 mph just by doing flexibility exercises.  Then I added weights the next 4 weeks along with flexibility and I lost speed.   But I added a lot of lifting weights and got burned out.

Now I’m not saying that lifting weights is necessarily bad, but from my research and testing for a golfer to increase swing speed they need a good balance between the 7 fitness components I’ve mentioned above.  The exception being speed.  Last year I got injured three times.  Two times it was my back and the other time it was my left knee.  I believe those injuries were a result of a lack of general conditioning.  If I had more core stability maybe my back injuries would have never occurred.  If I hadn’t been doing a lot of plyometric jumping exercises my left knee injury probably would have never occurred.

That’s where balance as to what you’re doing comes in.  I’ve heard of a lot of people getting increases in swing speed just by doing speed exercises.  I have no doubt you can increase your swing speed by doing just that.  But from my personal experience I believe that by just focusing on one thing like speed it lends itself to injuries.

Anyway, to sum up what I learned from last year would be in one word “balance”.

Do some active flexiblity exercises, do some core stabilization exercises, do some balance/stability exercises, do some strength exercises, do some posture exercises etc.  Then finally try and convert it all to pure golf swing speed.

Just don’t do so much speed work that you’re going to get injued.  And make sure your body is ready to handle it!

So this year I’m going to have another go at my goal of averaging greater than 125 mph for my driver.  Last year I got to 121.8 mph with my driver so I got close BUT then got injured.  This year I’ll be a lot more balanced in my approach and hopefully this will help me to avoid injuries.

Now if you’re looking at improving your golf swing speed what should you do?

Well, I suggest you first start to look at improving your flexibility first.  That’s where most golfers can make the biggest gains.  Here is the best DVD program I’ve found to help do that.

After increasing your swing speed with flexibility then you should add some strength exercises.  I don’t believe you need to get overly complicated when doing that.  Just do some press-ups, pull-ups, squats etc.  Keep the exercises simple.  You don’t need to use machines and you don’t need to do a lot of different exercises.

At the same time as doing strength exercises you can do core stabislization exercises and balance exercises etc.  But don’t go overboard with doing lot’s and lot’s of exercises.  Just add a few here and there.

Then once you have your body to quite a good level then you can look at improving your speed.

So that’s the plan I’m going to follow.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted this year on how I’m going with my swing speed increase.  I won’t be doing scheduled golf swing speed tests like last year but I’ll do them every now and then throughout the year and let you know how I’m going and what I think is working and what isn’t.

Tags: golf swing speed