Although driver technology has improved tremendously over the last few years, the average golfer seems to be stuck in the neighborhood of 80 mph of clubhead speed, and around 200 yards off the tee.
Unfortunately, this means that the typical golfer cannot reach all the holes on the course in regulation, which means they will be stuck playing bogey golf, or worse, forever.
Just getting to 90 mph will get your average drive up to around 225 yards, and your top tee shot up over 250! This will allow you to reach all of the holes in the required amount of strokes. In fact, a recent scientific study showed that you would drop 7-10 strokes per round when you reach this threshold.
So how can the average guy gain the missing clubhead speed? Practice my three simple tips and you will soon get there!
1. Go through your normal golf warmup routine every day, instead of just on the days that you go out to play. Include stretches such as trunk twists with the clubshaft behind your neck, big arm circles, and smooth warm up swings. Doing this every day will create a permanent change in the length and suppleness of your muscles.
2. About every other day, make fast dry swings with your driver. A dry swing is one made without a ball, but maybe through a driving range tee or a spot on the ground. These swings should be as fast as you can go, even if you feel out of control or off balance. Eventually, your brain will build balance and coordination around this faster speed. Remember, there was a time when you were a toddler, that you had coordination issues just walking. This is no different. It is a new task, and takes some time to get used to.
Do at least 5 sets of 5 with about 30 seconds of rest in between. When you are ready to handle more, start to add one extra set at a time. Make sure that you are fully warmed up before you begin. Also, make sure you include at least one off day between workouts. Choose a space with a lot of extra room and no one around. You will allow yourself to go faster knowing that you won't break anything or hurt anyone.
3. Now that you are creating an increase in swing speed, and you are starting to develop coordination and balance underneath it, you are ready to work with a little bit of extra weight, called overload.
You see, since a golf swing is such a specific, coordinated event peformed at high speed, too much extra weight will actually cause you to create a new motion rather than improving the existing one. We should not overload more than around 12%, which means that most of the heavy swing trainers on the market will do little good. If a golf driver weighs around 12-13 ounces, this means we only need around 1.5 ounces of extra weight.
I find a good solution to achieve the right amount of overload for our 'golf specific weightlifting' is simply a sport type ankle high sock. Simply slip the sock over the head of your driver like it was a headcover. Now repeat the exercise you did in step 2. You will make another 5 sets with overload for a total of 50 dry swings. Remember to go as fast as you can - we are not worried about control, just to stimulate the fast twitch fibers in the golf muscles.
OK, so you'll need about a 5 minute warmup and stretch routine, and eventually up to 50 swings every other day or so. This will take you 10 minutes at the most and will get your swing speed up to that 90 mph mark. It will take several weeks so plan when you will do your routine on a daily basis, and stick with it!
Author Joe Wolters is a personal trainer and long drive professional. He blogs from increaseclubheadspeed.wordpress.com and is a regular contributor at http://www.hititlonger.com/.
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