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Every golfer wants to be able to hit it further, whether it’s off of the tee or 250 yards out on the fairway.
The main reason is that more distance allows you to take shorter clubs with more loft and hit higher shots that land softer into greens and are more controllable.
As you may know, speed — more specifically, clubhead speed — is the single greatest contributor to distance, since a higher clubhead speed translates to a higher ball speed. It has been shown that, with a driver, every 1 mph increase in clubhead speed results in approximately 2.8 more yards of carry.
The question then becomes: how do we generate more clubhead speed?
If you think that there’s room for you to improve in that area, the drills that follow should help you.
1. Hold It Up
This drill is for golfers who feel they should be getting a little more in terms of clubhead speed.
The Procedure
With your driver or other long club, address the ball and hold the club up about 2-3 feet in the air.
From there, make your backswing and let the club come back down normally behind the ball in your downswing.
The Goal
When you perform this drill, you’ll probably find that you hit it farther, because it tends to keep your swing arc wide and causes you to swing a bit faster through the ball.
Once you get used to the feeling of swinging quicker through the ball, you can go back to taking your normal address, and hopefully you’ll start generating a bit more clubhead speed naturally.
2. Speed Up By Slowing Down
This drill is for golfers who are sacrificing clubhead speed by overusing their body in the downswing.
The Procedure
Put your left hand across your chest onto your front-right shoulder (or vice versa for a left-handed golfer). With your other hand, hold your club (driver, etc.) upside-down right above the clubhead, with the clubhead facing towards the ground.
Keeping your left/right hand on your shoulder, make practice swings with one arm and listen for the “whoosh” at the bottom of the swing near the golf ball.
Concentrate on not using any of the muscles in the forearm, bicep or shoulder on the side that your hand is placed.
The Goal
This drill will help you to keep your head still and avoid making motions in the downswing that will hamper your clubhead speed.
Continue practicing the drill until you can really build up your speed and your “whipping” action.
See this drill in action (as well as more tips) with PGA instructor Zach Allen:
Conclusion
Give these drills a try, be persistent, and hopefully you’ll be able to see some positive results!
If you want more than just speed drills, take a look at this. This is going to help you increase your clubhead speed, increase your distance by 20-30 yards, and improve your consistency with all clubs:
Have you tried any of these speed drills? What have your results been? Let us know in the comments below.
Will try these drills. I like the second tip as this could slow down my push that I sometimes have, my body finishes before my hands. Thanks for the tips.
John
Hope you can find some results, John!
Hi there. These are great tips! As a lady golfer, I definitely need some things to try to increase my distance. I will definitely be trying the head speed drill and the slow down to speed up drill. I put way too much body into my swing trying to get more power and I’ve been looking for something to help with that.
Thanks, and good luck out there! Be sure to let me know how it goes.