If you want to add distance to your driver and your other clubs, you need to increase the speed of your golf swing. In this article, I discuss how to increase club head speed with three important keys.
Improve your golf swing
For most amateur golfers, the main reason why they don’t hit the ball very far is that their swing sequencing is out of whack.
What this means in general is that they don’t use their lower body very well to generate power.
The reason for this is that they start the downswing with the upper body rather than from the ground up.
You can learn more about the kinematic sequence of the golf swing here.
Everything else you can improve with your golf swing will be much easier if you first get the proper sequencing down.
And, the fact is, until you do, you won’t be able to make needed improvements elsewhere.
Increase your strength
The second way to increase your club head speed is to get stronger. Once you’ve made important changes to your golf swing, this is the next important step.
There is no better example in the game of golf today than Bryson DeChambeau.
After packing on about 40 pounds of muscle, DeChambeau increased his average swing speed with the driver from about 119 mph to over 130 mph.
In fact, he has vaulted himself into the elite class of athletes that competes at the Re/Max World Long Drive Championships, something that was unheard of for a tour pro.
In an interview a couple years ago, former long drive champion Kyle Berkshire is asked, what is the one tip he can give people to increase their swing speed.
His answer?
Get in the gym and get stronger.
Tip 3 – How to increase club head speed
The last tip I can give on how to increase club head speed is to increase your range of motion.
I would argue that most golfers equate this to some sort of stretching program or maybe doing yoga.
While yoga is definitely great for overall fitness, it won’t necessarily translate into greater range of motion with your golf swing.
The best way to train range of motion is with dynamic movement.
I train range of motion in a couple of different ways.
First, I use a weighted club. I do nice and easy swings with the heavy club with the sole focus of making a bigger turn and keeping my hands as far away from my body as possible through the entire swing.
Swinging this way with a weighted club forces the muscles to adapt through lengthening. I feel it most throughout the upper torso… shoulders and upper back.
To increase the range of motion with a focus on the hips, I do trunk twists with a bo staff I used to train with in my martial arts training.
You can do the same with any type of pole, but you want it to be about six feet long. You can check out how I do them in the video below.
Final Tip – How to increase your golf swing speed
Lastly, if you want to squeeze as much out of your swing as possible, you need to do speed training.
However, for any golfer over 40, I don’t recommend doing much of this, as it is easy to injure yourself.
The golf swing puts a good bit of stress on the joints already, and swing speed training will only stress them more.
The fact is, even the best are only increasing their speeds a few miles per hour with swing speed training.
For the average golfer, it’s really not necessary.
If you focus on the first three tips on how to increase club head speed, you’ll be way ahead of the crowd.
Final Thoughts
Most golfers seem to get all of this backwards. They think that to hit a golf ball far you need to swing like John Daly.
Yet, Jon Rahm, who has one of the shortest swings for any tour player ever, is one of the top 5 longest hitters on tour.
There are two reasons for this… he is very strong, particularly in the legs, and he has fast and flexible hips.
Most of us will not be able to match that hip speed and flexibility, but we can definitely make improvements in the other areas I’ve discussed.
Now, get to work!
