Things you have done to add distance/speed that worked (or hilarious things you did that didn't)

[Ironman_32]

What are some things you did to add distance/speed that actually worked. Alternatively, did anyone do anything they thought would add distance/speed but didn't end up working?

[vbb]

For the first 10 or so years I played golf, I had a weak fade with my irons. Of course I never took lessons and kind of just figured it out with random tips from people who were only slightly better than me. Needless to say, breaking 100 was a rare occasion. But then when I finally got serious and took lessons, fixing my grip changed everything. Ballflight went to a draw, swing speed and distance increased dramatically. I've had several lessons since, but my grip was the #1 game changer. That was 10 years ago and I now consider my irons the strongest part of my game. In fact, I hit my 4 iron as far or farther than most people I play with hit their 3 woods, and can play courses up to about 6500 yards without needing anything more than 4 iron off the tee.

 

That's one of those things that's just not intuitive, but it works. I never would have thought my grip had anything to do with my swing speed, but the proof is there. 

Edited August 16, 2022 by vbb

[smashdn]

Get to a positive angle of attack.  Ball goes so much farther for me when I am successful with that.

[PhilsFanDrew]

Losing weight and improving flexibility.  This helped me more easily generate additional width in my swing while not making compensations.  Led to overall more speed/distance and consistency.  Looks of good exercises with resistance bands on YouTube.

Edited August 16, 2022 by PhilsFanDrew

[harryt43]

Got strong. I've always been in the 120-124 swing speed range. Started seriously lifting and can now hit 130ish. I think deadlifts and squats make the biggest difference. 

[Streetscape]

11 hours ago, vbb said:

For the first 10 or so years I played golf, I had a weak fade with my irons. Of course I never took lessons and kind of just figured it out with random tips from people who were only slightly better than me. Needless to say, breaking 100 was a rare occasion. But then when I finally got serious and took lessons, fixing my grip changed everything. Ballflight went to a draw, swing speed and distance increased dramatically. I've had several lessons since, but my grip was the #1 game changer. That was 10 years ago and I now consider my irons the strongest part of my game. In fact, I hit my 4 iron as far or farther than most people I play with hit their 3 woods, and can play courses up to about 6500 yards without needing anything more than 4 iron off the tee.

 

That's one of those things that's just not intuitive, but it works. I never would have thought my grip had anything to do with my swing speed, but the proof is there. 

What was the change specifically? 10 finger to interlock/overlap?

[PoeKingShankspeare]

Tried super speed sticks, one week short of completing the system, but it (swing speed) didn’t sustain. Over time I went back down to low-mid 90’s mph w/ driver. I have to keep up with the training to keep the speed at 100-105. But, I hurt my back so I stopped using them.  

 

a year or so later, I found Dr. kwon early this year and did his drills combine that with zen golf guy’s (Marcus?) method. and without trying, my speed increased over time and distance too. Better on my back and I’m not trying to remove my shoes while swinging the clubs.

 

Anyway, I can get more speed with irons and hybrid, but i don’t really try to. I keep it within myself with A good Tempo which helps with better dispersion. My distance actually increased a good amount - 8i from 135 carry to 150’s carry. 

With the woods, this is where I saw the difference and significant gains. Sustainable swing speed and distance vs Doing the SS sticks.
 

Playing From the mens tee box, these gains are more than enough. I do play the tips depending whom I’m playing with. But, I’m not trying to win the Longest drive. I just Need to get to areas that allows me to be comfortable and confident for the approach.  
 

Note: its funny to me to hear guys mention how they out drove others, but walk way from that hole with a bogey or a DB. 😆 

[phizzy30]

Better sequencing, increasing my flexibility and overspeed training have helped increase my ss.  Balance work has helped me find the center of the face more often and strength training has helped minimize injuries from swinging fast.  I incorporate Olympic lifts and plyometrics as well.  Numerous back and knee injuries over the years has brought it down a bit.  Highest recorded ss has been 129 back in the day but currently 118 on course swing.

Edited August 17, 2022 by phizzy30

[Ironman_32]

12 hours ago, harryt43 said:

Got strong. I've always been in the 120-124 swing speed range. Started seriously lifting and can now hit 130ish. I think deadlifts and squats make the biggest difference. 

Do you think that was the only difference for you?

 

I do squats/deadlifts as well, did it back to my days playing football in high school and kept it going. Just doesn't seem to be making a huge jump for me. 

[i*windows]

get fit get stronger and Dr Kwon's flow ideas help, good numbers angle ot attack etc all add a few yards.

[jonsnow]

I cut the head off a live rooster to take the curse off my driver. Didn't work.

 

 

[phizzy30]

40 minutes ago, Ironman_32 said:

Do you think that was the only difference for you?

 

I do squats/deadlifts as well, did it back to my days playing football in high school and kept it going. Just doesn't seem to be making a huge jump for me. 

That's because squats/deadlifts, strength training in general will not increase ss dramatically.  You need to become more flexible and activate your Type II/fast twitch fibers in order to see significant gains.  Do some overspeed training at the range where you dedicate 30-50 balls hitting them as hard as you can.  Use something like speed sticks as well.  Work with resistance bands and do Olympic lifts and plyometrics in the gym.  FYI, I've been working out for over 20 years and have pro golfers on my client list for point of reference. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by phizzy30

[SirFuego]

2 hours ago, Ironman_32 said:

Do you think that was the only difference for you?

 

I do squats/deadlifts as well, did it back to my days playing football in high school and kept it going. Just doesn't seem to be making a huge jump for me. 

Out of curiosity, how do you typically program your squats and deadlifts?  Strength is great, but strength alone doesn't always contribute to speed (especially after you've built a good strength base).  Most popular strength and conditioning programs completely ignore that aspect (I'm assuming this is because training to get faster traditionally was left for college and pro/olympic athletes).

 

There are a ton of different theories on how to get faster for a given sport.  Some appear to be more complex than others and there really isn't any way to know whether that complexity is really necessary, but pretty much every theory seems to involve building a strength base and doing explosive movements with minimal resistance.  Heavier explosive exercises are also often included as a "transition" exercise from Strength to Speed.

 

If you already have a strength base and don't have any major mobility issues, simply incorporating explosive movements (e.g. superspeed and/or plyo) might be what you need.

 

Edited August 17, 2022 by SirFuego

[TerrorPanda]

Didn’t work - swinging harder. 

 

What has worked so far - focused on creating width and efficiency in my swing. Core strength and flexibility exercises. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by TerrorPanda

[Three_Jack]

I have kinda proven(at least for my self) that simply doing bench press, some kind of leg press(squat, hexbar deadlift, leg press machine) is enough to increase speed.

 

2 years ago, started working out regularly, got my driver ball speed up to 170 with 172 being my biggest ever (long speed session).

 

Stopped working out at the start of covid, then noticed my ballspeed drop significantly, struggling to break 160.

 

Started working out at the beginning of this year, and now can hit 170 after warming up and been able to do it easier and easier as i got stronger.

 

I don't do anything golf specific. I just do bench press(im repping 225, 4-5 sets of ~8), hexbar deadlifts(3-4 sets of 315), and pull-ups my weight(180 + a 25 bound weight attached myself, 5-7ish reps).

 

Also, one thing to note is, I am now hitting a straightball/fade, instead of a big draw like I was before, so I think im really faster now because im stronger now and im not using a super flippy release like I was when hitting 172 ballspeed prior to covid.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Three_Jack

[Zitlow]

Everyone can hit the ball hard if they learn how to swing the weight of the clubhead. 

[SirFuego]

36 minutes ago, Three_Jack said:

I have kinda proven(at least for my self) that simply doing bench press, some kind of leg press(squat, hexbar deadlift, leg press machine).

 

2 years ago, started working out regularly, got my driver ball speed up to 170 with 172 being my biggest ever (long speed session).

 

Stopped working out at the start of covid, then noticed my ballspeed drop significantly, struggling to break 160.

 

Started working out at the beginning of this year, and now can hit 170 after warming up and been able to do it easier and easier as i got stronger.

 

I don't do anything golf specific. I just do bench press(im repping 225, 4-5 sets of ~8), hexbar deadlifts(3-4 sets of 315), and pull-ups my weight(180 + a 25 bound weight attached myself, 5-7ish reps).

 

Also, one thing to note is, I am now hitting a straightball/fade, instead of a big draw like I was before, so I think im really faster now because im stronger now and im not using a super flippy release like I was when hitting 172 ballspeed prior to covid.

That's a pretty similar story for me, except over a different timeline.  I worked out a ton in college, mostly strength training (but also a ton of running over a 9 month period training for a marathon), and I can say that my distance steadily increased over that time.  However, I can't say that I did much "explosive work".  Back then, most of the stuff I knew was more along what most would call bodybuilding programming.  I'm guessing the "newbie" gains I got from the strength training also translated to speed for me.

 

That said, after college, I went a period of time without regular strength training and certainly saw my distance taper off.  Once I got back into strength training, I noticed a big bump in distance again.  I've been experimenting with different programming techniques (mostly centered around the "big 4" compound lifts and more explosive movements) in the past couple years and am seeing my distance continuing to increase and I've seen my "normal" swing speeds go up about 5 mph in the past year and about 10+ mph since I started getting back into strength training.  My workouts are also much shorter than the workouts I did in college.  For various reasons, I don't play as much as I would like, but I'm still seeing speed increases despite not playing as much.

 

Yes I have taken lessons and improved my technique, so that certainly has contributed to some swing speed gains.  But I've also gone periods of time with just maintaining my swing and still saw distance/speed increases.  So it's a combination of technique and strength training for me.

 

Seeing as I'm 40 now and still getting faster, something seems to be working...

Edited August 17, 2022 by SirFuego

[Three_Jack]

32 minutes ago, SirFuego said:

That's a pretty similar story for me, except over a different timeline.  I worked out a ton in college, mostly strength training (but also a ton of running over a 9 month period training for a marathon), and I can say that my distance steadily increased over that time.  However, I can't say that I did much "explosive work".  Back then, most of the stuff I knew was more along what most would call bodybuilding programming.  I'm guessing the "newbie" gains I got from the strength training also translated to speed for me.

 

That said, after college, I went a period of time without regular strength training and certainly saw my distance taper off.  Once I got back into strength training, I noticed a big bump in distance again.  I've been experimenting with different programming techniques (mostly centered around the "big 4" compound lifts and more explosive movements) in the past couple years and am seeing my distance continuing to increase and I've seen my "normal" swing speeds go up about 5 mph in the past year and about 10+ mph since I started getting back into strength training.  My workouts are also much shorter than the workouts I did in college.  For various reasons, I don't play as much as I would like, but I'm still seeing speed increases despite not playing as much.

 

Yes I have taken lessons and improved my technique, so that certainly has contributed to some swing speed gains.  But I've also gone periods of time with just maintaining my swing and still saw distance/speed increases.  So it's a combination of technique and strength training for me.

 

Seeing as I'm 40 now and still getting faster, something seems to be working...

 

One thing I gotta mention is that I have a golf simulator, so it's not like it wasnt lack of swinging you know. My swing and amount of swings hasnt changed much. The main thing that changed for me is just strength.

 

 

[vbb]

12 hours ago, Streetscape said:

What was the change specifically? 10 finger to interlock/overlap?

I use an overlapping grip, but the change was my hand positioning, strengthening of my non-dominant hand and a little forward press at setup. Help me get a better angle of attack, divots consistently after impact and much more compression on the ball. 

[Saijin]

Train with an IFBB pro... *grin*

 

@getitdaily Gets this joke... 

 

 

[getitdaily]

Super speed sticks definitely work.

 

Swinging driver all out works.

 

Swinging a driver that's 25-35g lighter than std works.

 

Plyometrics work.

 

Just getting stronger works.

 

Tons of core work works.

 

Just doing bro split work doesn't work unless you're getting stronger (new lifter like @Saijin)

[harryt43]

4 hours ago, Ironman_32 said:

Do you think that was the only difference for you?

 

I do squats/deadlifts as well, did it back to my days playing football in high school and kept it going. Just doesn't seem to be making a huge jump for me. 

It was the biggest. I did do some plyos as well. Goal was to dunk as a 5'10" 32 year old and was not focused on swing speed at all. I'm 5 mph faster this summer than last summer and its from consistently strength training. Obviously this is anecdotal since I'm one person, but I stopped the plyos 4 months ago to work on building more muscle and have seen a reduction in my vertical jump but no drop is my swing speed. 

 

One caveat is I was weak. Deadlifting 225 for reps and am now up to 415. If you've been working out forever you might have tapped that strength piece already and need to work on speed. And by speed, I don't just mean overspeed training. I mean ball slams, sprinting, depth jumps etc. Get your entire body used to moving fast. 

[Barfolomew]

Try just swinging harder.... don't hurt yourself.  This one always over looked.  Dont need hit sticks or permission from the tower just swing way harder.  Now if your swing breaks down then work on it.  Dont do it cold make sure warmed up. 

 

You dont need to pass GO in order to hit harder..... unless you're outta shape and weak.... then reverse that

 

Driver technique for bombs been said a million billion times on WRX

[b.mattay]

I know if I get stronger I will boost swing speed by 6-10 mph. Currently sitting @119mph and mechanics are better than ever, but I’m pathetically weak at the moment. Strength will be the focus for this winter. 

[hammersia]

Not specifically aimed at the OP, but I always think with these kind of threads that a lot of folk who "want to get longer" do intuitively know that it will only come about from getting hot and sweaty.

 

You know, doing the actual work. 

[Z1ggy16]

Super speed golf

 

A better swing (compressing irons more) 

 

[JungleJimbo]

 

[ezra76]

Working on my swing, maximizing width on backswing and sequencing/tempo. Some working out. I haven't added a ton of speed but consistent speed. I was at 96-98mph in the spring. A couple weeks ago I was at 99-101 but it was every single swing and a lot smoother solid strikes. In the spring, although I could get up to 100, it was like 1 out of 10 where now it's 10/10.

 

I'm 46 with a torn up left meniscus so can't do any impact exercises. I do just basic pushups, goblet squats, deadlifts/romanian deadlifts. I've come up a few variations of planks. An easy to do exercise for any age would be stair stepups. I just use my porch stairs, 2nd stair. Get a good knee bend below 90* and step up. Balance with your hands on the rail for fast/powerful reps and then take hands off for slower reps. Pretty much whatever you feel like doing. I like to alternate 10 reps each leg. 

[Superbrit]

Starting the downswing by bumping my hips/butt BACKWARDS, swing feels so much more stable and faster, and actually is

[NoTalentLefty]

Keep more weight on front foot during backswing.

Closed stance on all clubs.

Take tinier steps to ball giving the impression of more distance.

Using 10.5 degree driver.