We don’t need fancy launch monitors to tell us what we know is common sense – distance is directly related to speed. Clubhead speed that is. Now, of course, we have to strike the ball in the sweet spot as well, but I want you thinking about three things: Speed, Speed and you guessed it, More Speed!
So how can you amp up your clubhead speed?
Hit the gym? Yes.
Try to swing faster (most women don’t)? Yes.
Both of those are great advice, but what I want you to do is work on your kinematic sequence. Think of that as the order in which your body parts fire and in turn transfer energy to the club. If there’s one thing we see in common among great players it’s their kinematic sequence. Virtually all long hitters and great ball strikers fire their body parts in the same order.
Here’s how it works. In the downswing, the hips take off first rotating towards the target. They are off and running to a point, and when they start to slow up a bit, the shoulders take off. After the shoulders hit their peak and start to slow up, the energy is then transferred into the arms and then the club. It’s very much like cracking a whip. If you get out of sequence, for instance, if the shoulders or arms fire before the hips, you will not be able to transfer a lot of energy into the golf ball. In fact, you will most likely be decelerating as you approach the ball. You need that energy to build and transfer from hips, to shoulders, to arms to max out your speed.
Pro tip – When practicing, practice slow motion downswings firing your hips first, then feeling your shoulders accelerate and then feeling your arms and club come through in the last place.
