Increasing Distance

I disagree with this 100%.

If you don't mind, I'm going to digress into another sport for an example.

Growing up, I was considered a power baseball hitter, but I was not a powerful guy nor did I attempt to hit the ball hard. I have good technique and I consistently hit the ball solidly on the sweet spot of the bat (and I've always excelled at hand/eye coordination sports like handball and racketball.)

Back to golf. IMHO, the typical golfer has enough physical strength to hit the ball long (not long ball competition long, but closer to 300) IF they learn the proper technique, and can execute it consistently.

I can understand what you are suggesting: Just about every average Joe can swing a golf club very fast, maybe 120 mph. The issue is can you control contact with the ball at that speed. Most golfers will get better results if they work within their own limitations.

As I get older I realise that most things in life relates to wrist action

And as a high handicapper I've learned to change hands at 99

I'll get my coat, taxi for bdbl.

As a high handicapper pretending to be a low teens handicapper I've learned that length isn't everything....

Funny thing is, my father also said that exact same thing to me at my 16th birthday......

Still don't know what he meant, he has never played golf...

Move over bdbl, I'm sharing that taxi.....

"Control contact", "work within their own limitations", "wrist action" are all technique. Nobody is born with technique, it is something you learn.

Now if we are talking about guys on the long drive tours, who routinely hit it 400 yards, then I would agree that is a combination of natural ability, strength, and technique. Not everyone can be taught to hit the ball 400 yards consistently.

But, if we're talking about the average golfer (who hits the ball in the lower 200's) and teaching him to hit the ball in the upper 200's, then I think that can be taught. The typical golfer has the natural ability and strength to do that, he just needs to learn the proper technique to do it (and then practice enough so he can do it consistently.)

You seem to miss the point (and the joke). The point being that swinging out of your skin will not improve your game unless you can control the speed, most would do better to swing slower and make better contact. It goes without saying that people can swing faster if they improve their skill at making solid contact.

Regarding the joke! Well, as I said, it's in the wrist action

speed is not everything either. I would rather have a swing speed that accelrates from 70 to 110 at impact, then have a swing speed that reaches 120 when the club is waist high and stays that way to impact or even a swing that gets up to 145 but slowed down to 130 at impact.

the 1st guy with an accelerating club head will compress the ball much better and probly even hit the ball further with a higher club head speed.

at 120mph the ball hits the club head and bounces off at 110ish (i dont' know the actual values). wheras at 90mph the ball hits the club head and tries to bounce off of lets say 80mph, but then the club head is accelerated to 100 and the ball is now trying to bounce off at 90 and then the club head accelerated to 110 and now finally the ball has been compressing that whole time and now explodes off of the face at 160. that is where pros get there distance from, compression, not compressing the ball into the ground jargon, but compressing the ball into the club face. the ball is designed to compress to get distance with it. the reason amatuers get such horrible distance but have high club head speed on the swing stick is because yes, they have high clubn head speed. but they have little to no acceleration through the ball and therfore don't get much compression nor use the ball how it was intended to be used and get bad distances.

acceleratoin = compression = distance


if you want to test this theory. get a golf ball, drop it from a very tall building (tall enough to get the ball goin 80mph, you need to do some math 9m/s/s, gravity) measure how high it goes. now throw that ball as hard as you can most people i would guestimate can throw it 60mph. but this ball is now accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 6 feet versus the ball that took 200'ish(again not correct math) feet to get to 80mph. the 80 is obvoiusly faster, but didn't go anywhere near as high, becuase that ball had very little acceleration or compression. it would go even less high if you had the ball goin 200 mph and had some drag induced slowing it down to 150 at impact. my money would still be on the 60mph ball bouncing the highest over the ball travelling 150mph but decelling or the slow acceling 80mph ball.

Hitting 10% more greens, 10% more fairways, draining 10% more putts, being 10% closer to the pin on your approaches will all drop your score.

Driving 10% further won't make a lot of difference.

Tim.

PS. Is the effort in gaining 10% on the drives not better used to nail 6 irons to the pin?

PPS. Has there been any player, with your age and apparent level who has significantly increased their driving distance and improved their score?

If you said you have a handicap of 20+ and are driving the ball 120 yards then, okay, get to work. But you are an experienced golfer with different aspirations so I'm just wondering if your energy may be better used elsewhere.

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hi golfinguy
i read a report about compression of the golf ball and swing speed and one of the thing was that more speed don't give you more compression. well not always. if you have a pro golf swing at 120 mph and coming into impact at that speed then just after impact he would lose about 15 to 20 mph and he would get a lot of compression on the ball.
if you take a handicap player with a 120 swing speed and he comes into impact at 120 mph after impact he can drop to as much as 80 mph and have very little compression all the ball but both golfers have a 120 swing speed.
you also had the handicap golfer with the 90 mph swing speed before impact but only lost 10 mph at impact and was hitting the ball as long as the 120 mph handicap player and this was because of the compression he got on the ball.
having the club head increasing speed at impact seemed not possible going by there research but reducing the loss of speed at impact is and they said it was more about timing than power or speed of the club head.
the also used a robot and found that they could hit the same distance with a 90 mph speed swing as a swing of 120 mph that slowed through impact.
what the pros do that we don't is lose very little speed when contacting the ball.
cheers
bill

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Seems like I didn't get my point over very well. I was trying to say that swinging fast is not all important. I was also saying that just about anyone can pick up a golf club and swing it fast if they wish, the problem is that most cannot control the club at that speed and swinging smoother would bring better results.

wow cool thanks for that, it would be cool if you could actually find that site that you saw that info at.

I was just making up numbers and had no sciece to back it up, it was more of a theory of mine that made sense to me, but that was excatly what i was talking about, the fact that a person with 90 can hit as far as a person with 120 with proper acceleration through the ball.

Its funny to find out i actually knew what i was talking about.

i got your point brian, sorry. I just wanted to use thoose words you said to show that there is onother side to swing fast. One side to it as you say is keeping it under control so that you can contact the ball in the center and keep the club accurate, and the other side i was reffering to is acceleratoin through the ball not speed.

yours being more important actually, because all the acceleration in the world doesn't matter if you can't do it accuratley.

hi Golfinguy
sorry i don't remember the site i saw it but I'm pretty sure it was on one of the sites BrianW. posted and it was on another part of that site and I'm sure it was something about distance and compression. sorry but i have not been able to find it again.
i had a look but i cant seem to find it. if i do come across it again i let you know.
cheers
bill

I am not sure if this is the site Bill but it has some very interesting technical information relating to the ballistics of ball flight.

http://www.tutelman.com/golf/design/physics4.php?ref=

hi Brian
no that was not the one but it is interesting. i think the link i was on about was to do more with balls and compression and distance.
i was sure it was one of the links you gave but it was on a different page on that link.
i have had a look but can't seem to find it but when I'm not looking for it i bet i come over it.
thats again for all your great links to information sites
cheers
bill