Let's start this month's article with a question: where should your swing speed be the greatest?
1. On your takeaway
2. Through impact or
3. A foot or so prior to impact?
If you answered #2, you're in the majority. But is that correct? Not sure? Think of it this way - if you're waiting until after impact to swing fast, does that not mean that you're holding back some speed for later? Does Speedy Gonzalez start to go faster after he's gotten his cheese?
Well the correct answer is #3. As the shaft unloads and the wrists release, maximum speed is reached somewhere before impact. From there on, we are trying to MINIMIZE DECELERATION! Ball contact will definitely slow the club down. But making the club move faster after impact is impossible. To deliberately hold maximum speed until after impact will definitely reduce initial acceleration rates and overall speed. Plus, this thought may adversely affect your swing technique.
Case in point: last week, Momoe Kunimoto, a kawaii Futures tour pro from Japan, came here to work on her game. We did technical swing work to fix some of the problems with her shots. But that was only part of her problem: she's only 5 feet tall and 96 pounds so she's really fighting an uphill battle on the courses she plays on the Futures Tour. Her results from a launch monitor testing showed 190 yards carry and 3300-rpm spin rate, which is way too high for her clubhead speed of 87 to 90 mph.
In fact, her distance was so lacking that 12-year-old Ashlyn Kawasaki was outdriving her by at least 10-20 yards at Makaha Valley Country Club (Thank you, Mr. Sano for the use of your course). And no, Ashlyn is not taller. She's about the same height although she is chotto omoi (slightly heavier).
So what was preventing Momoe from achieving more distance? It was the incorrect swing speed thought that I had mentioned at the beginning of this article.
These are the events that lead to that discovery. After doing a SpeedChain workout, we went back to the driving range to see results of the training. But no-no change. In fact there were times when she swung as low as the mid-80s. I didn't think the workout was so tiring that it caused her to be swinging so slow. Because she had arrived the day before, I thought that it could have been attributed to fatigue and jet lag.
The next day, we worked on mechanical corrections in the morning and speed training after lunch. I had Momoe do some swings with an overspeed device (the ball on the graphite shaft). She got her speed up to 115 mph with the device so she went back to her regular driver. However the results didn't transfer over to her driver - she was swinging at her same slow speed. I was stumped. She could not generate any more speed despite "knowing" how to.
So I asked her, "Where should the speed of the club be the highest?" She said, "Through impact." Yikes! So I asked her again, using a car analogy, "If you're in a quarter mile race, would you like to start slow or start fast?" She said, "As long as it could finish fast, starting slow is better." Not the right answer.
I tried another analogy. Knowing that she played the point guard position in basketball for six years, I asked her, "If there's a fast break, would you like to start fast or start slow?" Okay, now she gave the correct answer.
Swinging the club is no different than a fast break. It takes high acceleration and going from zero to 100 mph in a short amount of time is of the utmost importance. So I set up the Swing Speed Radar at waist high to measure her speed at that point on the downswing and had her do some very fast downswings. It took her a few swings to get it fast but the main thing was that she got the right idea.
Back to her driver. The first ball she hit was at 95 mph, then the next one at 96 mph. Awesome! She got it right. By the next day she was swinging consistently in the high 90's with her high being 99 mph! Not only was she able to generate higher swing speeds, she was able to fix her downswing flaws that caused her high spin rates in the first place. Here's how.
Before
The picture below shows the spinning of the hips and shoulders in her old swing. Since she is not trying to get any speed at this point, it leads to this position. Her hands are late. The hips are ready to hit the ball already and her hands aren't even close to being ready for the hit.
Thus, because her body was spinning too early in the downswing, her hands have to play "catch up." It leads to the early release or casting before impact. These factors caused the higher spin rates and the lack of distance.
After
After fixing it, Momoe is really holding her body quiet now. Her shoulders remain turned away from the target and she has a great "squat" position. The key to understanding this position is that her shirt has a diagonal crease in her shirt in this picture whereas in the "before" picture, the crease is not diagonal. It is running vertically.
The diagonal crease tells you that her hips have shifted left and opened slightly while the upper body is held back. But if your understanding of that position ends there, you know nothing. The other thing that is going on is the high acceleration of the hands. Check out the great lag she's got now. In the "before" picture, she's losing the angle early.
Many golf books and videos talk of the squat position or the New X-factor but erroneously leave out the most important factor in doing it correctly... the high hand speed!
Also, once you can develop higher hand speeds, you can synchronize your golf swing better allowing you to have a better impact position. Here's Momoe hitting great punch shots with a much improved impact position.
The Pudding
By the end of the week Momoe hit a few 250 to 260-yard drives and had a chance to reach a par 5 in two shots, which was something unknown to her before. Momoe says that the thought of having the highest speeds through impact is prevalent in Japan. It is popular thought here in the US as well.
So if you're inclined to think that way and are in need of more distance, perhaps you should try it another way. Get yourself an overspeed device and try to create higher acceleration rates starting down. You'll be surprised at the results you'll get. And maybe you could look this good too!
