My “300 Workouts” have left me with a lot of confidence that while making a controlled swing I can get into many of the positions I want, but the problem is that it’s a controlled swing. By controlled, I mean that when I practice and film I’m often swinging between 60% and 70% of full speed so that I can focus on what I’m trying to accomplish. When doing this, it’s easy to get caught up in a rut of being too mechanical and lose a ton of clubhead speed in the process. That’s why it’s important to balance out slow, controlled training for building muscle memory with full on, all out, speed training.
I’ve done about 1,000 slow motion reps and that’s enough to start to slow things down in a hurry, so today I decided to balance it out with some 100% swings to remind my muscles and my brain how to move fast. It’s also interesting to check your progress with your changes to see if they are adding clubhead speed and if you’re making the right changes, they should add speed or atleast maintain what you have. I decided to test my speed with an 8 iron since that was the club I was working with all day and I don’t like swinging the driver in doors. My average “full speed” on the course swing with an 8 iron is around 95 mph, and I average more around 90 on a stock shot. I’ve never really tried to go up to 100% until today, so I don’t have a great baseline for this, but I do know that 3 weeks ago I was swinging my DRIVER the same speed I was with my 8 iron today!
The first swing I took was 105 mph. I thought that seemed high and sometimes the Swing Speed Radar can catch the ball as well, so I tried again, but moved the ball a little further forward to ensure an accurate reading and went all out. When it said 112 mph, I was shocked! As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’m really working on powering my golf swing with the correct big muscles of my backside and in the perfect sequence. It’s obviously working because I’ve never swung such a short club that fast. I’m posting the video of the swing below.
My swing is a bit all over the place here, but that’s fine, mechanics are going to break down when going all out and working on swing changes, but I wanted to see progress and to make sure I still had speed! I’ll give you a little tip here, what I was specifically working on in this swing was speeding up my backswing to go as fast as I could, not actually trying to make my downswing as fast as I could. The downswing speed was instinctive and not me actually trying to swing that fast through impact. Lastly, my finish is completely relaxed and balanced, something I could never have done before the RS2.0 changes while swinging this fast.
112 with an 8 iron…sad thing is I can’t reach that with my driver….yet
This is awesome I’m so excited to see the video vault for more explanation but I’m two days into my 300 workout and I can see tremendous differences.. I’m hitting my driver further than ever and it wasn’t even 50 degrees out today.. Cant wait for summer to blow the ball by my competitors. And also I feel as if my backswing is an outcome of my right scapula moving up instead of back.. Is that ok?
Alex, I’d have to clarify what you meant by “up”. But, we’ll get into this soon in the vault videos.
I can’t reach that with my driver either. You’re turning into a freak. I wanna be a golf freak too.
“Alright! I want some answers now…or I want them eventually.” -Homer Simpson
The freak is about to be unleashed on the driver later this week…. I’m shooting for 130 mph. Homer is going to have to sell Bart and Lisa to get this information right now, or come down for a lesson
WOW! This is impressive stuff. Can’t wait to see what is actually going on in the core and glut. I’ve been watching it over and over, frame by frame and still can’t figure it out. Then again, I’ve done that with Tiger’s swing with similar results. hahaha.
The right scapula teaser was awesome. It makes a huge difference. In fact, I have to turn my legs/hips less now and coil more in the abs because my shoulders are turning too much.
By up I mean not straight back like I seemed to read in other blogs.. its probably just a personal feeling but I’m still working on the shaft threw the forearm on the back and down swing and i can feel the core really working.. I love this site thank you so much.
Chuck, curious to know what your tempo is with the SSR since you are intentionally speeding up the BS. Do you find that also shortening it helps with the stretch-shorten cycle?
You will simply have to buy a Godzilla Head Cover…for your short irons. =)
And no pain? After going all out?
Don’t know my tempo, I’m using the blue SSR for some reason, I used to have a red, not sure what happened to it???? I wouldn’t relate my tempo directly to the speed increase, but it is another way of looking at it and accomplishing the same thing as long as you load the muscles correctly.
And for the record, no pain, zip, zero, nada. Haven’t been able to say that in years.
and just think this progress was accomplished with passive arms. Arm? who the Heck cares about arm?
When do you think instruction will start making its way onto the video vault? Can’t wait to start this program….
112mph with the 8 iron is highly impressive Chuck!
I went to the range today and hit 50 7 irons. My only swing thought being ‘coil and uncoil, right shoulder pulling back, left hip pulling through’
After about 20 swings, I began measuring my CHS with the red SSR. My average was 85mph but I pured a few at 97mph!
I’m excited about the upcoming instructional vids. I’ve only scratched the surface of the new biomechanically sound rotary swing and look forward to more improvement.
(By the way, the 97mph 7 iron plugged in the fairway at 179yds!!)
D, I’m going to visit Alison in St. Louis next week for a few days to learn more and discuss opportunities.
Neil, that’s sick!!!! 180 yard 7 irons on the fly, did you ever think you’d see the day?
Chuck, are you still conserving energy?
No one has mentioned “connection”. Is it still an emphasis?
Conserving energy more than ever and just as connected.
No Chuck, I never thought I’d ever hit a 7 iron over 170yds!!!
Honestly, though, it was an easy, balanced swing.
I’ve been incorporating the suggestions you gave me in the little video snippet a while back, with great results. I’m not crossing the line, my swing is more compact, and I’m transitioning a little earlier before the downswing.
I’ve been having trouble with Driver consistency too. I hit the range again today and did a similar thing to you. I videoed myself taking half swings and then slower full swings. I teed the ball lower and little further back. My ‘thinking’ CHS was 109mph. David who?