My Swing Speed Journey

[mrio]

Yesterday was the first time in six months that I didn’t reach 130 mph with the green stick. I ended up 9 mph below my personal best from three months ago, even though I gave it everything I had. A few notes:

• I don’t feel fast physically, but I’m still making gains in the gym. It’s strange—despite feeling sluggish, my strength is holding up and I’m still adding weight to my lifts.
• I’ve gained 2 kg… but I honestly can’t see where. I don’t feel any fatter or see any real change in the mirror.
• My cruise speed is still solid. I can hit 114 mph with the driver using a stock swing at the range, and my course distances are almost the same as three months ago. The issue is, I just can’t seem to tap into any extra speed right now, no matter how hard I try.

That’s all for now. Hoping for a surprise speed jump like the one I got last year—will keep the updates coming!

 

[Golf is fun]

Yesterday was the first time in six months that I didn’t reach 130 mph with the green stick. I ended up 9 mph below my personal best from three months ago, even though I gave it everything I had. A few notes:

• I don’t feel fast physically, but I’m still making gains in the gym. It’s strange—despite feeling sluggish, my strength is holding up and I’m still adding weight to my lifts.
• I’ve gained 2 kg… but I honestly can’t see where. I don’t feel any fatter or see any real change in the mirror.
• My cruise speed is still solid. I can hit 114 mph with the driver using a stock swing at the range, and my course distances are almost the same as three months ago. The issue is, I just can’t seem to tap into any extra speed right now, no matter how hard I try.

That’s all for now. Hoping for a surprise speed jump like the one I got last year—will keep the updates coming!

You've probably gained some muscle, if your lifts are going up, the gain is gradual so we often don't notice it, but if you haven't seen someone for a few months and they see you, the difference will be more obvious.

It's pretty common to plateau, and sometimes even regress a little in any endeavour involving strength, power or speed. Outside of the beginner stage progress is never linear, but as long as the overall trend is upwards, it's all good.

 

[VVega]

Outside speed practice, how does anyone measure their progress? Do you measure your drives on the course? Do you see that you are now hitting it further on particular holes?

With fairways starting to run it’s the time to take a measure — post your numbers!

 

[VVega]

gained 2 kg

I thought it’s normal to vary +-2kg on daily basis. Just water retention/ sleep quality variance would do that.

 

[HPIMG]

Outside speed practice, how does anyone measure their progress? Do you measure your drives on the course? Do you see that you are now hitting it further on particular holes?

With fairways starting to run it’s the time to take a measure — post your numbers!

I’ve not done any speed training in a while but I’m getting an extra 20/30 yards off the tee. Plan is to start speed training again end of March and keep it up till end of season.

 

[mrio]

Outside speed practice, how does anyone measure their progress? Do you measure your drives on the course? Do you see that you are now hitting it further on particular holes?

With fairways starting to run it’s the time to take a measure — post your numbers!

I don't currently measure distances while playing, but before starting gym and speed training, a very good drive for me was around 270 yards. Now, when planning tee shot strategy on a new course, I consider distances between 260 and 300 yards, with a carry of 250–270. So far, it feels like those numbers hold up during actual play.

 

[VVega]

Padraig talks about speed training.

 

[Golf is fun]

Outside speed practice, how does anyone measure their progress? Do you measure your drives on the course? Do you see that you are now hitting it further on particular holes?

With fairways starting to run it’s the time to take a measure — post your numbers!

For me the main measure of progress is through the speed training and what I can do there, in the same way, I measure gym work by how much I can lift or how many reps I can do. This may or may not translate immediately on the course, as I may be unable to use the speed I have gained due to some other limitation, like technique, but at least I know the potential is there.

On the course I track using shot scope, but I don't really look at any individual shot as there are so many variables, over the course of the season, I would hope to see my club distances go up.
The most immediate feedback I have on whether I'm progressing or not is club choices, on a certain hole 2 years ago I was hitting a 6 iron in, last year it was a 7, and this year it's right between an 8 and a 9.

 

[VVega]

For me the main measure of progress is through the speed training and what I can do there, in the same way, I measure gym work by how much I can lift or how many reps I can do. This may or may not translate immediately on the course, as I may be unable to use the speed I have gained due to some other limitation, like technique, but at least I know the potential is there.

On the course I track using shot scope, but I don't really look at any individual shot as there are so many variables, over the course of the season, I would hope to see my club distances go up.
The most immediate feedback I have on whether I'm progressing or not is club choices, on a certain hole 2 years ago I was hitting a 6 iron in, last year it was a 7, and this year it's right between an 8 and a 9.

Interesting, as ultimately for me, the result of speed training is the push of max distances off the tee - kind of an equivalent of 1 rep max in competition conditions.

As a proxy, I look at how many drives I get over 300 yds. So far it’s been 13 this year, compared 11 last year so hopefully I’m trending up

 

[Golf is fun]

Interesting, as ultimately for me, the result of speed training is the push of max distances off the tee - kind of an equivalent of 1 rep max in competition conditions.

As a proxy, I look at how many drives I get over 300 yds. So far it’s been 13 this year, compared 11 last year so hopefully I’m trending up

It's just one piece of the puzzle. Even in competition weightlifting there were times I where what limited me in competition was mobility, technique, the mind, or even something else. I still wanted my strenght going up in training, even though it wasn't the weak link in the chain, I just also had other things to work on and improve. I apply the same to golf. Random exaggerated numbers, but even if I can only use 10% of the speed I gain, I still want to gain speed. Obviously in the real world I'd expect this percentage to be higher.

The ideal measurement is ball speed, then you know you can swing the club faster and transfer that speed to the ball, on course I could hit a "slow" drive downhill on a dry fairway and have it go further than a fast one into the wind on a wet fairway. This is not very realistic if you're not on tour! Seeing averages go up on the course should account for the freak events though.