My Swing Speed Journey

[Springveldt]

I went to a new golf simulator with a technology called "ProTee VX". I used my PRGR to compare swing speed and ball speed with driver and for those parameters it was very accurate; the same as when I compared with a Trackman it gave me no more than 1 mph difference in every shot. Anyone knows how accurate is that simulator compared to Trackman with the other parameters?

Regarding the numbers with driver I hit it 112 mph and 114 mph club head speed and always below 170 mph even when going after it, so I have decreased my speed quite a bit (5mph at least) from 2 month ago. The club feels heavy and I feel tired from the very start. I hope it is because I started a process of increasing strength in gym (low reps and neat my 100% mainly in squat, bench press and pull ups).

The historical results of green/blue/red and final green (in yellow) speeds also show a ~5mph decrease in speed across clubs in the last 2 months:

View attachment 57417
I hope the decrease is temporary and I am preparing for a new increase! I am debating between reducing gym volume right now or waiting a bit more...

Pretty sure my old club had ProTee, I used it once and never again. Found it garbage, maybe they didn't have it set up right but the ball flight just didn't make sense for the 4 of us using it. It should be accurate with ball speed though, even cheapo monitors like Rapsodo MLM (first version) was very accurate for ball speed. It actually measures club head speed so that should be accurate as well.

 

[mrio]

Pretty sure my old club had ProTee, I used it once and never again. Found it garbage, maybe they didn't have it set up right but the ball flight just didn't make sense for the 4 of us using it. It should be accurate with ball speed though, even cheapo monitors like Rapsodo MLM (first version) was very accurate for ball speed. It actually measures club head speed so that should be accurate as well.

What a pity, They have installed very close to where I live :/

 

[Springveldt]

What a pity, They have installed very close to where I live :/

It's getting decent reviews now, as I said maybe my old club didn't have it set up properly. I use the Trackman at my current club and some nights I've hit 5 shots and thought "this alignment is out" and I go into the settings and see some numbnut has changed the distance to the screen to be 20-22 foot instead of 10-12 and also set the alignment marker 5 foot left of where I like it. We never messed around with the ProTee settings, it could have been something similar.

 

[Neilds]

Obviously still not ideal driving conditions but what sort of distance increases are people seeing? All well and good swinging at x mph but is it transferring into distance (and accuracy)?

 

[hambugerpete]

Obviously still not ideal driving conditions but what sort of distance increases are people seeing? All well and good swinging at x mph but is it transferring into distance (and accuracy)?

Course is still quite soft but so far I'd say I'm about 20 yds past my usual spots on the fairways for a good drive. Possibly a bit more accurate but April will be a good test when I have 5 comps booked and course will be back at full length.

 

[mrio]

Obviously still not ideal driving conditions but what sort of distance increases are people seeing? All well and good swinging at x mph but is it transferring into distance (and accuracy)?

At 112-114 mph I carry 270 yards with driver. (2 months ago I was a bit longer). Positive angle of attack +3-5º and around 1500 - 2500 rpm according to ProTee VX.

My horizontal dispersion is around (65 yards) with normal shots so my ball is almost always in play (not always in fairway though). I always aim away from penalty shots, disregarding the center of the fairway.

In some of the courses I play I can carry obstacles 100% of times and 2 years ago I needed to force it and have good enviromental conditions to carry, I am also more accurate somehow. 2 years ago I was hdcp 8-10 and now I am 2.0 and the only area I gained strokes is the long game.

 

[garyinderry]

At 112-114 mph I carry 270 yards with driver. (2 months ago I was a bit longer). Positive angle of attack +3-5º and around 1500 - 2500 rpm according to ProTee VX.

My horizontal dispersion is around (65 yards) with normal shots so my ball is almost always in play (not always in fairway though). I always aim away from penalty shots, disregarding the center of the fairway.

In some of the courses I play I can carry obstacles 100% of times and 2 years ago I needed to force it and have good enviromental conditions to carry, I am also more accurate somehow. 2 years ago I was hdcp 8-10 and now I am 2.0 and the only area I gained strokes is the long game.

What was your clubhead speed before you started?

 

[mrio]

What was your clubhead speed before you started?

106 when I was swinging good and with confidence.

Since then I changed shafts on almost every club and I am not a freak of fitting, I usually adapt of what I have, but it was almost unplayable, the woods and long irons above all. I kept the same shafts on wedges.

 

[garyinderry]

106 when I was swinging good and with confidence.

Since then I changed shafts on almost every club and I am not a freak of fitting, I usually adapt of what I have, but it was almost unplayable, the woods and long irons above all. I kept the same shafts on wedges.

You were no slouch to begin with. 112 club head will get you round most courses and give you a great chance to go low.

 

[Golf is fun]

I went to a new golf simulator with a technology called "ProTee VX". I used my PRGR to compare swing speed and ball speed with driver and for those parameters it was very accurate; the same as when I compared with a Trackman it gave me no more than 1 mph difference in every shot. Anyone knows how accurate is that simulator compared to Trackman with the other parameters?

Regarding the numbers with driver I hit it 112 mph and 114 mph club head speed and always below 170 mph even when going after it, so I have decreased my speed quite a bit (5mph at least) from 2 month ago. The club feels heavy and I feel tired from the very start. I hope it is because I started a process of increasing strength in gym (low reps and neat my 100% mainly in squat, bench press and pull ups).

The historical results of green/blue/red and final green (in yellow) speeds also show a ~5mph decrease in speed across clubs in the last 2 months:

View attachment 57417
I hope the decrease is temporary and I am preparing for a new increase! I am debating between reducing gym volume right now or waiting a bit more...

How do you train?
Do you have good recovery - sleep, food, rest etc..

The recovery piece is obvious.

The training piece I mean to say, given you're going low reps and breaking PBs which is common for gaining strength. Do you work to any target percentages?
Keep trying to smash PBs, but think about how you move the weight, if you want to be fast and explosive, sometimes you're better off dropping the weight and really attacking it, trying to move it fast. For pure strength you want to be probably around 80% of your max for 5 reps, but if you're targeting power you might look more in the 60-80% range for 2-5 reps, generally drop the weight first, then peak to a higher weight and less reps over your training cycle, then repeat (hopefully with 100% being a bigger number).

Just something to think about.

 

[Springveldt]

Obviously still not ideal driving conditions but what sort of distance increases are people seeing? All well and good swinging at x mph but is it transferring into distance (and accuracy)?

Haven't been using ShotScope for a few months since it's been so cold and distances are way down. The 3 lads I play with have all commented on how it looks like I've gained distance, on good hits I'm within 5-10 yards of two of them when last year I'd be 15-20 behind them.

On Trackman I've had my furthest ever carry, a distance I never thought I'd be able to carry. A couple of years ago a great hit on Trackman would maybe carry 255 for me and at the end of last month I had this one and I've seen quite a few more over 260 carry when doing a speed session.




Whether it actually carries over into the season and helps me shoot better scores we will have to wait and see. I'll be surprised if it does as I'm at my lowest handicap ever just now but you never know.

 

[Neilds]

Haven't been using ShotScope for a few months since it's been so cold and distances are way down. The 3 lads I play with have all commented on how it looks like I've gained distance, on good hits I'm within 5-10 yards of two of them when last year I'd be 15-20 behind them.

On Trackman I've had my furthest ever carry, a distance I never thought I'd be able to carry. A couple of years ago a great hit on Trackman would maybe carry 255 for me and at the end of last month I had this one and I've seen quite a few more over 260 carry when doing a speed session.


View attachment 57419

Whether it actually carries over into the season and helps me shoot better scores we will have to wait and see. I'll be surprised if it does as I'm at my lowest handicap ever just now but you never know.

Good carry but 30+ yards of roll? Got to love these machines

 

[Springveldt]

Good carry but 30+ yards of roll? Got to love these machines

You can set it to soft, medium or firm fairways. I didn't check that night as I was just using the Shot Analysis mode but I'm assuming it was set to firm and 30 yards of roll out of something that is 157mph ball speed and 37 degree land angle isn't that outlandish. I don't even bother with the total, I've no idea what my furthest one has been, I only look at carry. The 8 metrics I usually have on the screen when using it are club speed, ball speed, smash factor, carry, spin rate, club path, face to path and land angle.

When I posted it I fully expected you to comment on the roll distance so you didn't disappoint.

 

[mrio]

You were no slouch to begin with. 112 club head will get you round most courses and give you a great chance to go low.

Thanks I was more like the typical guy who started young, we are almost all longer than the mean but I was never the longer hitter. Now I have been to tournaments where I am the longer hitter. In the last one I could move a couple of drivers past 115 mph (adrenaline and body in good conditions). It’s a huge change for me.

How do you train?
Do you have good recovery - sleep, food, rest etc..

The recovery piece is obvious.

The training piece I mean to say, given you're going low reps and breaking PBs which is common for gaining strength. Do you work to any target percentages?
Keep trying to smash PBs, but think about how you move the weight, if you want to be fast and explosive, sometimes you're better off dropping the weight and really attacking it, trying to move it fast. For pure strength you want to be probably around 80% of your max for 5 reps, but if you're targeting power you might look more in the 60-80% range for 2-5 reps, generally drop the weight first, then peak to a higher weight and less reps over your training cycle, then repeat (hopefully with 100% being a bigger number).

Just something to think about.

Sleep and food are kinda ok, I could do better though. I am a bit like a beginner and I am just incrementing a bit of weight every time I went to the gym, so every day is a PBs for me . I am a bit stuck at the moment (150 lbs x 5 at bench press).

The thing is that I feel that it takes more and more time to recover from every gym session (2 days are not enough) and I may be overtraining, but it’s weird with going only 3 times a week… maybe I have just bad genetics or I am doing something bad. I will also research about power training as you said! Thanks

 

[Golf is fun]

Thanks I was more like the typical guy who started young, we are almost all longer than the mean but I was never the longer hitter. Now I have been to tournaments where I am the longer hitter. In the last one I could move a couple of drivers past 115 mph (adrenaline and body in good conditions). It’s a huge change for me.


Sleep and food are kinda ok, I could do better though. I am a bit like a beginner and I am just incrementing a bit of weight every time I went to the gym, so every day is a PBs for me . I am a bit stuck at the moment (150 lbs x 5 at bench press).

The thing is that I feel that it takes more and more time to recover from every gym session (2 days are not enough) and I may be overtraining, but it’s weird with going only 3 times a week… maybe I have just bad genetics or I am doing something bad. I will also research about power training as you said! Thanks

If you want to go down a rabbit hole read some of the research around velocity based training.

Working to percentages of max is historically how athletes have trained, but more modern tech is allowing the bars velocity to be measured so you can measure the speed you move the bar and how much it decreases over a set. Really interesting stuff although the kit is still a bit pricey for the average gym goer. Like all tech it will get affordable at some point.

 

[Springveldt]

Trackman session again last night and still working on the feeling of loading more into the right side. Was much more consistent with it last night and it’s giving me half a club more. It works really well with short/mid irons, ok with the hybrids and doesn’t seem to work with 3 wood or driver yet. It’s giving me a little more club speed with the woods but strike is way more inconsistent.

I had quite a few 3 woods in the 102mph range with high 140’s ball speeds off the mat and I saw 4 driver swings all over 107mph without me feeling like I’m swinging out my boots but strike was crap.

Going to keep working on it as the iron shots feel so solid with it. I did a gapping session 3 weeks ago and carry distances were…
9 -135
8 -150
7 - 163
6 - 175
5 -190
4 - 200

Last night I was seeing…
9 - 142
8 - 158
7 - 171
6 - 183
4 - 210

And I didn’t even feel like I was swinging hard, clubhead speed was just a smidge up but smash factor was much higher.

 

[hambugerpete]

Trackman session again last night and still working on the feeling of loading more into the right side. Was much more consistent with it last night and it’s giving me half a club more. It works really well with short/mid irons, ok with the hybrids and doesn’t seem to work with 3 wood or driver yet. It’s giving me a little more club speed with the woods but strike is way more inconsistent.

I had quite a few 3 woods in the 102mph range with high 140’s ball speeds off the mat and I saw 4 driver swings all over 107mph without me feeling like I’m swinging out my boots but strike was crap.

Going to keep working on it as the iron shots feel so solid with it. I did a gapping session 3 weeks ago and carry distances were…
9 -135
8 -150
7 - 163
6 - 175
5 -190
4 - 200

Last night I was seeing…
9 - 142
8 - 158
7 - 171
6 - 183
4 - 210

And I didn’t even feel like I was swinging hard, clubhead speed was just a smidge up but smash factor was much higher.

Once I've finsihed level 2 I plan to book a gap session on the TrackMan at our club.

 

[Springveldt]

Once I've finsihed level 2 I plan to book a gap session on the TrackMan at our club.

I’m lucky enough our club does a membership to the Trackman studio. £150 for 5 hours per week for 5 months.

It resets at the of March so I’ve probably only got next Fridays session. Not sure if I’ll renew during the summer but will definitely be taking it out when the season ends and the dark nights are back in.

 

[DeanoMK]

Obviously still not ideal driving conditions but what sort of distance increases are people seeing? All well and good swinging at x mph but is it transferring into distance (and accuracy)?

I hit a 280 yard drive on Friday and another at 270, the one I was most proud of was 230 yards into a stiff 2 club wind.

 

[HPIMG]

Bit or a weird speed session this morning, have not been doing much speed training lately think that was 2nd session in a few weeks but have noticed on course my balls definitely going further.
So all 3 speed sticks were roughly 5mph down but my starting driver was 108mph it usually starts 100/102 max and I finished today at a 111/114/114/114 I did a 4th finish just to be sure. So previous personal best with driver was 110mph that’s quite a jump but oddly I was slower with the speed sticks. Anyone else had this happen ?