I don't really understand what happened to my club head speed. Yes I am 66 years old now so I get that your swing speed "naturally" slows down as you get older, but to me it does not make sense. I am a very athletic 66 year old dude. I have lifted weights my entire adult life and still do like three times a week in my home gym along with some pretty intense cardio and a regular yoga routine to help stay flexible. I honestly feel like I can still swing pretty fricking hard, but it does not translate into fast clubhead speeds.
This past summer I did some speed training using my GC3 to measure my results and was shocked to see my base normal CH speed with the driver be around 84 mph. Are you kidding me.....84 mph? When I swung as hard as I could I could get it up to about 88 but that was it. After a few weeks of training I managed to get up to a respectable 98 mph max swing speed (just one time) but still - that was swinging as hard as I could and it was not pretty. I ended up pinching a nerve in my neck so had to stop the training but plan to go back to it when I am able. The science behind how your smaller muscle groups start to disengage as you get older is sound and speed training can reengage some of those ancillary muscles to help you achieve gains over time - it makes sense and I plan to work on it over the winter....but.....
What I don't understand is I see golfers in videos swinging pretty easy and getting speeds in excess of 100 mph. I am convinced it is more about "how" I am swinging than me just being older now. When I see golfers like Tony Finau take a short backswing and drive over 300 yards or someone like Fred Couples take a nice easy swing and do the same, it just reinforces what I believe is true - my technique is lacking.
Over the winter I am going to work on improving my technique and there are two areas I plan to focus on; using my legs more....kind of a power squat move and the timing of that move, and also get some more natural wrist hinge into my backswing so I can get that trebuchet effect when the club releases at the moment of impact.
Since I moved to the S&T swing I have been very focused on taking the variables out, so I keep my wrists sort of static and don't put much focus on my weight transfer. I am making very solid crisp contact with my irons so I am not complaining, but I want to get more out of my longer irons and driver especially.
Just wondering what over senior golfers may have experienced and what CH speed others my age are getting with their driver. Also, what you might have done to increase your CH speed.
Cheers,
AE
Hi Alan,
Though not in your age group, I do know that @Ian "Twiggy" Jones and @Russell Hogue, PhD are working on speed training and may have some suggestions for you in this regard.
Beyond that, a few of my recent YT lessons have focused on using the bigger "power" muscles instead of micromanaging the hands, wrists, and arms. If we pre-establish the connections properly in the setup and have a foundational base that facilitates a full centered turn without restriction, then we can entrust the motion to the big muscles and allow the arms, wrists, hands, and club to simply go along for the ride and respond accordingly as if on autopilot. The power accumulators (reference the school's Power + Distance Course) will naturally load and fire with no contrived manipulations or precise timing necessary, thereby returning the face to its pre-set position established at address. It's called "giving up control to gain control", and it's the formula for consistently blissful ball striking and seemingly effortless power.
TS