Guest blog from Physical Therapist Shawn Dailey

“Shawn, how do I increase my swing speed? Can you give a program so that I can hit it further?”

Dan asked me this question several weeks ago and we have been working on a lot of golf relevant exercises and drills to help him work towards reaching PGA level swing speeds. Dan is like most golfers who are addicted to the sport so he reads a lot and watches a lot of Golf Channel. This is great but there is a lot of confusing information and even more conflicting opinions out there. I kept my answer as simple as I know how:

Dan, to increase swing speed you have to:

1. Have an efficient and consistent swing. (most important)

a. How do I know if my swing is efficient?… 3-D testing is objective and not someone’s opinion so I prefer it.

b. Work with a Golf Pro on your swing… this is what they devote their lives to!

2. Know what your bodies strengths, weakness, and restrictions are! No two bodies are alike and our bodies change as we age. We don’t all look like Dustin Johnson or have Rory’s swing.

3. Golf Physics: Swing Speed = Rotational Velocity (yes… that is different than linear velocity)

a. Power = (force x distance) / time. Force = Mass x acceleration, Speed = Distance/time, Mass = Golf club, Acceleration = ability to move golf club quickly, Distance= Swing arch length (top to bottom), Speed = time it takes to move the club rotationally from top of the back swing to impact.

b. SO… If we can increase Dan’s Power we should be able to increase his swing speed since the Mass (golf club) stays the same!!!

4. Dan’s Power Plan: Olympic Lifts, strength lifting/training, plyometrics/neural training, rotational speed/strength, core stability/endurance, functional golf drills, dynamic warm up, dynamic recovery (including nutrition as prescribed by an RD) and corrective activities/exercises.

While working on increasing Dan’s power we must keep in mind that Dan’s body is unique so we need to provide a program that is tailored to helping his body become more powerful in a safe way that also addresses some swing faults or potential injuries while making sure he can do the power based exercises with correct form and functional exercises that relates to golf/his body. We do this by TESTING his body first then laying out a plan… “Dan’s Power Plan”.

Dan’s Power Plan is a comprehensive off season performance driven strength and conditioning program that is Golf Relevant. That is a mouth full! It is important to note that his program is golf relevant so it is different than what a different athlete would do and is tailored to his physical and swing needs. We have 8-10 weeks to make Dan more powerful.

For more info about Shawn, please check out his site here: http://www.therapeuticassociates.com/locations/oregon/portlandvancouver/lake-oswego/lofitt/

2 Responses to "Guest blog from Physical Therapist Shawn Dailey"

Richard Chen says:

February 16, 2013 at 8:09 am

The primary problem at present is not clubhead speed, but it is lack of consistent accuracy to keep the drives in or close to the fairways. The impact parameters according to Trackman have a lot of variations. If the opening drive on a par five is off the fairway in the high rough and in the trees, it becomes difficult to go for the green in two.

The trick to getting more distance is not to be obsessed with distance. Being obsessed with distance tends to encourage a golfer to make gross changes in the swing to promote distance that can decrease accuracy and consistency, if not ruining the swing all together.

The trick is to decouple distance getting from consistent accuracy. My book “Golf Slow Motion Picture Swing Secret of Effortless Long Shots”, which is available on Amazon at a greatly discounted price, and a free eBook version is available for free from me if asked, discusses how to increase and to control distance-getting by trying to swing the clubhead not harder, but to swing easier the clubhead closer to a third of the “imaginary” distance to the target. By swinging one-third of the distance, the swing becomes more mentally effortless to both actually increase distance, while increasing consistency and accuracy at the same time. It is say time and again that golf requires players to do the opposite to what their instincts want to do. Swinging closer to increase distance is opposite to swinging farther to lose distance. In the book, it is discussed how the average drive should swing the clubhead to an imaginary distance for the clubhead to 70 yards. This will generate adequate distance, while promoting great control and accuracy for the drive. After the swing is groove for consistency and accuracy, the clubhead can be swung from 70 yard up to 90 yards and further to increase distance, while not losing consistency and accuracy gained. Once it is understood that distance is achieved by swinging the clubhead in the range of 70 to 100 yards, rather than swinging the ball to 200 to 300 yards, it becomes more effortless and consistent to metally swing to lets say 90 yards than to mentally swing to 270 yards.

As to rotational speed, and physics, I have posted here many times the physics law of the Conservation Angular Momentum. Like the spin of a figure skater, when the arms are close to the body, the body rotates faster. The opposite also holds, when the arms are sticking out far away from the body, the body rotates slower. It is seldom seen on weekend golf television that the pros have their arms out 40 to 45 degrees during setup. A picture of Woods posted previously on this blog has his arms at 30 degrees at setup, and Woods tends to have the arms out more than many of todays players. Some top players today has the leading arm basically vertical with the trailing arm around 20 degrees at set up for the driver.

They swing the hands close, if not very close, across the lower body during the downswing rather than far out from their bodies. Some of the television videos of the current winner of Pebble Beach show this closeness.

When the arms and hands are closer to the body during setup, a “v” angle is formed between the club shaft, and the arms-hands. When the arms are closer to the body during setup, a greater “v” angle is formed, while when the arms are sticking far away from the body, a smaller “v” angle is formed.

A larger “v” angle coming into the hitting zone will move the clubhead more as the arms rotate in the hitting zone, while a smaller “v” angle in the hitting zone moves the clubhead less as the arms rotate. This can be seen by holding with both arms the clubhead off the ground with the club shaft close in line with the arms. Rotating the arms in this straight line configuration does not move the clubhead much with basically just the clubhead rotating more less in place. Holding the club with a “v” angle will move the clubhead more back and forth as the arms rotate. With more “v” angle, arm-hand rotation generates more clubhead speed from arm rotation in the hitting zone. With less “v” angle, arm rotation contributes less clubhead speed in the hitting zone.
Richard Chen says:

February 16, 2013 at 9:12 am

Another law of physics is the law of the Conservation of Linear Momentum. mv = MV.

This is a very subtle physics law to be utilized to gain driver distance. The theoretical implication is that by increasing very slightly the velocity of the body away from the target, a great increase in the velocity of the ball toward the target can be gained.

velocity of ball increase = Mass of body divided by the mass of ball times Velocity of body increase in the opposite direction.

Since the Mass of the body is hundreds of times more than the mass of the ball, a very small increase in the Velocity of the body in the opposite direction will be amplified hundreds of times to the increase in ball velocity.

In real life, the body also has to swing the arms forward, so that the amplification factor has to be decreased:

v of ball increase = Mass of body / (mass of ball + mass of arms) times V of body

The theoretical concept is to shift the body slightly back to make the ball (and arms) go faster forward by using the much heavier body moving relatively slowly to make the much lighter ball to gain much faster increase in speed in the hitting zone. This concept can be imagined as like when swinging on ice.

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