Golf Digest has a piece titled “The Science of Smash” in their new April edition that really helped me out with gaining distance. I’m also a lefty struggling with distance, and the article goes into what specifically tour players do differently to get extra yards. Thought it could be useful.

Cheers!

True long irons (4,3,2) are harder to hit well for most, because they have smaller and lighter clubheads than the short irons, so that the ball needs to be hit very close, or exactly on the sweet spot of the long iron clubface, or distance will be lost. The clubface should be fairly squared with good clubhead path to achieve the most distance without much curvature of the trajectory.

Mathematically, the long irons can be more accurate than the short irons, because deviations of the club handle rotation translates less to the directional deviation of clubface angle as compared to the short irons. Because the lie angle is more flat with the long irons, rotation of the club handle cause less clubface angle change, as more of the club handle rotation translates to dynamic clubface loft change. To understand this, imagine drawing a golf clubface at the hitting end of a baseball bat, and rotating the handle of the baseball bat. The drawn golf clubface angle on the baseball bat will not change in direction as the bat handle is rotated. The rotation of the bat handle will only change the “loft” of the drawn clubface at the end of the baseball bat.

The longer length of the long irons also allows a slower and “easier” swing than the short irons while still getting distance, which promotes smoother long iron swings to gain accuracy. The need to hit the ball on the clubface sweet spot of the long irons tends to promote the habit of hitting the long irons very precisely.

Page 58 in Chapter 4 of my book makes a calculation using the 3D formula for long clubs versus the 2D formular for mid-irons, showing why a long iron needs less effort to hit than a mid-iron, as the 3D formula predicts longer distance than the 2D formula.

Chapter 4 also shows a way to generate the precise amount of swing speed, hi or low, by using the natural neural and brain reflexes developed through evolution of the human brain. Humans are very good at throwing things to various distances in a very accurate manner. No other animals have the throwing ability of humans in terms of throwing distance and accuracy. This natural ability can be used during the golf swing release, as well as the first part of the downswing, to fully swing and to fully release the clubhead to high speeds. In addition to the natural throwing action, the golf swing uses both hands, and both sides of the body.

From stroboscopic pictures of the golf swing, it can be measured that about half of the total clubhead speed at impact is generated during the first part of the downswing before the release phase, and about the other half of the total clubhead speed by impact is generated during the release phase of the downswing.

This first part of the downswing is the body turning back towards the target without the wrist uncocking (ie. without the throwing motion of the hands.) The body turning swings the arms and the hands forward, which swings the clubhead to about half of its total speed. Scientifically, there is acceleration of the body, arms, and hand position during the first part of the downswing up to the release phase of the downswing, which acceleration acceleration also accelerates the clubhead to about half of the total clubhead speed.

The are several ways to increase acceleration during the first part of the downswing. For example: moving the body faster, doing it in a shorter time, X-factor, relaxation, posting up (which some say can cause kneed injury for players specially from thirty years old on,) utilizing the Law of the Conservation of Angular Momentum (aka keeping the hands and arms in closer to the body,) swinging the clubhead according to the 3D formula, using longer shafted driver, using “stronger” clubface loft, and using a stronger and not overly weak grip position.

These approaches work, although some like posting up the leading leg can cause serious kneed injuries specially in older players, so it should not be adopted by anybody. The clubhead has to travel faster when the downswing is completed in a shorter time as d=vt. It will take many additional posts to describe each of the above, so they will not be discussed in full here excepting for the following approach.

The easiest way to increase acceleration during the second part, the release, as well as during the first part of the downswing, is to use the 3D formula, in my opinion. This formula approach is explained in my book. An ebook version was mailed to you years ago for free. It may be worthwhile to reread Chapter 4 of the book, which describes the formulas for controlling clubhead speed fast or slow. If the ebook file is lost, a replacement can be emailed to you for free. The formula also tends to increase acceleration during the first part of the downswing automatically, besides its effect during the release phase. According to the formula, many players of average to good physical condition and strength should be able to drive 300 to 375 yards, as many have the potential to swing the driver clubhead to the 100 to 125 yard mark, as the 3D formula gives 3 times 100 equal to 300, and 3 times 125 as equal to 375 respectively. If the ball falls short of what the formula predicts, then the ball is probably not hit precisely with the ball not hit on the sweet spot of the clubface, the clubface is not squared, and the clubhead swing path is bad, and there is not full release, and the body is not working efficiently.

Obviously, bigger, taller, and stronger players tend to be able to hit longer, but some average sized players can hit long too. What the possible distance players are capable of in theory can be measured in the following way. At a driving range with flags set at 50, 100, 150, and 200 yards, the player can imaging swinging the clubhead without any ball to the flags in a intuitive imaginary fashion. It will be easy to imagining swinging the clubhead to the 50 yard flag. This will generate a 150 yard drive according to the 3D (3 times Imaginary Distance of the clubhead.) Next swing the clubhead without any ball to between the 50 and the 100 yard flags at 75 yards, which gives a 225 shot with the driver or long iron (3 times 75 equal 225.) Next swing the clubhead out to the 100 yard flag, which gives a theoretical drive of 300 yards according to the 3 times D formula. For the strong players, the clubhead target can be between the 100 and 150 yard flags, which gives 125 times 3 = 375 yards. The long driving champions can swing the clubhead to the 150 yard flag giving 3 times 150 = 450 yards. At these distances this risk of injuries increases, so that they are not for most players.

You should heed Dan’s advice, above (a short version of which I suggested about a year ago). Let’s be honest here. You are not succeeding in your goal, so what is there to lose at this point? If you do the movements as outlined by Dan (and Rippetoe) you will not become a muscle bound inflexible behemoth. In fact, your flexibility will likely increase. You will be stronger and develop clubhead speed, particularly through the rough.

Best of luck.

Your concern for swing speed is well founded. And the single best way to increase swing speed is overall strength. Period.

Is your weight training regimen actually focused on getting your overall strength higher (i.e., a linear progressive movement focusing on compound lifts rather)? Are you even doing deadlift, squat, and bench / overhead press? Most “golf fitness” programs are terrible, uninformed by science, and have you doing ridiculous things like squatting on one leg on a bosu ball. “Randomized” fitness regimens are little better. You want to swing a club harder, and have more balance? Get stronger. How do you actually get stronger? Use barbells. Increase the weight (slightly) every time. Repeat. Keep it simple.

Read Mark Rippetoe and the folks at Starting Strength. Just looking at a video of you, and knowing nothing about your training regiment, odds are very high that you still are at a very novice level for barbell exercises. That’s actually a good thing for you — you haven’t scratched the surface of your genetic potential, so you’ll see dramatic improvements in strength in just a couple months.

Strength is the fundamental and most general physical skill and will translate to other more technical physical activities much better than any other physical virtue. I.e., properly training for and increasing your strength improves your endurance, coordination, balance, power, etc.

What does this mean for you? It means you can hit the ball a hell of a lot harder. You just have to get stronger.

Read up on some of these thoughts here:

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/article/strength_and_conditioning#.VQh2s45vk5w

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/article/neuromuscular_efficiency_for_the_strength_lifter#.VQh1PY5vk5w

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/article/who_wants_to_be_a_novice_you_do#.VQh3KI5vk5w

http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/article/core_stability_training#.VQh2_Y5vk5w