| Faster is Better The best thing you can do to | | | | opposite of what you are trying to achieve. |
| improve your distance off the tee is to increase your | | | | So how much tension do you have in your swing? |
| clubhead speed - in other words, swing faster. The | | | | Try the Potato Chip exercise |
| worst thing you can do to sabotage your clubhead | | | | The Potato Chip exercise came about while I was |
| speed is to try to swing HARDER. Why? If you try | | | | working with a student who was trying to add |
| to swing harder you will introduce tension in your | | | | distance to his drives. On his backswing I noticed that |
| swing, and tension kills swing speed. | | | | his jaw muscles were clamped so tightly I could |
| For every mile-per-hour of swing speed you can | | | | literally see the cords in his neck stand out. He was |
| expect to drive the golf ball about 2.4 yards. That | | | | really "trying hard" to hit it far. The tension from his |
| means a 100 mph swing speed will produce a drive of | | | | jaw radiated down his neck, into his shoulders, out his |
| about 240 yards. Adding just 4 mph to your swing | | | | arms and down his back. Yet he could not feel the |
| speed will get you 10 yards. Add 8 mph and you've | | | | tension in his swing. |
| got another 20 yards. | | | | I made a quick trip to the snack shop and picked up |
| Sounds like it should be easy, right? | | | | a bag of potato chips. I then asked him to put a chip |
| The problem is that when most golfers try to add a | | | | between his teeth and swing without crunching the |
| little distance the almost universal instinct is to | | | | chip. The results were so funny that we were both |
| "muscle up" on the ball. The instinct is to "swing | | | | practically in hysterics by the 6th attempt. |
| harder" in an attempt to get more "power" into the | | | | Great Feedback Mechanism for Improving Awareness |
| swing. | | | | On his first swing the student crunched the chip as |
| The Paradox of Speed - Think Free, not Hard The | | | | soon as he started his take-away. Talk about an |
| paradox is that you don't need more power, you | | | | eye-opener! |
| need more speed. And to get more speed in your | | | | After two more tries he was able to get to the top |
| golf swing you have to lighten up. | | | | of his backswing without crunching. After a couple |
| Consider the different image that forms in your mind | | | | more chips he was able to start the downswing |
| when you think about "swinging hard" vs. "swinging | | | | without crunching. But it took about half the bag to |
| freely." "Hard" evokes an image of tight muscles and | | | | make it all the way through impact with an intact |
| considerable effort, while "free" brings an association | | | | chip. |
| of light and fast. | | | | By the end of the chips my student was able to |
| Tension Kills Swing Speed The truth is that tense | | | | swing freely through the ball to the target. He wound |
| muscles do not operate as smoothly nor as quickly | | | | up adding 10 mph to his swing speed, and about 25 |
| as tension-free muscles. The typical result of muscling | | | | yards to his drives. Plus his drives were much more |
| up is an actual loss of distance as well as a high | | | | consistent and accurate. He was much happier (and |
| probability of an errant shot. You will get exactly the | | | | not as hungry). |