The Need for (Clubhead) Speed

How to reach your untapped distance potential

June 07, 2024

Yes! I loved that video game!

Not that kind of speed. I’m talking about Club Head Speed.

In my post about how I dropped 7 strokes in 6 months, I talked about several folks that helped me understand why distance plays such an important factor and why it helped me shave 5+ strokes off every single round.

There are 2 main factors in determining how far a ball goes for us regular joes, 1) where you hit it on the club face and 2) how fast the club head is moving at impact. Yes, there are many many more factors like dimples on the ball, spin rate, and launch angle, but it’s easy to get analysis paralysis. Let’s look at factor 1.

Club Face Strike

This is taken from almost 5,500 swings from 27 different golfers like you and me, which average clubhead speed of 96-99 mph. You can see that just hitting the sweet spot on the club face is going to net you 36 more yards than a nasty heel strike. That’s a difference of 14.6%! I can almost hear the commercials now; “hit it 15% longer with this secret hitting method.”

But of course, there’s no real secret. It’s just a matter of developing skill to find the center of the club face. I’ve talked before about some drills to do that and my favorite is simply to practice hitting on toe side and heel side… on purpose.

Finding the Clubface Drill:

Grab yourself a can of Dr. Scholl’s foot spray and spray the face of your club.

Then draw a vertical line in the middle so you have a heel side and toe side. The object of your practice is to purposefully hit the ball on the toe side and then purposefully hit the ball on the heel side. Pay no actual attention to the ball flight whatsoever. Your only focus is where did you make contact with the ball on the club face.

Now, when you’re out on the golf course, the best place to strike the ball is in the middle. But this practice is meant for you to develop a feel and skill for where you’re making contact with the ball and can easily make adjustments to find the middle on the your shot.

Club Head Speed

This one is rather simple - how fast can you physically move the golf club as you strike the golf ball.

In general, the faster the club moves, the further the ball will travel. So it begs the question - how can I move the club faster?

Swing technique is one way. And I encourage you to watch some Long Drive Contests to see their Happy Gilmore like swings. Becoming more physically fit is another way. I personally use FitForGolf.

But the most recent trend and one that I got introduced from the Chasing Scratch Podcast has been to do “Speed Training.”

The boys got sponsored and started using a Speed Training system called The Stack System, but I wasn’t quite ready to pony up the several hundred dollars for it, plus the radar device. So I did what any frugal, dad of three would do… I just swung my driver as fast as I could for 50 swings every other day.

I was initially skeptical, but in as little as 2 weeks, I was already seeing my distances increase. So that’s when I decided to pull the trigger on the real deal.

The Stack is a really well built app and training experience. The program will run you through a series of foundational testing and then put you in the right program for you. Here is where I started:

According to this old Trackman Driver Fitting Chart, my total distance with a driver was around 272 yards. Based on my play, I’d say that was pretty spot on. But Mark Brodie from Every Stroke Counts said that I need to be hitting bombs to increase my Strokes Gained off the tee.

Looking at the chart, an increase of 10mph increases my distance 20-30 yards. So that’s what I did. After the 18 workout session over approximately 2 months, I was now working with a 110 average club head speed with my driver. I could amp it up to 114-115 if I really went for it.

Now, for the all important question…how does that translate to the course?!? When I can keep it in play and don’t chunk it, I’m usually putting up numbers close to 300. So it works.

As of May 10, 2024, there is apparently a lawsuit against The Stack System which was submitted by SuperSpeed who is a competing Speed trainer for golf. They claim that The Stack System has created marketing that misleads customers about the real world gains its product can create.

For full disclosure, I haven’t used SuperSpeed but the reviews I read make it sound like a good product and will also help a golfer increase club head speed. I did not choose that platform because The Stack also offers a putting program as well. Plus my boys on the Chasing Scratch podcast were using The Stack so I should too.

Conclusion

I’m definitely hitting the ball farther with all clubs and it definitely makes the game a lot easier. Now the key is to not only know my distances, but also my shot dispersion left to right. And then using an app like Shot Pattern to see how much room you have and if you can use certain clubs.

Until next time.

I do earn a small commission on some of the items mentioned in this post, but it’s only enough to offset a few lost balls. I would never promote a product that I didn’t believe in.