How to Increase Golf Swing Speed – 4 Simple Steps

In golf, a smooth swing is vital for a clean contact with the ball. But beginners often have a tendency to forego smoothness and try to hit the ball quickly and with too much power. They believe that swinging harder will lead to a further yardage.

When you swing too quickly, you are much more likely to miss the ball, or shank it. Therefore, in this article, we will cover some tips and tricks to help you increase your golf swing speed without sacrificing good technique.

1. Focus on Technique, Not Speed

As I said in the intro to this article, the best way to increase your swing speed is by improving your technique. When your technique is good enough, you can rely on it to generate enough speed for you, and you can therefore ensure that your swing is smooth.

When I was a beginner, this was truly a difficult idea to get my head around. I was always under the impression that swinging faster would be better. However, now that my golf mentality has improved, I know that I must relax when swinging and focus on getting a good contact with the ball.

So, there are some tricks that you can use to improve your technique with the goal of getting a faster swing speed.

Ensure that you start your swing well

• Ensure you are gripping the club securely, but not too tightly. You can use an interlock or overlap grip to ensure that you are holding the club effectively.
• Stand with a solid base. With most shots, ensure that the ball is in the centre of your stance.
  • When using a driver, put the ball towards your front leg.
  • When chipping, put the ball towards your back leg.
• Make sure that you are holding the club in the right direction.
  • Irons should be tilted slightly towards your front foot.
  • You should lean towards your back leg when using a driver.

Ensuring that you start your swing correctly helps you to hit the ball correctly, and therefore get a better contact. This means that you are less likely to thin or fat the ball. 

This little change in your technique that when you hit the ball faster, you won’t sacrifice a good contact with the ball.

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Improve your backswing

Having a good backswing sets up an even better downswing. When your backswing is smooth and not hasty, your club will be in the right position for the downswing.

A problem that I had for a long time was looping my swing. By this, I mean that I used to loop my swing forward when I reached the top of my backswing. Consequently, I would downswing over the ball and make contact with the toe of the club. All my shots would go to the right.

I would recommend that your backswing is:

• Slow and smooth.
• Straight up.
• A full backswing – i.e. don’t only swing halfway. However, make sure that you also don’t overswing your backswing.

When you have a good backswing, you can generate a lot of potential energy, which will translate to an explosive downswing.

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Have a smooth transition from backswing to downswing

Make sure that once you reach the top of your swing, you don’t want to rush the transition from backswing to downswing.

Having a smooth transition here will make sure that the power and technique generated from your backswing is transferred to your downswing.

I like to use a slow backswing with a constant speed, as I said previously, and then once I reach the top, I slowly accelerate my downswing so that I swing quickly through the ball.

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Use your core

Beginners often make the mistake of using their arms too much.

Power in your golf swing comes from rotating your hips and generating power from your core.

When you are swinging the club, make sure to rotate your hips as well as use your arms to increase your power.

2. Increase your Flexibility and Strength

This is a top tip that can be done outside of golf.

First, you should try to improve your flexibility. This will help you to improve your range of motion, which will generate more power in your swing. The more you can rotate, the faster you can hit through the ball.

Therefore, try to include some yoga or stretching into your daily routine.

Secondly, you can increase your strength. Increasing strength in key muscle groups such as your core, glutes and shoulders will help you to generate more power in your swing.

This can be done through weight training, resistance training and high intensity cardio such as swimming and sprinting.

3. Utilise Explosive Exercises

Explosive exercises will help you to develop your fast-twitch muscle fibres, which will give you more speed and agility when swinging the golf club.

This will help you to develop fast and powerful movements similar to those used in the golf swing, which will help you to swing your club faster.

Some examples of explosive exercises for golf are:

• Using a weighted club.
  • You can find a weighted club at any golf shop. 
  • Practice your swing as normal, without a ball, using the weighted club. 
  • By doing so, you will swing with more power.
• Medicine ball throws.
  • Stand in your golf stance, and rotate your torso as if you were swinging the club.
  • Then, on your downswing, throw the ball as far as possible towards where you would release the ball.
  • Doing this will improve your core strength, enabling you to rotate faster through the golf ball.
• Kettlebell swings.
  • Stand with your legs apart and knees bent, and swing the kettlebell from between your legs up to your chest.
  • This will help with core strength and muscle development.
• Jump squats.
  • Lower into the squat position, and then jump as high as possible.
  • Land back in the squat position.
  • This will help to develop your leg muscles.

These explosive exercises are another way to improve your golf swing speed outside of playing golf, and also have lots of other benefits to your health.

4 Use Proper Equipment

Make sure that your equipment is the correct size. This is vital to ensure that you can make good contact with the ball when you increase your club swing speed.

Often, beginners will not want to invest in fitted equipment, which I would obviously recommend to all people who want to take golf seriously. If this is you, you should go to a golf shop and buy individual clubs, and test each club out before you buy it. Test for:

• The correct length.
• The correct grip.
• A shaft material that suits you – some will be heavier; made of metal. Other clubs will be made of graphite. A lighter club will likely suit beginners more as it will help you to generate a faster swing speed.

I would always recommend that people invest in a fitted set of golf clubs – this is worth your money if you want to take golf more seriously. However, this is obviously expensive. The minimum that you should do is try out clubs to ensure that they work for you.

Summary

Overall, increasing your golf swing speed is a vital part in hitting the ball harder. However, this is more complex than just swing harder.

Instead, you must improve other aspects of your golf game, such as your technique, equipment, and work on developing the necessary muscles.