Practice Drills that Increase Clubhead Speed

If you want to get more distance, there is only one way to do it. You need to increase club head speed. This is the single biggest factor in getting maximum carry with your driver or long irons. The set up, the swing, and all of the strategies you follow all lead to this very moment.

The problem is that a huge chunk of players suffers from club head issues. They just can’t seem to get up to enough speed to squeeze the last few yards from their drive shots. They’re following everything by the book but nothing seems to work.

Well, the thing is, you can’t learn everything from the books. There are certain things that players must tweak for themselves. In this post, that’s what we’re going to focus on. Also, we’ll share a few drills with you that you can practice to increase your club head speed quite dramatically.

Resource: Step by Step Golf Practice Routines + Training System

What Contributes to Club Head Speed?

A blazingly fast club head speed is not a single component. Rather, it’s a combination of multiple factors that build up to humongous club head speeds. Let’s take a look at what those are.

Raw Strength

Strength is one of the most important components of club head speed. You may have seen light to medium weight guys hitting 300 yards all the time and heavyweight guys hitting barely 250 yards. Yes, it’s true that you can outdo a stronger person with better technique. But you could never outrank a strong player with good technique.

One of the best things you can do for your long distance golf is weight training. Specifically, strength training. Training big muscle groups such as your chest, shoulders, hips, glutes, etc. can result in explosive club head speeds.

Club Selection

As you’re primarily targeting distance, you’re most likely playing with your driver. Now, the driver you use must suit you. It’s the most expensive club in the bag anyway. So, you should spend the extra to get custom fitted for a driver.

When a driver is adjusted exactly to your playing style, you can utilize it to its full potential. You’ll get a shallow swing with enough lag to send the ball over 300 yards! Another thing is the size of the sweet spot. Based on how large the club head is, the size of the sweet spot would also change.

If you’re a beginner, you should go with the largest club head. And if you’re an intermediate, you can go with the medium or small ones. The benefit of the smaller club heads is that they weigh less. And less unsprung mass means more speed.

Range of Motion

You can become the strongest man in the course. You can buy the most expensive driver in the world, fitted exactly to your needs. But you won’t be able to hit long if your range of motion is not good. What we’re talking about is the flexibility of the players.

You need to be flexible enough to coordinate the speed difference between your lower body and the upper body for maximum speed. It’s wonderful how tweaks in range in motion can make such huge differences in golf.

What we’re trying to say is that you need to improve your flexibility as well as your strength.

Drills to Improve Club Head Speed

Now that we’ve shared enough background information with you, let’s get into the most important part of this guide. The drills. In this section, we’re going to look at some specific drills targeted to strength, flexibility, and over club head speed.

The Weighted Donut Drill

Suppose you’re used to doing bench press with 200 lbs. If you suddenly used 100 lbs., it would feel very light and effortless, right? You’ll be able to move the 100 lbs. of weight up and down much faster than you could do with the 200.

This is drill is all about that concept. You simply attach a weighted donut to your driver and practice. The idea is that you’ll get your body accustomed to a higher weight than your driver. As you build up speed for that added weight, you’ll add speed to your regular club weight.

Ultimately, when you try to swing with your driver, you’ll be amazed to see how effortless it feels. You’ll be able to channel your energy better with this drill.

1. Pick a safe area for this practice. The backyard of your house or a booth at the driving range would work fine.
2. Attach a weighted donut to your driver and secure it properly. Put extra focus on this step because you don’t want the donut flying away and hitting someone on the head.
3. Practice without the ball. A good routine could be practicing 10 shots with the weight followed by 5 shots without.
4. Keep practicing until you achieve the desired club head speed.

The Flexibility Drill

As part of the whole ‘increasing club head speed’ thing, you need to work on your flexibility. And it all starts with your backswing. For maximum speed, your lead arm should extend as far backward as possible. The same goes for your training arm.

To improve in this area, you can try the one-handed flexibility drill. The goal is to widen your swing by extending your range of motion.

1. Hold your driver upside down with your trail arm. Use this arm to mimic your full swing while the lead arm tries to rotate as much away from the target as possible.
2. Once you’re at the top of your backswing and you’re positive you can’t extend any farther, swing downward. It’s wise to warm up before this drill because you might pull a muscle if you’re not careful.
3. Swing the club as explosively as you can by extending your trail arm through impact. At first, you may not hear anything. But as you practice, you should start hearing a whooshing noise.
4. The stronger the noise gets, the better club head speed you’re getting.
5. From there, it’s all about incorporating what you learned in your two handed actual swings.

Resource: How to Score in the 70’s Golf Training Plan

Fix Your Swing Drill

Well, to be honest, it’s not a drill. It’s a reminder. That if you have a problem with your swing, you should fix it first. Because if you don’t and you keep on going with the strength training/flexibility training, you’ll just be working on a bad technique.

We have more than enough guides on our website about swing flaws and how to fix them. A swing is one of the most important components of a golf player’s life, you should give those articles a read.

Ideally, your swing should be shallow. The ball should be in a forward position. You should be hitting up on the ball. If you’re an intermediate player, you should target a draw by opening up your club face just a touch.

All of these can only be done if you have a flawless swing. If you get stuck on your swing or you don’t have enough lag, these methods won’t work to get you a better distance.

Throw a Ball Drill

One of the greatest ways to increase the explosive force of your trailing arm is to get out of golf. Instead, take a tennis ball or a rubber ball to throw. You’re going to throw the ball with your trail arm, that is the right arm if you’re right-handed and the left arm if you’re left handed. You need to throw as fast as you can but in a golfing motion.

This will help your trail arm with the feeling of throwing harder. Once you’ve practiced this drill for a couple of weeks, move on to using your driver. You should notice the difference immediately as you swing faster than ever.

Pairing this drill up with the weight donut technique can take your club head speed through the roof. Just come up with a routine to practice both and try to incorporate the lessons in your playing.

The Timing Drill

This might look very silly to a lot of you. But trust us, it works. It’s a timing drill that will coordinate between your backswing and downswing.

1. Take a towel and roll it up diagonally to make it longer. Tie a knot on one end.
2. This is your driver. Get into stance and address an imaginary ball with the towel.
3. Do your backswing. If you do it right, the rolled up towel should fly smoothly to your back and the knot should tap you on the shoulder shortly.
4. The tap on your shoulder is your mark to begin your downswing. Many swing drills may have taught you to take a pause at the top of your backswing. This is the pause they talk about. This drill will improve your timing dramatically. The better you time your shot, the less energy you lose in the process.

Final Words

Every golf players want to hit harder tee shots. No matter how good of a player they are, everyone just wants to go a little more. It’s buried deep into our nature because strong and long shots represent power and dominance over the others on the course. And now, you know how you can improve your club head speed.

Golf Practice Plans to Follow

• How to Score in the 60’s Golf Training Plan
• How to Score in the 70’s Golf Training Plan
• How to Score in the 80’s Golf Training Plan
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Thanks for reading today’s article!

Nick Foy – Golf Instructor