Boost Clubhead Speed with Data-Driven Drills

⚡ Increasing the speed of your takeaway can naturally boost your rotation and club head speed without extra effort.

🏌️‍♂️ Matching the tour average in hip and shoulder turn is achievable even for amateur golfers with simple adjustments.

🦵 Using knee flex strategically during the swing helps harness ground force for more powerful drives.

🚀 Straightening your legs quickly through impact, almost like jumping, is a key move for maximizing distance.

🔬 Measuring changes in knee flex and takeaway speed provides actionable data to improve your golf swing.

💡 Combining a faster takeaway with dynamic knee flex are two underrated tips for increasing club head speed.

00:00:00 - Lexi, I feel the need, the need for speed. >> Let's go, Josh. >> Let's do it.

00:00:13 >> All right, so Lexi, we're going to talk about how to create some more club head speed. These are some things that maybe you haven't thought about, so these are kind of some little lesser known tips or tricks to that. So, let me ask you the question first. If you were trying to hit this driver as far as you possibly could, what are some things you might do currently to try to hit the ball further? >> Um, I think I really only have one strategy, and that's to just feel as

00:00:36 - though I'm pulling my hands down faster. >> Okay. >> Um, if that makes sense. >> Sure. Totally fine. Yep. So, a lot of the common ones that you'll hear obviously create more turn. Like the more rotation you create in the back swing, that's going to help you hit it further. One way that you can do that that a lot of people don't think of is increase the speed of your takeaway. Okay? So, a lot of people will take the club back extremely slow. I see a ton of amateur golfers do this all the time,

00:01:00 - and that makes it really hard to essentially create enough rotation and create enough power in your down swing. So, by going a little faster, basically taking the club away quicker, that can help create a little bit more of the rotation. And then what actually happens when you do that, because the club's moving faster in the back swing, to your point, when you're trying to pull your hands down and apply more force when you swing the club back to the ball, by

00:01:21 - actually taking a faster swing, you have to put more force into the grip to move it the other way. So that can help you increase the speed of your down swing. So that's the first thing that we're going to take a look at. So what I want you to do is I want you to we're going to practice this a couple times and then we'll use opiotion as a way to sort of compare the numbers. Um, so we'll test that out first and then we'll come back and talk about the second thing that

00:01:39 - happened. So, all I really want you to change, don't worry about trying to keep the face more closed or anything fancy there. Just take the club back much faster than you normally would. And then just make your same down swing. So, um, take the club away a lot quicker than you normally would. And let's see what that does.

00:02:03 >> All right, Lexi, which one went further? Uh, you know, I think that's going to be this one. >> Yep. So, I mean, if you look at these visually, right, they don't look that different. Would you agree? >> I agree. >> Okay, cool. So, what's cool is this is your just normal swing. So, I captured a few of these when you were just hitting and kind of off camera warming up. This is what you typically do with a driver. So, you basically match the tour average pattern really nicely. You turn about

00:02:28 - 87°. Tour players turn 88. Your hip turns 49. Tour players about 44. So, you're really good there. and your ball speed's 126. This is just your normal drive, not trying to hit it f further, step on it or anything. >> This is the swing you just made where you were basically thinking all you were doing is going faster in your back swing. So, what essentially happens is you turn three more degrees with your hips, you turned 14 more degrees with your shoulders. So, that gives you an

00:02:54 - additional, call it 12 mph. And this could have been obviously a little skewed if you hit this one in the center versus this one. Like obviously that's probably not what you're going to see on every shot. >> But the thing that's really cool about this is just by thinking about increasing the speed of your takeaway. You increased your turn without necessarily trying to turn more. >> Yeah, >> that's what's really cool. So that's that's a super easy tip for everybody at

00:03:15 - home. If you're trying to create more speed and basically try to hit one as far as you can, this is one way that you could do it. Just increase the speed of your takeaway. So that's step number one. The second piece to this is really this is a common thing that you're going to hear a lot of people talking about in golf instruction now is just how you use the ground. So, let's talk about that out on the mat. >> Awesome. >> Okay. Speed tip number two. Uh this is

00:03:37 - really going to relate to how you use your knee flex during the golf swing. That's a really that's another cool thing that we can measure using opio is how much your trail knee flexes and extends. All right. So, what the best golfers in the world do, this is how they use the ground to create power, right? Like ground just sits there. you as a person have to actively do something to create power using the ground. It's not like the ground is just going to make you swing faster because

00:03:59 - it exists. It's not how it works. Okay? So, think about it in this context. Like, if I told you to jump as high as you could, what would you do? >> Squat down and then jump up. >> Perfect. >> So, the exact same thing happens when you're trying to swing a golf club. You're just probably not jumping up into the air. Yeah. >> Some golfers will do that if they're really trying to create as much power as they can. You'll see a lot of tour pros sometimes even be up on their very tippy

00:04:19 - toes when they hit a drive. Okay. But this is essentially how it has to work. So you demonstrated it perfectly. The best golfers start with their trail knee flexed some amount at a dress. Okay. As they make a back swing, their trail knee, so for you that'd be your right knee, starts to straighten all the way back to where your lead arm gets about parallel to the ground. And then from that point, you actually start to regain your flex and flex back down towards the

00:04:40 - ground. Okay? So you straighten into the early part of your back swing. You start to regain your flex. This happens until about when the shaft is approximately parallel to the ground in the down swing. And then from that point in time, that's when they jump. Okay? >> They straighten both of their legs and swing through uh impact and hit the ball. So Lexi, we're going to we're going to practice this now. So take your address position, okay? And what I want you to do is take the club back to where

00:05:02 - the shaft's about parallel to the ground. And I want you to flex your knees probably more than you think you should. This would be a really good way if this is something you need to work on, like flex your knees more. And then from this point, basically make a swing into your follow through and try to straighten your legs as fast as you can, almost like you were going to jump. So start with the shaft parallel. Flex your knees. Now straighten them and swing the

00:05:21 - club through as fast as you can. Okay. So this would be a really good exercise for you if you think this is something that you need to improve upon to help you keep essentially the grip and the club moving faster through impact. Okay. So take it back again. Let's break this down just so everybody can see it at home. Flex your knees. >> Is this flexed enough? >> Yep. Even more. Like there you go. Basically do your squat like like you were ready to jump. Like squat down and

00:05:44 - then from here push off. straighten your legs as fast as you can be a really good way to do this. So now when you've rehearsed that a couple times, go ahead and actually set up to the ball. And what I want you to do is hit one out there using that same method. So start when the shaft's parallel to the ground, flex your knees and hit. >> So here you go, Lexi. This is exactly what you would want to see. So you can see how your trail knee, which is basically just the measurement right

00:06:07 - here, is 30° flexed. As we continue to kind of move this into impact and into your follow through, you see how that number keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller. That's essentially what should happen. And then at this point, it's probably going to start to regain its flex, which is totally fine. But this would be a really good way if you could incorporate both of those two pieces. So, a quicker takeaway and then just how you use your knee flex in the

00:06:27 - golf swing. If you really want to hit it far, those are two things that not a lot of people are talking about that we can measure, which is super cool and it's an easy way to create more club head speed. >> Awesome. Very cool. >> Nice job. >> Thank you.