It’s spring time and the golf season is about to get started here for us. We had some nice weather over the last couple of months and I took the opportunity to get out as much as I could. I’ve still been golfing in the simulator over the winter…but it’s not the same.
At the end of 2023 I set a couple of goals.
- Increase my driver swing speed by 10 mph by the start of next season
- Reduce my handicap to 4 by the end of 2024
- Win the club championship
I have quite a bit of time for 2 & 3, at least 5 months. But for increasing my swing speed, I’ve only got about 3 weeks before our men’s league kicks off.
So where am I at on it? Close…very close!
But honestly, if I wasn’t lazy for half of the offseason, it would have been no problem at all. I hit it hard early, then fell off the wagon. It’s a poor excuse, but between my day job and life in general, I just didn’t give it as much priority as I would have liked.
Although I have not focused on it much over the last 3 months, the gains I made have stuck with me. Towards the end of last season, I was able to get around 116mph, but that was a hard swing and accuracy suffered.
The work I did put in to start the offseason got me up to 121mph at max. And Swinging about 115 felt “easy”. When I’m playing in the simulator recently, I’m still hitting my driver around 115/116 for what feels like a relatively easy swing.
I’m pretty confident I can get another 5mph if I jump back into my Stack System training.
What Have I Been Working on Instead?
I spent much more time this offseason working on my technique. Swing changes can take a lot of time, and I’m not a fan of making them during the season…so, most of the time I spent over the winter was on my swing.
I have a very strong grip and toward the end of the season I was going to work through making that grip more neutral. My miss is a hook, so the thought process was that a change in grip would alleviate that.
I started working on it – and HATED IT…it felt so weird. Fortunately, I was only a couple of weeks into it when I took some video and had my swing analyzed. My lead wrist was massively bowed at the top of my backswing, which closes down the club face. So I started looking for ways to address that.
I picked up the ProSENDR
When the lead wrist is bowed at the top, you can still get the club square if you have good lower body rotation. I definitely find that my golf game starts to struggle when I’m sore or fatigued. I don’t rotate efficiently in those situations…leading to pulls/hooks.
But when your lead wrist is flat, it really does put you in a better position to make a good shot. The ProSENDR helps you get in the right place. I’ve also measured its effectiveness with HackMotion. It’s actually pretty awesome and works.
But its not a quick fix, it is a long-term approach.
So that’s what I’ve put my primary focus on through the winter. I have definitely noticed improvement in my consistency with approach shots, at lest on the simulator, but we will see how that goes on the course.
Where Do I Go From Here?
Season is about to kick off, and I am trying hard to separate my “practice” from “play”. I believe there is absolutely a place to practice a technique and work towards changing your swing for the better…but when it comes to playing on the course, I really do believe that you need to JUST PLAY.
So I am going to try hard to focus on just playing when league kicks off.
I am also going to get back to it on the swing speed training before the regular season kicks off…but once I start golfing a few times a week, I’ll scale the swing speed training back to maintenance mode.
I’ll continue working with the ProSENDR and HackMotion to evaluate my wrist angles, and those aren’t major changes (at least for me). They’re actually minor and somewhat simple…not simple to execute…but small enough change that it doesn’t feel uncomfortable.
Good luck on the course!