The One Thing You’re Probably Missing When Trying to Hit the Golf Ball Farther

The best Christmas gift of my life came when I was 41, after a colleague connected me with the Stack System. The popular speed training aid had helped Matt Fitzpatrick win the US Open the previous year and, within a few weeks, helped me gain over 10 yards off the tee. The best part? Every time I open the box, I feel like I’m uncovering even more potential distance off the tee. But after about two years of using it, I had to face the fact that I was getting diminishing returns.

Advertisement

This was to be expected. And it’s part of the reason I knew I needed to put more emphasis on fitness (particularly strength training) if I wanted to continue making gains off the tee. But it was through talking to my coach for this project, Mike Carroll, that I learned about another key aspect of speed training that I had previously overlooked. And it’s something anyone can start doing right away.

Speed ​​training is great.

Let’s back up and say that any golfer at any level can benefit from any type of speed training. Once again, Fitzpatrick was already one of the best players in the world when he got serious and that ended up taking him to another level. Because? As a 2022 study by Arccos Golf’s Lou Stagner determined, every 10 yards of additional distance causes a player’s scoring average to drop by about one stroke. So the longer hitters are starting with a big advantage. It is literally science.

The good news? As Fitzpatrick demonstrated, swing speed is a skill you can improve. During the first two rounds at Brookline on his way to winning his first major, the 5-foot-10, 155-pound Fitzpatrick turned heads by routinely outplaying playing partner Dustin Johnson, something that would have been unfathomable for both of them a couple of years earlier.

Advertisement

Of course, the Stack System is not the only way to improve swing speed, but it is certainly effective (our Sam Weinman wrote about this in more detail). And I’ve found that it’s a good way to quell the desire to play golf during the off-season. In case you don’t know it, here I am using it at home:

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Users go through several programs that typically take weeks to complete and consist of 20 to 30 minute sessions several times a week using different weight combinations. And the speed of each hit is tracked by radar and recorded through the Stack app so you can see your progress. Here’s a look at part of my report after finishing the Full Speed ​​Spectrum program I recently finished:

But when I first told Mike that my expected swing speed didn’t match the speeds I saw in a simulator, he said that was common. And then he made an important suggestion.

Advertisement

Take a radar to the shooting range.

As an ambassador for The Stack System, Carroll is well aware that it is a fantastic product that has helped many golfers.

“Removing the ball and providing them with the singular goal of ‘swinging this club fast’ gives them the opportunity to develop a swing that has some speed, without fear of ball contact,” Carroll writes in his Swing Speed ​​Training for Golf guide. “This generally leads to a much more athletic and dynamic swing that has much more long-term potential.”

However, he points out that moving that lever is not the same as moving the driver. And it’s very different than hitting golf balls.

Advertisement

“The Stack, with its focus on overspeed and overload training, is a great complement to developing more horsepower,” adds Carroll. “See this more as ‘training’ and doing speed training while hitting drivers as a hybrid between training and practice since it’s actually both.”

Carroll began asking me to take my Stack radar to the range and simulator (during the winter) for speed training sessions. (It also asks me to combine this with strength training, as I wrote above.) I do these speed sessions at the end of my range sessions when I’m fully warmed up, usually doing 20 to 30 shots at maximum effort. And yes, sometimes I feel like a lunatic swinging as hard as I can, sometimes growling as loud as Monica Seles in her prime.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

But then I remember that video of Bryson DeChambeau doing something similar at the Augusta National shooting range:

Advertisement

Hey, it seems to work for him.

What numbers should you track?

While Stack sessions focus on clubhead speed, hitting real balls allows you to track ball speed. Why is that important? Well, you could be swinging too fast, but if you don’t make good contact with the ball, it won’t mean much. (Crush factor measures the efficiency of energy transfer from the club to the ball and is calculated by dividing the ball speed by the club speed with a maximum ratio of 1.5.) Making faster swings on the course gets you used to hitting golf balls outside your comfort zone.

“It’s like riding a bike down a hill at 30 mph versus 20,” Carroll tells me. “It will take a few runs to get used to it and avoid crashing.”

Advertisement

RELATED: Why Strength Training Is More Important to Your Golf Game Than You Think

On the field, it doesn’t matter where the ball goes: to a certain point. The goal is to get used to making better contact with the ball at higher speeds, something that will translate into better ball speeds even if you swing the club at the same speed. And in case you’re worried about becoming more erratic off the tee, don’t be. In fact, your accuracy could improve because to swing faster, your body must work more efficiently. Golf Digest Best Young Teacher Steve Buzza noticed this while working on his master’s thesis in biomechanics. “Of the 28 elite golfers I studied,” Buzza writes, “those who prioritized distance over accuracy not only hit longer, they hit straighter.”

After a speed session, I record clubhead speed, ball speed, and carry distance in Carroll’s Fit For Golf app. The progress has been easy to see and the clubhead speed has translated into real results. In December, I surprised my colleagues by finishing second in a long-course contest at the company Christmas party with a push of 295 yards. And less than a month later, I hit 160 mph ball speed for the first time.

Why is it so important to me? Well, when I started this in late October, I would have loved any ball speed over 150. As a rule of thumb, each extra mile per hour of clubhead speed equals 2.3 to 3 additional yards of carry (the difference is based on the quality of contact), while each mile per hour of ball speed equals two yards. So going from 150 to 160 is a big deal or potentially about 20 extra yards of carry. I should also mention that the idea is not to swing with maximum effort on the course, but by doing speed training, you also increase your ground speed.

Advertisement

RELATED: The physics lesson every golfer needs, explained simply

After a few months of this, my old “fast” moves now have the same speed as my new “normal” moves. You can track these important numbers in other ways, but I like how Mike’s app is organized so you can compare it to your previous sessions and how it lets you know when you’ve set a new personal best. Here’s a look at one of the first sessions from October:

And then one in January:

You can see that while my average club (swing) speed in that second session increased about three mph, my average carry increased at a much greater rate due to a six mph increase in ball speed, as I have gotten better at making good contact while swinging faster. Thus, an improvement of over 17 yards in the average carry. I don’t care what people think about how I view the range if I get results like that.

Advertisement

Speed ​​training should come in several forms.

As Carroll explained, it’s common for people to have a discrepancy between how fast they swing with The Stack or other speed training aids and how fast they swing on the course or on the course. The goal of speed training with golf balls (Carroll even suggests using foam balls first) is to close that gap. But the thing doesn’t end there.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

Carroll suggests returning to the stack once you’ve done so so you can advance to the next level. And then repeat the process by hitting the golf balls to ensure that the increase in speed is transferred to the course. This is your best chance to avoid plateauing for long periods. (And yes, fitness, specifically strength training, helps too.)

Advertisement

So I will continue speed training both ways and would highly recommend the same to others. If anything, I’m now moving my driver faster than the Stack, which feels strange, but it’s obviously a better situation than before. It takes a lot of work, but making a stronger swing, especially with a golf ball involved, is a job anyone can do. And considering how statistically valuable an extra 10 yards has been shown to be, this seems like a sure-fire strategy to shave shots off your handicap. In other words, grab it and break it.

RELATED: Want to get better at golf this year? Start doing this