I think that many of us, because we want to hit the ball far, end up with an over the top move.  We are trying to use our muscles to speed the club head.  So we start down quick.  There are two problems with this:

Problem #1

We can’t sustain it.

If we start down quickly, we need to sustain it otherwise we end up slowing down before we get to the ball.  This leads to an actual decrease of clubhead speed.  If we were able to sustain the acceleration with our core turning quickly out of the way we would be ok.  However most of us don’t have that kind of core strength or flexibility.  Since we lack that flexibility and strenght, we then must allow our body to to catch up to the swing.  However the way that we do this is we allow the swing to slow down to match up with the core.  If we did not slow the swing down we would probably pull hook it.

Problem #2

We are working against gravity.

Gravity is our friend and if we allow it to work with our swing we can actually create a ton of clubhead speed.

If we allow gravity to help us accelerate the clubhead then we can begin to feel a gradual acceleration, resulting in actually much greater clubhead speed than rushing down at the ball.  But we can’t really feel a gradual acceleration because the downswing happens in such a short time.  If we can’t feel a gradual acceleration how do we create it?

Allowing gravity to speed up the clubhead

Rather than thinking of creating it, we need to allow it to happen.

As we reach the top of our back swing, the club slows down then comes to a stop, then changes direction.  This is the point at which gravity can help us build club head speed.  As our arms drop, the the club head lags somewhat behind them.  If we don’ rush it and we don’t tighten our muscles then we can allow the rest of our body to contribute to the club head speed we are generating.  If we don’t force it, we can allow our arms to remain supple, instead of tightening the muscles.  Supple arms generate more clubhead speed.  As we allow the clubhead to lag, gravity acts on it, and our body rotation, multiplies the speed.  It becomes like a bull whip, where a simple, not quick motion, ends up creating a ton of speed (so much speed that it breaks the sound barrier and you hear that CRACK!).

Because we are not rushing with our arms we don’t need to slow the core down to let the arms catch up, in fact we can increase core rotational velocity leading to more speed.  At this point it is a matter of allowing gravity to work, trusting that it can move the club head faster than our muscles.  In short if you are rushing down from the top you are working against gravity and slowing down the clubhead.



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