Jaacob Bowden's Swing Man Golf Blog

FLO - Flat Line Oscillation or Golf Spine Alignment of Shafts

Check out this video made by club fitting buddy named Brad.  He demonstrates the importance of spine alignment when it comes to your golf shafts.  The demonstration is with the driver, however, in the interest of your game and it's performance I would personally recommend that you have this done with all your clubs.

Flightscope and Trackman European PGA Tour and PGA Tour Driving and Iron Stats

Have you ever been curious to know how fast your favorite Tour player swings?

It's not listed which tournament the stats came from, but it is believed these Flightscope stats came from an European Tour event in 2008.  Stats included are last name, first name, club speed, ball speed, back spin, side spin, launch angle, height, flight time, carry distance (yards), and smash factor.

You can download the Flightscope documents below:

• European PGA Tour - Driving Stats (pdf)
• European PGA Tour - Driving Stats (excel)
• European PGA Tour - Driving Stats Sample 2 (pdf)

Trackman has also kept the average stats of all the PGA Tour players from 2004-2008.  Stats included are club, club speed, attack angle, ball speed, smash factor, vertical launch, spin rate, max height, land angle, and carry (yards and meters).  Keep in mind that the club lofts are not listed.  For example, one guys PW might be 48 degrees...and another's might be 45 degrees.

Check out the numbers in the below Trackman document:

• PGA Tour Driver And Iron Stats - 2004-2008 (pdf)

Some of the things that I found interesting and noteworthy are:

• I've heard of the average swing speed for a Tour player being around 113-114...but Flightscope and Trackman actually show that to be 110-112.
• Despite getting more driver distance by catching the ball on the upswing, the average player actually hits down on the ball with driver.
• Many professionals are not hitting drivers that would optimize them for distance.  For example, based on my experience, the average launch angle is a little too low and the average spin rate is too high.  This may be due to ignorance and mis-information, but it may also be done on purpose because accuracy becomes more important for many once they have reached a certain level of distance.  The higher the spin with the driver, the more accuracy one would have off the tee.
• The long hitting, Alvaro Quiros of Spain, had the highest swing speed of the European Tour players at 125 mph.  He may be doing it on purpose as I mentioned above, but if he brought his spin rate down and launch angle slightly higher...he could be hitting the ball even further.
• I've heard that 1.48 or 1.50 is "perfect" as far as smash factor goes with the driver.  Since both data sets show an average of 1.48...Tour players would appear to be getting about as much ball speed as they can out of their current swing speeds.  Basically, they are hitting the sweet spot a lot.
• Smash factor goes down when you get to higher lofted clubs.

How it Works - "PGA Player Endorsements"

Anybody that has seen John Daly walk the fairways in recent years...is witness to what a human billboard looks like in the game of golf. For the most part this type of advertising was reserved for the Nascar industry. Where even a square inch on a dashboard cam is worth a couple years salary to most.

But in recent years the trend seems to be catching on in golf as well . And golfers aren't complaining...not only are the great golfers finding lucrative contracts from sponsors but many golfers who struggle on the tour are as well. Many of the journeyman are finding out that there left sleeve is worth more then their actual golf game can earn...and especially if they are in contention for a major.

Here are some numbers to give you an idea of how lucrative the right arm of many golfers are worth.

Read more here...

2009 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships

For those of you that didn't get to see the 2009 RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships on ESPN, here is the first video.

Books That You See The Tour Pros and Caddies Referencing

Have you ever wondered what is in those books that you see the Tour Pros and Caddies referencing?

In this video, Jaacob gives you and inside look in to one of these very books.

Increasing Swing Speed with an Overspeed Club

I realize that for many people that it is the off-season.  However, as I mentioned in one of my recent messages, now is a great time to start, or recommit, to your swing speed training.
 
This even applies to me.  :-p  Personally, my speed has dropped a bit over the last 1.5 years because I haven't done any speed training...not to mention in the last few months I've lost a little speed from working on so many partial feel-type shots meant to expand my game, like running a 6-iron up to a green from 100 yards, a 4-iron from 130 yards, etc.  It's helped quite a bit because I've been shooting a lot of scores from 65-69 on our winter greens lately - in part due to my improved shot arsenal.
 
However, I realized from a mid-December trip to Italy with some Pro friends that I needed to get some of that speed back to be more competitive in my upcoming tournaments when I start the tournament season at the end of January.  So while my wife and I were in Spain over the holidays, I took my basic swing speed training equipment with me.  After only 4 workouts I had re-added 13 mph back to my peak speed...and now I know I have enough distance again to be able to carry some fairway bunkers on the courses I know I will be playing soon.
 
Although the Basic Speed Training should be enough to get you 12-16 mph in about a month...if you'd like to take it further like Steve, the 58 year old Swing Man Member I mentioned in a previous message, one of the things you might look in to adding to your training is an over-speed device.  A  lot of long drives guys use over-speed devices (including Sean Fister who is a 3-time RE/MAX World Long Drive Champion)...and it is something that I myself used when I used to train for the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship Qualifying.
 
So what is an over speed device?  Basically, it's just a golf club or something that you can swing that is lighter than a typical club.  The idea is that you will be able to swing it faster because it is lighter and thus your muscles will know what it is like to swing at a faster speed.  Then it's just a matter of transferring that speed over to your normal club.
 
Two examples of this over-speed theory are found with sprinting and swimming.  Sprinters will sometimes run downhill to achieve and feel faster speeds...and swimmers are sometimes pulled through a pool in a harness at world record speeds so they learn what it is like to swim at world record pace.  The same idea applies in golf with an over speed club.
 
Back when I was involved with long drive, guys had to make their own over speed clubs.  I have a picture of mine on the inside of the Swing Man site that I've shown below.  Basically, I took a lightweight golf shaft, drilled holes through two golf balls, and bolted the balls on to the end of the club.  The total weight of the balls and bolt was lighter than what a conventional head weighs.

My little home made device worked pretty well, but the good news is that a guy a know named Berry Harper has developed one that looks like an actual real driver.  I think the closer you can train to what is the real thing...the better.  A typical driver head weighs around 200 grams but Berry's over speed driver head weighs only 145 grams.  He also has an adjustable weight version which allows you to change the weight to 160 or 170 grams.  You can buy the head-only or you can also get a head with a light-weight custom-length shaft.

After receiving mine in the mail and trying it out, I contacted Berry and I've been able to arrange discounts for our Swing Man members who are interested in purchasing one.  If you decide to get one, here are the Coupon Codes to punch in to get your discount:
 

COUPON CODES:   Head and Shaft Code d1i5v4t5a7   Head-Only Code b7h8d6z9p9

To visit Berry's website and learn more about his over speed clubs, click here.

1ron Golf - Free Shipping through December 31st

1iron Golf is offering FREE shipping on orders of golf clubs over $800 through December 31st.  As heavy as golf clubs are...that can be quite a savings on shipping!

To learn more about 1ron Golf and same length clubs, read Jaacob's review here.