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How to Increase Your Club Head Speed TODAY


Published: March 2, 2026

"WHAT IF YOU COULD HIT THE BALL 10, 20, EVEN 50 YARDS FARTHER IN THE NEXT 10 MINUTES?"

 

Doesn't it make you furious when you see someone swing with complete ease and absolutely stripe it 30 yards past you off the tee — when you know you should be the longer hitter? If you've been grinding away trying to increase your club head speed with little to show for it, you are far from alone. The frustration of watching distance evaporate while your effort climbs is one of the most demoralizing experiences in the game.

Here's what most golfers never figure out: adding club head speed is not about swinging harder — it is about swinging smarter. It may sound almost impossible to pick up massive distance in only a few minutes, but it is simply a matter of biomechanics, and we are going to show you exactly how to do it. One targeted drill can increase your swing speed by at least 8 mph in as few as 2 minutes — and we have the radar-verified numbers on camera to prove it. Ready to find out how?

"I was tired of being the short hitter in my group. In 5 minutes, this drill increased my club head speed 8 mph - and we got it all on video!"
-Josh E. | May 6, 2010 | Orlando

Think about what even 10 mph of added club head speed actually means on the course. You pick up roughly 3 yards of carry for every single mph gained — that is 30 yards of carry distance from one mechanical correction. Add realistic roll to the equation and you are looking at 35 to 40 yards total. Imagine reaching par fives in two and attacking pins you previously could not reach — without ever setting foot in a gym and without buying another $400 driver. You would instantly be the most envied ball-striker in your foursome.

"My swing speed prior to this program was 96 MPH and is now 115 MPH without seeing a day in the gym."
-Vince Tapaoan | Apr 7, 2011 | 7 HDCP

How YOUR Swing Speed can JUMP up to 118 mph in 2 minutes!

 

Josh's club head speed had declined significantly over several years, and on the course it had dropped as low as 100 mph because fear of where the ball might go was forcing him to hold back. As a "former" long hitter who regularly launched 300-yard bombs, this was deeply demoralizing — to the point where he had stopped enjoying the game and had abandoned his practice routine entirely.

After working with Josh on the "Throw the Ball" drill for less than two minutes — the same drill you will learn in the video below — we increased his average swing speed dramatically. Before we reveal the jump, let's look at exactly where he was starting out so you understand the magnitude of the change.

  Both Arms Left Arm Right Arm
Average Speed 110.2 mph 81.8 mph 88.6 mph
 

His baseline numbers were not bad and were consistent with our own biomechanical research as well as findings from books such as the Search for the Perfect Swing, with his lead arm-only swing speed coming in at about 25% slower than his two-handed baseline. Also revealing was the fact that his trail arm was significantly faster than his lead arm — strong evidence for why understanding the proper role of the trail arm in generating club head speed is absolutely critical to maximizing your distance potential.

However, Josh was not using his trail arm correctly. After establishing those baseline averages, the coaching focused on exactly how to execute the "Throw the Ball" drill — approximately two minutes of guided work. The results of that two-minute investment may shock you, but they are genuinely average for students who apply this method correctly.

Josh went from swinging at 110 mph to 118 mph within just two golf swings, and we captured the entire thing on camera. Watch the video below to see the radar readings in real time.

8 MPH MORE CLUBHEAD SPEED IN 5 MINUTES!!!

 

An 8 mph jump in swing speed for a player who already has a relatively high baseline is remarkable on its own — but that is only half the story. By working through this drill, we also significantly improved Josh's club path into the golf ball.

Before the drill work, Josh was approaching the ball severely from the inside and tended to produce massive blocks or sharp snap hooks. The corrective drill tamed his shoulder rotation and brought the club into impact on a far more square, controlled path. Not only can he now hit it farther, but he can actually find it — and hit it again.

How much farther, exactly? The math is straightforward: you gain approximately 3 yards of carry per mph of added club head speed, assuming solid center-face contact. With 8 mph gained, that is 18.4 yards of carry. Add roll at roughly 0.7 yards per mph of club head speed and the total distance gain becomes:

24 MORE YARDS IN 2 MINUTES!

 

Josh did not just improve his club head speed by 8 mph — look at the solid impact position he achieved simultaneously. His shoulders are square rather than open at impact, his hips are properly open, and his trail arm is fully extending through the zone for maximum swing speed at the moment of contact where it matters most. This is the combination that produces both distance and accuracy.

The Rotary Swing Drills that will Increase Your Swing Speed by up to 10% or More!

 

Two specific drills were used with both Chris and Josh to produce their 8 to 10 mph speed gains in mere minutes. So what are they, and why do they work so consistently? The first is the "Throw the Ball Drill" — and the physics behind it will change how you think about generating effortless club head speed forever.

Throw the Ball Drill

Many golfers aggressively unwind their shoulders from the top of the golf swing, leaving the arms trapped behind the body and causing the arms, hands, and club head to release far too late — reaching maximum speed after impact, where it is completely useless.

This happens because the trail shoulder is constantly racing out in front of the hands, making it physically impossible for them to release at maximum speed. The trail arm gets driven into a position where it cannot extend with the explosive snap required — the same snap you would use in a sidearm or underhand baseball pitch.

To visualize why this matters, think of casting a fishing rod. When you want the bait at the end of the line to launch out past the rod tip, you bring the forward-moving handle nearly to a complete stop. If you continue pushing the handle toward the target instead of stopping it, the line and bait cannot accelerate with maximum velocity. The "snap" — the near-stop of the handle — is what creates the whipping acceleration at the tip. The pivot point must remain relatively fixed for the end of the lever to reach maximum acceleration.

In the golf swing, this fixed pivot point is the trail shoulder, and it must come to a near stop through the impact area in order for the energy and speed created by the trunk to be fully transmitted through the arms and into the club head. This is the single most important concept in generating genuine, effortless club head speed.

The image above shows exactly what this drill looks like applied to a real world swing. Notice the trail shoulder barely moves an inch or two through the critical impact zone, while the club head travels nearly three feet in the same time window. This is how efficient speed is generated precisely at impact — where every yard of carry is determined.

If the trail shoulder continues to push around the body, the release of the club head is delayed because the pivot point moves ahead of the release point. If you look jammed up at impact and never achieve full extension in your follow-through, this drill will fix that pattern immediately. What was once costing you 15 to 20 yards off the tee is correctable in a single session.

The "Throw the Ball" drill accomplishes several things at once: it teaches the proper release mechanics, it trains the shoulders to remain passive during the downswing so they do not overpower the arms, and it ingrains the feeling of pulling the lead hip into Neutral Joint Alignment for safe and powerful rotation. It also teaches proper lead-side bracing so the arms and club can release freely through the impact area with maximum swing speed. Want to see how your own mechanics compare? Get a free AI swing analysis and find out exactly where your speed is leaking.

"Unbelievable, I've been told that I should finish with the club behind my head..well ok, but I can't do that!...at least until NOW...this practice, throwing the ball, with the rotation of the wrist, closes the club and it lets the club finish behind my head, too bad they never told me how that happens in the first place."
-Tom P. | July 21, 2012 | Sun City, AZ

Finally, learning to initiate movement correctly from the muscles in the lead hip will rotate the hips open to approximately 40 to 45 degrees and then decelerate them naturally so the kinetic chain can fire in the proper sequence. Over-using the trail side — or "pushing" excessively from the trail side — destroys this sequencing entirely and creates a cascade of problems in the downswing that steal speed, accuracy, and consistency all at once.

Trail Arm Only Downswing Drill (RADD)

 

Once you have internalized the proper feeling of passive shoulders in the downswing and understand how the lead hip muscles provide stability while initiating the initial acceleration of the arms, it is time to synchronize everything with an actual golf club while striking balls. This drill will feel genuinely challenging for most players at first.

If it does feel difficult, take that as a positive sign: it means you have not been using your trail arm correctly, and that represents a significant reservoir of untapped club head speed waiting to be unlocked in your golf swing.

"The DS [downswing] sequence described here is shift to the left heel - fire the right arm towards the ball - release the club. It works perfectly for me, and I got rid of my tendency to come from the top and slice big time."
-Paolo R. | Jan 17, 2013 | London

The Trail Arm Only Downswing Drill (RADD) incorporates all the other proper golf swing movements you have already absorbed from the biomechanical research — including the takeaway and the top of the backswing. The critical distinction here is that the entire golf swing is performed using the trail arm only. The lead shoulder and lead arm are completely passive throughout the motion.

To begin, take a short iron such as a 7-iron and tee up a golf ball after completing a dozen or more practice swings with your trail arm only. Using a tee builds confidence in the early stages because making solid center-face contact is genuinely difficult on the first several attempts — and that difficulty is exactly the point.

Pause deliberately at the top of the backswing for the first few reps to gather your position, then — replicating the physical feeling from the Throw the Ball Drill — fire the trail arm and strike the ball.

Initially, aim to hit the ball no more than 50 yards until you are consistently making solid contact. This constraint is critical because the drill forces you to find the correct downswing sequencing, and for most golfers this is an entirely new motor pattern that requires patient repetition to groove.

Once you master this drill, you will be able to strike the ball up to 85% of your normal carry distance using the trail arm only — as demonstrated by the research graph above. More critically, you will be able to sequence your weight shift and downswing rotation correctly while boosting your club head speed 10% or more the moment you place both hands back on the club.

CLUBHEAD SPEED RESEARCH

Every golfer wants more distance, but very few instructors have done the deep research into the learning mechanisms and motor pathways required to actually acquire new, powerful movement patterns. Even fewer have rigorously studied which specific sequence of movements produces measurably higher swing speeds under real-world conditions.

The Rotary Swing Tour was the first golf instruction system to approach the swing from a completely objective, evidence-based perspective — building every recommendation on scientific measurement and medical biomechanics rather than opinion, tradition, or gut feel. It should come as no surprise that the same rigorous approach was applied to researching club head speed development.

The foundational research question: which arm — trail or lead — is capable of producing greater swing speed on its own, and what does the data tell us about optimizing both together?

This is not an academic exercise. Many popular golf swing theories actively promote one side over the other — instructors who preach an exclusively lead-side-dominant motion, and others who advocate driving everything from the trail side. Understanding the actual data cuts through all of that noise and reveals the truth about where your speed gains are hiding.

Any biomechanist will confirm that in virtually all athletic movement, muscles work in coordinated pairs in a pushing and pulling relationship. The golf swing is no exception to this foundational principle. While a golfer may feel one side dominating the sensation of a given movement, the mechanical reality is that both sides are contributing simultaneously. It is extremely common for one side to be significantly over or under-utilized, which breaks down the kinetic chain and — as it directly relates to distance — costs meaningful club head speed on every single swing.

"I've joined this website 24 hours ago and just got back from my first round of golf since joining. Shot my best round in a year. This throwing of the ball feeling is critical to me. I've done something similar in the past and stopped doing it because other golf instructional material has told me it's wrong.

I've read so much about how you arms should remain passive throughout the swing so became true swinger of my body, trying to fling my arms around by pulling from the left side exclusively. This has put huge strains on my body and cost me a fortune in medical bills. Thank you for suggesting using your right arm is a legitimate move in golf! You may have saved both my golf game and my physical health in one fell swoop."
-Greg A. | Aug 26, 2012 | London

A Case Study On Increased Swing Speed

 

Chris is a student who came in during the summer of 2009 at Castle Pines Golf Club in Colorado. A solid 5-handicapper, Chris wanted more club head speed — exactly like the majority of golfers who walk onto a lesson tee. At 61 years old, with one hip already replaced and another replacement on the horizon, Chris genuinely wondered whether he had already reached the ceiling of his driving distance potential.

But like most passionate golfers, the belief that improvement was still possible kept him searching. And that belief turned out to be entirely correct.

Within the first few minutes of the lesson, it was immediately apparent that Chris was not using his trail arm to help generate swing speed. He had been thoroughly taught — and had deeply internalized — the belief that the golf swing was a lead-side-dominant movement. That belief had been wired into his motor patterns for years, and it was robbing him of distance on every shot.

After walking through the core biomechanical principles, Chris began working through both the "Trail Arm Only Drill" and the "Throw the Ball Drill". These two drills work together to keep the upper torso from racing out ahead of the club during the downswing, while simultaneously teaching a natural, positive release of the trail arm at precisely the right moment in the swing sequence. If you want to start building these same mechanics right now, check out the GOAT Drill video lesson to see how AI-guided feedback can accelerate your progress dramatically.

Before beginning the drill work, a baseline of Chris's club head speed was established using a Swing Speed Radar. Because Chris already owned one, he had an extensive personal history with his numbers — his average club head speed hovered consistently between 100 and 102 mph, with a peak reading of about 105 mph.

At one point during home practice, he claimed a reading of 108 mph but had never been able to repeat it. Chris was so eager to crack that barrier that he offered to double the hourly fee of $200 if he broke 108 mph — an offer that was politely declined, given that he would have owed an extra $800 for the four-hour session when it concluded.

The promise made was that the 110 mph mark would be broken before the lesson ended. The results speak for themselves.

After approximately 10 minutes of focused drill work, Chris's swing speed jumped from 100 mph to 112 mph — a new personal best — and critically, the ball was just as solid and straight as before the speed increase. His average settled in the 110 to 112 mph range for the remainder of the session. By the end of that summer his handicap had dropped from a 5 to a 2, and he earned the "Most Improved Golfer Award" at his club in St. Louis, MO.

Of course, the logical next question is exactly how this happened and what the scientific evidence says about this type of rapid club head speed increase in such a compressed timeframe.

The Science of Club Head Speed

 

What does the real-world biomechanical data actually show about trail-side versus lead-side swinging as it relates specifically to generating maximum club head speed? Rather than speculating, the data was gathered from real subjects under real conditions and published for direct examination.

The research graph below tells a clear story that every golfer chasing distance needs to understand.

The data shows that the Trail Arm Swing (TAS) produced 11% more club head speed than the Lead Arm Swing (LAS). The average trail-arm-only speed was 94.4 mph; the average lead-arm-only speed was 84.6 mph across test subjects. When both arms were combined (BH), the average club head speed reached 112.8 mph — approximately 25% more than the lead arm alone.

This explains precisely why actively training the correct use of the trail arm was able to increase Chris's and Josh's club head speeds by nearly 10% within a single golf lesson. Because Chris had been taught to rely exclusively on his lead side, his trail side was still active but chronically under-utilized — and that imbalance was costing him serious, measurable club head speed on every swing he took.

The conclusion is not that trail-side dominance is the answer — it is that both arms must be optimally coordinated, with the trail arm contributing its full share. When that balance is restored through proper drill work, the speed gains are immediate, significant, and repeatable. Want to know what your specific swing mechanics look like and where your personal speed leaks are? Get a free AI swing analysis and receive an instant breakdown of your movement patterns.

"Chuck, you're the best! I go to the PGA superstore and the instructor tells me WHAT I'm doing wrong but not HOW specifically to correct it and what it FEELS like!"
-Mark D. | July 14, 2012 | 18 Hdcp

Are you ready to increase your club head speed? Then watch the two videos below!

 

Checkpoints for Practice

  • If the drill feels natural, you're probably fine - if it feels strange, you need to work on it
  • In setup position, set the trail arm where it would be at the top of the swing - keep the shoulder blade down
  • Rotate back then throw a ball with the trail hand, working to feel that the shoulders and hips remain shut
  • In fact, the throwing motion will cause a natural weight shift leaving hips open while the trail shoulder stays back
  • Feel that the pivot point (the shoulder) does not move beyond the release point (the ball)
  • This helps golfers who over-pull from the lead side and over-spin their hips
  • The hips need to brace up in neutral at impact so the power of the swing transmits up the chain to the shoulders, arms and club
Jamie Sadlowski incredible club head speedRenowned long drive champion Jamie Sadlowski has incredible club head speed.
fast clubhead speedYou can clearly see how much more powerful Josh's impact position is after just a few minutes doing the Throw the Ball Drill!
increase clubhead speedYou will learn to tame your shoulders, use your hips properly and release the club powerfully with this drill.
tiger woods impact sequenceTiger Woods beautifully demonstrates the concept of the right shoulder pivot point. The shoulder barely moves, while the club head zooms past through impact.
club head speed drillAfter practicing the Throw the Ball Drill, it's time to add a club in the Right Arm Only Downswing Drill.
clubhead speed chart

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