Golf is a game where speed and distance are important.
The longer a golfer hits the golf ball, the better chance of lowering his or her handicap.
There is certainly a correlation between the distance off the tee and a golfer’s handicap.
The average drive length of a scratch golfer is 251 yards. If your driver distance is less than 251, you must make up for it in other areas.
As a result, many golfers end up overswinging the driver or other clubs in hopes of gaining more distance.
This can cause different issues in the swing and can affect maximizing your ball speed by missing the center of the clubface as well as accuracy issues as you lose control of the clubface.
How To Stop Overswinging in Golf
- Reduce the arm lift in the golf swing
- Change your intention during the golf swing
- Focus on speed out front
The overswinging is something that I have battled since day one of playing the game. It is an ongoing battle, but I have found the three tips above to be my best chance at reducing my overswing in golf. The best part is that I hit the ball a similar distance with less effort and a lot more control.
#1: Reduce the Arm Lift in the golf swing
The arm lift feels powerful. When we want to do something powerful or fast, we will often get a wind up and really build up the potential energy in something. If you had a chance to punch something that was going to measure the force, you would want to pull your arm really far back and get your body and legs into it as well. You wouldn’t hold your fist 2 inches away and just move your arm slightly into the object.
Our minds will take this feeling of power and put it into our golf swings. We set up, we start the backswing, make a quality turn, but then continue to move the arms up and away because it feels powerful.
What ends up happening in the golf swing is that we now lose our sequence and don’t necessarily get extra speed in the swing because the body gets too far ahead of the arms and ends up stalling to ensure decent contact.
I would recommend two feels to help reduce the arm lift in the golf swing:
- Feel like you are only making a 50% backswing
- Move your arms in sync with your chest and shoulders for the first portion of the backswing.
Go ahead and take two different videos (both from the side view):
- Your normal swing without any changes.
- Your 50% backswing with the arms moving together with chest and shoulders.
Compare the two swings and see if there is really a 50% reduction or the 50% feel just shortens it several inches.
What happens is that it is difficult to reduce the arm swing and takes a 50% feel to even shorten the swing several inches to a more ideal location.
I have found this 50% feel to be the most effective. It takes some patience and work, but after some effort and practice it will feel more natural.
What you might find is that you still hit the ball a similar distance. This is a result of better center face strikes and you really aren’t losing much speed, it just feels less powerful, but in reality your swing speed stays in the same range.
#2 Change your intention during the golf swing
Oftentimes, our intention is to hit the driver as far as possible. What if we let the body settle and let gravity work? What if we reduce the tension? Would we swing faster?
There are two key components to distance:
- Swing Speed
- Ball Speed
Ball speed is a reflection of where you hit the ball on the driver. A swing speed of 110 mph that doesn hit the center of the face, won’t travel as far as a 106 mph swing that does hit the sweet spot. Our recommendation is to pay more attention to ball speed vs club speed, as ball speed is giving you an actual number of the results of your swing.
The tip here is to change your intention or mindset of what your goal is with the driver. The 260 yard driver that ends in the fairway all day vs the 270 yard driver where you have no idea where the ball is going is so much better.
This should help reduce the overswinging and give you great results which will reinforce in your mind that the 260 yard drive is actually much more enjoyable golf.
Over time, your swing will become more in sync and you can add some speed without overswinging by increasing your tempo, but keeping a shorter swing.
#3 Focus on speed out front
I learned this one from the experts at Mach3 Speed Training, who have done a great deal of work on increasing driver speed for people of all ages. They continuously promote and tell their golfers to focus on the speed out front. They have a plate hanginging in their training area that gets the golfer moving up and left through the golf swing.
The problem that many golfers have is they lose their speed before they even get to the golf ball. They lift their arms extra and dump their speed way too early.
When you focus on producing speed past the ball, it will reduce the overswing on the backswing and gets your intention ahead of the ball vs at the ball. As a result, you will have better ball striking and find out how incredible it feels to focus down the line vs at the ball. Your speed will more likely jump up even with shorter backswing and the feeling of overswinging being gone.
Next Steps: Head to the Driving Range
Grab your smartphone and head to the driving range. Don’t forget to take a before video of your golf swing front he side and try out each of these 3 tips. See which one works best and measure your swing as best as possible for results.
I use my Skytrak Launch Monitor to measure the following:
- Swing and Ball Speed
- Launch Angle
- Spin Rate
- Spin Axis
- Start Line
Check current price of Skytrak here!
I can’t say enough about the Skytrak and the impact it has had on my game. Playing golf 365 days a year with quality feedback is a game changer and one worth exploring. You might be surprised to see how affordable a launch monitor and/or a golf simulator can be. Think of the difference it will make in your game.
I would recommend Rain or Shine Golf for all your launch monitor and simulator needs:
Final Thoughts: Train For Speed!
Could you imagine a controlled golf swing with plenty of speed that puts you in the top 3-5% of golfers in distance with your driver? The good news is that additional swing speed is attainable and worth practicing for!
The game of golf has evolved to where speed is important in the game of golf. The faster your swing, the further the ball flies and the more shorter irons or wedges you have into a green.
Training for speed is a great idea and one worth exploring!
My 50% swing example above can be a great swing because I have enough in my swing to still hit the ball far enough with the feel of a bunt swing.
If you are going to train for speed, I would highly recommend the SuperSpeed Training System.
Gone are the days of simply being content with the distance you currently hit your golf ball. Many older golfers have proven over the past several years that an increase in swing speed is possible.
There are training systems to help you get your game to the next level and distance is arguably the fastest way to make this happen!
My number one recommendation is to check out SuperSpeed Golf and their protocols to help you find a safe way to increase your swing speed.
I spent many years wondering how I can increase my swing speed. When I was playing junior golf, we weren’t fortunate enough to have some of the training aids and knowledge that is now available. Smart people have studied the golf swing and have created training aids and protocols to help all golfers increase their distance!
At around the same time, the statistics from the PGA Tour have become more clear and the importance of speed is acknowledged by many to be a key to being the best on the PGA Tour.
Within the past several years, there have been several products hit the market to make speed gains possible. While many people for many years waited for the latest driver to come out to gain an additional 5-10 yards, you can now do this even with your current clubs.
Did you know that with the SuperSpeed Training System you can gain 5-8% increase in swing speed as early as the first training session? This would allow you to gain somewhere between 10 and 30 yards depending on your current swing speed.
The SuperSpeed Training System is based on three different swing speed sticks all weighing at different weights. There is a green club that is 10% lighter than the average driver, the blue club which is 5% lighter and the red club which is actually 5% heavier!
Following their prescribed protocols the golfer completes the training every other day. The total time to complete most of their protocols is between 10-15 minutes. Most people can find the time to make this happen. The golfer will also need a swing radar to measure their progress.
The science behind the SuperSpeed Training System is based on overspeed training. Overspeed training has been around for several decades now and has been used by olympic athletics in the sport of Track and Field.
The science behind this overspeed training is based on the premise that your brain will only allow your body to move as fast as it feels it can stop safely! So, you get to work and swing the clubs as fast as possible, retraining your brain to allow you to swing your driver faster.
For more permanent results, the golfer should continue these training protocols for several months. The initial 5-8% is great and can become more permanent with the right length of training. The golfer can expect to continue to break down barriers every several months at a 1-2% increase.
My own experience has been an increase of 7-10 miles per hour on average from between 98-101 all the way up to 106-109. My goal is to hit the PGA Tour average of 113 mph in the coming months. I will continue to train every other day and watch in amazement as I am hitting drivers longer now than ever before!
Phil Mickelson (a senior golfer now) has been known to increase his swing speed in the past year or so and is close to 120 miles per hour in his swing speed. There are potential results for golfers of all ability levels and age!
Check the current price on SuperSpeed Golf System, here!
| Original Swing Speed | After 4-6 Weeks | New Carry Distance | Total Distance |
| 95 | 102 | 245 | 265 |
| 100 | 108 | 259 | 279 |
| 105 | 113 | 271 | 291 |
| 110 | 118 | 283 | 303 |
My Secret To Golf Improvement
Let’s face it, in order to get really good at golf, we must practice frequently. About three years ago, I made the leap and invested in a golf simulator build for my garage. I went with a SkyTrak Launch Monitor and the TGC software and can now play over 100,000 courses including Augusta, Pebble Beach, Bethpage Black, Whistling Straits. St. Andrews and many other of the top 100 courses in the world.
This golf simulator setup, which is more affordable that you might imagine, has been a game changer. I can now play golf everyday of the year regardless of rain, snow, cold weather or time of day. I can practice or play rounds of golf. I can stand in the 11th fairway at Augusta and with the auto-rewind feature I am able to practice my approach shots from various differences.
It is worth checking out through Rain or Shine Golf as they offer some incredible packages along with financing offers that are difficult to beat.
Some direct links to Rain or Shine Golf for pricing and financing:
Take Action – What You Can Do Today to Get Better
What does this mean for you? I believe in the following recipe to get better:
1 – Improve your motion in the golf swing by identifying a golf instructor. Here are some options:
Here is a list of golf instructors that we have reviewed:
2 – Train to swing faster and improve your swing speed. Here are some options:
Looking to gain more Speed and Distance in your swing. Two Options:
3 – Understand course strategy and work to break through your next barrier. Here is a series on breaking through:
We have provided guides on how to break 100, 90, 80 and 70. Check out more below, if interested.
4 – Practice Frequently
Did you know that I build a golf simulator in my garage and have played over 500 rounds of golf on my SkyTrak system? It has been a game changer and one worth checking out. Here are some of my other posts on golf simulators frequently asked questions:
- Is a Golf Simulator Worth It?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator?
- What is the Best Golf Simulator?
- Golf Simulator Accessories?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for under $7000
- Top 11 Reasons to Buy a SkyTrak
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for Under $1000
- Why Build A Golf Simulator?
- What Space is Needed?
- Can A Golf Simulator Improve My Game?
- How Much Does A Golf Simulator Cost?
- Don’t Forget to Check out our 15 best golf swings of all time.