SHORT BUT LONG
A good friend of mine and long Drive Competitor, Drew Cooper holds Friday Q&A.s on his instagram @d_cooper and a questions he consistently gets every Friday is a version os this. "You are 6'3", can I still generate high clubhead speed if I am SHORT?" Drew gives them a good response, usually coming down to "yes"
My thoughts on height and length is this, Being relatively tall Does help. A lot of the taller golfers can have smoother, more fluid looking tempos and still crush the ball. The longer the levers, the easier it is to generate speed, for sure. Also when you are taller it just provides a larger structure to attach more muscle to, throughout your whole body. So yes, being tall is an advantage.
SO HOW CAN A SHORT GOLFER STILL BOMB IT?
This goes for all golfers put the forces at play at so much more evident in short players who bomb it.
This golfer Chapchai Nirat was the LONGEST driver at the most recent ASIAN TOUR event in Taipei.
My thoughts on height and length is this, Being relatively tall Does help. A lot of the taller golfers can have smoother, more fluid looking tempos and still crush the ball. The longer the levers, the easier it is to generate speed, for sure. Also when you are taller it just provides a larger structure to attach more muscle to, throughout your whole body. So yes, being tall is an advantage.
SO HOW CAN A SHORT GOLFER STILL BOMB IT?
This goes for all golfers put the forces at play at so much more evident in short players who bomb it.
This golfer Chapchai Nirat was the LONGEST driver at the most recent ASIAN TOUR event in Taipei.
Chapchai is 5'8" and averaged 340 yards off the tee this week. (he is also 39 years old).
He does a couple things that reinforce people that I have interviewed on my Be Better Golf.
He does a couple things that reinforce people that I have interviewed on my Be Better Golf.
1. FAST TEMPO
1. FAST TEMPO. there are 30 frames per second in this video. Chapchai takes 19 fames to make his backswing and 6 to make his downswing. 3/1 backswing to downswing is the magic ratio that almost every great ball-striker uses. It is because of something Dr. Robert Grober calls FORCE RESONANCE. Basically they are using the golf swing as a spring. This way they can me very consistent and powerful. See my videos with John Novosel from Tour Tempo to learn more.
At 19/6 Chapchai's tempo is Very Fast. Two other long hitters, Bryson DeChambeau and Martin Borgmeier are swinging at an incredible 18/6 ratio. That means that the entire swing is taking less than 1 second.
The reason the fast backswing leads to a faster downswing is that when you swing the club fast and forcefully BACK, your body KNOWS that the club WILL HAVE to STOP. The body starts putting BRAKING FORCES into you system to STOP the club at the top. Those BRAKING FORCES are the exact same forces that are the best to use on the downswing. So simply FASTER BACKSWING = HARDER BRAKES. and HARDER BRAKES = MORE FORCEFUL AND FASTER DOWNSWING.
NOTE: The key with this is to have a DYNAMIC backswing but and a DYNAMIC and fast downswing BUT in the middle you have to be PATIENT and don't start the DOWNSWING until the backswing has FULLY matured. Many times this will feel like FAST , wait, FAST.
At 19/6 Chapchai's tempo is Very Fast. Two other long hitters, Bryson DeChambeau and Martin Borgmeier are swinging at an incredible 18/6 ratio. That means that the entire swing is taking less than 1 second.
The reason the fast backswing leads to a faster downswing is that when you swing the club fast and forcefully BACK, your body KNOWS that the club WILL HAVE to STOP. The body starts putting BRAKING FORCES into you system to STOP the club at the top. Those BRAKING FORCES are the exact same forces that are the best to use on the downswing. So simply FASTER BACKSWING = HARDER BRAKES. and HARDER BRAKES = MORE FORCEFUL AND FASTER DOWNSWING.
NOTE: The key with this is to have a DYNAMIC backswing but and a DYNAMIC and fast downswing BUT in the middle you have to be PATIENT and don't start the DOWNSWING until the backswing has FULLY matured. Many times this will feel like FAST , wait, FAST.
2. LONG BACKSWING
2. LONG BACKSWING. This is the killer combo. a FAST BACKSWING that is really long. A backswing that when back really fast but only took a very short time to get there, represents a ton of force. Chapchai is a perfect case of this.
Obviously this reminds me of John Daly. This is a HUGE TURN and he took only 19 frames (0.63 of a second) to get there LOTS of distance of a SHORT amount of time equals a ton of force. The main thing to look at though is not how far the CLUB has gone back but how much the shoulders have turned. Here Chapchai has probably 120 degrees of shoulder turn. MOST regular golfers when trying to emulate a "long" backswing will take the club back far, but they won't turn their hips and shoulders much and to still get the club going back far they collapse their arm (right and left) and usually the wrists (over extending the lead wrist). Chapchai has a Ton of hip turn and a ton of shoulder turn SO that he can take the club back a long way WITHOUT destroying his arm structure to do it. Also remember that a forceful initial backswing will launch your body into a fuller turn. If you go back soft it will be extremely tough to reach your max range of motion,
3. STRONG BORDERS
Chapchai is using his legs really well here to generate FORCE but what I want to highlight is how he is using his leg to CONTAIN his motion. He is creating a ton of force down and out towards the target, if he did not use his legs to BRAKE that momentum he would lurch forward towards the ball line and towards the target (it would also be much slower). Instead on both the backswing and downswing. CN pushes the ground HARD then uses his legs to BRAKE that motion, once that motion is STOPPED by FIRM LEGS , it is transferred into rotation. This created speed and helps control the swing bottom.
The legs are acting like strong borders on either side of his body STOPPING his system from drifting and turning that STOPPING ENERGY into more FORCE.
The legs are acting like strong borders on either side of his body STOPPING his system from drifting and turning that STOPPING ENERGY into more FORCE.
See here how the LEAD LEG has has STOPPED the body from lurching forward AND the leg has pushed the lead hip BACK, making it rotate and adding speed.
what can you do to GET LONGER LIKE CHAPCHAI?
Make a FASTER, MORE DYNAMIC backswing with a FULLER TURN WHILE KEEPING your ARM STRUCTURE.
A great DRILL to develop this is to use these two training aids together.
A great DRILL to develop this is to use these two training aids together.
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Here is the amazon rip off version of the Tour Striker smart ball and the SSR radar WITH tempo timer. The RED radar unit there will measure your swing speed AND how long it takes from the instant the club moves away until it returns to impact.
For Chapchai, Bryson and Martin this number would be about .75 or so.
FOR YOU. Place the smart ball in between your elbows and see if you can make a backswing that is really a FULL TURN and, YOU DON'T DROP the ball and you get the TEMPO TIMER under 1 second.
You can use the TOUR TEMPO app and swing to the beats on there as well. 21/7.
The key is to have that fast tempo BUT also have a really BIG TURN at the same time.
FOR THE STRONG BORDERS.
Watch this interview where Kyle Berkshire tells my nephew Jack DeVore how to get longer. Pay particular attention to what he says about the Ryan Winthur move of "stabbing the ground" with the left femur. It is at 3:50 into this video.
For Chapchai, Bryson and Martin this number would be about .75 or so.
FOR YOU. Place the smart ball in between your elbows and see if you can make a backswing that is really a FULL TURN and, YOU DON'T DROP the ball and you get the TEMPO TIMER under 1 second.
You can use the TOUR TEMPO app and swing to the beats on there as well. 21/7.
The key is to have that fast tempo BUT also have a really BIG TURN at the same time.
FOR THE STRONG BORDERS.
Watch this interview where Kyle Berkshire tells my nephew Jack DeVore how to get longer. Pay particular attention to what he says about the Ryan Winthur move of "stabbing the ground" with the left femur. It is at 3:50 into this video.
Swinging in a barrel is a good but incomplete image. You Really need to time the 2 STOMPS you make in your swing that keep you contained and add power. MONSTER WALKS with a kettle bell are good. You sway push, sway push, walking forward.
Go to 12:08 into this video.
Go to 12:08 into this video.
I'll probably make a video about this. Stay turned.
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