I’m 57 and so the relevance of the distance of my shots are simply not relevant. I swing an 8 iron about 135-140 yards on swing speed 4 and 120-125 yards on swing speed 2. I was using swing speed 3. There are 5 speeds to the typical swing. I’ve chosen to utilize 2, 3 & 4 for the most part but I can’t remember swinging at speed #5.
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There’s just no reason for it. Direction is always more important than Distance when you’re talking off the tee.
I don’t even pull out #5 speed on my drives and they go about 235 yards give or take 10-15 years.
This swing is the same from the 5 foot putt to the 285 yard drive. The important fact to understand is that there should be no more than a 15 yard variance with your clubs so if one is swinging a pitching wedge 140 + yards most likely they are always swing at one speed and that is probably at swing speed 5 which brings us to the next point.
One doesn’t learn how to drive a car at 75 MPH or learn to play pool by breaking the pack or play tennis by serving as hard as they can. I can go on and on.
The point is the slower one swings the more control they can exert. If one wants more speed then turn the club around and swing the handle instead of the club and that will speed up one’s swing but any more than a 15 yard variance in yardage will cause a loss of control of direction.
My 8 iron swings from 125 to 140 so I normally swing it to about 135. If I’m 145 from the stick I take out a 7 iron and swing speed #3. I always error to speed 3 because that’s the one I can control the best of faster swings.
To get an idea of what I’m talking about try swinging an 8 iron just 75 yards. Make full swing from back to finish. When done property the ball will still fly high and hold - it just won’t go very far. This particular practice method reduces the swing speed to .5
The great learning experience from swing very slow swings is that the swing completely collapses and all control is lost which is why learning control slowly and then speeding up is more preferable.
I’ve taught people that can swing an 8 iron 160 yards on swing speed 3 so it’s relevant to what your 5 speeds are. Once you find your 5 speeds then use them or reduce them to 3 but never play with just one swing speed.
Dan Norwood
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Joe Norwood the Man and his Swing:
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The semi-mysterious golf instructor
http://www.usgtf.com/articles/joe-norwood.html
Joe Norwood's 1st publication in 1941
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YouTube Video of Joe Norwood Swing
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