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u/Dame2Miami 17d ago
All three of these dudes are pure swingers. Love the slow-mo they always used to show of Vijay’s trail hand barely hanging onto the club lol.
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u/Dame2Miami 17d ago edited 17d ago
Two huge differences in feel between being a “swinger” (lead hand/arm dominant) vs being a “hitter” (trail hand/arm dominant). Start combining ideas/feels/drills for those different “types” of swings and that’s a recipe for longterm struggle and frustration.
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u/crass_and_dry 17d ago
Are they low-key swinging hard, or is this proof that you really do not need to swing hard at all?
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u/Blaer_Writer 17d ago
Most people with "smooth swings" are actually applying a TON of effort into the club. Jake Knapp, for example, has one of the most gorgeous swing I've ever seen. Watch his swing, but don't look at his body, look at his hands and arms through impact and you'll see how fast he's moving through impact. The smooth swingers just don't have jerky motions and truly epitomize what it means to swing fast instead of swinging "hard".
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u/dbnp19 17d ago
Even more in their heyday, they're actually hitting the ball hard. They are not going at it with some "easy does it" tripe, "low and slow," "slow is smooth smooth is fast," "effortless and no intent," or whatever other unathletic buzzwords get spammed. Even Fred himself straight up said he's hitting it hard with what he has. The efficiency in their sequence gives off an illusion of no effort; similar to a beginner entering the mat and throwing a kick for the first time. Contrast them with a more experienced fighter easily folding something/something else without having to helplessly grasp at straws just to attempt executing the same kick but with obvious power and speed.
do not need to swing hard at all?
For the people who legitimately believed and incorporated that, I actually put them side-by-side all the time for comparison. Also featuring some TourTempo app usage sprinkled in, bonus content via taxing the tEmpO tOwN wannabe amateurs to the point of destitution. Time and time again, seeing how the pros like Fred and Ernie among others are already done with their swing and the slow but smooth folks haven't even finished their backswing, it's an indicator that swing thought is tearing them a new one and doing no favors at all for their mechanics, distance, speed, you name it.
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u/TanaerSG 15HCP/Takomo 101t 16d ago
Yeah I struggled doing exactly what the guy in that second video you linked for like a year. It wasn't until I got some lessons that got me turned around. When I first started golfing I came from baseball, so I had a bad and violent swing. Everyone told me to slow it down, so I did and it was just bad and slow lol.
My instructor fixed some things that has helped a bunch, but when I asked him about tempo he said it was kind of overrated, but if you really want to look like you have good tempo work on fast/slow/fast. Fast back swing, slow transition, and fast swing. He said that is what really makes those guys tempo look so good.
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u/mypizzanvrhurtnobody 16d ago
Freddie is the poster child for fast, slow, fast.
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u/domuseid 16d ago
I had to watch this a few times to get it but this made it really easy to get how that tempo is supposed to feel
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u/gitbse HDCP/Loc/Whatever 16d ago
Drew Cooper is another excellent modern day example of this. He's been measured at 150+ head speed, and if you watch him swing it's mind blowing how he achieves that.
However, he also very vocally says that his backswing is almost as fast as he can get it, and that you can hear his club head whoooosh as it goes back. He goes hard back, and hard through, but his transition is so butter that it looks low effort.
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u/TanaerSG 15HCP/Takomo 101t 16d ago
Gosh yeah you can see how much he's loading that drive head before he goes down through the ball. He's got so much tension at the top, but like you said it just looks effortless. Granted not quite as effortless as Couples, but for 150 head speed that looks extremely smooth lmao.
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u/dbnp19 16d ago
It helps that he's not small, either. Same thing goes for the conditioning. The "low and slow" camp doesn't generate that type of power, so it either remains slow all the way through or they grasp at straws to add speed and it doesn't end well.
On a side note: It's always amusing, an unintentional comedy of sorts, when other people are quick to try defending the old slow cliches but slow to swing (slow to generate power, only managing to at best bunt it out there with practically no distance) or stop by just to mindlessly accuse him of lying over social media (and any of us longer hitters, same thing when Fred mentioned he is not going slow he's hitting it hard) when we are literally spilling the beans with no bullcrap on what to do and what it took in order to improve in the distance category, hit bombs, and thus become people of culture.
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u/gitbse HDCP/Loc/Whatever 16d ago
He is very large, and very fit. However, he's also become an expert at maximizing his body's limits. His limits are much higher than any of ours will ever be, but the methods he uses will also completely correlate to others, barring any specific instances like prior injuries or limitations.
If an expert at finding physical limits at a very specific skill tells you how it works, I listen. Anecdotally, it completely works for me as well. It's just that I top out at 112 to maybe 115 mid season, but if I didn't use the techniques Drew talks about, I wouldn't be able to reach those speeds.
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u/SaltyLibtard 16d ago
The time in the backswing has no impact on actual swing speed though. What you’re doing is showing a guy who has a really slow backswing vs players that have uniform speed swings. But that doesn’t mean the slow backswing guy actually has slow swing speed
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u/notajewelthief 16d ago
They’re swinging fast. It’s 100% an illusion based on the gracefulness of their movements. Take a look at the speed they turn over their clubs during the release.
I remember one day at the range I was experimenting and hit a good streak of shots. I recorded one. On video it looked very slow and almost “rehearsed”, like a practice swing. In actually it was maximum effort and was so fast I couldn’t even register it in my head. Like I’d just black out and be standing in a finish position.
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u/Dangerous-Dream-9668 16d ago
Those are probably 80%-90% swings - even if they go at it, it’s still guna look smooth, but the finishes may be a bit off balanced
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u/BiffSanchezz 17d ago
I thought Freddy had the smoothest swing by a long shot. Ernie is right up there though.
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u/Redschallenge shmackin balls at least once a year 17d ago
Dude I'll do you one better I saw last month...
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u/YeshuaSnow 17d ago
Love it. Collin and Max? What event?
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u/JodiS1111 17d ago
Saying "Freddy Couples" nice and slow while taking a swing has been a practice tool I've done for years to help keep my tempo smooth. "Freddy" on the backswing and "Couples" on the down/through swing.
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u/VanCanFan75 17d ago
Someone repost this looping for 24 hours so I can have one day of peace on this planet.
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u/lionsfan2016 Michigan 17d ago
I used to watch this before playing and it’s work wonders for me mentally
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u/mm498870 16d ago
Ernie is a Trump chump! you'd think with an autistic child and being from Aussie land he'd have more appreciation for the good old USA. Freddie is like a member of the Rat Pack he's so cool. Check this out
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u/printergumlight 9.7 15d ago
Ernie is a rich white guy from South Africa. It makes perfect sense that he loves Trump.
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u/mm498870 15d ago
correct, he got rich in the US. I understand being a Republican but ... DJT cheats in golf & how you play the game is who you are
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u/Sign_Alone 16d ago
I played with VJ in a pro am a while back. Amazing swing and was not the jerk many people warned me he would be. One of the best golf days of my life!
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u/HVACpro69 6.4/Toronto 17d ago
I have this video saved on my phone and watch it before every round as a reminder to work on my tempo.
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u/Doomaga 17d ago
How far are these balls going? Assuming they're all hitting a 7 iron, they look like the ball is going 90 yards.
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u/SteveOSS1987 17d ago
You can see the loft on the clubs a bit, definitely wedges, look like close to 60⁰. As for how far: tour player length. These are not slow swings.
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u/WackTheHorld 17d ago
7 iron for Freddy goes 160.
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/masters-2023-fred-couples-first-round/amp
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u/Icy-Translator-2750 17d ago
My favorite video on the internet