Why You Need This: In this video, you'll learn how to add golf swing speed with both arms.

I'm often asked...

"Which arm is responsible for most of the speed in the swing?"

The answer is both arms, but it's not as simple as it may seem.

Your arms do add speed, but in different ways...

So let's take a closer look in this video.

In the video, you'll see 3 primary moves that add speed to your swing...

#1 Power Turn

For more speed and power, you need a full turn in your backswing.

PGA Tour players turn a bit over 110 degrees in their backswings...

And they turn all the way through impact, finishing with their chests facing left of the target.

This helps build momentum and creates tons of speed.

#2 Right Arm

You use your right arm to accelerate quickly from the top of your swing.

However, once you get near impact...

...the club is moving so fast that your right hand struggles to keep up.

You'll see players like Vijay Singh and sometimes Phil Mickelson have their right hands start to come off the club just after impact.

Those guys aren't trying to throw their clubs down the fairway :)

What they're trying to do is avoid having their right hand slow down their club speed.

Want to build up your speed with your right arm?

Check out the right arm only drill as seen in this video.

#3 Left Arm

Your left arm pulls through and helps whip the club through impact.

To build speed in your left arm...

Check out the left arm only drill as seen in this video.

Now that you've built up some speed with both arms individually...

Take some swings using both arms.

Watch this video now to add golf swing speed with both arms.

You'll learn some great drills to build your speed with each arm.

Then put it all together...

And start crushing your drives!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:50

Video Transcription:

Hey guys, welcome back. This is a question that I get all the time, which arm adds the speed? I think as right-handed people we always want to – if you’re right-handed – we always want to hid with that right side, really get a lot of power with that right hand. That’s not exactly what’s going on.

A lot of times when we try to hit with that right hand, we start to cast the club early, and then we’re kind of flipping as we’re coming through impact. What happens is we burn up all the speed early in the downswing.

If we go just left arm only, then what typically ends up happening is we just kind of pull through the shot.

We’re not really getting a lot of speed, we can’t feel like we accelerate very fast in the downswing to start the downswing, we just don’t have a lot of power with that left arm. It doesn’t feel very strong either.

A lot of times we feel strong with the right hand, but we flip and we lose speed. Then if we try to go all left hand, we lose some speed there too.

So what is the point of it? What arm do we use, what part of the body we use? It’s really about a culmination of every piece of the body. If I go ahead and I make a swing here -- I’ll do a couple demo shots – I’m going to swing one with just my left arm only.

You’ll notice that I can hit the ball pretty well. This is probably going somewhere about 220 or so with the left arm only.

Same thing with the right arm, if I hit one with the right arm, it’s going about the same thing. Maybe 220 or 230 after roll, if I hit a nice, clean shot. Neither of those are anywhere near my full power. It’s about using both those together.

Let me go through the three things that ae going to add a lot of speed to your swing.

Number one, we’ve got to get a full turn going back and through. I call this the Power Turn in the Top Speed Golf System. We break this down, level by level, step by step.

We’ve got to get our body loaded up, get the hips and the shoulders to load up as we go back. PGA Tour players are getting about 110°-120° of shoulder turn as they’re loading up.

Then as we come through, we’ve got to turn all the way on around, get that chest facing down the left side of the fairway or into the left rough as we come on through.

That’s going to help us to get momentum with the body to create speed and to build on that speed with our arms. That’s the first piece. We’re not going to focus necessarily on that in this video.

The second piece is going to be the right arm. Now the right arm, one of the cool things is they have a lot of studies now that actually show when is force going into the club? Which piece of the body is accelerating the club?

As we start the downswing, the right arm is really accelerating the club here. Now the key here is to not try to push with the right wrist. My right wrist isn’t extending going that way to push the club forward back here.

I’m going to feel like if I sit this club on my shoulder, I’m accelerating my arms out away from my body here. That helps to build up some speed with my right hand.

So there we’re getting – this is kind of like first gear in your car. You can accelerate really fast, but then once you hit a certain speed, you can’t keep it accelerating.

The right arm is going to help you to accelerate early and as we get down to contact, the club’s actually moving so fast the science shows us now that the right hand actually can’t keep up with the club. It’s not really accelerating the club through contact, it’s barely just trying to keep up.

That’s why players like VJ Singh or Phil Mickelson you’ll see sometimes as they’re coming through the shot, the right hand is completely off the club like that.

So the right hand is coming off the club just like this. Sometimes you’ll see that their fingertips just barely held on, and that’s to try to not slow down the club with the right hand, actually let that go.

Let me go over a great drill for you with just the right arm only, and I want you guys to practice this, just in your living room would be fine.

Go ahead and start, go to the top of the swing, good full turn. Now I want you to rest that club on your shoulder, and then just take your right arm.

Now from there as you open up, I want you to feel like you get a lot of lag and this club works out away from your body with just the right arm only.

We can let that rest on my shoulder, even on the back of the shoulder would be good. That way we flatten out the club plane like we talk about in The Move section. That’s this happening as you’re making your downswing.

If we add both hands to that, that’s going to look something like this. I’m going to have a good amount of lag as I start down, I’m not casting that early. I want you to do about 50 reps with just the right arm only.

Now the left arm is like fifth gear in your car. It doesn’t accelerate as fast, but once the club gets moving, it can really turn on the speed at high RPMs.

So this club gets moving really fast, and what’s actually happening is the butt end of the club is turning up. Let’s imagine this butt end of the club turning up, and that allows the club to whip on through contact.

In my downswing, as my hands get to their low point about right here in the downswing, now my hips, my shoulders, my left arm start to come back up, because they’re rotating on a circle. They start to come back up and now that club’s releasing on out in front.

That’s exactly why we talk about in the Top Speed Golf System, how we want to be tilted slightly behind the ball. Look at all the pro players that are really bombing the ball, they’re getting tilted back behind the ball so they can turn that club up.

Now let’s make some swings with just the left arm only. I want you to grab the club, get to your low point and from here, I want you to feel like you’re really letting the arm turn back up and that club to whip on through there.

That’s going to get a good low-end acceleration, or feel like after the club’s moving already, I’m using the leverage of this or the angle I should say of this, to release that, and that’s going to get the speed.

Another 40 or 50 reps coming to the low point of the swing, feeling like your hand turns back up, you’re pushing into the ground with your left leg, and that’s going to whip the club on through there. 50 reps just left arm only.

Now when I put it together, I’m going to be able to get that early lag, save up that energy, and then boom, I’m going to turn it on the speed with my left hand coming through contact.

Let’s see how it goes. There we go guys, crushed that one. Go out there, work on each arm individually, put them together, you’re going to get tons of speed.