Maybe for Long Drive but not PGA tour level golf
I agree, I thought the thread shifted to long drive guys. Actually, I think a few MPH is significant for PGA guys too, but not at what you'd have to give up in the rest of the game.
It has to do with your subconscious controlling you hitting the ball. Do you realize that if you actually were able to have trigger delay in an OTT type move you'd miss the ball completely? Whether you realize it or not your subconscious realizes you are going to miss the ball and will release the club earlier to make sure you don't miss it. This is in line with other moves in the golf swing as well.
You can't just "hold it tigther" if your muscles aren't strong enough. Think about it this way:
Let's say you are trying to lift something extremely heavy on a pulley system and you aren't strong enough to do it. The rope (or whatever you are trying to hold onto) will start to slip through your hands because you can't hold on to it via strength.
So, you can't swing faster by working out and getting stronger because your grip isn't strong enough? Uh? If the grip becomes the weak link, workout your grip strength.
This is what i'm saying in the golf swing...if you swung at a speed that your muscles (strength) couldn't hold onto the golf club the club would literally fly out of your hands due to the force (similar to my pulley example above). However you don't want that to happen so you literally slow it down enough so that it doesn't happen whether this is conscious or subconsciously.
Similar to my example i have talked about numerous times about better players picking UP swing speed by going to stronger equiptment. A lot of players will slow their swing DOWN to play the weaker shaft so the ball doesn't BALLOON. Give them something stronger that won't balloon and they swing to their potential. I picked up almost 5mph of swing speed by going to X flex shafts and i have seen similar gains in other people too; this one time a student was swinging his 5 iron S300 shaft 90mph and i gave him my 5 iron X100 iron and he consistently started hitting 94-96mph. It's because it allowed him to go after it without fear of the ball ballooing.
IMO everyone has their max speed they can swing a club and you can find large improvements via mechanics and some strength conditioning but once you are basically at that max speed not much you can do to increase it. Otherwise every single muscle guy on earth could swing a club 150mph. My max swing speed hasn't changed much from when i first started as a 100+ shooter (108-112) at that time to what i can do now which is closer to 110-115.
I agree that your subconcious has a huge effect on swing speed, I've felt it myself. But, I've also experienced changes in swing speed based on my fitness. I picked up A LOT (~7mph) of swing speed going to a 85 gram x-flex shaft, but using the same driver now compared to what I played in college (when I spent a ton of time in the gym) my swing speed slowed 4-5 mph.
Not every 'muscle guy' has decent flexibilty, or trains for explosive power. So, of course they won't all have serious swing speed. But take someone who trains with olympic lifts and other dynamic excersizes, and odds are they'll swing the club fast (might not hit the ball, but the club head speed will be fast).
Edit: I do agree that swing mechanics can add speed also, and in almost all cases, you can pick up more ball speed this way compared to being in the gym.
