How to increase distance for this wimpy junior?

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golfdad

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she doesn't eat, she doesn't exercise and she doesn't listen because she is really smarter than dad....:)

any suggestions on how to optimize on the tech side?

she is a scratch player on lady's tee. but this past summer she was in some tournaments where some of the par 4s were over 430 and she simply could not reach in 2. it is one thing to look at the bright side and suggest her to sharpen her up and downs, but it is another to do that the whole day long.

http://www.swingacademy.com/videoPlayer.aspx?id=7823

thanks.
 
natep

natep

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When I first looked at it the tape was sped up for some reason.....looked like she was swinging 150mph!!

Now its playing at normal speed. Is that a steel shaft?
 
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spktho

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I'm not a teaching pro, but to my eye it looks like what was discussed in another thread about the hips spinning out too much or the hands too far behind the pivot.

It is a nice swing
 
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Bonesy

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is she below the average age of the field that she was playing against at the tournaments w/ the long par 4s? might be a case of letting her grow into it.
 
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golfdad

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natep, i think you are right about the shaft. it was raining here today, so she just picked up an older one in the basement. 150mph would be nice, but probably breaks her back in 2 mins:)

sp, good point about the hip thing. i know what you guys mean. it is a catch 22 for her. i think by now she depends on her hips to drive the engine and she usually times it quite well, meaning, she is very accurate. her hands were never stuck behind to the point that there will be much side spin. meanwhile, i am really curious if her timing of the hip turn leaks power...

bonesy,,yes i think she is. but then, even in the same age group, we have some huge ones out there:) unlike 99.9% of the kids that she plays with, she has no aspiration to play golf for a living. because of that, i just want her to have a good time, instead of scrambling because of swing speed and distance issues.
 
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natep

natep

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Is that tape real-speed?

If so, she looks like she could get another 40 yards if she really stepped on it.
 
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golfdad

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natep said:
Is that tape real-speed?

If so, she looks like she could get another 40 yards if she really stepped on it.
Click to expand...

i think it looks about right,,at the 100%. i think her swing speed is about 85-90-ish and her driver goes about 200-ish. and she plays with kids that drive 250 on the average. in the back of my head, i subscribe to the notion that for some folks this top swing speed has a ceiling, that it may or may not be related to getting bigger and stronger. but then, i don't know for sure if that is the case with her.

i wept inside when the past summer she needed to take out her driver for some par 3's, haha.
 
natep

natep

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She doesn't appear to be concerned about distance. Some kids you can see really getting after it but struggling to get speed. She looks to me like she's just cruising at about 60%. IMO she's nowhere near her ceiling.
 
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golfdad

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natep

natep

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I wouldnt be too concerned about it. She's got a great action. I dont think theres any technical change that would make too big a difference, because she's already so solid. I think if she really wanted to she could easily hit it longer, but playing scratch golf from the red's is pretty damn good at her age. Core strengthening definitely would make a difference.
 
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Ringer

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Frankly, I wouldn't do anything with it right now. It's an amazingly good swing. She uses her pivot incredibly effectively.
 
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ej20

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golfdad said:
i think it looks about right,,at the 100%. i think her swing speed is about 85-90-ish and her driver goes about 200-ish. and she plays with kids that drive 250 on the average. in the back of my head, i subscribe to the notion that for some folks this top swing speed has a ceiling, that it may or may not be related to getting bigger and stronger. but then, i don't know for sure if that is the case with her.

i wept inside when the past summer she needed to take out her driver for some par 3's, haha.
Click to expand...

I would say 90mph clubhead speed is pretty impressive for a 10 yo girl.

I think you will also find that 250 yards is about the average on the LPGA tour.These "kids" that she play with are pretty impressive.What did they put in their water??
 
cmartingolf

cmartingolf

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I like her golf swing a lot.

She's 12. If she keeps hitting balls and competing, she'll naturally want to hit it harder and farther. Nobody likes to hit first all day.

Support her and enjoy the journey. She'll start hitting it farther.
 
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Quigss

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I've coached HS girls for 5 years and that is about the extent of my experience working with juniors...so don't take this as gospel, but I wouldn't have her "seek" extra yards until she fully matures, and maybe not even then. If she is only swinging 60%, maybe you can have her up the swing speed (not effort) to 85-90% if she stays balanced. Many girls pick-up a decent amount of distance between the ages of 13 and 15/16 just from "growing up" and maturing. Maybe the top 10% of high school girls hit drives in the 240-250 range, but the other 90% are much shorter, maybe in the 215-225 range. Also, I've caddied several times for junior girls in the US Junior Open qualifiers and the course set-up usually doesn't even have those distances. In fact, most college and LPGA course set-ups don't have 430 yard par 4's, so I really wouldn't worry about it until/if she gets to that level.
 
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golfdad

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hello gents, sorry for the confusion. have got 2 trouble makers at home. this one is 14, her. the other one is 10, with a royally messy swing at the moment. :D

if i had started them on ping pong, life would have been much easier.:cool:

thank you for the good perspectives.
 
Richie3Jack

Richie3Jack

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When I was 14, I was a solid junior golfer who was about 6'1" tall and weighed about 130 lbs. I struggled as well with power. Then over the winter I grew about 1-2" and naturally put on 50 lbs, mostly of muscle. Holes that I had driver-7 iron into were now driver-flip wedge.

So I'd wait for now and for the next couple of years.

The downswing is really nice. The shoulders turn a little too flat and the club goes a bit too outside and pops out in the backswing, but the downswing is so nice and looks repeatable that I wouldn't worry about the backswing unless she does have some consistency accuracy problems.

She could probably learn to hit up with the driver. The average LPGA player hits up on their driver by +3* while the average PGA Tour player hits down -1.3* with the driver. The LPGA golfer is more or less tyring to make up for their lack of clubhead speed.





3JACK
 
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bax1865

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She has her arms too extended away from body and because of this she cannot utilize her body mass in the most efficient way. Think about where you would like to have your arms relative to your body if you were to hold a heavy object directly in front of you. Would you rather have your arms extended away or closer to you in order to best support that weight. Is her set-up the same with all clubs including the short irons? Or is this stretched out set-up more noticable with the driver?
 
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golfdad

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SwingAcademy.com

richie, if you look at this swing, from last year, it seems that it is more on plane. do you agree? i think her current swing has more of a upright component to it. a little more 2 plane perhaps? i wonder if she has developed this trend to get more power from arm swinging down?

bax,,i wound think her usual set-up is more like this older clip. i agree that the arms should always have a hanging down feeling. yes, the current one does look rather odd, i wonder if she did it to fit into the position on those pads. with irons, her arms hang ok i think. in a way, perhaps her outstretched hands have lead to the plane issue observed by richie.

do you guys swing differently each day, like my kids? :) crazy game.
 
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