This short article is part of my Swing Speed Training Guide. That article goes into detail about everything you need to know about embarking on a successful speed training journey.
Speed priming is a way that you can get your body up to maximum speed in a short period of time. When you’re doing a driver or stack session, you’re hitting multiple swings in a row. Your body is “in a groove”, your nervous systems and muscles are amped up to full capacity, and there’s no consequence to the shot. That allows you to reach your top speeds easily.
When you play golf, it might be early morning, cold, slow pace of play, or you just haven’t made a fast swing in a while. It’s easy to lose that feeling of top speed. There are some “hacks” we can implement to combat this situation.
Pre-Round Priming
In pre round priming, the idea is to assign between 5 and 10 balls in your warm-up to swing the driver with high intent, maybe a little faster than you would on the course. This gets your nervous system and muscles firing at full speed, and can build comfort and confidence.
After those swings, dial back down to your normal driver speed for 5 or so swings and finish your warm-up there. If you’re playing multiple tournament rounds or practice rounds in a week, this gives you a small daily dose of speed work that maintains or even builds your speed without extra sessions. Low dose, high frequency practice of a specific skill you are trying to improve.
I regularly recommend this to tour players and competitive amateurs.
This approach works really well for competitive players who already have structured warm-ups and a lot of time available.
I play most of my recreational golf at first light, and don’t hit balls beforehand. I am guessing you don’t have a huge amount of time to warm-up either. I make sure to go through Dynamic Warm-Up #1 from the Fit For Golf App at home before I drive 15 minutes to the course. Before teeing off, I make about 3 sets of 8 driver swings, while waiting near the first tee, ramping up the speed on each set. This doubles as “speed priming” but it’s also a good way to get fully warmed up and loosened out. If you hit balls before you play, you can simply follow the protocol outlined earlier, 5-10 drivers, letting it rip!
Pre-Shot Priming
Pre shot priming is especially valuable on the course. You might go 15 or 30 minutes between drivers, sometimes longer. If you only make a full driver swing every half hour, it’s hard to be at full speed when it’s time to hit.
Padraig Harrington is a good example of someone you will see using pre-shot speed priming. You’ll see him doing very fast, aggressive swings on tee boxes before hitting the driver.
This will excite his nervous system and muscles, getting them ready for high output.
In simple terms, you’re “blowing off the cobwebs” a little bit.
All it takes is one or two aggressive practice swings where you focus on making the club swish loudly. Then you carry that same feeling into your actual shot.
I like to do one aggressive practice swing using the “Pump Drill” before hitting a driver on the course. I think it helps my overall sequence as well as my speed.
You don’t want your “pre-shot priming” to take too long or be fatiguing. Just make sure your body is ready for a fast, athletic move. These priming swings are small details, but they help you access the speed you’ve trained. The foundational work is your physical training and speed sessions.
To learn more about training for club head speed, check out Swing Speed Training – The Fit For Golf Guide.
