September 4, 2024

Many of our SuperSpeed users are over the age of 50. We have seen users of all ages gain speed as a result of training with our system, but we often get questions about our older golfers. They wonder if they can actually still gain speed at that age and if so what are some special considerations they should think about as they train. In this article we will review some of the considerations to think about if you are working with older players or if you are an older player looking to gain speed.

What happens to our muscles as we age?
As we age our muscles go through several changes. Some of these come as a result of physiological changes and come as the consequence of aging. Muscles may lose size and strength and can also lose power and speed capacity. While some of this is inevitable, research is starting to show that there is a lot we can do to help naturally prevent some of this. One of the main reasons that muscles change is because we alter the way we use them. We stop lifting heavy things, we stop moving quickly, we spend more time sitting and as a result our muscles adapt to this new way of living. This is why it is so important that we continue to use our muscles in ways that will help us to accomplish the tasks we want to do as we age. If our goal is to continue to swing a golf club fast year after year, we must move and train fast. But as we do, it is important to understand some of the pitfalls we see as our older adults train to get faster.

Overtraining is a very real thing
Older adults have a very unique problem of having more time than other age groups. Often golfers in this category have the time and capacity to play 3-4 rounds of golf a week and spend hours practicing. Due to the amount of hours playing/practicing per week they often gain speed for the first few weeks but then taper off and start to lose speed as they progress. To make matters more complicated, this population is often located in an area where they have no off season. This can lead to scenarios where they quickly begin stressing their body too much and don’t allow time to rest and rebuild. They often place speed training in between rounds and practice and don’t allow proper rest between long practice sessions or subsequent speed training days.

To help with this, make sure there are times where speed training is prioritized above all else. This means taking a 10 week period at some point in the year where you can dedicate time to speed train 3x a week with proper rest before and after. This might mean cutting down on a practice session, playing one less round of golf etc. Once you have completed 5 or so weeks of speed training you could even speed train before a round of golf and it would always work to speed train right before a practice session. After completing 10 weeks of training, it is imperative to go into a maintenance cycle, where speed training would scale back to 1x a week. Find the one day when you are very fresh and ready to go and make sure to get in one really good speed training session each week. This maintenance phase can last a long time, even up to 8 or 10 weeks to maintain speeds and also give your body a bit of time to recover in preparation for the next 3x a week training cycle.

Expectations for gains
Our data shows that older golfers can gain just as much speed as many of our other users. In a study following 47 golfers with an average age of 70, the group gained just over 5% club head speed during the course of their training. Often this is a group who is primed and ready to get the benefits of overspeed training. Many have spent years at desk jobs not paying a ton of attention to their physical health and especially their ability to move fast. As a result, there are some great initial gains to be made once that body remembers and learns how to move quickly. After some of those initial gains and especially as the golfer progresses in age, maintaining speed or gaining just 1% over the course of a year ends up being a huge change compared to if they did no speed training. This is the time of life when after an off season a player comes back to the same course they played the previous season and realizes that their drives are flying shorter compared to the previous year. Being able to come back year after year at the same speeds and even a bit faster ends up being a great net positive compared to losing speed and distance every year.

Injuries
One of the most often questions we get from our older golfers are related to their potential increased risk of injury as a result of age, weakness, range of motion limitations. Many have had surgeries or the pains of aging start to creep into their body. We always like to caution that players should consult with their physician or trainer, no matter their age, before they begin a speed training program. First and foremost we want players to be safe as they train. Simultaneously we also like to point out to this population that they are often performing a large volume of swings each week with the body and pains they currently have. If they are playing golf mostly pain free and can get in multiple rounds and practice sessions each week, speed training shouldn’t stress their system much more. While they are swinging faster, they are not impacting the ground, which can lessen some of the abrupt impacts faced in the swing. We always recommend doing a proper warm-up, even finishing off with some swings of the SuperSpeed clubs to make sure the body is primed and ready to go. Warming up is essential. Additionally we find that some of the non dominant training can help lessen some of the demands on the dominant side of the body, where muscles will be working a bit differently during those swings. These swings can also lead to improved mobility.

Strength
Strength training can be a key part of speed training, especially in older golfers. We tend to find that most golfers can swing faster than their current strength currently allows and this is true for older golfers as well. As mentioned previously, strength does tend to diminish with age, though the slope of the decline can be flattened with proper training. One aspect having a big effect on club head speed is the decline in grip strength with age. Grip strength ends up being an extremely important aspect of generating club speed, getting through thick rough, and controlling the club face. If grip strength isn’t specifically targeted, it will not improve. We would love for every golfer to work with a good fitness professional to work on general strength, but it is essential that this population focus on their grip strength. They can do this by lifting and holding onto heavy things in the house as they walk around, if they have weights to lift and hold heavy weights, and also using grip specific trainers. The SuperSpeed Squeeze ends up being a great addition to a golfer training grip strength and for this population this most likely is a rate limiting factor of speed that needs to be trained.

 Speed of swings in training
Because this population may feel a bit unstable, especially when swinging fast, they can end up swinging too slow during their training. We want to encourage every golfer to swing as fast as they feel comfortable, pushing the envelope as much as they can and still feel safe. In this population of golfers, they often end up being too cautious with their swings. It can be extremely beneficial to push the speeds a bit, losing some balance, really getting the muscles to start to create faster motion. We would encourage you to try and push those speeds more while being safe and wise with the SuperSpeed training. In conjunction with this, including sessions where the driver can be practiced with these same fast intense swings is essential. Many of our older golfers are in the extremely accurate, never miss a fairway group. Their swing ends up being grooved to achieve this outcome. We encourage you to take the governor off with the driver and be willing to try and get 20 more yards even if it means missing one more fairway in a round. We actually find that golfers don’t typically sacrifice accuracy when they swing a bit faster.

We know golfers of every age can gain speed. Our oldest golfer was 89 years old in the study mentioned earlier, and he gained 5% swing speed. No golfer is too old to benefit from speed training. This article helps point out some key things to remember as you either start or continue your speed training. Hopefully these tips help you to get the most out of your speed training year after year and encourage those who haven’t to give speed training a try.