How fast should you swing your club?

Tiger Woods said normal shots, he never expend more than 80% of his effort. Annika Sorenstan said she swings with 60% of her power on every shot including her driver shot.

 

According to the study, if you miss the the sweet spot by 1/2 inch, you will lose 7% of your distance. For example, if you hit your driver 230 yards, 7% of 230 yards is 16 yards. That's a lot!

 You can put all effort and swing as hard as you can, but there is a god chance that you won't hit your ball any further than your normal shots because it becomes harder to hit the sweet spot as you increase your swing speed. But I'm not saying you shouldn't take a full swing. There are times I swing as hard as I can too. But when I do, I follow my rule.

 

Even on the driving range, I never start swinging as hard as I can. I start first with slower swing speed and try to hit it on the sweet spot. If you can't hit it solid, slow down your swing speed to 60%. After I start hittinh it solid, I finally start to increase my siwng speed. Most players do the opposite. They start by swinging as hard as they can. But they are missing the sweet spot and see that their shots aren't going far. So they have to siwng even harder to get any kind of distance. That's why thet are not hitting it long. They should do the opposite.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/fault-fix/how-fast-to-swing.htm