Top 100 Teacher: Danny Lee’s ‘helicopter’ swing speed drill could boost your power

September 2, 2019

PGA Tour pro Danny Lee.

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DANNY LEE is a fascinating, hilarious guy. He has two gears of speed— but can also skip straight past a third gear into fourth, which he just calls “really long.” He does a lot of speed drills before tourney rounds. The crazy-looking drill pictured at right is called the “Helicopter.” Danny (1) takes the club up directly vertical, over his head, then (2) around his body, and then he just swings out of his shoes. Why? He wants to get his speed up beforehand to better control a slower speed during the round. Danny feels if he can swing the club at almost 130 mph while warming up, he can handle 117 or 118 on the course, which is where he’s at now, up from 109- 110 when we started working together. It was Jack Nicklaus who said that first you learn speed, then you learn how to control it. Another Nicklaus lesson we’ve been working on is turning the front leg and knee in and toward the ball more on the backswing. (Trying to maintain the front knee in its address position, as some people advocate, is about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, and you’ll hurt yourself trying.) The lead leg should turn in toward the ball to allow the whole body to load up. That’s speed in waiting.

Danny Lee is a fascinating, hilarious guy. When it comes to speed, he has two gears — but can also skip straight past a third gear into fourth, which he just calls “really long.” He does a lot of speed drills before tourney rounds. The crazy-looking drill pictured below is called the “Helicopter.”

Danny (1) takes the club up directly vertical, over his head, then (2) around his body, and then he just swings out of his shoes.

Why? He wants to get his speed up beforehand to better control a slower speed during the round. Danny feels if he can swing the club at almost 130 mph while warming up, he can handle 117 or 118 on the course, which is where he’s at now, up from 109- 110 when we started working together.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpSx58NHfpr/

It was Jack Nicklaus who said that first you learn speed, then you learn how to control it. Another Nicklaus lesson we’ve been working on is turning the front leg and knee in and toward the ball more on the backswing. (Trying to maintain the front knee in its address position, as some people advocate, is about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, and you’ll hurt yourself trying.)

The lead leg should turn in toward the ball to allow the whole body to load up. That’s speed in waiting.