Clubhead Speed, Distance
 

I took the Clubhead Speed radar detector to the range today. I was noting the Clubhead speed of various clubs when the ball travels my normal club-distances.

I had a lot of fun changing swing speeds for different loft angles and found that I can vary the speed of shorter clubs and get them moving very fast, but with longer clubs, the speed gets max-ed out before maximum effort. Does this just mean that I'm just weak or unskilled or both? Or, is this normal?

Example: It seems that 75 mph did well for my 48 degree wedge, but I can get it moving up to 85 mph. 90 mph was good for my five iron but maximum effort was only 96 mph. Additionally, 88 mph was easily reproducable with my five iron, but 75 mph for my wedge took a lot of concentration and still it varied 5 mph up or down most of the time.

Also, believe it when they say that off-center hits have a great loss of distance for any given Clubhead speed.

I heard that there was an optimal clubhead speed for each Clubface loft angle. Is this research published?

Maybe you should redo what your clubhead speed is now buddy ;)

The need for speed.
 

The average Tour Player's swing speed 113 mph with a driver (USGA).
The average Tour Player's 5 iron distance 185 yards (shotlink).

Maximum effort with a 5 iron 96 mph?
The average men's swing speed is 86 mph with a driver.
The average women's swing speed is 68 mph with a driver.

I don't think you have anything to worry about in this regard.

However, per 1-L-12, Ball Speed is dependent on both before Impact and after Impact Clubhead Speed.