[golfbulldog]

I like a lot of the points you made in your post.

As far as the above quote goes it may very well be so that Palmer and Nicklaus were stronger at that age. That is not relevant to the conversation though. Swing speed depends on one's ability to move quickly, not how strong they are. When my brother was 6', 115 pounds, 14 years old he could regularly hit the ball 300 yards. Sports Power by David Sandler features a nice piece of the various physical requirements of sports. Interestingly, golf is listed as 95% speed. The other categories are speed-strength, strength, power, and one more I think.

Matt

Dead right - speed is what gives you distance - but control of such high speed clunhead release is only possible if you have forearm muscles to maintain adequate clamps etc...

And that strength of muscle does not have to be big bulky muscle - i reckon preferably not bulky muscle. I have heard ( on TV at least) martial arts experts talking about fast punching and they positively dislike to see bulky biceps - even critisied Bruce Lee for aving too much "showy muscle" to look good on film... he did not want bruce to have bulky muscle ... said it would slow him down too much!