The Speed Revolution That’s Finally Breaking Golf’s Most Stubborn Myth

After 35 years covering this game, I’ve heard just about every piece of conventional wisdom repeated so many times it becomes gospel. One of the most persistent? “Take it back low and slow.” I’ve watched thousands of amateurs genuinely believe that a measured, deliberate backswing is the path to consistency and power. Spoiler alert: it’s not.

That’s why I found Bernie Najar’s recent take so refreshing, even if it does run counter to decades of ingrained instruction. The man knows what he’s talking about—he’s taught some of the longest hitters in the game, Kyle Berkshire among them. When he says that energy into the club happens early in the backswing, not late, he’s articulating something the modern tour has been proving for years. We’ve just been slow to acknowledge it at the grassroots level.

The Backswing Isn’t a Warm-Up

Here’s what strikes me most about this conversation: the backswing has been misunderstood as a setup phase rather than what it actually is—the beginning of the power generation sequence. I remember caddying for Tom Lehman in the ’90s, and even then, the best players weren’t dawdling on the way back. They were loading energy, not coasting.

“What’s important to realize is that energy into the club happens early in the backswing,” Bernie says. “It’s not ‘take it back slow.'”

That’s the money quote right there. Because when you accept that principle, everything changes about how you think about the golf swing. It’s not a smooth, meditative movement. It’s an athletic act where the first few feet matter as much as the last few feet.

Having watched Bryson DeChambeau transform himself into one of the longest drivers on tour, I can tell you his takeaway speed isn’t accidental. It’s deliberate. It’s science-backed. And frankly, it’s the future of how distance gets generated—especially for amateurs trying to add yards without completely rebuilding their swing mechanics.

Why The Old Advice Persists (And Why It’s Failing Golfers)

I think the reason “low and slow” has persisted for so long is that it produces a certain feeling of control. For decades, instructors taught it because it reduced erratic shots and wild misses. But here’s the thing about teaching: we’ve gotten better at it. We have launch monitors, biomechanics data, and real-time feedback that simply didn’t exist when those old axioms were carved in stone.

What we’ve learned is that control and speed aren’t mutually exclusive—they’re often complementary. A faster, more intentional backswing doesn’t inherently lead to chaos. In fact, the opposite can be true. When you’re putting energy into the club early, you’re engaging your body’s natural rhythm rather than fighting against it.

“We’ve got to get you putting more into the golf club early,” Bernie says. “Putting more into the golf club means you really have to rev it up a little.”

I appreciate the candidness there. “Rev it up a little” doesn’t sound like traditional golf instruction, but it’s accurate. And for the amateur player stuck on a plateau—like the author of that piece experienced—it’s exactly the kind of mental reframe that can unlock hidden speed.

The Real Takeaway

What fascinates me about this trend in modern instruction is that it represents a broader shift in how we understand golf. The tour has moved toward explosion and athleticism. The equipment has gotten more forgiving. The biomechanical understanding has become exponentially more sophisticated. Yet instruction at the club level has lagged behind.

This isn’t to say that every golfer needs to swing like a tour player. Consistency still matters. Accuracy still matters. But the notion that power and control are opposite ends of a spectrum? That’s the real load of BS. They’re not. They’re intertwined.

In my experience, the golfers who’ve added the most distance in recent years aren’t the ones who suddenly started muscling it. They’re the ones who understood that the backswing is an active, energetic phase of the swing—not a wind-up but a genuine power source.

Having covered 15 Masters tournaments and watched the evolution of how the game’s best players approach distance, I can tell you with confidence: the speed revolution is here, and it’s about time instruction caught up to the reality. Those amateurs feeling sluggish and plateaued? The answer might not be working harder. It might be working smarter by starting faster, earlier, and with more intention.

That’s the kind of practical wisdom that actually sticks—both in the swing and in the score.