I’m going to let you in on a little secret…the key to swing speed has nothing to do with more stretching, bulking up (although that can help), or the latest swing gimmicky tool thing a ma jiggy that came out on Amazon last week.

It has nothing to do with a new driver or the latest updates they’ve made on the golf ball.

It has nothing to do with whether or not you used to play baseball, softball, volleyball, or ran track (although again, these can help).

It has everything to do with this one key…FORCE PRODUCTION!  A key element of power.

Force is so important for the golf swing as it helps with distance, your “normal” playing swing speed being higher without losing control, and with injury prevention.

I won’t go into the key elements (physics) of it all as this isn’t a science paper.  But in order to produce more force we really can alter 2 variables.  Mass and acceleration.

Mass:

If you have followed the Bryson D. experiment over the past 12-18 months, you’d see an example of a golfer increasing his mass to improve his force.  While this is one way to improve your force production, keep in mind it is very, very challenging and takes more time and effort than many are willing to put in. It is a near full time job to add mass (healthily anyways) and not all golfers are on board with it for multiple reasons.  There was a point in time where a couple golfers on tour were actually losing distance while they were in the midst of a season.  They were struggling to figure out why.  It took someone to look at the situation sideways and let them know that their fitness plan had created weight loss for them, which on paper, seemed like a good thing.  However, since they had lost the leverage of mass, they were not hitting it as far as they once were just a few months earlier.

Acceleration:

Acceleration is a change in velocity over time.  So the more we change velocity over a shorter period of time the better.  The main 2 things that we can control physically to make this happen are strength and RFD (rate of force development) or more plainly said, how quickly can our muscles get to max effort.  It is challenging to have high force production and rapid force production if you don’t have strength.  Therefore, often times when testing golfers and our rotational athletes, we’ll do the power tests (about to be seen below) first.  That way if they pass, we know their strength is likely adequate.  If they don’t “pass” then we have to breakdown if they don’t have enough strength or if they can’t tap into it fast enough.  Make sense?

Why do we power test all quadrants of the body and essentially all planes for the golf swing?

At the beginning and the end of the day, the golf swing is a transfer of energy from the legs to the ground, back to the legs, to the pelvis, to the torso, to the shoulders, to the arms, to the hands, to the club, to the ball.  Therefore, if any individual is lacking in power production in any one of these areas, then the “energy wave” that builds as we transfer that energy through the body can stall out and become less efficient.  Meaning, you could have awesome leg strength to kick things off miraculously, but if it breaks down at the shoulders, that leg strength may not present itself as much in the actual result of contact and/or shot result.  This is why it drives me nuts when golfers either aren’t classified as golfers or they are “poo-pooing” strength training for golf.  It’s not an opinion, it’s fact.  This is what happens in the swing.

So it starts with the legs. 

Here’s the first power test that we’ll run for lower body power and GRF (ground reaction force) potential.

Vertical Jump Test

There is a direct correlation between vertical jump height and driving distance.  Ever wonder why basketball players seem to have such a simple transition into the game of golf?  They know how to use the ground!!!  Our general goal with this is 20 inches to ensure golfers are maximizing leg use.  

Then we look at the torso. 

More specifically the ability to produce force in our abdominals and pelvic tilt movement.  This is often a key area of deficiency that many would not consider, even with an emphasis on “core strength” in the game.  Note for the next 3 tests we use a 6# medicine ball as our stock test tool.  

Sit Up and Throw Test

Next we test the shoulders/arms to determine how much force they can produce independently.  

This test is unique in that we’re actually not really allowed to use our legs or core and it can take many individuals by surprise that they struggle to generate power this way.  Imagine trying to push a heavy door open without using your legs or core fast.  It’s odd and it’s tough.  

Seated Chest Press

Lastly, we see how an individual can tie it all together rotationally with the standing rotational shot put test.

Not only do we test the rotational power this way, but we also are assessing for the dominant vs. non-dominant side difference.  This blog is not the time to go into why non-dominant vs. dominant comparison matters, but basically know that if there is a big difference from dominant to non-dominant, it is possible that your body is putting on it’s own “parking brake” and you’re not maximizing your rotational power potential.  

Rotational Shot Put

So there are four of our big power tests for our rotational athletes.  From here we can determine if strength is also of importance for the individual based on how they perform.  We also can look at norms of each individual athlete based on their demographics and tell them where in the continuum they are so they know what they may want to work on (although really, all we want to do is improve the baseline to post-intervention numbers relative to their overarching goals regardless).  

What do you think?  Have you thought much about power, your power potential, and how this could drastically affect your golf game or rotational sport?  Want to hit bombs like some of our other athletes that have gone through this process

You can register here to get an ideal of what your power profile looks like and get well on your way to hitting massive bombs!

Not ready to see us in person yet?  Check out our staple core strength program for our golfers: