Imagine this…you’re out there on the 1st tee of your first scramble of the season.
Your buddy goes off, your brother goes off, then your other buddy goes off. Then you…
You, understandably so, want to impress, want to help the team, and at the end of the day, you want to blow it past all these other fellas or gals because it feels really damn good to do so and you just paid $500 for the latest TaylorMade M6.
So you let out your best Rory McIlroy with a touch of Brooks Koepka and a hint of Dustin Johnson.
Yet, you drive your carts up to check out who’s going to win the prize of “we’re taking mine†and there you stand….40 yards behind everyone else.
So you gripe a little and you claim your “cold†and that you haven’t had a chance to warm up. But really…what gives?
Well, if you’re anything like the other 200 amateur 40-60 year old golfers we work with, you don’t have the capacity to hit the ball far because your equipment (AND I MEAN YOUR BODY) is not working as well as it could.
Thus, let’s start with part 1 of how you can hit the golf ball farther…without any gimmicky tools or swing tips.
1ST AND FOREMOST…You have to have a strong, stable, or at a bare minimum involved lower body.
To make things very simple for you (and for me…after all, this is a complex topic I have to alway explain), the golf swing is a transfer of energy from the ground, through the legs, through the torso, to the arms, to the hands, to the club, to the ball.
IF your feet, ankles, and legs are less than adequate from a strength, stability standpoint, your golf swing gets started “on the weaker side†and will have a difficult time initiating a maximum energy production without the lower half.
I like to make the analogy of a sprinter running 100 meters but not having blocks to push out of relative to his or her counterparts. If he/she is starting from a standing position and cannot use his/her legs like the other 7 sprinters in the race, they will likely have a hard time reaching full speed as quickly and as efficiently as the others.
So, here’s how you maximize the use of your lower body.
1st build strength in the legs, then build power in the legs.
Strength is how much force the muscles you have produce, power is how much force the muscles can produce per a unit of time. Thus power is how much speed you can use your strength with. And that’s what we train.
Here’s a couple examples of appropriate strength training of the lower body for golfers…
So hopefully we’ve developed some strength and some force in the lower body, now we need to learn how to create that force FAST…we also need to learn how to create vertical thrust as well as rotational and lateral or side to side ground reaction forces. Here’s how…
So there you have it…if you want to add distance to your game, regardless of your age, you need to develop some changes and some strength in the legs. If you say, “I can’t do those, my knees hurt†or “I can’t jump so I can’t do those†then you’re already creating excuses. We have every modification and regression/progression under the sun depending on your ability/physical situation.
The key is to get stronger, then move faster.
And, let’s not forget that club technology and square/center face contact also play a part, a large part, in this equation. The problem…most of us don’t have the physical ability or awareness to even dictate whether or not club/technique is the issue. If your body is always average, then that’s what your swing will be regardless of the technology and technique improvements.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of How to Hit the Golf Ball Farther…Without the Gimmicks in the coming weeks.
Thanks for reading!
Dr. Eric Wallace
P.S. If you’d like to find out where your golf strength and power potential are, you can sign up for a free Titleist Power and Mobility test with us here…Free Titleist Power and Mobility Test
P.P.S. If you’d like to join us for our Swing Speed 101 Golf Fitness Class then please email me at eric@motusrx.com…we have separate classes for adults and juniors. This class gives you all inclusive access to our Swing Studio, Swing Speed Sticks (Superspeed Golf), and Recovery Tools including our Red Light Therapy, Game Ready pneumatic compression machine, and HyperVolt Massage Gun.