Now that I have your attention….
There is no “way” to increase club-head speed and distance… everyone has a specific combination of deficiencies to address to unlock their long-term performance (note: this is for ADULT golfers). When I assess a player, I tend to look at a continuum of sorts and focus on their areas of greatest need based on these factors.
If a world-class olympic lifter has never played golf before, he’s going to benefit a lot more from swing and movement-specific coordination work than an experienced professional golfer would. On the flip side, an experienced professional player would do better to focus on gaining the power and mobility of the olympic lifter to hit it farther.
It’s actually a variation of the 80/20 rule - it’s not to say that there would be NO benefit to the experienced player working on swing and movement-specific work, but they’d make greater gains addressing the larger deficiencies first. We tend to migrate to what we’re comfortable or already good at, it’s human nature after all. But altering your focus to your limitations in these areas will definitely yield more “bang for your buck”.
Swing-Specific Speed Work
There are a lot of “speed-training” clubs out there. I love the Superspeed system because it’s consistent with the research on beneficial loads for this type of training. Using a club that’s too heavy (>10%) or too light (<%10) relative to your normal golf club won’t lead to a lot of improvement and here's why. The idea here is to “trick” your central nervous system into recalibrating its golf swing program. By manipulating slightly over and underweight clubs in the proper order, you can recruit more motor units when you return to your normal club weight. This effect isn’t permanent, nor achievable overnight. However, consistent use of these methods can definitely lead to long-term gains, as well as improve sequence and positional awareness in the swing itself.
High-Intensity Dynamic Power Work
Power = Force x distance/time. With regard to power in the golf swing, we’re trying to either create more force or distance (increase numerator) and/or do it in less time (decrease denominator). While just about ANY power training has the potential to add distance to your tee shot, some are better suited than others. The best tools for the job with an adult golfer are usually medicine balls or some form of lower limb explosive exercise (jumping). Rotational medicine ball exercises are excellent for improving power specific to the golf swing, and are fairly user-friendly for older golfers - just make sure you’ve got a solid wall or have a drywall patching fetish.
The key for ALL power work is to understand that there should be no “conditioning” aspect to it. High-rep box jumps might leave you tired (or bleedy) but they’re not going to provide much benefit for hitting it deep. Keep the reps low and remember the power equation - more force or range of motion (distance) and/or less time to complete the rep is the goal every time.
Address Mobility Deficits
Flexibility has long been the sought-after trait found in the most admired and iconic golf swings in history. For the vast majority of older golfers we work with, this area is job one to get to work on. Not only a factor in your ability to move the club more efficiently, lack of mobility in key areas will shift stress to areas we DON’T want in, like the lower back. Your hips and upper back need DAILY attention to make the improvements necessary to add speed.
Conversely, you will see some people with TOO much mobility. To express this mobility in their golf swing efficiently, they’re going to need more stability work for those joints.
Foundational Strength
Strength is the glass that holds everything else. All other things being equal, stronger players are longer. We’re not talking bigger biceps or just cultivating mass because it looks good at the beach. Strength is a skill, and the ability to express it has huge benefits in the golf swing. Get strong on the big movements; squat, deadlift, lunge, chin-up, row, press, carry. This alone will go farther to improving your health and wellness than anything else I can recommend.
Movement-Specific Coordination
Ok, let's talk balance; specifically the excessive use of bosu balls and unstable surfaces when training the golf swing. Actually, it’s not going to be a talk so much as I’m just going to tell you to stop doing it. Think of it this way - you are Usain Bolt’s sprinting coach. He wants another gold medal. You design a new training protocol where he sprints through a pool of Jello on top of a giant, poorly balanced, washing machine. He finishes dead last and you are ridiculed by Stephen A. Smith on Sportscenter for 2 weeks straight.
Excessive destabilization isn’t a good way to train for a golf swing because a golf swing isn’t excessively unstable. Much like walking on ice, training this way limits your ability to create force because a large part of force production is relaxation of antagonists. Think of a Bruce Lee lightning fast kick to the face. Now imagine if his back foot was on a stability ball. Not so quick now right? The need for stability limits the relaxation potential, like jamming on the gas pedal while keeping the emergency brake on.
It breaks the specificity rule. You’re training the movement (golf swing) in an unrealistic environment and that will come with negative consequences to power output.
So what should you do?
Single leg training is a better alternative for balance training because it matches the environment in which the swing takes place. There ARE asymmetrical forces at work during the dynamic action of the golf swing, and single leg work will train to offset those more efficiently. Movements that simulate specific patterns that occur during the swing (rotation over a stable leg for instance) are a great choice. These are particularly helpful when your “gap” in ability occurs between the swing and absolute strength. That is, you’re efficient in your golf swing, and strong in the gym, but can’t seem to express that strength into more speed.
I'm going to break these down in detail in the coming weeks, so be sure to subscribe to our email list and follow our posts at www.coastal-performance.com