Power in the Golf Swing
Everyone wants to drive the ball further. Now the question becomes what actually has to happen in order for us to add distance. There are a few ways to look at this, but I prefer from the lens of physics and then physiology. In this article, I am going to assume you can hit the ball in its center of mass with the center of mass of the club and do that consistently. If you cannot strike the ball consistently, that is your limiting factor, go practice that first.
There is a lot of physics involved, so I am going to skip a lot of the math since it deals more with golf tech. The basics is we are applying force to a ball, more force, the further it goes. The equation for force is mass times acceleration. Now acceleration is a function of a change in velocity over a change in time. So all that to say, the more velocity you can get to the club head, the more force will be applied to the ball, the further it goes. Yes, there are some things you can do with the mass of the driver head, but that's more a function of technology and preference, not training and biomechanics, which is my focus.
So the next question is how do we get more velocity to the golf club’s head. First is to be biomechanically efficient. This speaks to the sequence of how parts move in the golf swing, at the top of our backswing, our lower body should rotate first, that speed should get transferred to our upper body which will start to accelerate second, then into our shoulders and arms which accelerate last but achieve the highest speeds. If you start your downswing with anything besides your lower body, fix that next.
So now that we have cleared all the technique basics, the question still looms, what should we do in the gym to train for power/acceleration. First to note is that power/acceleration training should be non-fatiguing. Meaning you should not be gassed out lying on the gym floor in a puddle of your own sweat and tears. You should be more focused on obtaining peak velocities. I like training that allows you to achieve high peak velocities without having a large deceleration load (eccentric load). This is the difference between jumping up onto a box and jumping off of a box. Slowing a load down is harder on the body, which will lead to more fatigue, and more soreness which means more time off of training. I prefer things like jumping onto a high box and stepping off. This allows us to train a very high acceleration without having to absorb a lot of landing force. Now we can train like that nearly every day. More training equals better results. Some of my favorite exercises are box ups straight up, box jumps but you start at a 90 degree angle away from the box so you have to jump and rotate, and medicine ball throws in all different patterns. All of these should be done at the fastest speed possible. When you feel a little fatigue, you need to take a break. The general rule of thumb is a 3-5 rule. Pick 3-5 exercises, do 3-5 repetitions, rest 3-5 minutes and repeat for 3-5 sets, do this 3-5 days per week.
Now I am going to add another little caveat. When programming jumping, I like to program in what I call gofers jumps. This helps mimic how force is transferred in the golf swing. When you start a down swing, you are pushing down into the ground while your hands are coming down toward the ground. This is different from how most of us jump where we toss our hands upward while jumping upward. This can help us achieve a higher height but is less sport specific. I like golfer jumps where you start with your hands overhead and they come down as you jump up. This helps create a similar effect to the golf swing. I like to mix these into programming to help keep the training as specific to the sport as possible since specificity always wins.
There are many more levels of complexity and different routes you can go down, but these are some of my favorites when it comes to training power in the golf swing.
