Nine out of 10 players we work with are interested in gaining distance with their swings. And that means we need to add ball speed – while maintaining control.
Speed training is a crucial aspect of a well-balanced golf fitness training program, every bit as much as flexibility and mobility workouts are. In order for you to gain distance on your ball, you have to have a faster club head speed to generate higher ball speed.
Starting With a Solid Foundation
Speed requires stability and balance. To be stable, your body has to have a solid foundation so your upper body can rotate faster. In order to rotate faster, you have to maintain good balance, otherwise, your body will have to decelerate to equalize the balance you are lacking.
It is important to remember we ALWAYS start with the fundamentals. Fun fact: even the Tour Pros we work with are always doing balance and stability drills. It keeps a solid foundation for their golf game, and helps to avoid injury and setbacks.
Waking the Body Up
It is essential to combine all aspects of training in order to develop a well-rounded golf body. Each workout should have building blocks, starting with mobility, balance and stability training to “turn the body on” or “wake it up.”
Next come the compound movements, including strength and power exercises to help build muscle. Building muscle over time creates power and velocity, which transfers over to your golf swing by adding much-desired distance. Velocity training helps to improve not only swing speed, but also muscle coordination and timing in your golf swing.
A great golf training aid to incorporate into your workouts is a speed trainer in the form of a weighted stick like an Orange Whip or Speed Stick. Swinging a weighted stick while replicating your golf swing will help to generate velocity and speed. This needs to be a controlled movement at as fast a pace as possible. Here, we are firing up those fast twitch muscles, so swing with some authority – on both sides!
Working Both Sides
We are constantly swinging on our dominant side during practice on the range, and on the course. This creates an imbalance between the muscles on the opposite (non-dominant) side of our body. Like we discussed above, this can lead to a lack of stability, balance and decreased power.
Working the non-dominant side during workouts helps balance both sides of the body for a more even and powerful pass at every shot. This helps to strengthen your overall well-being, which is not only good for golf but phenomenal for everyday life as well!
Some other great drills include, plyometric (jump) squats, plyometric (jump) lunges, box jumps, and swing replication drills using tube resistance bands. Again, we are taking the time to do these movements with explosive power and speed. The faster and more powerful we can get with our golf workouts, the better it transfers over to our swing on the golf course.
Whether you’re interested in increasing your swing speed, hitting the ball more accurately, or you just want to add a few extra yards to your drive, reach out to our team at Joey D today! Our PGA Tour-proven coaches have plenty of great drills and exercises you can add to your golf workout routine and they’re standing by to get you to your best golf game yet!
