I’m constantly amazed at the level of ignorance my amateur students have about the golf swing. Luckily, their lack of knowledge allows me to make a very nice living. One of the most misunderstood concepts among amateurs and even some well known tour players is the issue of power generation. In other words, where does power come from? Obviously, the more bulky and muscular you are, the farther you’re going to hit it. Duh! But who has time to become a professional body builder? Instead, follow my 3 keys below in an effort to “steal my feel” and you’ll be bombing it in no time.
1. Baby Its Cold Outside – Bobby Jones famously said, “I’d rather give Clifford Roberts a hand job than take the club back on the outside”. Wise words from the ‘Squire’ himself. Simply explained, the inside track is the shortest and quickest route to impact. It’s all about efficiency. You want to take your hands and the club back on an extreme inside line in order to get everything behind your body as soon as possible. Try to achieve the sensation that your right hand is scraping across your scoring beads as you take it back. This position right here (below) is what I call a “prelude to power”.
2. He went to Jared – Where does my power come from? Two words: Loin tension. Unfortunately, most amateurs and even some tour players don’t understand how to properly generate loin tension. To tap in to this massive power source you have to get in to what I call the “diamond” position. Force your knees to splay out from your groin at the top of the backswing (shown below) which will create a diamond shape in your lower body. This position naturally cocks your loins for an explosive downswing into impact. Notice how loaded I am, my loins are about to burst. That’s a 14-carat position right there!
3. Pull up! Pull up! – The good news is that we activated our loins for tremendous power and club head speed. The bad news is that we’ve squatted so low to do it, that we’ve totally lost our bearings on where the golf ball is in relation to our hands and club face. One thing we know intuitively is that all of our body parts are way too low and if we continue as is, we’re going to make impact roughly two feet behind the ball. Like a pilot about to crash his plane into a mountain, we need to pull up! pull up! pull up! But how? If we pull our hands up while still in our squat, they will just hit our chest. Instead, we need to violently ‘spring up’ our entire body to allow our arms the room they need to extend out to impact position. Try and steal my feel (below) by imagining that the toes of your golf sandals are nailed to the turf and you are trying to jump out of them. It’s the one and only chance you have to make solid contact, so make it count.
