The Power Series – Hit It 300 Yards, Pt. 1

All sports in order to excel you must train yourself in all aspects and specialize in 1 or 2.  If you want to move your game toward power hitting, lets take a look at a few considerations.  Golf in this case, to hit it 300 yards your body must be able to produce club head speed over 100 mph and be able to hit the “sweet spot.”  Your equipment is also an important factor.

To swing over 100 mph we need to understand how to properly build, conserve and release energy in the swing.  This requires your maximum trunk rotation first into a solid base to build up energy.  Your feet and more specifically your back foot must not allow any pressure to move outside of it.  In other words as you turn your trunk in the backswing the pressure in your back foot should build up on the inside heel and ball of your foot.  Hogan felt like he was screwing himself into the ground on the backswing.  This sensation allows your swing structure to be stable which allows your muscles to stretch creating tremendous torque. Power hitters report feeling a stretch in the hamstrings lower back and leading shoulder.  This stretching creates the largest swing arc and speed necessary to launch the ball over 300 yards.

Now that you have built up the energy in the backswing you must conserve it in order to deliver it properly to the little white ball.  That requires exceptional footwork along with allowing the muscles in the arms to be like stretchable ropes instead of hard flexing arms.  Not to mention a properly fit driver.  At the completion of the backswing the first move that initiates the forward swing is a weight shift to the forward foot.  Very specifically to the forward inside ball and big toe ending with nearly all the weight finishing on the outside of the forward foot toward the heel.  This weight shift sets the “domino” effect of the forward leg straightening, as the hip slides laterally then turning open which pulls the trunk and drags the arms around the body delivering it with a ferocious velocity seen in the likes of Bubba Watson, Tiger Woods and long drivers like Jaime Sadlowski and Pat Dempsey.  A slight interruption in this sequence and get used to punching out of the woods. In the power swing the arms remaining like ropes is mandatory to producing consistent accurate power.  The urge for all players is to grab and pull down hard, steeply attacking the ball.  This produces inconsistent power and shots that can miss the world.  Coupled with a driver that doesn’t fit you hitting 4 is something you will have to get used to. The footwork and the sequence it initiates must be practiced and honed with your PGA Golf Professional.  It is too easy to get off track in your search of 300 yard drives and waste time and balls in the process.  However, you must understand the more you tap this power source the bigger your potential miss.

To limit those misses your driver must be fitted to you.  If it is too stiff or too soft, too short or too heavy or too long and too light you have some considerations to make with your PGA club fitter.  Grip size also must be correct along with launch angles, spin rates and angle of decent.  Don’t forget the ball.  Fine tuning your equipment and your driver in this case not only gives you the feel of performance but the confidence knowing your equipment is helping you produce distance.  We will explore fitting in later articles further.

You have now a clearer picture of what it takes to hit it 300 yards.  Backswing rotation to build the power, footwork to transfer and conserve it and equipment that channels the maximum speed to and through the ball.  Each piece can be explored in greater detail.  For now you have a blueprint to begin your project of tapping into your body and equipment to produce your longest drives. Now you are faced with how to manage this power.  Enjoy your golf and see you on the course.

1. Reviewer

   admin says

   July 10, 2012, 1:57 pm

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