Hit the gym

It is a power game, and I’m afraid there’s no getting away from the fact that if you want to really increase your power, you will have to put some work in away from the course. One drill I work on a lot with Rob Hobkinson, my strength and conditioning coach, is a modified Palloff press, which you can see in the photo on the left. I’m basically holding the position I’d be in at the top of the swing against a resistance band. It works the core muscles and top half of my body that I use to hit the ball.

Typically, club golfers use their upper body excessively with the arms just trailing behind. What we’re really looking for is effortless power rather than powerless effort. In this drill, Rob is trying to pull me one way and I’m counter-rotating the other way, so even though there’s no movement, the resistance is strengthening my core muscles. Yes, there is a lot of rotation in the golf swing, but it is the rate at which you also decelerate your trunk and pelvis rotation coming into impact that allows your arms to then come into contact at high speed.

If you watch somebody throw a ball, their legs start to slow down and then you’d see this chain of events where their trunk would take over, then that slows down and their arms go through. You can’t generate force without using your legs, so there’s some serious effort going through your feet in order to create rotation. I also do deadlifts, lunges or squats to develop strength in my lower limbs.

2To get a feel for shallowing the club, take it to the top and then allow the club to fall a little bit more behind with the hands as you start down. Imagine there’s a wall behind you and feel like you’re dragging the clubhead down it.

As you drag your club down the ‘wall’, start turning your hips and body and just keep rotating them. If you come over the top, your clubhead will move away from the wall far too early, your swing will be too much out-to-in and, if your clubface is then square to that swing path at impact, you’ll pull it.