- Damon Goddard
GET MORE DISTANCE.BECOME MORE EXPLOSIVE!
Each one of us has a serious target of gaining more distance off the tee this year. The entirety of the golf swing from initial takeaway to the follow through generally takes about 1.5 seconds. That is an incredibly short amount of time to process the hundreds of swing thoughts and it unfortunately produces, for most, a robotic and uncoordinated series of movements with unfortunate consequences.
The golf swing is explosive, especially with the driver, and requires a keen mastery of motor control that should be reflexive and automatic. How do we gain that motor control mastery and equip ourselves with explosiveness and coordination of movement? Steep yourself in an environment that requires both! By eliciting power and then having the innate ability to slow and control the movement down while maintaining stability and balance will add to your arsenal of distance off the tee and length with your drives.
Here are three movements that we use often in our programming with our golf athletes:
Medicine Ball Super Slams
Key points- utilise your core and coordinate movement to finish in a proper squat position. Start with a controlled tempo and as you gain mastery you can increase tempo.
Plyo Jump to Land
Key Points- most should simply start with a very low height and as you gain mastery of movement you can increase height. Use your arms to drive the movement and explode from the ground and control landing to maintain a solid squat position in landing.
Half Kneeling Medicine Ball Chop Toss
Key points- this movement is really testing your lateral stability so maintain good contraction through the glutes and core in order to avoid lateral movement in the hips.
Do 4-5 sets of 1-6 repetitions in this series for a solid foundation of producing power. Remember the key components of maintaining posture and control.
Damon Goddard, PES, CGFI-3 is the founder of AMPD Golf Fitness located in Dallas, Texas. He is the performance coach for a host of PGA, LPGA, Web.com, Symetra, Collegiate, and elite level junior golf athletes. He has helped produce the Fed Ex Champion, Masters Champ and US Open Champion Jordan Spieth, PGA POY, Web.com POY, PGA ROY, Tour event champions, Collegiate Champions, Junior level champions.
