How Ground Forces Create Power in Your Golf Swing (Hit Longer Drives)

🏌️‍♂️ The three key factors to hitting a golf ball further are shoulder and hip bend, knee flex, and hip/shoulder lift during the swing.

🔄 The best golfers bend their chest and hips forward at address, extend during the backswing, and bend forward again in the downswing for optimal power.

🦵 Proper trail knee flex—straightening in the backswing and regaining flex in the downswing—is crucial for generating ground force and club speed.

⬇️ Lowering the hips during the backswing and downswing, then explosively raising them, helps maximize power and speed in the golf swing.

🏋️‍♀️ Practicing squat-like movements during the downswing can train golfers to use the ground more effectively for increased distance.

👣 Keeping the knees too straight limits the ability to push off the ground, reducing power and making the stance less athletic.

⚡ Exaggerating hip and knee movement in practice drills can help golfers develop a more powerful and centered strike.

00:00:00 - Lexi, we're going to talk about how to hit the golf ball further today. Let's do it. I'm excited. You I'm in. Okay, let's do it.

00:00:13 - All right. So, there are three things that we're going to talk about to help you hit the golf ball further. One of them is how you bend. So, how you bend your shoulders and your hips either forwards or backwards. The other one is going to be how you use your knee flex. Okay. Okay. So whether you flex your knees or extend them and when you should do that. And then the third one is how much your hips and shoulders lift or drop during the golf swing. Okay. Okay. Um a popular thing that's going on

00:00:37 - in the golfing world right now, you're you're hearing a lot about ground reaction forces. The way that we're doing it is we're just instead of measuring it using a force plate, we're just measuring how you're using your body. So very very similar way to talk about it. It's still a really effective way to teach somebody how to swing the club really fast and create power. Awesome. Um but those are really the three things. So let's talk about the first one, the amount of bend that you

00:00:54 - have. So the best golfers in the world, they start with their chest and their hips bent forward some amount at a dress. As they make a back swing, both of those start to extend. So you could imagine if this is your shoulder bend at a dress, you'd bend backwards in your in your back swing. As you make a down swing, you'd start to bend forward again, and then you bend backwards again to finish your swing. So that's really how it works. So it's basically this bending forwards and backwards. Uh the

00:01:16 - Trail knee flex pattern is a is a really important one. I know Lexi, we've talked about this in videos previously. You start with your knees flexed some amount of address. your right knee or your trail knee will straighten in the back swing until about the time when your left arm is parallel to the ground. The best golfers in the world then start regaining their flex in the down swing till about when the shaft is parallel to the ground coming into impact and then

00:01:37 - they will start to extend their legs and straighten up really fast. Okay, so that's another way that you can create power. The third way is how you move your hips and your shoulders via this lift measurement that we have. So we'll talk about that one here in just a second, but the main thing to understand is you should start to lower your hips in the back swing some amount as you start your down swing. The best golfers in the world actually lower some more.

00:01:56 - Okay? And then they start to raise their hips up really fast. That coupled with the straightening of your legs and the bending backwards piece helps keep the club moving really, really fast. So, let's take a look at optimotion now that you know what all those are. And let's see how you do. Awesome. Let's do it. Lexi, top of your back swing. This is you just hitting the shot just as normal. Okay. You hit this one, I'd say, pretty well. Agreed. Okay. Perfect. So,

00:02:18 - you do a lot of things really nicely. You can see you bend your shoulders backwards right along the lines of the tour average. 2° is perfect. Your hips are really nice there. Your hip lift, that's this number. Your hips actually lowered an inch in the back swing, which is exactly how it should work. And then your trail knee is extremely straight. You can see you're at two degrees of flexion. So, you've done a really nice job with all of these pieces at the top of your swing. Okay.

00:02:39 - As you start down, here's where the problems start to exist. So, you can see how you start bending back forward in your shoulders and your hips. That's exactly what should happen. So, that's perfect. Okay, here's where this starts to go a little wrong. Do you see how your trail knee actually got straighter? Yeah. Okay, so I know we've talked about this one before. This is the same thing for you at home. If your right knee or your trail knee in this case for for Lexi

00:03:01 - stays extremely straight, it'd be really hard to push off of the ground and create any power. Yeah. Right. Same concept again. Like if we talk about jumping, it'd be really difficult to jump up in the air if I told you to not flex your knees. Yeah. Right. Your vertical would be about that high. Okay. It's about how I jump normally. So be really tough. Okay, so this is part of the problem. The other thing that goes on, you can see how your hips actually start to move up as well. That number

00:03:25 - got smaller. Okay, what the best golfers in the world do, that number gets bigger and so does that number. They both regain their flex and they move their hips more down to the ground. This is what helps them create the power to then push off the ground and extend and move upward. Okay, so as we keep going here, this number should be at about zero right here at this point in time. You can see how you've actually increased it versus where you were at a dress. So, you're 6

00:03:49 - in higher than where you were when you started. You can see how you're starting to get up onto your toes a teeny tiny bit. Your heels are coming off the ground. Your trail knee is still very, very straight at this point in time. Okay. So, all of these factors, you you hit the ball really far for who you are and how much speed you create, but you could hit it even further if you did some of these things a little bit better. Yeah. Okay. It's crazy. Like, this stance here just

00:04:13 - looks so unathletic to me. like me being so uh it just looks like I'm like casually standing there with a golf club in my hand. So, as opposed to a tour player at this point in time looks like super an athletic stance. Very different. Uh very different. Very different. Yep. They bend forward a little bit more in both their shoulders and their hips here. That helps them again use the ground as a way to create power through the hit. It doesn't mean you can't hit the ball very far. Like

00:04:36 - you still hit the ball very very far for you know the club that you're using which is a seven iron. But you could potentially even hit it further if you did some of these things a little So, let's use this new one, this hip lift number, as a way to help you learn this skill. So, we'll jump back out out on the mat and we'll practice a little drill here to help you use the ground a little better. You've done a squat before. Yeah, I have done a squat before. Okay. I figured with your collegiate

00:04:57 - career, you had probably been in a weight room a few times. So, this is the way we're going to practice this skill, okay, of basically lowering your hips. So, what I want you to do, take your address position. We're just going to do this without a ball a couple times so you can get the understanding of how this works. Take the club back to the top of your back swing. And then as you start down, basically what I want you to be thinking and and really doing is essentially like you're going to just

00:05:15 - squat. So imagine you're in the weight room, you're getting ready to do a squat. Perfect. Just bend your knees, move your hips lower to the ground until the club gets about to where the shaft's parallel to the ground. Yep. Perfect. And then from there, you can move your hips and your knees up as fast as you possibly can and as much as you possibly want. Be a really good exercise just to practice a few times. It's totally fine if you overdo it a little bit, exaggerate it too much. Yep.

00:05:40 - Okay. So, do a couple more of those. And then what I'd really like you to do is you're going to hit this ball. Okay. But you're going to do this at like 50% of the speed you normally would. You're not going to go super fast.

00:05:56 - It's fine. If you have to do it a couple times, it's totally cool.

00:06:07 - Am I squatting too much now? look unathletic the other way. It's okay. This is really good over here on the right. This is the one you were just practicing that that squat feel that you were sort of describing to me. Okay. So, here's the one from before. So, you can see your hips move down, your knees very straight, very similar to over here. Like these numbers aren't that different from the top of the swing. Now, let's look at what happens in your down swing. So, this is really

00:06:30 - interesting. You see how this number got smaller on your before swing y and your leg actually got straighter. Look at the difference over here. Now you're actually starting to move your hips more down. I know your hands are a little further out than you would want. Like that's not a big deal right now. Your knee is much more flexed. Even keep going down when the shafts parallel to the ground. Now you're getting to zero. Yeah. Like now your hips are coming back to

00:06:52 - where they were. You can see your leg starts to straighten versus over here. Your hips keep going up. Your knee stays really straight. This makes it much easier to use the ground to create power versus this one where your legs are essentially as straight as they can be. You can't push off the ground. All you have is really the energy in your toes to create that uh that that energy moving from the ground into your body. So, really nice job over here. What was that sensation like? Or what

00:07:19 - were you really thinking about when you were doing this? It's weird because it felt so much like a squat and that's something that I've obviously never experienced before in my swing clearly. Um, so it had a completely different feel to it and it was weird also to get used to um like contacting the ball just after doing a squat. So it felt different but um I could definitely see how once I practiced it I'd get a lot more power. This is a much better position to

00:07:47 - deliver the club from versus over here. Yeah. Okay. So, what this will help you with is creating more of that power, more of that speed. And I mean, I know you did this like three times, so I'm not expecting contact to be perfect. Obviously, the shot direction was very chaotic, but as you do this more, that'll help you create more of that centered strike, okay? Which will also help create more of the power. So, really nice job here. Cool. I'll definitely have to keep working on that.

00:08:10 - So, a cool new measurement or just a different one that maybe we haven't talked about before, that hip lift one. So, if you think that's part of your problem, it's a really good way to start solving that. It's what the best golfers in the world do. Be a good way to hit the ball further.

‍