Elite players push into the ground to create power.
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Welcome to Play Smarta regular GOLF.com game improvement column that will help you become a smarter and better golfer.
Hitting the ball hard (and far) requires you to have a fast swing speed. The faster you swing, the farther the ball goes. Simple.
Generating a higher swing speed depends on several factors, but one of them is how fast you rotate your body. Typically, if you rotate your body faster, you will have more power.
However, when trying to rotate your body faster, you shouldn’t just focus on your core. Instead, you must use the interaction between your feet and the ground to generate speed.
How to use your legs for power
Teachers often talk about how players with a lot of power “use the ground” to generate movement speed. But what exactly does this mean? It all comes back to Newton’s third law.
For every action, there is one equal and opposite reaction.
This principle is on full display when golfers use the ground to generate power. When they push into the ground with their feet, the ground pushes back with an equal force.
“Pulling our trail foot back and pushing our lead foot forward creates spin,” says GOLF Top 100 Teachers Mark Blackburn. “The best players are pulling really hard with their foot and pushing forward with their lead foot.”
This phenomenon in the golf swing is often referred to as “ground reaction forces” and is a power driver for almost every bomber in the world.
This technique is not always easy to implement for recreational players, but if you want to increase your swing speed, it is an absolute must. However, if you can master these ground reaction forces, you’ll be surprised how much easier it becomes to generate momentum.
