Golfers get hooked quick ways to gain speed – new drivers, swing tips, speed trainingyou name it. But according to David Sundberg, a strength and conditioning coach who works with many top-ranked PGA Tour players such as Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, the best way to gain speed is by taking care of your body.
“The first thing we always want to do is keep players injury-free,” Sundberg says. “Once they’re healthy and moving well, then we can start adding performance — and for most players today, that means speed and distance.”
Sundberg starts every new player—pro or amateur—in the same place: with a swing assessment. It looks at posture, hip and shoulder mobility, core stability and how well a player can hang, sit and rotate. These patterns are the true basics for speed.
If something is tight or restricted, the body simply cannot produce energy efficiently in the golf swing. It also makes you more prone to injury.
“If the hips don’t move well, the lower back takes a beating,” says Sundberg. “If the upper back doesn’t move well, the lower back takes a beating. And if the upper back is tight, the neck or shoulders take a beating.”
One area he prioritizes above all else: internal hip rotation. Without it, golfers can’t load their glutes — and without that glute load, speed is essentially limited.
“Internal rotation of the hips is very important,” he says. “If you can’t load your hips properly, you can’t produce maximum power.”
The easy way to unlock more speed
Before the players ever step under a barbell, Sundberg has them move their bodies. A typical pre-round or pre-practice routine includes loosening the hips, activating the glutes, engaging the core, releasing the upper back and stabilizing the shoulders.
This combination, he says, helps a golfer swing more efficiently and creates the separation needed to produce ball speed.
“Once you mobilize something, you want to activate it so those gains stick,” says Sundberg.
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Courtesy of David Sundberg
Only then does strength training come into play. And the good news? It doesn’t need to be complicated. Sundberg trains the touring pros with basic, full-body movements—squats or lunges, hanging patterns, rows, presses, core work, and some rotational or ball power.
“You can train anyone with anything as long as you can progress it over time — make it heavier, harder, more challenging,” he says.
Sundberg likes to remind people that even though the pros he works with like Schauffele and Cantlay can bomb the ball 300+ yards off the tee, they are not superhuman.
“They’re just people,” he says. “Their bodies aren’t necessarily better — they’re just incredibly skilled at hitting golf balls.
Getting food? The things that hold back Tour players are the same things that slow down recreational players—tight hips, limited rotation, weak muscles, unstable cores. And the way to fix these things is similar.
How often should you exercise?
If you’re not doing any gym work, Sundberg says even one or two sessions a week will do the trick. But for golfers who really want to see significant speed gains, three sessions a week is the sweet spot.
Even better: accompany that gym work with a short warm-up before a workout or a round. Five minutes is enough to get the body moving the way it’s meant to.
In the end, Sundberg says the formula for more speed is refreshingly straightforward: better movement leads to better loading, better loading leads to more force, and more force leads to more head speed.
“Whether you’re a tournament player or a recreational golfer, the principles are the same,” he says. “Move well, be strong and the speed will come.”
