Training for Mobility, Strength, and Power

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Mobility and stability serve as the foundation on which all else is built. To efficiently and powerfully swing a golf club you need to be able to physically move through all ranges of motion necessary, and your body needs to feel stable and comfortable through that range of motion. If you attempt to build strength, power and speed on an immobile or unstable base, you will be creating that speed in incorrect planes of motion and/or using the wrong muscles, which may lead to poor swing mechanics, injury, or both.

Our process to address mobility stability limitations depends on the nature, and root cause of the issue. If your mobility issues are due to inactivity, basic light stretching and light strength training may be enough. If your mobility issues are due to poor posture and/or muscle imbalances and fascial restrictions, more advanced techniques may be necessary.

We will generally us a combination of static and dynamic stretching, foam rolling/other tools to break up tight muscles and fascia, followed by light strengthening and stability exercises to help your body build strength and stability in your new found ranges of motion. It is important to always incorporate a strength component to mobility work, otherwise stretched muscles will simply return to their un-lengthened position afterward and your mobility gains will be lost in a short time.

Once you have a mobile and stable base, we can begin building power into your golf swing.

Power, for the purposes of the golf swing, is defined as the amount of force applied multiplied by the speed at which that force is applied.

Power (distance) = Force x Speed

The first component necessary to build power is force, Force is increased through strength training. Push/Pull, Vertical, and Rotational strength (in both directions) are all necessary prerequisites to power and speed training. Training for speed without strength is often a precursor to injury, as your body does not have the foundation to handle higher speeds (imagine trying to put a Ferrari engine into a go-kart).

Once you have a base level of strength, speed and force can begin being trained in tandem.

Our power training will consist of both strength training and speed training, with specific exercises being done in a certain sequence, intensity, and frequency, to maximize power. The basic sequence for power training involves muscle activation, speed training, power training, and eccentric or opposite side training.  

The last item, eccentric and opposite side power, is arguably the most important. Your body will only accelerate as fast as it is confident it can slow itself down, which it does through eccentric, or "reverse" power. It is a lack of your bodies ability to slow down, or "brake," that often leads to injury as too much stresss is places on joints, tendons and ligaments to slow instead of your muscles.