What's Actually Limiting Your Power?

I'm so glad you asked. I actually gave a presentation on this topic to golf coaches from the PGA Southwest Section last year. It's definitely something everyone wants to understand—and let me tell you, I gotchu.

Let's get into it.

The Power Equation

The first thing to understand is simple: Power = Work ÷ Time. That's it.

How much work are you doing, and how quickly are you doing it? That's part of what makes AI so powerful. It can accomplish a tremendous amount of work in a very short amount of time.

In golf, power generally relates to how far you can hit the ball. The easiest example is your driver. How far you carry your driver is heavily influenced by how powerful your body is.

So here come the questions:

What is "work" in your golf swing?

Basically, it's the distance you create between the club face and the ball at the top of your backswing. And what influences how much distance you can create?

• Mobility
• Stability
• Body levers
• Ability to disassociate

Let's break those down.

Mobility & Stability

Grab a rubber band—or just remember the last time you were fiddling with one. Stretch it out and feel the elasticity pulling against your fingers. Now, if you were to shoot it at the nearest person, you'd hold one finger steady, stretch the rubber band back, and release it.

(Consider the consequences before you actually shoot someone with a rubber band while reading. Then realize I'm not responsible for those consequences. You are.)

Now, what happens if you don't stretch the rubber band very far? It doesn't shoot very far. What happens if your front hand moves backward right before you release it, decreasing the tension? It doesn't shoot very far. That's essentially the relationship between mobility and stability in the golf swing.

If you're unable to bring the club back far enough—or into the positions necessary to create tension— because of a lack of mobility, you've limited your ability to create power. However, stability matters just as much.

Think about what happens if your "anchor," (the lead finger you shoot the rubber band off of) moves while you're trying to release the rubber band. You lose tension. When you lose tension, you lose distance. The same thing can happen in the golf swing. A lack of stability can cause the body to move when it needs to stay organized, reducing the amount of force you can ultimately transfer into the club.

You've probably heard some of the swing terms associated with this:

• Sway
• Slide
• Reverse spine angle
• Early extension
• S-posture
• C-posture

These are often the symptoms of underlying limitations in mobility or stability. And when those limitations prevent you from creating or maintaining the positions you need, you leave power on the table.

Body Levers

I don't think it needs to be said that taller people can reach higher than shorter people. Duh. Well, taller people can also create more distance between the club and the ball when they swing. There's not much we can do to change our skeletal structure. Your body levers are what they are. But they are nevertheless one reason your husband or tall friend might hit the ball farther than you even though you're way better at golf than they are.

Just remember: the oxygen you breathe is much more pure than the stuff they breathe. Obviously.

Disassociation

Disassociation is a fancy way of asking: Do you have the right swing sequence?

During the downswing, does your body rotate in the right order?

Hips → torso → shoulders → arms → club

If not? Welp. That's where you could be losing distance, power, control, and your lunch money. Proper sequencing is essentially the full visualization of stretching that rubber band as far back as it'll go before letting it fly. You want the different segments of your body to contribute to the movement in sequence, rather than everything trying to move at the same time. This is perhaps one of the biggest problems I see among amateur golfers.

And here's the really interesting part: Fixing the sequence can make a bunch of other swing problems disappear. When the body is doing its job in the right order, the club has a much better chance of doing its job, too.

Decreasing Time

This is probably where most golfers spend their time trying to fix or enhance their swing. Speed sticks, TrackMan, swing drills, and you're still stuck at 98 mph.

Well, as one of our golf partner coaches—who works with elite youth athletes—says:

"Speed isn't built on the course. It's built in the gym."

He's right!

To understand why, let's go back to our power equation: Power = Work ÷ Time. We know how to increase work. Now how do we decrease time? Or, put more simply: How do you get the club moving faster toward the ball? You have to develop the physical qualities that allow you to produce and express force quickly.

Four big ones are:

• Stability
• Mass
• Strength
• Power

Stability

Stability again? I thought stability increased work. It does. But it also helps determine where that work goes. Stability doesn't just help you create tension in the rubber band. It helps determine whether the rubber band actually hits its target.

Think of the bumpers in a bowling lane. If your body isn't stable enough to control the movement, you can create plenty of force and still send the ball in the wrong direction. Hooks. Slices. Shanks. Topped shots. All of these can be influenced by instability somewhere in the system. Proper stability helps keep the movement organized so the force you're producing actually goes where you want it to go.

Mass

This may seem like another "well, duh" point. Bigger people generally have the potential to hit the ball farther. Think about a wrecking ball hitting a building. The bigger the wrecking ball, the more potential it has to do damage. Unlike your body levers, however, mass is something you can influence. Specifically, you can increase your muscle mass. More muscle gives you the potential to produce more force. More force gives you the potential to move the club faster. Bing, bang, boom.

Now, do you have to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger to swing fast and hit bombs? Of course not. This is a particularly common concern among women who don't want to "get too bulky." Here's how you should think about it: If you spent 80 hours a week on the golf course for 10 straight years, would you never see a bogey on your scorecard again? No. You'd probably become a hell of a golfer, but you're not going to become perfect.

The same principle applies to the gym. Even if you spent 80 hours a week in the gym for 10 straight years, you're not going to accidentally wake up looking like Arnold. Building muscle takes time, consistency, nutrition, and a whole lot of work. And women naturally tend to carry less muscle mass than men. So don't be afraid of getting stronger. Getting stronger is one of the best things you can do for your golf game.

Strength

Strength is often thought of as a simple question:

Can you pick up 45 pounds? 60? 100? 400?

But when we're talking about golf, the question needs to change slightly.

Instead of asking "Can you move it?" We're asking: "How much force can you put into it?" In golf terms: How much force can you put into the club?

I don't think we need a lengthy explanation for why more force into the club can result in more clubhead speed. The relationship is pretty intuitive: More force → greater potential for speed → greater potential for distance. But strength by itself isn't enough. You have to be able to express that strength quickly.

Which brings us back to power.

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