Power golf swing mechanics

Golf Monthly Top 25 coach Kevin Craggs talks through the power golf swing mechanics and has some easy-to-implement tips to help you gain more yards.

Power golf swing mechanics

Using a Thera-band – or a resistance band as they are known – can have a big effect on the power you produce in the golf swing.

They don’t cost much, and can be used in a number of ways to help you improve. One of the main keys to ensure that you don’t lose power in the swing is leg stability.

Keeping the legs stable is key to creating power. To work on this, tie a resistance band around your legs so that you feel some resistance when you adopt a normal stance.

From there, if your legs give way at any point, you will feel the band pull them together, and that’s not what we want.

You want to climb all the way through the different stages of your backswing and keep your knees strong, resisting the band.

What this will do is cause greater turn of the upper body, which in turn creates more power.

You aren’t restricting your movement here, you are resisting it. By turning the upper body you will create more coil, allowing you to fire more power at the ball.

Use your big muscles

As golfers, we tend to do the easy thing rather than the right thing. This exercise will help you do the opposite of that and hit the ball further.

Take one end of the band and stand on it with your front foot. Place the other end in your palm and grip the club as normal.

Make some swings, turning to the top and really feeling the resistance. Use those core muscles to make a full turn and coil to the top.

If you take the easy route and swing with your arms you will feel no resistance and the band will come across your body. Turn properly and you’ll store power at the top that you can deliver into the ball.

Keep stable

Another way that players lose power on the way back is because the right elbow becomes disconnected from the body.

You can get a feeling of the right arm being more stable by tying the band around your body and your arm, just above the elbow.

As you swing to the top, the band will keep your elbow connected. This allows the right arm to fold correctly, which will help encourage a more effective shoulder turn for maximum power once you start swinging down.

Release the club

So often I’ll see the position pictured above left after impact where a player has swung across the body and the power generated during the backswing has been lost.

Stand at address with one end of the band under your back foot and the other between your hands. From there, put yourself into the right position after impact with your arms fully extended.

If you do it right you will find plenty of resistance from the band as your arms stretch out. Get into the wrong position and the band will pull across your legs.

This is just as important as creating the power on the way back as it will help transfer it from the body to the club, and then into the ball.