Why You Need This: In this video, you'll learn how to increase club head speed with ground pressure.

The science behind this is pretty straight forward...

To generate a powerful move, you need something to move against.

Newton's third law explains that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In the video, I demonstrate how pushing into the ground can improve your swing speed.

At first, I make a few swings on a little device that's similar to a Lazy Susan.

My stance is narrow and as I start the backswing, my feet immediately swivel to the left.

And in the downswing, my feet swivel right.

The point is that I'm not generating much power and speed in the swing...

Because I have very little to push against.

Later, you'll see me demonstrate pushing against the ground with a wider stance (without the Lazy-Susan-like device).

With a more stable stance, you'll be able to apply more pressure to the ground and whip your club through.

Watch this video now to see the science behind pushing into the ground...

And get more speed in your swing!

Golf Pros Featured: Jamie Sadlowsi    

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 6:12

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, and welcome back. In this video we’re going to talk a little bit about some golf science, and how you put pressure into the ground.

This is probably something you guys have heard around the Internet, a lot of people talking about this. Let’s explain how this really equates to power.

Whenever we move, we have to have something to move against. One of Newton’s laws is for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. If we swing a golf club, we have to be bracing against the ground, putting pressure in the ground to rotate our body back and then to rotate our body through.

It’s really easy to see, I have this little board here that’s from the Science Source which does little science products, and it’s basically just like a lazy Susan like you’d have in the middle of your table that just spins around.

If I stand on this, it will easily spin back and forth, so it’s really easy for me to move around on this. Whenever I take my back swing and I try to go in this direction, watch what happens with my feet.

I’m not trying to do this at all, I’m trying to stay as still with my feet as I can. It rotates me open, and then when I try to swing that way, it’s going to rotate me closed.

So I can straighten out here again. If I go back and through, I really can’t generate any club head speed because I don’t have anything to brace against. As soon as I try to go this way, my feet had nothing to push against and they slid out from under me that way.

As soon as I tried to swing down, my feet slid out from under me that direction. So it shows it’s very difficult to get any kind of swing speed, to get any kind of power unless we’re bracing against something. It really is impossible to do that.

A couple things that you may have seen out there. We may have seen Tiger Woods’ coach Chris Como, he’s got a video of him jumping off a diving board trying to swing a golf club. That’s all he’s trying to show is the same thing I just did there.

There’s another great illustration from another PhD scientist in golf, Dr. Kwan, on his Facebook page he’s got a great illustration of Jamie Sadlowski.

If we take a look at this up on our swing, what you’ll notice is these arrows that are coming out of his feet, those are the pressure that he’s putting into the ground. Or the pressure the ground, more scientifically, is putting back up into him.

Whenever he rotates into the backswing, we’ll notice how that arrow goes up out f his right foot. That arrow, that’s the direction he’s pushing in this direction, and that’s pushing his hips open to allow him to rotate.

That’s not just Jamie Sadlowski, he’s just doing it a lot because he has a lot of power. Every golfer that wants to rotate in the backswing, get a good, full Power Turn like we talk about in the system, has to put some pressure down in the ground going this way.

Then as he switches directions in the downswing, you’re going to notice that the arrow goes this way, coming back up in this direction. That allows him to rotate open and swing on through to a good full finish.

Same thing for everybody, if you want to create power in the swing, in the backswing, we’ve got to push with our right foot. In the downswing, we’ve got to switch over and push with our left foot.

I’ve got a great drill for you today, now that we understand this, we have to have something to brace against to create power in the golf swing. We also see how this should be happening, I’ve got an awesome drill to help you guys visualize this.

Let’s set up with a golf ball, you can do the first part of this drill right from the comfort of your living room. Let’s imagine that this golf ball that’s 12 o’clock. From my perspective looking down, this is 12 o’clock.

6 o’clock would be directly behind me, 3 o’clock would be here, and then 9 o’clock would be over there.

So in my backswing, in order to rotate my hips this direction, to load up, to get a good full turn with my shoulder, I’m going to feel like I’m pushing my foot out toward 1:30, out in that direction.

As I push down into the ground, that’s going to rotate my hips and that’s going to help me to get that good, full turn all the way to the top.

Now as I shift to the left, now I’m going to go to my left foot a little bit. I don’t want to slide to the left, I just want to have a little shift to the left, and then I’m going to push with my left foot out toward 10:30.

So I’m pushing down and out that direction, and that’s going to allow me to rotate open all the way coming through the shot to get some power coming through that way.

In your backswing, let’s go ahead and do about 40-50 reps. Work on pushing toward 1:30, down and out, to rotate this way. In the downswing, we’re going to push toward 10:30 down and out to rotate us open as we’re coming on through.

As we put both of those together, we’re going to have a good, full turn going back and through.

On average, PGA Tour players are rotating at least 110° with their shoulders going back. As they come on through, their shoulders are actually going to be facing down into the left rough.

Let’s go ahead and now that we’ve broken it down in some slow-motion drills, working on the push pressure with our feet, let’s make it into a nice, full golf swing.

One side note here, a lot of people out there now are teaching a narrow stance. They want the stance to be nice and narrow like this. They say that it helps you to stay centered, helps you to keep your balance a little bit better.

But I’m going to have a real tough time putting pressure into the ground, getting power, if I have a narrow stance. I always like to se a little bit wider of a stance.

It is a little bit up to personal preference how wide you go, but I would much rather see a stance that’s a little too wide, tan a little bit too narrow. Because now I’m not going to be able to put pressure into the ground.

If you take a look at Tiger Woods from back in 2000, nice wide driver stance, good powerful base, and then he started to narrow it up a little more and a little bit more.

I don’t think that was – this is me guessing – but I don’t think that was probably him thinking of this up on his own. He was probably taught to narrow that up, and we saw his, could be anything, but his driver speed did go down in that period of time.

I venture to say that with Chris Como now, that you’re going to start to see a wider stance than what he was doing back in 2010-ish, so right around in that area.

Let’s try this out now. We’ve got the full, we’ve got the practice swings putting pressure in the ground. We’ve done the full free-flowing swings, rotating all the way back and rotating through.

Now let’s hit a couple shots and I just want to feel right foot on the way back, left foot on the way through. As I finish, I’m going to have my right shoulder facing all the way down the target.

Now for those of you that are less flexible, don’t have to go all the way around, but just go until you feel comfortable in your full range of motion.

There we go, guys. Nice fluid swing, good turn back, good turn through, you’re going to get a lot of power. Good luck to you guys.