Two Simple Exercises To Boost Power

By Jack Moorehouse

When soldiers are injured, the cost for lost time, rehabilitation, and compensation gets expensive. To help cut costs, the U. S. Army invested $4.8 million in injury-prevention programs specific to motions of combat. As part of this effort, the Army lab overseeing the effort also developed sports-related injury-prevention training programs, one of which focused on golf. Called Without Pain, the program is available to the public. It promises to help prevent injuries and lower golf handicaps.

But quantifying the forces in the golf swing—finding out when and how much certain muscles and joints work—wasn't easy for the Army lab. To do it, it developed its own customized software program. It worked with super Vicon cameras, launch monitors, and indoor simulators, creating a test center. When readings from the test center were complied and examined, they revealed something no one expected: When it comes to the golf swing, the seat of power is in the hips.

A Startling Discovery
Proper hip action in the golf swing is critical to power. Without good hip action, your swing is weak and ineffective. In a good downswing, the hips slide then rotate. As you begin the downswing, you transfer your weight from the back hip to the front hip, setting it up as the rotational center. This can only happen if you retract your abdomen upward and outward, pushing your rear out. Your butt acts as a counterweight keeping everything in balance.

Your hip abductors—the muscles on the outside of your legs—play a large part in transferring the power to your swing. These muscles engage when you move your legs apart. Immediately before the swing, golfers place stress equal to two to three times the golfer's body weight on these muscles. Tests found that on average elite players were about 30 percent stronger in the hip abductors than those of weaker players. In other words, strong hip abductors plus good hip action equal more distance.

A Simple Test
A simple test tells you if you have proper hip action. Take your normal set-up and then in slow motion pretend to take your swing. Pose at the impact position. Now, take a club and lay it across your hips. It should point at a 45-degree angle. Unfortunately, many golfers don’t achieve the 45-degree angle required. Of the players taking golf lessons from me, for example, only about 20-25 percent achieve the right angle. That's one reason proper hip rotation is often a focus in golf instruction sessions.

If you don't have good hip action, try the following drill to help improve it:

Tee a ball. Then assume a normal address position with two clubs in your hands—a 6-iron and a 7-iron. Lay the 6-iron's clubface on the ground and the butt end against your back leg, inside your hip line. The club's head rests on the ground just inside of your back foot. Now hit a ball with the 7-iron. Keep your right hip back as you start down. Since the hip is supposed to slide before it rotates, the club should lay propped up. If your hips open prematurely, the club falls to the ground.

Work on this drill until you feel you've ingrained the proper hip action. Then work on it some more.

Strengthening Your Abductors
But even good golfers with good hip action can have weak hips. If you belong to a gym or health club, you may find that it has weight machines designed to strengthen your hip abductors. If not, this simple exercise below is a good way to strengthen them:

Standing on one foot with your hands on your hips, slowly move your elevated leg from side to side in front of you. Do this 10 times, holding the stretch position. Then switch legs to work the other abductor. For a more strenuous workout, attach resistant tubing to the ankle your moving.

Golfers with poor hip action and/or weak hips tend to commit swing errors. They also tend to injure themselves over time. Swing errors and injuries cost strokes, boosting golf handicaps. Even players with perfect swings are susceptible to these flaws. Golf lessons can teach proper hip action. But only the proper training program can strengthen your hips. Doing so reduces injuries, boosts power, and helps cut strokes from your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.