Muscle-Bound Golfers: Swing Involves More Than Just Arms, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Muscle-Bound Golfers: Swing Involves More Than Just Arms, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

It's one of the things I’ve seen awful lot when I’m walking down the driving range, people as big as houses trying to hit golf balls as far as possible and not hitting as far as I can hit a pitching wedge, big guys who've been in the gym, rugby players, football players built like this standing, smashing balls as hard as they can and clearing 120 yards. I could stand there with a wedge and flick it past them. And I teach 12-year-old girls that hit the ball further than these people. You think, "Well, how is that possibly the case?" If you put that person in the gym and you put the 12-year-old girl in the gym, that guy is clearly stronger, more powerful and could lift more weight than the 12-year-old girl in every category.

But comes down to poor technique, the 12-year-old girl that I teach beautiful, smooth, rhythmical technique, using all the muscles efficiently, the big guy who's hitting the ball as hard as he can, just not getting through the ball particularly well. The biggest problem is that they use their arms and not their body. So if you feel that you're quite muscle bound but you don’t hit the ball as far as you possibly should, then think about using your body more and using your arms less. Clearly I’m a very skinny guy. I don’t have a lot of bulk but I hit the ball out there a decent distance, a lot further than a lot of people I teach who are a lot of stronger than I am because they tend to just swing their arms, chop the ball away and they don't shift this. If I use my body efficiently, my arms and hands just become levers. They don't actually apply -- sorry, they don't supply a great deal of power. They just apply the power that my body is creating. So with my nice, wide stance and setup, if you feel that you're very strong but you don’t generate power, think about working your shoulders as much as you can in the backswing. Make sure you're around to 90 degrees but without using too much lower half. If you're only half turning and then using your hands and arms for the rest of it, that's one of the reasons why you're not generating power.

The other issue I’d really like to focus on is making sure that through the ball you have fully ran through a full finish, all the body weight there onto the front foot, right heel up onto the tiptoe and that tells us it would maximize the power which our body can turn through the shot. So if you're a very strong guy but you're not hitting the ball as far as some of your skinnier mates, think about using your body for the power, not just your hands and arms.

 2012-09-17

It's one of the things I’ve seen awful lot when I’m walking down the driving range, people as big as houses trying to hit golf balls as far as possible and not hitting as far as I can hit a pitching wedge, big guys who've been in the gym, rugby players, football players built like this standing, smashing balls as hard as they can and clearing 120 yards. I could stand there with a wedge and flick it past them. And I teach 12-year-old girls that hit the ball further than these people. You think, “Well, how is that possibly the case?” If you put that person in the gym and you put the 12-year-old girl in the gym, that guy is clearly stronger, more powerful and could lift more weight than the 12-year-old girl in every category.

But comes down to poor technique, the 12-year-old girl that I teach beautiful, smooth, rhythmical technique, using all the muscles efficiently, the big guy who's hitting the ball as hard as he can, just not getting through the ball particularly well. The biggest problem is that they use their arms and not their body. So if you feel that you're quite muscle bound but you don’t hit the ball as far as you possibly should, then think about using your body more and using your arms less. Clearly I’m a very skinny guy. I don’t have a lot of bulk but I hit the ball out there a decent distance, a lot further than a lot of people I teach who are a lot of stronger than I am because they tend to just swing their arms, chop the ball away and they don't shift this. If I use my body efficiently, my arms and hands just become levers. They don't actually apply — sorry, they don't supply a great deal of power. They just apply the power that my body is creating. So with my nice, wide stance and setup, if you feel that you're very strong but you don’t generate power, think about working your shoulders as much as you can in the backswing. Make sure you're around to 90 degrees but without using too much lower half. If you're only half turning and then using your hands and arms for the rest of it, that's one of the reasons why you're not generating power.

The other issue I’d really like to focus on is making sure that through the ball you have fully ran through a full finish, all the body weight there onto the front foot, right heel up onto the tiptoe and that tells us it would maximize the power which our body can turn through the shot. So if you're a very strong guy but you're not hitting the ball as far as some of your skinnier mates, think about using your body for the power, not just your hands and arms.