Fitness Counts For Longer Golf Tee Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
Fitness Counts For Longer Golf Tee Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

Fitness counts to hit longer golf tee shots. That's probably the most unpopular line I ever deliver in a golf lesson to golf clients. They come and they sit down with me and they say Pete, I want to hit the ball further. Can you help me hit the ball further? And I say yes I can. They hit a few shots and I watch that swing, watch that technique, look at the golf club. And I think you know what the club’s fine but not suitable. The technique is pretty good. But I can still help you hit the ball further. How, how can you help me hit the ball further? We need to work on your fitness. And it’s not a popular thing because people just know that that is not a quick fix.

It's not a simple go to the shop, spend two hundred dollars and buy some more fitness. It's going to take a lot of hard work, dedication, commitment from the golfer themselves. But it’s probably one of the most important factors in anyone's life and certainly in anyone's golf game is how physically fit you are. And we do get our scenario where golfers come in and they're not doing any fitness apart from playing golf. They probably haven't looked after themselves as much as they should have done. They stand over the golf ball. They've got a great club. They've got a great swing and they hit the ball and it goes a hundred and seventy yards. And they say Pete, I really want to hit it over two hundred yards. What can you do for me, and you kind of prescribe a fitness plan. Well you need to lose a bit of weight. You need to hit the gym. You need to do a bit of this. Well you need to do a bit of that. And you can see them glaze over. They're not interested. They were hoping for a quick fix. Hey, put your right hand like this, it will go two hundred yards. Buy that club from that guy there, that will go two hundred yards. They're not really interested in the hard work. But I'm afraid if you want to hit the ball like Michael Roy you’re going to start having to look a little bit like Michael Roy. And I think that's the difference now with these top guys. You know the fitness that they have, the flexibility they have, the strength they have is superb and that's why they are hitting the ball to such prestigious distances now, over three hundred yards carry from Michael Roy, Dustin Johnson and players like that. But when you see these guys in the flesh, there's not an ounce of fat on them. They're in the gym almost more than they're on the golf course these days. Now I'm not expecting that level of commitment from many of my normal golfing clients. But it would be nice if they could pay a little bit of attention to being able to look after themselves to hit the ball further. So weight gains, you know losing a little bit of weight is probably going to be quite a good thing for most golfers particularly if you know you're a little bit overweight and you struggle to turn in a dynamic fashion through the ball. We also want to be very strong in the core, so that enables us to turn the body nicely, drive the lower half into the ball. So a nice strong core is going to be quite important. And then strong wrists, hands and forearms. Clearly if we're going to be lagging the golf club in towards the ball and accelerating the club out towards the ball right at that vital second, the club are traveling over a hundred miles an hour to gain maximum distance from the shot, we're going to have to be quite strong in the forearms as well. So consider all those points. Consider how serious you are about driving the ball a long way and then consider how your fitness and your flexibility can improve the distance you hit the ball. 2016-08-25

Fitness counts to hit longer golf tee shots. That's probably the most unpopular line I ever deliver in a golf lesson to golf clients. They come and they sit down with me and they say Pete, I want to hit the ball further. Can you help me hit the ball further? And I say yes I can. They hit a few shots and I watch that swing, watch that technique, look at the golf club. And I think you know what the club’s fine but not suitable. The technique is pretty good. But I can still help you hit the ball further. How, how can you help me hit the ball further? We need to work on your fitness. And it’s not a popular thing because people just know that that is not a quick fix.

It's not a simple go to the shop, spend two hundred dollars and buy some more fitness. It's going to take a lot of hard work, dedication, commitment from the golfer themselves. But it’s probably one of the most important factors in anyone's life and certainly in anyone's golf game is how physically fit you are. And we do get our scenario where golfers come in and they're not doing any fitness apart from playing golf. They probably haven't looked after themselves as much as they should have done. They stand over the golf ball. They've got a great club. They've got a great swing and they hit the ball and it goes a hundred and seventy yards. And they say Pete, I really want to hit it over two hundred yards.

What can you do for me, and you kind of prescribe a fitness plan. Well you need to lose a bit of weight. You need to hit the gym. You need to do a bit of this. Well you need to do a bit of that. And you can see them glaze over. They're not interested. They were hoping for a quick fix. Hey, put your right hand like this, it will go two hundred yards. Buy that club from that guy there, that will go two hundred yards. They're not really interested in the hard work. But I'm afraid if you want to hit the ball like Michael Roy you’re going to start having to look a little bit like Michael Roy. And I think that's the difference now with these top guys.

You know the fitness that they have, the flexibility they have, the strength they have is superb and that's why they are hitting the ball to such prestigious distances now, over three hundred yards carry from Michael Roy, Dustin Johnson and players like that. But when you see these guys in the flesh, there's not an ounce of fat on them. They're in the gym almost more than they're on the golf course these days. Now I'm not expecting that level of commitment from many of my normal golfing clients. But it would be nice if they could pay a little bit of attention to being able to look after themselves to hit the ball further. So weight gains, you know losing a little bit of weight is probably going to be quite a good thing for most golfers particularly if you know you're a little bit overweight and you struggle to turn in a dynamic fashion through the ball.

We also want to be very strong in the core, so that enables us to turn the body nicely, drive the lower half into the ball. So a nice strong core is going to be quite important. And then strong wrists, hands and forearms. Clearly if we're going to be lagging the golf club in towards the ball and accelerating the club out towards the ball right at that vital second, the club are traveling over a hundred miles an hour to gain maximum distance from the shot, we're going to have to be quite strong in the forearms as well. So consider all those points. Consider how serious you are about driving the ball a long way and then consider how your fitness and your flexibility can improve the distance you hit the ball.