You’ve been strengthening your core, the muscles which stabilize our golf swing and drive powerfully into impact.
You’re increasing your flexibility, balance and rotation, allowing you to wind up your power-producing muscles and move smoothly through the ball.
Now, how do you put it all together to hit the golf ball as far as you possibly can?
1. Get Your Spine Angle Right at Address
At address, angle your spine away from the ball without tilting your hips. For most golfers, the right hand lies below the left, so the right shoulder should dip accordingly.
If you don’t angle your spine properly, you will probably overbalance during the backswing and your spine will actually start to lean towards the target (the classic reverse pivot).
To hit the ball long distances, you really need to avoid that, so make sure your spine is tilted away as you address the ball with your driver.
2. Keep Your Left Arm Straight to Add Width
Wide swings are powerful swings. The wider your swing arc, the more you engage your core muscles and the further the club-head has to move during the swing. If you give it further to move, that’s more time to build force and increase your club-head velocity.
The one thing to remember here is that width doesn’t apply in the same way to the downswing. It’s all about winding up on the backswing, nice and wide.
3. Narrow Your Downswing by Shifting Weight Quickly
When you’ve wound up properly with a wide takeaway, the trick is to create a “narrow” transition into impact.
Pros often liken the motion to “ringing a bell” or snapping the wrist downwards. But it’s better to think of weight transfer.
By shifting from the ground up and moving weight from your back foot to the front, you will automatically lower the grip and create a narrower swing plane. Then, by all means snap the club-head through as powerfully as possible.
4. Use Your Wrists to Generate Lag
This is the dangerous part. Everyone knows that longer hitters build “lag” into their swing.
This is the latent power generated by keeping a loose grip and cocking the wrist properly on the backswing. When your wrist angle unfolds at the last possible moment, it unleashes extra power at the point of impact.
However, lag takes time to perfect. It’s all about timing, and if you release the wrist too fast or too slowly, hooks or slices will result.
You will master it, but be patient. Keep your sequencing in mind, moving your legs, hips, shoulders and then arms, and leave the wrists until last. Eventually, the sequence will become second nature.
5. Trust Your Muscles and Don’t Try to Control Your Power
Finally, we need to talk about the mind. When you are striving for power, don’t fall into the trap of “willing” yourself to hit harder. This will encourage you to swing too hard with your arms, instead of using your body as a whole.
Most coaches recommend taking the arms out of the equation and letting your core, legs, hips, wrist and shoulders take the strain, and they’re right.
Think about Ernie Els. Does he hit the ball hard? Yes. Does he try to smash it with every ounce of his body? Not at all.
Players like Els have massive core strength and flexibility, and they marry these physical attributes to a technique that allows the club to swing through freely. They turn through the ball with a well-sequenced swing, engaging their muscles without creating tension to propel it 300 plus yards.
The key thing is to harness that strength by not consciously using it. Learn to trust your swing. Use these swing tips while avoiding tension at all costs and you’ll be bombing it off the tee.