3 pro-approved drills to add speed and power to your swing

I recently had a couple of my favorite tour students, Rafael Campos and Ty Gingerich, together for one of our performance sessions, where we combine golf instruction with fitness and strategy. Rafa is off the PGA Tour, and Ty is preparing for DP World Tour Q-School, but even though they are at some of the highest levels of the game, some of what we’ve been working on can be useful for everyday players as well.

I did the session with Jackson Koert and Kolby Tullier, and you can see more in the video below. Jackson is one of the best young teachers in the game, and Kolby coaches a ton of PGA Tour players from his base in Florida. That’s the whole idea behind a performance session. Instead of a coach trying to cover everything, we combine what each of us sees best and put it in front of the player at the same time.

During our sessions, we used three drills that every golfer can use to hit the ball better, which you can read below.

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1. Assisted and resisted rotation

The first drill is what I call assisted and resisted rotation. I put a strap around the player’s shoulders while his arms are crossed over his chest, then he pulled a way to help put in his tracking leg and build a real load there. So I changed and shot the other way so that he has to brake against it instead of just running away.

Most players think that braking means reaching the top and waiting for the weapons to catch, but this is backwards. Energy must first come from the earth. Get the drill right, and you’ll feel your lead shoulder reach your trailing foot at the top, with a real stretch you can hold for a count before you start.

2. Sequence isolation

The second drill isolates the sequence itself. Hold the other end of the strap and physically pull the player into the transition, so the left hip should be the first thing to move, not the hands or shoulders.

It will be really strange for many players because they have never taken a swing without throwing the club and hands first. You can build a version of this yourself with any partner and a resistance band. Have them pull you towards the right target as you start, and pay attention to what it brings. If your hands win that race instead of your hip, the band makes it obvious immediately.

3. Electric fence

The last drill is my favorite, and we call it the electric fence.

If you hold a foam roller or alignment stick right in front of your hips as you do a slow-motion downswing, you have to turn your hips so that the left side moves back and forth, giving you room to make your downswing. If you pitch forward or spin out, hit the roller or stick. We joke that you should think of it as an electric fence – if you hit it, it will be unpleasant.

Part of what makes a session like this work is that it doesn’t end when the players leave. Rafa will continue to do these exercises with Ty on the road, the same way tour players lean on each other between events.

None of this is tour-pro-only, either. Load it up, turn it the way you should, and give it room to hit, and the club starts doing the work for you.

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