Getting there

Generating speed and power in your golf swing.


Energy is constantly being transferred through the golfers body in a series of linking body parts controlled by the fascia and muscles. Referred to as the kinetic chain, energy is either efficiently channeled or wastefully dissipated depending on the available motion and control of each of its links.

"Can't get there from here"

Years ago, before the days of GPS, I was taking a trip to North Carolina. In a manner that has not improved in the intervening years, I became lost and found myself passing through Asheville, NC on what I had hoped was my way to Cape Hatteras.


Uncharacteristically, I stopped to ask for directions and met a couple of elderly gentleman sitting on the porch of the general store.

After my question, they looked at each other and mumbled a few things to each other. Then they stopped talking and just started staring. After a few more moments, they discussed other alternatives in a low mumble punctuated with emphatic gestures.

After several more minutes, they stopped talking to each other and simultaneously spoke, saying, "yeah, You can't get there from here".

As with travel, the place that we want to go with the golf swing is often blocked by ignorance. Not just ignorance of the mind but our bodies often just do not know how to successfully navigate through the golf swing if an efficient and consistent manner.

Even when we go to a knowledgable golf instructor, which is highly recommended, without the right foundation for sequential movement, we simply cannot get to the place where we are instructed to go with our golf swing.

What we require is flexibility and body awareness to move each body segment sequentially in a way that does not require  as much muscle mass as it requires mobility, balance and coordination. Our body has to learn through repetition or as Jeffrey Banaszak has coined the term, we must "train to engrain".

One of the best ways to see where power in the golf swing is being dissipated is through video and 3D analysis.

Power must be delivered in a sequential fashion from the feet and legs, to the hips, torso, arms and clubhead. Each of these segments transfers power to the next. This allows power to build on the previous segment until maximum power is developed with minimal effort. That is what is referred to as an efficient golf swing.

A TPI Certified golf instructor is specifically trained through screening methods to analyze a golfer's functional ability and then through video analysis see how it is manifest throughout the golf swing.

To locate a TPI certified instructor in your area, click here.

Until next time,

Have a great game!

Steve McMurray MPT, CGFI (aka MrStiv)