How is power generated in the golf swing? Is it leg drive? Is it the clearing of the lead hip? How about fast torso rotation, the hands and arms, lag, etc. If you read enough (and of course YouTube enough,) you’ll find someone extolling the virtues of one or more of the above to maximize power. Sometimes singularly, sometimes two or three things are put together. For me, I don’t like to use the word power in the first place.
Speed, not power, is what we need to generate in the golf swing. What’s the difference? The word power brings tension to the process. Most people, when they think power think of engaging the big muscles with the mentality of a football linebacker. “I’m going to hit this ball hard!” This kind of thinking leads to all sorts of golf swing maladies. First, as I mentioned, it creates excessive tension, especially in the hands and arms. Tension kills speed. Second, it promotes a notion that you need to spin your shoulders fast, right from the top of the backswing. As a result, the body gets ahead of the hands and arms. The club (when it finally starts to move) travels on an out to in swing path. Hello, slice! But that’s not all. The out to in swing path usually comes along with a movement of the hips toward the target. (“I’ve got to hit it hard, right!”) Now the swing is on an out to in path, and also on a steep angle coming into impact. Nothing good will result from any of that. The list of things you should not do during a golf swing is endless. Let’s focus on what should happen. It’s a much shorter list!
I’ve heard the great teacher John Jacobs used to say the golf swing is, “Two turns and a swoosh.” However, not in that order! Turn away from the target, make the club swoosh, let the swoosh turn you toward the target. Turn, swoosh, turn. What is “swoosh?” Take any club in your bag, hold it near the clubhead and swing it with just one hand in a plane similar to your golf swing. Hear the swoosh sound? Make that sound as loud as you can just after what would have been the impact area during a swing. Switch hands and do the same thing. Notice how your hips, legs, shoulders all operate automatically to assist your hands and arms make the loudest swoosh. Do this drill over and over to ingrain that feeling. Now, address the ball as normal, turn, swoosh, and turn.
The truth is all parts of the body contribute to a swing that creates maximum clubhead speed. The trick is synchronizing all those moving parts. Turn, swoosh, turn is a great thought/drill to accomplish that synchronization.
Remember, think speed, not power.