The way golfers use the ground is key, here’s how you should be doing it, with fitness expert and personal trainer Shawn O’Neil
In my last column I wrote briefly about ground forces – or ground reaction forces to give them their full title – and how using these effectively can be a little bit of a cheat code to add some speed without doing much else. Let’s now dive a little deeper…
When you’re watching the longest hitters on tour, you’ll see they all have different mechanics. However, one thing they all do well is use the ground. Compared to amateurs, the top professionals have more speed generally. Combined with the ability to shift pressure early, this creates a powerful combination. If you’d like to dive into the data on this further, I recommend Dr Scott Lynn’s content on YouTube.
Keeping it relatively simple here, the four main components of ground forces are direction, timing, magnitude, and impulse or the rate of force development (RFD). We use force plates to measure forces in three directions – horizontally, rotationally (torque), and vertically.
The forces occur in this order during the golf swing. Longer hitters start to apply horizontal force towards the target very early in the backswing, somewhere between the club shaft being horizontal to the ground and the lead arm being horizontal to the ground. If you give that a try, it will feel very strange for most!
We also see their vertical force peak when the shaft is horizontal to the ground in the downswing, which allows time for energy to transfer to the clubhead. If this occurs later, less speed will make it to the club in time for impact.
How much force is being applied is shown as a percentage of bodyweight. Vertical force is the one most strongly correlated with clubhead speed, and the longest male players on tour are pushing into the floor with more than 200% of their bodyweight with their lead leg. Long drive competitors can get to 300%!
Another key metric is impulse, or how quickly we can produce the amount of force, and this can be seen in the steepness of the peaks on the graphs created by the force plates. If force can’t be generated quickly, it is going to be delayed in reaching the club and you won’t get the full benefit. Being able to decelerate is also important. If you are inefficient at stopping the horizontal force, that will delay applying vertical force. This linked motion explains why the longest hitters are starting to move towards the target so early.
In my experience, the way golfers use ground forces can be altered just with intent. Being measured to see where and when you’re applying forces can allow you to make changes quickly. This can have rapid, positive impacts on the mechanics of your swing. As you develop, improving the amount of force applied and how quickly you apply it can be done with some gym work.
