Want a Faster Golf Swing? Do this Golf Fitness Session!

DRVN members who train golf specific biomechanics decrease their handicap 68% faster than those who don't. In this video, we're going to help you to train in the gym and take it to the course faster [music] than ever so that your golf swing feels fast, flexible, and powerful. I'm Michael, DRVN founder and head of performance, and what we want to do today is help you to train three key elements of your golf swing.

Firstly, in the gym and then on the golf course. So, here we are looking at rotation. We're looking at power through the ground, and we are looking at change of direction.

Then we're going to give you the exact drills that you need to use this in your swing. Starting out in the gym, you need an exercise band. It can be relatively light to mid resistance, and you're going to work up and around your golf swing.

This is the swing elevation drill. You're going to place it underneath your foot, wrap the wrap your alternate hand in, and then the key element here is this counter movement. You want to work down towards that foot to loosen the band, and then we're going up and around the system to improve your rotation and your loading.

So, it's down and get nice and tall. You really want to feel as you turn around the spine, get as much height and as much rotation as you possibly can. And as you stretch that band, you are not only improving your rotational pattern and your ability to load, you're also increasing your awareness of what that feels like.

That's how we take it into the swing, and we've got a great drill coming up for you later on. Okay? You're going to hit 10 reps, five on each side of the body.

From there, we move straight into the kettlebell single arm swing. Single arm is incredibly important. It adds that asymmetry, which stabilizes golfers even more, and what we're looking at is how the big muscles fire through the ground.

So, here, this is a hinge pattern. We're hinging at the hip, we're pushing through the feet, and the glutes, the big muscles in the legs, are firing as much as possible to get this kettlebell moving fast. Now, I have a 45-lb kettlebell here.

That's relatively comfortable for my level, but when people ask, when golfers want to know what to lift, there's always one answer. It's the heaviest weight that you can move with great form. Okay?

Too heavy, the form breaks down, you risk injury. Too light, you're not making any progress. You want that sweet spot where it's challenging, but you can move through fast and be aggressive.

Okay? So, with the kettlebell, it's that power through the ground, it's that force, and it's that asymmetrical stability that we take over to the course. From there, we work into lateral bounds.

Changing direction in the swing is incredibly important. We all know about that. Again, we're going to drill it really soon, but the lateral bound gives you speed, power, and coordination out of the ground.

So, here, as we turn over, as we move, our body weight loads into the foot, we counterbalance, and change direction. And you can see here, the faster we go, the more we get through the hips, and it's all about maintaining that center of mass. Because just like in the golf swing, if we get outside of our base of support, which is your feet, if my body goes too far this way, we're going to fall and lose that balance.

What we want to do, use your torso, use the weight of your body to push into the ground and change direction. >> [snorts] >> So, we're going 10 reps with the band, 20 reps, 10 each side of the body with the kettlebell, and then 10 lateral bounds. Three times through, 90 seconds rest between sets.

Be aggressive, be balanced, and then we're going to take it back to the course to show you three drills that use exactly this to improve your golf performance. Okay, in the gym, we worked on stability, power, and change of direction. Now, we're going to work on that on the course.

Okay? So, these are three drills that I use all the time myself and with DRVN members to massively improve your golf swing. So, number one is the backswing loading drill.

Two ways you can do this. Number one is just purely as a positional and feel drill. You're going to align a ball to your back foot, and you're going to set up to that ball.

Okay? Take your normal posture, but bring the club back to that position at the back of your stance. From here, very simply, we're going to turn to the top of your swing, and we're going to focus on loading.

The key is that number one, we fully load into that trail side so we're ready to push off and create power, and number two, with that ball lined up back here, once we get that lead shoulder in line, we're at least 90° in your turn. That's how you load into the backswing. That's how you create real power and a consistent position.

If you want to take that in to the golf swing itself and you can hit, you're going to align a club on your trail foot, and now, addressing that ball in your playing position, we're going to turn back and get that same feel with the club on the ground. We get our lead shoulder all the way winded wound up into that position, we match it up to the club on the ground, and then from there, you unwind into the ball, and just let it go. That's a fully loaded backswing, and from there you can turn down into the ball.

Our next drill is the rotational chop drill. This is about how we just get power over the ball and stay super stable. Combine this with the backswing loading, and you get your positions down all the time.

So, we take our normal lead hand grip. The second hand is going to be split. This is very crucial because this is going to change how the shoulders get into the ball, and that's going to change your impact position.

You can have a ball on the ground for a visual if you choose to, but here, with that trail arm palm up, you're going to be able to get into a really powerful impact position. We turn normally, and then as you load down, we drive that trail hand lower. That's going to change how you get behind the ball and into this tilt where we can launch up on the driver and hit really long low spin drive.

So, turn back, turn down and through. You're going to feel how this side being longer pressures your lead hip to move up. That gives you the tilt and position to launch up on the ball every single time.

So, up and through. The key is that trail arm pushing down, meaning the lead hip moves up, and that is giving you incredible positions into the ball. Finally, your change of direction, we have the step to swing drill.

This is best without a ball so you can exaggerate the positions as much as possible. So, we start with the feet together, take your normal grip, we're going to take the backswing, and as we do, we're going to step to increase that separation because as we're going to the top, we increase that dynamic movement of stepping down into the ball. From there, we're going to swing through as hard as possible and really fire the hips.

This gives you that feeling of pushing into the ground and changing direction faster than ever. So, you can see, that dynamic step gives you that extra pressure to boost your ground forces, and from there, you can increase your speed and work on your sequencing. And if you do want to hit with that step to swing drill, let it go.

But make sure you got some space and you're allowed to spray it a little bit. So, take your normal setup. This gets you dynamic, gets you athletic, and if you can do it, it's going to increase your club head speed.

So, normal setup, feet [snorts] together, take the backswing, and just get right through. You can see there, we got that spinal tilt from the rotational chop, we're pushing into the ground, rotating out, hitting up on the ball, and increasing your distance. If you want more, if you want the go-to training [music] platform for everything about your golf fitness, mobility, and swing, go ahead and get a 7-day free trial to the DRVN Golf and Fitness app now.

Just get the best training program for your body [music] and game.