Maximizing Speed: The Science of Building Speed from the Ground Up

Yes I will first state: There are absolutely other factors that can increase clubhead speed, arm speed, length of swing, amount of rotation, power output, but you are still connected to the ground and have the ability to add percentages in clubhead speed by using it effectively and its possibly much simpler than you think.

There are three major forces produced from the ground that are used in the game of golf: Vertical (up and down), Horizontal (lateral), and Torque (rotational). They each have a cause and effect on each other, and there are many different ways to get the job done well and effectively, most noticeably this year by none other than world number 1 Scottie Scheffler and his back foot sliding out (which if you also follow baseball is termed as a scissor move) in the world of golf it would be considered un-usual but is it really?. It all comes down to how you use the ground and how it can help you be more effective in your training, with the end goal, of course, of hitting the ball further, since we have to all come to terms with the fact that we likely don't have Scottie's talents.

There are a few awesome technologies that you can use to find out what you truly do. Swing Catalyst and Smart 2 Move are the most standard software/hardware systems in the industry. They both capture your force output and how your feet move in the swing, both slightly different yet both very effective when used by a trained eye. Also, having a camera attached helps with viewing, allowing a better understanding of why this is so crucial and important. Showing pressure at the same time as the swing is being done is not only a great visual but also you might catch something on the slow motion that you wouldn't be looking for otherwise

The force plates allow you to see your faults, your strengths, and how you can improve. You can then also track your numbers going forward along with the software and video to see how things are lining up.

My big "aha" moment came when I myself realized why this is such an important factor. Sometime in early July last season(2023), I was having a slight issue, so I called a good friend and set up an appointment at his studio to go over my force plate data. On average, I was producing a large amount of vertical force, but something felt off. So, we dug into the video a bit further in slow-mo and noticed my pressure was slightly to the outside of my foot on my lead leg. Right away, once I focused on driving that pressure to the instep ball of my foot, we saw a huge increase in vertical force(i was no longer leaking as much power). I went from around 300% to around 340%. Yes, that's how much of a difference a small bone in your ankle being pressurized correctly from the foot can make, Allowing the force to be sent up the chain into the pelvis instead of out towards just the one outside leg muscle(vastus lateralis) obviously using all four quad muscles instead of just the largest is a better idea(even if all four of mine combined aren't that big haha) and Once I got comfortable, I was again able to hit balls well over 230 mph that day. That was also the highest vertical score percentage ever recorded at 342% of body weight on a Swing Catalyst system to the best of our knowledge.

I personally think that anyone who is looking to gain speed should consider having a session on one of these devices. I like to call it "low-hanging fruit". Yes, as coaches, we can visually see certain things with the eye, but when you can correlate that with proper data and video, you can find a solution and eliminate the guesswork. Then, develop a plan of attack. I can easily say that this is some of the best money I have ever spent in terms of gaining knowledge and having a clear understanding of why certain things behave the way they do. It likely helped that I had gained prior knowledge of certain things through MYTPI and my peers before delving into Ground Force. Since I also believe it's a progressive learning process and not putting the cart before the horse, it helps to understand kinetic energy and kinematics before diving in. This doesn't have to be a deep dive into those topics, but even a simple understanding can go a long way at first.

Okay so for myself , I have a high Lateral Push and high Vertical, but I generally lack on the rotational side of things. Those forces I am hoping to improve upon as I believe it would help with my consistency on the tee and in golf. I've heard others mention that your Ground Reaction Forces are more like baking a cake than following a general recipe. If you get a mix of everything just right, you will be in the best place for consistency and ball striking. and most likely have a smoother transition in your swing, which could also lower wear and tear on your joints and ligaments over the long haul.

I do personally see this as the next big advancement in Golf technology as far as coaching and learning goes, it is definitely already here but becoming more mainstream and accessible, as things progress I believe you will see force plates become just as common as launch monitors, you will see every serious top end teaching studio have a set of "force plates" to help players on their journey to more speed, consistency and as the technology gets wired into one another, like the compatibility of systems like trackman and Smart2move, it turns a facility into a one stop shop for any golfer to improve on every aspect of their swing and have a much greater understanding of Ground reaction forces, and how their body moves through space.

Some of the best follows on these topics for social media in my opinion are are @smart2move @eismangolfacademy @ryanholleygolf @Golfzillazuback @sfgolfperfom, there are obviously many others that know there stuff, these are just my personal favorite follows on social media. Also just to be absolutely clear "Social media" can be a powerful tool for gaining awareness and understanding of technologies but also watch out for things that don't seem to make sense or are too good to be true. The Promises of 20-30yrds from companies, swing trainers, the newest driver technologies promising 20yrds year over year, now could you gain 20yrds if you were really out of whack with your ground forces in an hour sure, its been done! but if the rest were all true and it all the training aids worked exactly as advertised no one would be searching for more distance we would all just be worried about our wedge game and putting since well we would all be hitting the hell out of the ball and then we would need to just wedge it and putt it.

This blog was meant to show the importance of how using the ground can work for you and how going to a facility that has one of these technologies could help you and your coach, who might not have regular access to these types of technologies because they are not cheap. Gain some information and be able to find some simple, not visible by the eye, low-hanging fruit. I will likely dive deeper into this topic in the future as well since I am a big believer in how the feet are involved for speed in the swing and how the center of pressure across the foot can lead to a big yardage increase from some understanding, but that can wait for now. Until next time.

RG