The Secret to Success: What All World Longdrive Champions Have in Common

Sean Johnson 2024 World Champion

Are they as much "Secrets" as they are habits and things they are willing to do and admit to that others sometimes choose not to? So before we start, let's discuss what most high-level performers in every sport have in common. Dedication is an obvious one. They are hard workers across the board. Some are more genetically gifted than others, and some need to work a bit harder than others to offset those genetic barriers but they somehow learn to overcome them. Someone like the most recent champion, Sean Johnson, has been through a lot of adversity, especially with his looks (he told me to say that), but when it comes to becoming a champion, he knows the hard work it takes to become a champion. Many variables in Sean's long drive career have made him the champion of the world, from world-class coaching to moving across the country to not only be close to his coach but also work at one of the best baseball pitching facilities in the world. How did that work ethic and determination come about?

Discipline- If we go down the list over the last thirty years of World Champions, from PharmaD's, being drafted to the Major Leagues, Division 1 level golf, high-level junior hockey in Canada, and Division 1 track and field in college, what are some things these guys all have in common? Well, you don't get to any of these levels without, first and foremost, discipline. The ability to have the discipline to learn how things work within your sport is crucial, and for these types of athletes, it's a never-ending journey of learning, practice, training, dynamics of ball flight, and all the nuances in between. We could go on and on about all the specific dynamics that make the ball go as far as possible because that's the name of the game in the end. There has been so much focus on just speed within the sport that all those nuances have sometimes been forgotten (by some). Don't get me wrong, speed is an important factor; it's just not the be-all and end-all, And the be the best of the very best all these prior current and prior champions obviously know what it takes to get it done.

Being Coachable - For any amazing athlete at the highest level this is huge, some might have all the talent in the world, but many an aspiring champion aren't coachable or have a willingness to learn beyond what they think they know (I've been guilty of this in the past). All these champions haven't ever stopped learning and progressing over and over again. You can talk to all the best coaches in the world, and they will continually say and athletes, "if they won't listen to the knowledge we as coaches are sharing with them it becomes quite obvious what the outcome will be",.When you listen to those that have held a world long drive championship trophy/belt, you never hear them say they know it all, everything was perfect, and there was nothing they could have done better. It's that mindset of wanting to learn, an ability to drop their ego and listen to those whom they trust to help them.

Past Sport History - Obviously, for every Long Drive world champion, this wasn't their first choice of sport. Some fall into it accidentally, and others just for fun at first, and then the sport pulls you in. But it's that past sport history and its training, not to mention mental training, that pushes these champions to become what they have. We can start 30 years ago with Sean Fister being a pole vaulter in college, Jason Zuback being a PharmD (6 world titles total and over 40 wins, GOAT status), Carl Wolter in javelin (had a shaft named after it), Dave Mobley, pro golfer, Clayton Burger, baseball, Mike Dobbyn, 6'8" 300 lbs, do I need to say more, Jamie Sadlowski, high-level junior hockey in Canada, professional golfer, Joe Miller, if you look at his work ethic, you can see why he won, jacked at 6'4" 270 lbs, Ryan Winther, also a beast and was also high-level baseball, Tim Burke, drafted pitcher (Diamondbacks), Jeff Flagg, college baseball (drafted by the Mets), Justin James, drafted pitcher (Blue Jays), Maurice Allen, track and field (sprinting), Kyle Berkshire, Division 1 golfer (North Texas), Martin Borgmeier, pro basketball, master's degree, Sean Johnson, drafted pitcher (Cubs), high-level hockey. Not wanting to leave out the amazing women in our sport, most come from a very high level of golf, playing in college and some even on mini tours. Phillis Meti is a 5x world champion, one of 4 women to hit a ball over 400 yards, and a career spanning world championships across three decades. Monica Lieving went from college golf to a random interaction during a work scramble because she drove a green to a world champion. Sandra Carlborg from Sweden took a flourishing junior golf career to the Women's European Tour to a 5x world champion as well. These ladies all come from high-level, hard work ethic backgrounds in high levels of sport to achieve world champion status.

5x Open division World Champion 1x Masters division Champion Jason Zuback

Okay, that's a lot to look at, but as you can see, for none of these champions was long drive the first choice, which again is what makes the sport great. However, I promise you that none of these men and woman were able to achieve what they have without proper discipline and understanding of what it takes to be an elite athlete in their sport. I'm sure if you were to have conversations with any of them, you would be amazed at their willingness to learn, likely daily, about anything to do with how to hit the ball as far as possible. I myself will always cherish each conversation I've had with every one of these champions, since there are definitely some similarities and some differences in approach, but overall, a willingness to learn and remain disciplined will always be at the forefront.

Training Mentally and Physically- When going through the list, I can't even imagine between all these men how many golf balls have been hit over their careers (let alone the wear and tear prior to Longdrive on their bodies). I have a slight idea, but as some are still quite young and some came from an era where hitting every single day was the norm, since sport science was in its infancy back then, they did and do whatever they know best in order to get the job done. How they trained in the 90s would be quite different than they do today. We have so much more available as far as daily information these days that it only makes sense that everyone takes advantage of it. Training smarter, not harder, is kind of the term thrown around, but please don't think for one second that I want anyone to think the training now isn't hard. It's just much different now. The sport itself has evolved, equipment has improved, lighter, more stable technologies, better overall drivers and shafts which allow a lot more variance in the training style for hitters and even the swings themselves. It used to be quite the chore to try and swing a 48" 80+ gram 4x stiff driver shaft on a 275cc low lofted head. A lot more strength overall was needed. The driver head still weighed 200 grams like the drivers of today with the sweet spot the size of a pinhead. Today we have 40g shafts that are really whippy (80% or more of the players will use a sub-50 gram shaft) and 460cc forged titanium low loft heads with much larger sweet spots with proper bulge and roll, and more durability, so the ability to not be as perfect and swing a smidge faster is there. For example, Jason Zuback was the first person to break the 220mph ball speed barrier in, I believe, 2003 or 2004. His equipment was roughly the same length, shaft was likely playing 70ish grams on at least an X-stiff shaft, something similar to, let's say, a Ventus Black Fujikura these days (with not as high-quality materials) and around a 400-425cc driver head from Cobra. Since then, the 240mph barrier has been broken by three men, with 3 or 4 more being over 235mph, another 3-4 at over 230mph, and another likely 2 to 3 dozen more over 220mph. Now there are some possibly looking at 250mph. It's like supercars of the 2000 era and supercars of today with all the tech in them. You take Jason of that era and give him the tech of this era, it's kind of like the Tiger vs. Jack comparison. Always up for debate and no way to calculate. But given his training and discipline while rolling back the clock to his mid-twenties to early 30s, I'd say he would definitely push it over 235mph, no question, with today's tech.

If you think for a second that the days of just showing up with your own personal knowledge (which could even be quite high) and taking the world by storm in sport (Longdrive or any other for that matter) are still here, your ego needs to be kicked really hard in the rear. I, for one, am someone who took his own best practices and put them into the best-case scenarios possible as a guinea pig to this exact idea (more out of cost at the time). I went and learned as much as I could on my own, pulling as much information from all of the best of the best in their fields, including past Longdrive champions, but never took it upon myself to hire a dedicated coach or swing coach to help me along the way. Did I do well? I guess it depends on how you define well. I was, at one point, a top 10 ranked hitter and the only one in the top 10 coaching myself. Smart move? Maybe, maybe not. Now, do I look back over the past few years and regret any of this or my choices? Well, yes and no. Although I should have likely had a second set of eyes looking over my swings and practices, I did let my strength and conditioning coach take over my training schedule for the most part. We did make alterations based upon my progress and time available, but should I have hired a coach and saved myself some time in observing and critiquing what I had been doing? Undoubtedly, it's a yes, I probably should have. I will say this: it did allow me to go down many rabbit holes that now I don't regret at all since the amount I have learned along the way I would likely have skipped over otherwise if I did have a coach. But that's me and who I am generally as a person. I don't think a day has passed since I returned to the sport that I haven't followed, studied, read, or slow-moed a golf swing to learn more. I likely would have still gone down all the rabbit holes of learning but maybe not to the same level that I did on my own to be able to share these things with my current and future clients. It was kind of, in a way, my way of saying I can't do this forever and am on my back 9, as I have said many times before. And as each year passes, I make sure to keep learning and never look at anything in complete absolutes, except maybe physics; that one is pretty proven across the board, so arguing physics is a moot point, haha. The one thing I will always say is that teaching and coaching in absolutes is never true or a proper way to do things, as the human body has so much variance that no two individuals can be treated the same. We are all so unique that we can take a basic system and make individual adaptations to it as per the individual, as I had mentioned in a previous blog post. I could never take a Jamie Sadlowski and a Joe Miller and train them exactly the same, have them hit the same amount of balls, do the same in the gym, or eat the same (obviously) since they are wired completely differently for one and built completely differently, but both are multiple-time world champions. They both just found what worked for them, and they both busted their ass working really hard to achieve their goals. They also evolved along the way during their careers to remain two of the biggest names of that era (for reference, neither, I think, are completely done with it).

So here is what you can take away from this: never think you know it all because you don't. Don't be afraid to ask and look for help even when you think you have it all figured out, and always find and look for ways to improve across all the pillars of improvement. "Knowledge is power" is something I won't ever take for granted. Also, just because the best are doing it now doesn't mean at all that you are ready to do that just yet. They have, for the most part, years of habit-forming training under their belts, especially the guys that used to pitch baseballs. I've done it; it hurts, like a lot, daily pain in the arm, and these guys choose to do that daily. So for them, hitting a couple hundred golf balls doesn't seem like it's likely too difficult. Their mental strength is likely that much higher because of all those years of pain and suffering. Likely explains why we have multiple pitchers as World Champions! Oh, and Tommy John surgery, that too.

RG