How Swing Speed Training is Winning Major Championships
Jun 24, 2021
Aside from winning championships, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson are both focused one key piece: swing speed. The last two golf majors winners have brought to the forefront the success of the full Titleist Performance Institute approach.
Each of these players have full teams around them in charge of their swing mechanics, fitness, recovery, and nutrition. It is a new age in golf where it is much harder to have success at the highest levels without thinking of golfers as athletes and prioritizing practice and training to represent that.
There is a lot happening off the course that the average golfer doesn't see. For Jon his team of Dave Phillips, Spencer Tatum, and Dr. Harry Sese and for Phil his team of Andrew Getson, Sean Cochran, and Dave Phillips/Greg Rose have put these players in position to win.
So what can an amateur learn and implement from these major champion's routines even if they don’t have a team of professionals around them?
The body greatly influences what a player is able to do mechanically. If you’re currently struggling with your swing or undergoing swing changes without knowing your physical characteristics and limitations you will run into issues very quickly.
TPI has created an easy self screen to get a baseline as to where you might have areas for improvement.
https://www.mytpi.com/articles/screening
It is also important to pay attention to sleep patterns, recovery, and the food you consume to fuel your body. Each has the potential to greatly influence you perform on the course.
If you’d prefer to work with a professional directly instead of on your own TPI has 25,000 certified professionals worldwide that can guide you.
Both Phil and Jon are great examples of training the non-dominant side for speed and “The Big Break Theory”. This theory states that by performing non dominant training the dominant side speeds will be positively influenced and also there is a history of athletes showing high levels of speed if they perform their sport on the opposite side of their dominant hand.
Phil is actually right hand dominant as shown here with him throwing a football.
Jon frequently performs non-dominant speed training under the direction of his trainer Spencer Tatum.
Phil and Jon have a distinct advantage when it comes to club head speed relative to a majority of the players on the PGA Tour.
For the first time, Jon is comfortably cruising over 120 mph with the driver. Phil has spoken about how much focus he has put into regaining and increasing speed as he has aged. They both include SuperSpeed in their training regimens.
Take the approach of building the athlete first and the golfer 2nd and watch your body and game change for the better.
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