Where is most of the power generated in the golf swing?

Have a look at this youtube video of Shawn Clement.

Golf Pro Lesson Get Snap in your Swing



I posted a question using my youtube HunterDT account. Here is what I asked:

This video is really helping me out. One thing I would like to ask though... I seem to be able to make some great contact when I swing, oh, 1/4 to 1/2 way back. When I decide to "give it some juice" and get more towards my full swing distances, I begin to make contact closer and close to el hosel. (Sometimes resulting in you know what.) I assume I am trying to add power with my arms thus rushing them through impact? Where should I get this extra power from if not the arms? Thanks!!

I would like to ask you guys this same question. Where should most of the power be generated in the swing? Is my assumption correct as to why I begin to mishit when I try to add power? Thanks.

I really like Shawns stuff, I even bought his dvd. His explanation of whipping the golf club is very good because he uses a swingset analogy. If you are going to add arm power to the swing, it must be at the right time. You wouldn't push on a child at the top of the swing arc in a swingset. You push almost near the bottom. Momentum takes care of the rest. Until it is time to add the power, you must hold the lag in the swing. The body creates the majority of whip in the club, the arms assisting only when appropriate. There is another good video on youtube by Brian Manzella where he talks about "float loading" the golf swing. Shawn does this as well, but I really like Brian's explanation. Worth checking out.

I have found that once I truely felt a good upper body coil that I got the most power out of my swing. I used to swing with a lot of arms and had serious accuracy issues. Now my arms are passive to my larger core muscles.

When my driver and irons really fly is when my lower body starts my swing and increases my coil for a moment before my upper body finally fires through the golf swing allowing my hands and arms to go along for the ride.

I like how Shawn in the video uses the analogy of "cracking the whip" in the golf swing. If you notice in the video, when he uses his arms too early in the cracking of the whip, he releases it too early and the whip wraps around him...also a fatal move in the golf swing.

Without seeing your swing, my guess is in an effort to gain more power you are releasing too early from the top as you start your downswing...losing that all important "lag" in your swing...been there. :) My first "aha" moment in golf came about 5 years ago when my brother-in-law, a scratch golfer, told me: "John, you gotta learn how to swing the golf club from the inside". I never really understood what he meant till many pain staking hours later that real power is generated from the inside in the golf swing. If you can find a method that gives you the feel of attacking the ball from the inside whether it is a whip or whatever, practice it over and over and you will discover effortless power in your golf swing. Good luck! --John

Power is generated from body rotation, particularly in the hips.

Force = Mass x acceleration.

So while bigger golfers have a bit of a natural advantage when it comes to power, it's all for not if they don't have the flexibility and technique to accelerate the big muscles.

If you watch all of the long hitters on tour, almost all of them have great hip rotation on the downswing to the point where their belt buckle is facing the target at impact.

However, it's also a bit important to rotate the torso and hips back as well. Jim Furyk has his belt buckle facing the target at impact, but isn't very long off the tee. But that's because he doesn't have much body rotation going back. Almost all of the long ball hitters on tour have at least 110 degrees of shoulder rotation on the backswing. This video of Sam Snead shows Snead with 140 degrees of shoulder rotation and for his time, he hit the ball ungodly deep.



And as you can see, Sam's belt buckle is facing the target at impact.





3JACK

- Hips
- Shoulder Turn
- Right Hand Snap through impact

Those are my power keys.

It could also be that you're not rotating your hips out of the way on the down swing. When you add to the backswing in order to add juice, you probably turn your hips further away from the target on the backswing. If you don't get rotated back around to where your hips have cleared a space for your arms to swing through, this would force your arms out toward the ball, hitting on the heel or the hosel. Rotating the lower body to clear space in the swing allows you to pull the arms through without starting outside and coming back to the ball ("over the top", slices) or swinging outside the whole way (poor contact, shanks).

But that's really just one possible flaw in your swing that can cause things to go wrong as you add power. Anything that's not right in the swing can manifest more and more as you swing harder and harder. So I wouldn't count on finding the answer by reading or watching videos, you'll probably have to find the answer on the range, or possibly in a lesson. -Andrew

Everything happens from the ground upwards.

Basically here is my checklist:

1: Backswing is 99% finished and is reaching its finish at the top.
2: At that moment hips slide laterally about 3 inches, not open, but towards the target.
3: Hips begin to open.
4: Shoulders begin to chase the hips. Right shoulder is turning and dropping, left shoulder is spinning outwards.
5: I try to keep the same angle between my forearms and club until my hands reach my belt buckle. See this pic:

http://www.golftoday.co.uk/proshop/f..._golf_11_2.jpg

6: Make sure your hands are in front of the ball when you strike the ball. A great way to do this is to lay your bag on the ground about 3 feet behind your ball and swing over the bag and force your club to miss it.

If you hit it you are using your arms and throwing your club towards the ball which leads to deceleration at impact which means less power.