GET ME THIS HIP TRAINER, STAT!!!

[Dr_Fu_Manchu]

So much to love about this video....starting with the narrator and background music.

[x129]

Sad part is that the theory is pretty sound. Most people don't have great hip strength as they are not the easiest muscles to target. But I am not sure how well this machine works though as it doesn't seem like you can do progress overload.

[saevel25]

thats assuming your arms act exactly like a propeller, which they don't. For one thing, they don't swing on a perfect 90 degree angle from your spine angle. Also, They can't rotate around your body 360 degrees. Your body stores energy in its core, release it through the ball, and then recoils in the finish. Not to mention, loss of energy from the core to the golf club due to the joints and muscles in your body.

But they are right about a few things. strengthening your arms only allows you to gain more stability in the backswing and work with heavier clubs. Building strength in the core does dramatically increase your distance off the tee. But increasing your rotation speed, will not give you the multiplier they are stating.

I tend to workout the full body with a few golf specific exercises at the end of each work out. Planks, medicine ball rotation stuff. But whats helped me was that i can swing a heavier club just as fast as my ligher driver. I added about 8 grams of weight to my driver in lead tape, i gained distance, because its heavier and i didn't loose speed. This is do to my strength in my upper body being able to support that club.

[x129]

Oh I don't want to defend their science. Just the idea that focusing on the hips and core muscles helps golfers. Is hip speed the only factor? Heck no.  Look at their data (no idea how true it is) where amatuers turn at 1mph and pros at 2.5. If it was all about hips then the pro's would be hitting 2.5x (well approximately) instead of ~50%. On the other hand 25mph clubhead speed difference is about the difference between average people (high 80s/low 90s) and pros (110 or so). See http://www.turningpointbiotech.com/ for a more refined implementation of this. Turningpoint is the machine that resulted in a 20% increase in club head speed in a golf magazine test.

[saevel25]

You kow an exercise thats the same as that thruning point thing,

Workout Bench + Medicine Ball. Just sit on the workout bench so your legs are on either side braced againts the bench, and then rotate.

Well golf swing is all rotation, and the part that rotates in the swing is the center of the body, the core. But also alot of distance comes from hitting the ball solid as well, i think that accounts for alot as well.

[x129]

The point was more that training the hip and core muscles can result in major swing speed increases if you target them. I am unaware of any studies with medicine balls but feel free to post them. I would love to read them.

Mechanics are super important but there is a definite limit to how good you can get at hitting the ball. You need to maximize both to hit the ball as far as you can.