The Loop

Fitness Friday: How to swing the club faster (Part III)

September 20, 2013
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Over the past two weeks, athletic-performance expert Tom House has explained the first two steps you should take if you want to increase your clubhead speed and hit the ball farther. In the third and final step, House borrows from a method he has used to make pitchers throw the ball harder.

"I'm not a golf instructor, but I can improve clubhead speed," says House, who is a major league pitching coach and advisor to the University of Southern California's athletic department.

His philosophy is that you can train your body to react faster, essentially accelerating the time it takes nerve impulses to make your muscles contract. You also develop more speed by improving flexibility, he says. "The more you do this program, the faster your swing will get."

The third step of the program involves making golf swings with implements of various weight and also from various platforms. For example, you start on your knees swinging a golf shaft (no clubhead) or alignment rod as fast as you can in each direction for a prescribed number of reps. Then you increase the weight by swinging a 5-iron. Then you move up to a sand wedge,which is even heavier.

All three steps can be found in Golf Digest's October issue (Jason Day is on the cover).

And if you want to know more about House, you can see his work with pitchers on HBO'S Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Go to HBO.com and look for the show's segment called "Web Extra: Traded."

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.

(AP Photo/Jacques Boissinot)