Instruction
How does Rory hit it so far?
The U.S. Ryder Cup team will have to deal with Rory McIlroy’s long drives all weekend long, whether it’s in a team format or singles play. Although length off the tee won’t be the deciding factor at Gleneagles in Scotland this year, it will allow McIlroy — the world’s No. 1 player according to the Official World Golf Rankings — and his playing partner a decided advantage over their opponents (unless he’s playing against Bubba Watson, of course).
He has established himself as one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour, dominating major championship golf courses and his competition off the tee. According to PGATour.com, McIlroy averaged 310.5 yards per drive in 2014, and ranked behind only Watson and Dustin Johnson in average driving distance this year. How does one of the smallest players — he’s 5 feet 9 inches and 160 pounds — rank No. 3 on Tour in distance off the tee?
According to Men’s Health, McIlroy credits his form to the strength work he started with British trainer Steve McGregor back in 2010.
“What has all that work in the gym given me?” McIlroy asked. “I don’t think I hit it any longer, I just don’t need to try and hit it.”
He is now able to maintain form and balance throughout the swing.
“I feel like I can hit it harder without losing balance,” he told MH. “The length of my driver hasn’t increased that much but I just feel like I don’t have to go after it as much to get the length.”
This newfound strength is creating stability and control throughout the swing, which allows him to hit the ball longer distances without throwing himself forward.
“I feel a lot more stable in my golf swing,” McIlroy said when asked about the benefits of his workout plan. “There’s a lot less moving parts.”
So let’s go back a few years to see what McIlroy has been doing, which is now paying dividends to his performance on the course. From an interview in 2012 in Men’s Health, McIlroy said that he started strength and condition training with McGregor in 2010. After a series of fitness assessments, McGregor saw an imbalance of muscular strength on McIlroy’s left side. From there, a plan was designed to first remedy that. The focus was on the lower body where power is generated.
In 2011, Dr. Greg Rose, founder and director of the Titleist Performance Institute, performed a biomechanical assessment to understand McIlroy’s incredible hip speed. According to Dr. Rose, McIlroy’s pelvic rotation is an amazing 720 degrees per second on the downswing. To put that in perspective, the average armature golfer’s pelvic rotation is 300-to-350 degrees per second and an average tour professional is 550 degrees per second.
What was even more unbelievable was the so called “double clutch move.”
[youtube id=”YDxkaHXzYQs” width=”620″ height=”360″]
What Dr. Rose saw was that McIlroy’s hips reversed direction for a split second during the downswing at a speed of 377 degrees per second in the opposite direction. This phenomenal movement is created because of Rory’s strong core and abdominals.
“This is just crazy,” Dr. Rose said about his hip movement in the interview with ESPN Sports Science.
Prior to the 2014 season, McIlroy visited the GlaxoSmithKline GSK Human Performance Lab for physical testing to understand what is needed to maximize performance for the 2014 season. He endured a series of assessment to determine oxygen efficiency, strength proficiency and nutrition strategy and planning.
According to GSK Human Performance Lab, McIlroy stated, “Coming to the GSK Human Performance Lab gives me detailed insight into the workings of my body and what I can do to improve my performance. There’s a growing number of players, both fitter and stronger, competing for majors every season, so it’s really important I look at the physical and cognitive performance aspects of my game to ensure I keep improving.”
McIlroy’s work in the gym has allowed him to combine natural gifts and physical fitness. It’s no wonder why he’s the world No. 1-ranked golfer, and No. 3 in average driving distance on the PGA Tour.
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My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.
For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.
Setup
You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.
While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.
Get a Better Shoulder Turn
Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.
In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.
Stay Better Connected in the Backswing
When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.
Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.
Conclusion
I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.
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Ken Lines
Feb 11, 2015 at 12:20 pm
One of the best ways to gain clubhead speed and control is to train running up hills. There is no shortcut/whatever that will help. Worked for Jerry Rice and Art Monk.
Johnny
Feb 17, 2015 at 11:14 pm
Tell that to John Daly…
Josh
Dec 21, 2014 at 6:25 pm
Click Here!
zutui
Oct 20, 2014 at 1:11 pm
jizi yes
zoots
Oct 1, 2014 at 1:29 am
What’s the scientific advantage of the “double clutch move”? Nothing explained on that. Maybe he would hit it longer without it…
Mbwa Kali Sana
Sep 24, 2014 at 12:48 pm
I feel strongly that most golf teachers and so called “golf experts ” in this article and in this blog focus on the wrong issue :RORY’s hips go fast because he swings fast “WITH HIS ARMS “:just read Ernest JONES , Miguel DE LA TORRE ,Paul KNUDSON,and present great AMERICAN teacher Mike BENDER :all of them “swing the club “…. and the body follows :the core ,the lower body are important but are not the prime movers .The SPANISH way of playing as exemplified by SEVERIANO BALLESTEROS ,JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL, SERGIO GARCIA is with the arms and with the wrists :all these guys used to play “pelota “or “pala “and developed considerable speed and strength in the arms and wrists ,as well as running around to catch the “pelota ” gave them a lot if strength in the legs and lower body .
Look at ANGEL CABRERA ,the top Argentine player,he is of the same school of golf and he is no short hitter .
Do not confound the “HEN “and the “EGG “!
marcel
Sep 24, 2014 at 2:30 am
thats no science – when you fit, exercise you can use your muscles to their capacity… There are longer drivers than Rory but Rors does it all day long where others get tired and inconsistent!!!
Gym workout and practice!!
gplfing
Sep 23, 2014 at 5:48 pm
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Long hitters like Jack, is front leg actually move backwards at
impact, using the big muscles is the only way to control impact.
airie arrington
Sep 23, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Great site!
Nick Cinzilla
Sep 23, 2014 at 10:42 am
Dave, can you explain how each segment slows down and brakes after transferring speed to the next segment to create a whip-like action?
Dave
Sep 23, 2014 at 1:33 pm
hey Nick I will have that ready in a day so stay tuned.
thanks
Teaj
Sep 23, 2014 at 9:33 am
if you can create the same swing with less effort and more control of your body why would you not want to work out to achieve that.
Dave
Sep 25, 2014 at 2:00 pm
Teaj, so true. That is the main point of this article.
thanks
Jake Anderson
Sep 23, 2014 at 3:43 am
Rory McIlroy had a great swing that produced a lot of speed. When he started working out this is what took him to the next level. It is the same thing that Tiger Woods did. It is as easy as that:
1. Take a great swing
2. Work out hard
3. Profit
Jack
Sep 23, 2014 at 2:01 am
He hits it hard because he has a good swing and swings really hard. Now let’s continue over complicate it.
MHendon
Sep 23, 2014 at 1:10 am
I tell ya, I watched the sport science video and I’m not convinced his hips move in reverse. What I see is a split second stop of the forward hip rotation at the moment his Left leg braces for impact then the hips accelerate to keep up with the continued movement of the upper body.
Bollix
Sep 23, 2014 at 3:16 am
I agree. I think it’s purely a “rebound” reaction of the upper body/arms/hands to the moment of impact of the club with the ball that the hips must stop in order to control the club face and shaft to be in line with the direction where he’s trying to hit the ball, because his swing sequence is so poor that this is the only way that he can actually “hold on” to that impact without losing it. Other players tend to “squat” but because Rory uses his hips instead of his legs, this is how it looks.
Because his sequencing is so bad, we do see him spray it now again if he doesn’t fully commit to the violence of the shot and pulls off it just a little bit to hit a smooth one. He can only fire through and full release the energy at the ball in order to hit with any kind of control.
dxb
Sep 23, 2014 at 12:19 am
What is an armature golfer?
NoCalHack
Sep 23, 2014 at 12:41 am
Meh. Rory hits it far because he just does. He has great technique and efficiently uses his body to move the club head fast. As much as his trainer and the performance lab would love to take credit, his exercise regimen has almost nothing to do with it. If only it were that easy. Ha!
Jeremy
Sep 23, 2014 at 3:03 pm
Um… what’s easy about dedicating yourself for several years to tune your body into the best form for the demands of your sport?
NoCalHack
Sep 23, 2014 at 5:31 pm
Yeah, working out is easy enough. If it were all about strength and flexibility, then there’d be plenty of Olympic gymnasts on tour. It’s about TECHNIQUE. That’s what Rory has that none of us could develop in a million years. That’s what I’m saying.
Do you honestly think that a proper workout regimen is going to make you hit it considerably better? Maybe if you’re terribly out of shape. But you’d be better off getting a good instructor to get a better swing.
K. Sanford
Sep 23, 2014 at 12:16 am
This is a great article and I like the responses that I’m reading. But I think we are missing the big picture here that is presented in this article. Getting into to the best shape to play this game and understanding that the core “the bridge between lower body and the club” is not strong enough to handle the speed and power from the hips. It doesn’t matter if the hips are going forward, reverse before or after impact, you will lose your spine angle and inconsistency will follow. Dave’s responses with Dave Phillips article on “Hips Speed Good or Bad” is a great article coupled with this article about core strength.
Jesse
Sep 22, 2014 at 11:38 pm
This is just ridiculous (in an unbelievably awesome way) i am not denying at all that this happens, but cant wait to see avg joe try to mimic this move at the range lmao
Dave Davis
Sep 22, 2014 at 11:12 pm
For exercises that will help strengthen your core, go to this link
http://www.golfperformancefitness.com/golf-fitness-professionals/
Hieronymus
Sep 26, 2014 at 2:14 pm
Are those things real?
Jeff
Sep 22, 2014 at 10:52 pm
What Dr. Rose saw was that McIlroy’s hips reversed direction for a split second during the downswing at a speed of 377 degrees in the opposite direction.
377 miles per hour, maybe kilometers/hr. Not degrees.
P
Sep 22, 2014 at 10:56 pm
You are incorrect. Rotational speed is measured in degrees/second, or cycles or radians, therefore the good doctor is correct.
Jeremy
Sep 23, 2014 at 3:08 pm
Rory’s hips do not move at half the speed of sound, I don’t care how much he works out.
Eh
Apr 18, 2015 at 10:49 am
actually this is basic physics; his hips definitely don’t move linearly at half the speed of sound but is rotating at a much greater speed. The input of power is greatly increased when you’re rotating it on a fixed point.
P Davis
Sep 22, 2014 at 9:27 pm
I really enjoy the dedication into explaining the science behind the game. It is “truly more than the eye can see” great article
ams165
Sep 22, 2014 at 8:37 pm
Anybody want to mention his driver et up.
I’m sure this has a little to do with it…
Happy Gilmore
Sep 22, 2014 at 7:57 pm
It’s all in the hips..
It’s all in the hips..
Dave Davis
Sep 22, 2014 at 9:31 pm
Dave Phillips, Co-founder of TPI provides a great answer to the question, in an article published April 5, 2013 “Hip Speed Good or Bad?
“It is know secret that hip speed is an asset when it comes to creating power in the golf swing but can it also be a detriment? The answer is categorically YES…in fact Rory McIlroy has the fastest hip rotational speed we have ever tested and pound for pound he is one of the longest and most powerful players on tour, but there is more to it than just hip speed. The sequence of great players is a blending and thus a building of speed between the lower body, torso, arms and club. If one of these segments over powers another you can actually lose speed and not maximize what you have…The good news is that much of this can correct itself by developing a stronger core and oblique abdominals, in elite level golfers with great sequences of movement their hips fire but are controlled by the firing of the next segment, in this case the torso, this allows the arms to get into the correct position to deliver the club with the maximum energy into the ball.”
http://www.mytpi.com/articles/swing/hip_speed_good_or_bad
Philip
Sep 22, 2014 at 6:39 pm
Dave, you should look at the video of Rory again. It clearly shows his hips going backwards after the ball has left the club and the club extended to almost 3 o’clock. As they noted in the video, it isn’t a reason for his length, but an indicator of the amount of torque his abdominals generate during the downswing.
Dave Davis
Sep 22, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Thanks Philip for your responses
Here is something to consider. If Rory’s hips reversed after impact and then accelerated after the ball was hit, that acceleration of hips would have no impact on the displacement of energy on the ball cause the ball was no longer on the face of the club. Thus, this must occur prior to impact in which the human eyes can not detect, because they are only able to capture 15 frames per sec. This is when technology is used to record this fascinating movement.
The reason for Rory’s hips moving in reverse is to create more acceleration in the downswing which creates more club head speed. By reversing his hips prior to impact and then accelerating even more provides a boost by the speed and force of his hips through his kinetic chain. Because of his strong oblique muscles that are mentioned by Dr. Rose of TPI, the result is increased ball speeds of 175 mph plus. Dr. Rose also stated Rory’s hip speed is 720 degrees per sec. in the “downswing”. This is important to note.
Phil Cheetham, TPI Advisor and co-founder of Skill Technologies Inc. developer of real-time motion measurement systems, including 3D-Spine, 6D-Research, 3D-Gait, 3D-Golf and 3D-SkillCheck, stated in an article March 17, 2014 “The Linear Kinematic Sequence”
“Notice that these accelerations and decelerations are all before impact and that the only segment that doesn’t decelerate prior to impact is the club head. As we would expect, the club head accelerates during the downswing and reaches max speed at impact. Notice that each successive peak speed occurs later in the downswing than the previous one and is faster than the previous one.
In fact, it is not as important what the speeds of the joints are at impact but what their maximum speeds are earlier in the downswing. We expect their speeds at impact to be lower because of the deceleration phase of each joint as it passes energy to the next segment – each joint is slowed down by the interaction force of the next segment accelerating against it”.
To read the full article click on this link for details
http://www.mytpi.com/articles/biomechanics/the_linear_kinematic_sequence
ESPN Sports Science http://youtu.be/UeF9-U5r3So
Dave
Sep 22, 2014 at 11:11 pm
It does happen after impact. The reversal of the hips is a consequence of the hips firing as far as they can, stabilizing, recoiling and then being pulled through by the momentum of the upper body. There is no “second firing” as you (and in the past Johnny Miller) have described. The reversal is an after effect of the hips stabilizing.
Philip
Sep 23, 2014 at 12:15 am
Dave, I do not understand why you are refering to an article about an average pro golfer that does not have Rory’s backward hip movement? Yes, the kinetic sequence all happens before impact, just like Rory, however, in Rory’s case his hips happen to reverse and then get pulled through impact instead of just stopping and getting pulled through impact as the graph shows. The article does not even mention Rory’s particular hip action (at least from my read of it).
Looking at the video about Rory’s hips you can clearly see from both the high-speed camera (which is quite a bit faster than 15 frames a second) and the kinetic imaging that the reversal of the hips is “after” he hits the ball.
And seeing that you mentioned the frame rate of the human eye. The USAF has already tested the human eye successfully at 220 frames a second and they think is higher. Computer game developers, video card makers, and monitors manufactures all admit they have barely scratched the speeds the human eye can perceive and that is at 400 frames a second. Remember that our eyes pull in data constantly in an average 170 degree arc. Some think our “frame rate” may in the tens of thousands. We do not perceive our visual environment at any frame rate. Only our technology is limited to frame rates for visual recording. Our best technology has still yet to approach what the human eye and brain can do.
Our technology is more the limit than our eyes. Playing back a video recorded at 30/60 frames a second is showing the fact that the recording device is too slow to capture the movement, not our naked eyes. I’ve stepped away from golf balls hit towards my head at speeds over 100 mph from only 30-45 feet away. I waited until the ball was a few feet from my head before I casually stepped away because for me the ball was moving in slow motion and my brain did not perceive a danger. To everyone else they only saw a blur and they started yelling at me to move immediately. Our senses are pretty amazing when we actually trust them. Of course, I played baseball when younger and I am used to objects being thrown or hit towards me at those speeds. I’ve driven cars over 120 – 150 mph. What about pilots flying at speeds more greater than the speed of sound at low altitudes.
Sorry got off topic there. Still an interesting article for discussion.
Dave
Sep 23, 2014 at 1:43 pm
Lol, thats ok Philip that you got off track, you are a deep thinker and i appreciate your response and yes it is an interesting article for discussion.
thanks
Mike
Sep 22, 2014 at 5:27 pm
The video in this article is wrong. His hips don’t begin moving backwards until at/after impact.
Dave Davis
Sep 22, 2014 at 10:58 pm
Mike thanks for your response,
The video is used for a visual aid because the golf swing of a professional is about 1.05 seconds and the human eyes can only capture 15 frames per sec. The movement actually happens a split sec before impact. To our eyes looking at this video that is showing around 60-120 frames per sec, it looks like it happens at or after. But, through technology with 3DTPI K-vest which captures 180 plus frames per sec., it provides the true story.
Thanks
Jake
Sep 22, 2014 at 5:18 pm
ESPN Sport Science for visual proof.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS8xaWleuRk
Jason
Sep 22, 2014 at 5:11 pm
It’s not his teqnique or physical ability, it’s the Nike covert and kuro kage shaft, duh!
alex mcdermid
Sep 22, 2014 at 8:56 pm
when he puts the nike green machine in play he will be averaging 350
sam
Sep 22, 2014 at 4:16 pm
Wow, that is incredible.
jb
Sep 22, 2014 at 3:56 pm
The “double clutch” is just his right hip complex reaching maximum contraction/peak extention then relaxing, then continues to rotate as the momentum of the upper body takes him into the follow-through.
Dave
Sep 22, 2014 at 11:13 pm
Exactly, +1…thank you!
steve
Sep 22, 2014 at 3:04 pm
in the hips,yes
MWP
Sep 22, 2014 at 3:02 pm
science
bradford
Sep 22, 2014 at 3:32 pm
art.
MWP
Sep 22, 2014 at 6:33 pm
fish
Derek
Sep 23, 2014 at 12:11 am
LOLOLOL!!!!