Golf tips: Want more distance off the tee? Develop your shoulder turn

During my golf practice this morning, I was working on getting a complete and full shoulder turn. This is important because a full shoulder turn with level hips sets up a proper downswing and gives me the ability to hit the ball with more power.

I see many amateurs who are unable to make a full shoulder turn, robbing them of distance and power. If you can’t turn, you can’t swing a club very well. In our training programs I talk about the “four pillars of the body” in relationship to the golf swing. One of those pillars is flexibility, and it may be the most important of them all.

Think about John Daly. He’s no Schwarzenegger, but he drives the ball a ton. Why do you think that is so? He is so incredibly flexible and makes a huge shoulder turn.

The golf swing requires total body flexibility. You must be flexible in the hamstrings, lower back, hips, torso, and upper back, everywhere! The one flexibility exercise I have found in our Grand Slam Exercises to be the best total body flexibility exercise is “spiders.” Spiders work your hips, hamstrings, lower back, torso, and shoulders - every part of the body needed to make that powerful and distance-lengthening golf swing.

And guess what? It doesn’t take performing 50 minutes of BioForce Spiders to develop that flexibility in your body. If you do 15-20 of these consistently, day in and day out, over time you will see that shoulder turn get bigger.

I can’t stress enough how important the relationship between your level of flexibility and the distance and power in your swing. If you are not able to make a full shoulder turn in your swing, you are robbing yourself of distance off the tee and every other shot!

- Sean