There are lots of ways to add power to your golf swing. You can use a training aid, hit the gym or even get fitted for a new driver. But as a golf-swing nerd, my personal favorite is making subtle swing changes.
No, there isn’t one magic move to instantly hit the ball longer. However, if you learn how power is created in the swing — and make swing changes to implement these power moves — you can hit the ball longer than you ever thought possible.
One such power move was demonstrated earlier this year by GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joe Plecker, which you can see in the video below. Our readers clearly enjoyed the tip, as it was our most-popular power tip of 2025. Read below for more.
Our most-popular power tip
Plecker explains that he likes to teach moves in the golf swing with dynamic exercises. One such drill, which he learned on a visit to Korea earlier this year, is a modified version of the “step-swing” drill.
For this routine, all you need is an alignment stick or an old shaft that you can whip around with ease. Grip it like you would for a normal swing, and then take a stance.
“What I like to do is start out with the club a little bit in front of me,” Plecker says. “Then I’ll swing back and swing my lead leg behind my trail leg, swing back fully this time and then through.”
You should hear a whoosh sound when you swing through the impact zone. Once the club gets to the finish position, draw it back again and whip the stick back as you take your lead leg and stagger it back behind your trail leg.
“What I’m getting is a separation of the two halves of my body,” Plecker says. “The lower half is going forward while the upper half is going back.”
When you do this, you are creating “coil” that can be unleashed on the downswing to generate tons of clubhead speed.
“What you’ll feel is that it really does start to become a cadence, a rhythm,” Plecker says. “Doing it two, three, four five times in a row, you’ll sort of find your rhythm or best pace that you can control the motion in.”
Do this routine a few times, and then pick up a club and make some swings, making sure you keep that feeling of shifting your weight toward the target before you complete the backswing. As you start to master this feel, you’ll notice you can generate more clubhead speed with less effort, which should lead to longer drives.
