How to use the ground to create power, explained in 60 seconds

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

Hitting the ball hard (and far) requires you to have a fast swing speed. The faster you swing, the farther the ball goes. Simple.

Generating a faster swing speed is contingent on several factors, but one of them is the speed you rotate your body. Typically, if you rotate your body faster, you will have more power.

However, when trying to rotate your body faster, you shouldn’t just be focusing on your core. Instead, you need to use the interaction between your feet and the ground to generate speed.

How to use your feet for power

Teachers often talk about how golfers with lots of power “use the ground” to generate swing speed. But what exactly does this mean? It all comes back to Newton’s third law.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

This principle is on full display when golfers use the ground to generate power. When pushing into the ground with their feet, the ground pushes back with an equal force.

“By pulling our trail foot back and pushing our lead foot forward, that creates rotation,” says GOLF Top 100 Teacher Mark Blackburn. “The best players are pulling very hard back with their trail foot and pushing forward with their lead foot.”

This phenomenon in the golf swing is often referred to as “ground reaction forces” and is a driver of power for just about every bomber in the world.

This technique is not always easy to pull off for recreational players, but if you want to up your swing speed, it’s an absolute must. If you can master these ground reaction forces, though, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it becomes to generate swing speed.