High-intensity training can unlock potent speed in your golf swing – and the desert dunes of Big Red make the perfect playground

By Claudine Foong-Riggs
Speed is the essential raw material required in any powerful golf swing. When you can control it through balance, stability and good mechanics, that’s when you unlock explosive power. But without speed, a golfer will always have limitations. So how do we increase our dynamic power? We do it through high-intensity training, and a trip to the desert dunes on the Dubai-Hatta road provides the perfect environment in which to train. The soft sand and dramatic contours of the dunes make the following exercises especially challenging, but your focus should be on quality, not quantity. High-Intensity Interval Training and dynamic control for a golfer is beneficial for improving conditioning, strength, power and anabolic response to build muscle and reduce fat.  Each of the following exercises should be performed for no more than 20-30 seconds with a rest period of 30-60 seconds. Remember to always do a full warm-up before getting started.

Spiderman Crawl (main image)
This is a great exercise to do in the desert. Begin in a strong push-up position and bring your right knee to right elbow, left hand out in front and keep your body low to the ground. Alternate your hands and legs to continue to crawl forwards.
3 sets of 8

Speed Parachute Training
Once you have mastered the sprint technique, the parachute can be an excellent tool, which provides resistance in the drive phase of sprinting. You can do this exercise without a parachute.
Perform 3-5 sets of 30m sprints

Hill Sprints
Hill Sprints require an athlete to use a lot more leg power to drive hard into the ground. Sprint UP the hill and run back down, focusing on looking forward. Experiment with different hill lengths – short, medium and long.
Perform 3-5 sets

Bound with Med-Ball Pass 
Stand with your feet wider than hip-width apart. Hold a light medicine ball (or basketball) at your chest. Hip hinge and push off the ground as hard as you can, jumping forwards. Push away with your arms and release the ball. Land softly and sprint to the ball and repeat.
3 sets of 5

‘180’ Jumps 
Your lower body is the driving force for this movement. The sequence is: lower body, core, then arms. Load and drive off the ground to rotate and face the opposite direction. Land softly, stabilising your body and immediately load and jump back in the other direction.
3 sets of 10

Claudine Foong is the Brand Ambassador of PXG Middle East. Instagram: @claudinefoong

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The post Golf Fitness Special: Speed drills in the desert appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Alex Riggs
This article is targeted at amateurs who are struggling with weak impacts where the ball comes off with a fade or slice. The key to making any change in golf is first acknowledging what is currently going on, then understanding what you want to change, and then finally coordinating what you need to feel to make the change.

With fades and slices, we know as fact that the club face is open at impact compared to the path the club is travelling on.

In most cases, this open face to path relationship presents itself in the transition from the backswing to the downswing. Slicers typically pull the grip of the club downward, with the left wrist in a cupped position, leaving the club face open and the club head travelling outside the hands on the way down.

Downswing don’ts: The club head is steeper than the hand path with the club face in a weak position. Typically caused by pulling the hands down with a cupped wrist. This will lead to weaker impacts where the ball curves left to right.

In the slot: The club head is shallower than the hand path with the club face in a strong position. This happens when the body turns into the arms and the wrist is in a more neutral position. This will lead to stronger impacts where the ball curves right to left. Master the drill in the main picture to get into this strong position consistently.

To prevent the ball from curving right, we want to feel exactly the opposite. Start by making a half backswing (see main picture). Now attempt to close the face as much as possible while still retaining bend in your right arm. Position the club face as far behind you as possible with your hands in front of your chest. From here, practice making a divot and swinging through to your finish. You are now going to get used to this new relationship of a more closed clubface and a path that is now swinging more inside out. Practice this move 5-10 times, then try it with a ball. You’ll start noticing the ball has a different shape on it immediately. – with Kent Gray

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Two big mistakes I see with driver set-up and how to fix them

“A lot of amateur golfers get too much weight on their left side when setting up with the driver, while others tend to fall back in an effort to stack weight behind the ball. Here’s a simple drill that will help you get into a powerful driver set-up every time. The key is to ensure your weight is evenly distributed across both feet. Watch the clip below and give it a try next time you’re practicing your driving.”

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A common fault for amateur golfers of all levels is to ‘early extend’ on the downswing – meaning a premature loss of the body angles established at address and on the backswing.

Scroll down to watch the video

Usually this means the spine straightens too early and the pelvis moves towards the ball. This produces a variety of common shot faults and limits the player’s ability to produce rotational power. In this clip below, I’ll give you a simple practice drill to fix early extension. If you struggle to perform the drill, certain physical limitations may be to blame and a physical screening at the Yas Links Academy can help identify the steps you need to take to rectify it

The post Video: A drill to fix early extension appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

High-intensity training can unlock potent speed in your golf swing – and the desert dunes of Big Red make the perfect playground

By Claudine Foong-Riggs
Speed is the essential raw material required in any powerful golf swing. When you can control it through balance, stability and good mechanics, that’s when you unlock explosive power. But without speed, a golfer will always have limitations. So how do we increase our dynamic power? We do it through high-intensity training, and a trip to the desert dunes on the Dubai-Hatta road provides the perfect environment in which to train. The soft sand and dramatic contours of the dunes make the following exercises especially challenging, but your focus should be on quality, not quantity. High-Intensity Interval Training and dynamic control for a golfer is beneficial for improving conditioning, strength, power and anabolic response to build muscle and reduce fat.  Each of the following exercises should be performed for no more than 20-30 seconds with a rest period of 30-60 seconds. Remember to always do a full warm-up before getting started.

Spiderman Crawl (main image above)
This is a great exercise to do in the desert. Begin in a strong push up position and bring your right knee to right elbow, left hand out in front and keep your body low to the ground. Alternate your hands and legs to continue to crawl forwards.
3 SETS OF 8

Speed Parachute Training
Once you have mastered the sprint technique, the parachute can be an excellent tool, which provides resistance in the drive phase of sprinting. You can do this exercise without a parachute.
PERFORM 3-5 SETS OF 30m SPRINTS

Hill Sprints
Hill Sprints require an athlete to use a lot more leg power to drive hard into the ground. Sprint UP the hill and run back down, focusing on looking forward. Experiment with different hill lengths – short, medium and long.
PERFORM 3-5 SETS

Bound with Med-Ball Pass 
Stand with your feet wider than hip-width apart. Hold a light medicine ball (or basketball) at your chest. Hip hinge and push off the ground as hard as you can, jumping forwards. Push away with your arms and release the ball. Land softly and sprint to the ball and repeat.
3 SETS OF 5

‘180’ Jumps 
Your lower body is the driving force for this movement. The sequence is lower body, core, then arms. Load and drive off the ground to rotate and face the opposite direction. Land softly, stabilising your body and immediately load and jump back in the other direction.
3 SETS OF 10

Claudine Foong is a Brand Ambassador for PXG Middle East.

The post Golf Fitness Special: Speed drills in the desert appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

This downswing drill using a simple sponge can dramatically improve your body sequencing and help you strike the ball much more powerfully. Most golfers understand that they have to start the downswing with their lower body going first, but that alone is not enough to fully grasp how the body should work correctly to deliver maximum force to the ball. Squeezing the water out of a sponge beneath your lead foot to get things starting down not only helps you begin the downswing with your lower half, it also helps you use the ground as leverage to generate power. Give it a go next time you’re on the range, or if you don’t have a sponge to hand, the drill can work well as a mental image too. Watch the video below to see me explain this tip.

The post Video: How this ‘sponge drill’ can transform your downswing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Most golfers tend to use far too much hand, arm and wrist action when trying to set the club on the takeaway, which leads to inconsistencies in the swing. This simple exercise will give you a reliable, repeatable position that allows you to make a solid backswing, explains Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Cennydd Mills

The post Video: How to set the club correctly on the takeaway appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Most of us are familiar with the traditional method of playing a greenside splash shot – where you stand open to the target, open the clubface and swing along the line of your feet. Well in this drill, European Tour Performance Institute director of instruction Mark Gregson-Walters tells you to park that theory. “Instead, try standing closed to the target [that’s pointing right for a right-hander], and opening the clubface so it points even further to the right,” he says. “By swinging back down towards the target, you will get an instant feel for how the club should enter the sand correctly. It’s a great drill for good bunker players to sharpen their skills, and for players who struggle with sand shots, it can even serve as your go-to method when you’re out on the course.”

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Get your arms and body working together with this simple drill
By Cennydd Mills

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lot of amateur golfers struggle to get the most out of their body turn when hitting shots. Once your arms start moving independently from your body, it becomes difficult to strike the ball consistently. Here’s a drill to help if you tend to suffer from this swing trait.

Grab a golf towel and hold it under both arms before setting up to the ball (as shown in these images). You’re going to hit shots ensuring that you keep the towel held in place, but here’s the thing – it’s very important that you don’t try to make your full swing. What you’re looking to feel is how your arms and body should work together through the hitting area. So you only want to make a half backswing. Once your hands get past hip height and the club hinges up, go ahead and hit the ball. This drill forces you to use a lot more rotational energy to strike the ball. Golfers who struggle to rotate and get onto their front foot through impact can really benefit, but most importantly, your sequencing is going to improve.

Getting your arms and body to work together is vital for good sequencing.

It’s very difficult to get your downswing sequnce right if your arms have separated from your body turn on the backswing. So by syncing this up going back, you’ll start to see a much more solid strike on the ball, and a little more compression too.

Cennydd Mills is a PGA Teaching Professional at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. For more information, visit dubaigolf.com

Photograph by Farooq Salik

Related: How to get set up for hitting crisp, powerful iron shots

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Train your aim to align putts correctly and avoid the resulting errors
By Malcolm Young

Putting is a skill that’s often neglected by the average golfer, which is strange because it’s the area that the majority of professionals focus most intently on. Holing more putts can galvanise your score, not just because they turn fives into fours, but because of that priceless golfing commodity – momentum. Most amateurs I know often resign themselves to relying on luck when it comes to putting.

We know that putting is all about line and pace, and what’s demoralising for golfers is that when they get the line wrong, even well struck putts that are going at the right speed will miss. Typically what I see most often is that golfers under-read the amount of break in any given putt. The most common error is visualising the curvature of the putt then aiming at the apex point (the point furthest from the straight line from ball to hole). In reality, your eyes don’t quite see the slope well enough and as a result you aim well off target, particularly when side slope increases and the amount of break gets significantly higher.

As a knock-on affect, the tendency is to get into the habit of striking putts too firmly (to negate the lack of allowed break) and watch the ball shoot past the hole, or worse, to actually manipulate the putterhead at impact, leading to inconsistency in stroke patterns and ball roll.

Accurate green-reading is the foundation for good putting.

A simple way to assist green reading on any putt is to use tee pegs, as pictured here, at four-inch intervals from the hole. Finding a fairly short, breaking putt on the practice green and learning to adjust your alignment to factor in the true break can be revealing – you might find that your tendency is to under-read the putt by almost half the necessary amount.

Malcolm Young is the senior professional at Arabian Ranches Golf Club. He teaches regular AimPoint Express clinics to help golfers master green-reading. Email myoung@arabianranchesgolf.ae for more details

Photograph by Kristina Nabieva
Photo Illustration by Clarkwin Cruz

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