How Phil Mickelson added Club Head Speed (and so did you)
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At the age of 48, Phil Mickelson should enter the twilight of his PGA Tour career. Younger players are starting to dominate the game with their explosive power and athleticism. However, Lefty refuses to admit; he has already won once in 2019 and came close to winning two wins.
One of the great storylines in Phil & # 39; s revival was his driving distance. In 2019 he saw a huge peak in club head speed, and it has many golfers scratching their heads. Phil has never been a physical specimen and in the last few seasons he has lost ground from the tee. But this year he is in driving distance in the top 25 and has improved dramatically in the hits achieved in the tee category.
In this article I want to talk about some of the training courses he does. I have also followed a somewhat similar path and want to share some of the results that I have seen. It is not a far-fetched goal for golfers who want to speed up their swing and improve their overall fitness level.
Phil & # 39; s Workouts
Most golfers assume that PGA Tour players who have Phil & # 39; s physique do not do an extensive fitness routine. The truth is that most of them are on a specific wave-specific training regime. Phil is known for training since 2003 with the help of the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI). He credits his regime to extend his career and to keep him largely injury-free.
The speed of his coachman's club has been respectable for several years, these are his averages:
2016: 115.41 miles per hour
2017: 114.24 miles per hour
2018: 116.48 km / h
Those are excellent figures for a man in his forties. The problem is that the newest generation of golfers routinely averages over 120 km / h and in the 130 mph area on average. Phil has ranked almost the last in success in those years with a tee with a combination of shorter driving distance and accuracy problems. If you want to win on tour these days, that combination makes it a much more difficult task.
So when Phil started publishing swing speeds of 122 mph and ball speeds of more than 185 mph, people's minds turned around. How did he return so late in his career?
Many people have taken note of Phil & # 39; s use of a product called SuperSpeed Golf. He has been seen on TV for over a year and warm with his speed sticks for the laps. Their system trains your body to swing faster with a concept called & # 39; Overspeed training & # 39 ;. I have previously written about it on the site, and use it myself during training.
Here is a video in which he used them in 2017:
I spoke with Kyle Shay from SuperSpeed Golf, and he was able to confirm that Mickelson started using their product sometime around May 2017. For the last year he has been even more committed to the training regime with swing coach Andrew Getson and a team from TPI. Phil was inspired by his colleague 40-something Tom Brady & # 39; s work with pitch coach Tom House. Brady uses a concept called overload / underload training that has gained popularity in multiple sports, thereby improving the speed of throwing and swinging an athlete.
So the combination of Phil using the SuperSpeed Golf system and his constant fitness regime have enabled him to turn the clock back.
I did something similar
Normally I don't talk too much about professional golfers on this site, because what they can do is very different from the rest of the golfing public. But the number one question I get from most golfers I speak to is how they can learn how to hit the golf ball.
The typical golfer does not send the ball more than 225 yards. Much has to do with their inability to generate sufficient club head speed. Most recreational golfers are at work all day and don't do enough physically to reverse that trend, but it doesn't have to be!
You can not only decide that you want to increase your club head speed, you also need a plan. I recently experimented with it.
At the age of 35, I begin to realize that my body will not remain injury-free and will generate sufficient club head speed forever. For most of my life I have been able to swing my driver fast enough to drive far, but that day is coming to an end … and probably fast. Although I have always taken fitness seriously, this is the first year that I have followed a specific golf regime. My goal is to keep my body in good shape for golf and to add distance. I regularly participate in events against college golfers, and the length is important (among all the other topics I am talking about on this site).
So for the last few months I have followed a routine similar to Phil – I work with the SuperSpeed Golf system and follow a golf training with many of the TPI foundations.
The SuperSpeed Golf Training Clubs
Mike Carroll from Fit for Golf brought me through a TPI evaluation, which revealed various issues that I can work on. In addition, I work with his off-season program three times a week.
Some training in the basement – look, I'm flying!
Between the SuperSpeed regime and golf fitness training I spend about 2 1/2 – 3 hours a week, which is not a huge amount of time. The combination has yielded immediate results. I added about 10-15 yards across the board quite quickly and expect this to continue. My body feels more flexible and powerful. I estimate I added around five pounds of muscle. More importantly, my swing mechanism feels no different.
Much of the golf world still approaches fitness with skepticism, but if you do the right kind of work, the results are usually worth it.
It is never too late
Phil is 48; I am 35. Some of you reading this can be 70. Your age does not matter; it's never too late to work on your body. If golf is an integral part of your life and you want to prevent those nagging injuries and hit the ball a little further to show your friends, this type of training can help. Even if you are not currently doing any kind of physical activity, you will get some nice side effects – control your weight, combat health problems such as heart disease, improve your mood and increase your overall energy level.
You can find more information about the SuperSpeed training system on their website here. You can also learn more about golf specific workouts and where fitness professionals can be found on the Titleist Performance Institute website.
