The Golf Learning Center at Cordillera Tom F. Stickney II, Director of Golf Instruction www.tomstickneygolf.com or 970 904 2485 No Power off the Tee? Try This!! Golf as we all know is a complex motor skill to say the least, however, the use of 3D Motion Technology here at Cordillera has helped us uncover some of the “secrets” that the golf swing holds close. In this article we will examine why most people tend to lose power within their golf swings off the tee and show you how you can correct this flaw for good!
Cordillera’s 3D Motion Analysis System as used by the Titleist Performance Center No Power— - Poor X-Factor
- Rear Knee Action
As we all know the most common cause of poor distance is an improper coiling between the upper and lower halves of the body- your “X-Factor.” This concept was made famous in the late 1990’s by Jim McLean and Mike McTiegue and has become one of the most useful instructional concepts within the last ten years. Your X-Factor is the difference between the shoulder turn and the hip turn at the top; the higher this difference the more efficiently you will “unwind” during the transition creating more power and an on-plane downstroke.
In the example above you can see that the shoulders have rotated 86.9 degrees while the hips have rotated 52.7 degrees….giving this golfer an X-Factor of 37.2 degrees. The higher the “X” the more torque one has between the upper and lower halves thus the better the transitional speed carried into the downstroke. Your “X” is personal and is mostly genetically determined however an exercise plan that focuses on this concept can also help increase your “X-Factor” dramatically. In order to maximize your “X” there is only really one simple concept to master and that is the actions of the rear knee from address into the top of the backstroke. Whenever the rear knee maintains its address flex to the top then your torque will be maximized per your genetic flexibility. When the rear knee straightens up the hips tend to over-rotate and torque is lost. As you can see with this average golfer the rear knee begins with 34.7 degrees of flex and ends up at the top with only 29 degrees of flex thus losing 5.7 degrees of flex to the top and decreasing this player’s X-Factor by almost 20%! This is not to say that you cannot hit the ball a long way from this position (with a rear knee that straightens) it just means that you are losing valuable torque to the top. In most average golfers this loss of rear knee flex and torque will cause major problems in power and consistency off the tee. The Cure???? At the top try and feel your weight on the front, inside of your rear foot at the top of the backswing, if you feel it here then your rear knee is under control to the top! From there just let it do what it wants into the downswing. If your weight moves into the outside of your rear heel then you are in trouble as your rear knee is moving around. | 
