Bryant Sharifi is the Co-Founder of Perform For Life – Perform For Golf in San Francisco and Oakland, California.
Bryant Sharifi on the importance of building speed in the golf swing:
As golf continues to thrive, our business is ever-growing with new locations and fitness training that helps golfers improve. We serve many high school golfers during the summer who are in between seasons and everyday golfers during the winter who want to work on their golf swing and their bodies during the colder months of the year. They all want to work on their fitness and almost always seek increased clubhead speed to hit the ball longer. It’s no secret that speed is vital in almost any sport, and it’s very important to know how to create that speed – it’s not just about swinging harder. It’s about starting from the ground up. You must have the proper range of motion and stability upon which speed can be built. If you have a proficient golf swing, the right posture, width, balance and turn, then we can build speed. We start with an assessment that serves as a foundation of proper posture for us to build from and advance the client’s physical capabilities. We get baseline data on mobility and stability to gauge how much time and effort it will take to reach their goals, which, as mentioned, is very often a desire to increase their swing speed and drive it longer off the tee. Are they able to control their joints and create tension where they need it? Do they have good joint integrity? Can they control their body and space? We use the TPI app to prescribe exercises and movements that reinforce the required motion of the golf swing. Golfers must be able to stabilize the pelvis, the trunk and the shoulders. At our facility, we have a variety of tools to facilitate these efforts – bands, cables, kettlebells and a new Proteus device that we’ll have in a few months.
Bryant Sharifi on the business impact of building speed in the golf swing:
Progress is gauged through re-evaluation and reassessing and making sure the client is progressing through movements that are incrementally more challenging. We use a Foresight GCQuad to attain further baseline data that is reviewed and reanalyzed going forward. We look at ball speed, swing speed, mechanics, mobility, stability and strength. The duration of our programming depends upon the needs of the client. We’ll see them more frequently at the outset and eventually rely on programmed exercises that they’ll do on their own in between sessions. Many of our clients come to us with some degree of proficiency in the matters discussed so far. However, when we have clients – older, less active individuals perhaps – who are starting with fewer attributes than their younger, more in-shape counterparts, we look for the lowest-hanging fruit to attain quantifiable results as quickly as possible. This is among the initial goals of our team when meeting with a first-time client. Lack of hip rotation is often the culprit in restricting the swing of these individuals. We can help deliver a lot of power and speed by increasing the range of motion in their trail hip. What’s going to make the biggest change? That’s the objective when starting. Although the majority of our new clients over the past few years are of a younger demographic, everybody wants to hit the ball farther, regardless of their age, body type or skill level. We strive to deliver those results for all of our clients.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email bryant@performforlifesf.com.
