We’ve talked for years about how important it is to approach your development as just that, development. It takes time and good old fashioned hard work to build a solid athletic foundation. At GPC, we feel the importance of incorporating Olympic lifts (and their variations) elicits qualities like good quality mobility and stability, body awareness, coordination, proper sequencing, “using the ground”, strength, and speed that are all found in athletes at the highest level.
Understanding that these lifts require a great deal of technique to be executed safely, we spend four to five months coaching our athletes on the steps that make up one exercise in particular that we feel translates directly to improved golf performance; the hang clean. The hang clean starts by the athlete demonstrating a solid hip hinge, before forcefully pushing into the ground to extend the ankles, knees, and hips, then shrugging, and performing a high pull to keep the bar working vertically. The athlete then demonstrates a tremendous amount of speed and coordination to drop under the bar, catching it in a squat (not below parallel at the thigh) and standing up tall with the bar in the rack position to complete the rep.
The cool thing about the hang clean is that it correlates so closely to what is asked of us in our golf mechanics. The golf swing is a very explosive, technical move that requires a great deal of mobility, stability, coordination, proper sequencing, and speed. All qualities that are enhanced by using the ground more efficiently! We know that putting in work in the gym is necessary to transferring that increased strength and power into your golf swing and this is a great way to do just that.
Normally I’d recommend you give this exercise a shot, however, due to the complexity of the lift and the risk of injury, not today. If you are interested in learning more feel free to reach out to us directly here at GPC or find a coach in your area who can help you master each step that goes into learning this lift safely.
