Welcome back to Stock Shot Secrets, the podcast where passionate golfers like you and I hone our craft to achieve a consistent, reliable stock shot. I’m Kyle Morris, your host, and today we're diving deep into a topic that's been buzzing in the golf community: ground force. You might've heard the term thrown around, but what does it actually mean? How can you use ground force to add more distance to your swing, just like the pros? In this episode, we’ll break it down step-by-step. Plus, we’ll discuss practical drills and actionable tips that you can implement right away. And if you’ve ever wondered how smaller players like Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler can hit the ball so far, you’re in for a treat. Ready to transform your game? Let’s get started.

00:00 Balance weight: 55% lead foot, 80% trail foot.

04:34 Focus on weight distribution for effective backswing.

10:11 Measure swing speed, improve technique and strength.

13:13 Improve swing speed with targeted training programs.

15:16 Explore ground force tips at thegolffromeverywhere.com.

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/paradise-island

License code: EGCL4LAT2URKBLYU

Copyright 2024 Kyle Morris

So the big question is this, how do passionate golfers like you and I develop a stock shot day in and day out? A stock shot that's as reliable as the sun coming up in the morning. That's the question, and this podcast is the answer. Welcome to Stock Shot Secrets. Alright. So on our community text line, you guys can text any question you want. I got a question from 1 of our, members, Matt. And Matt Friend says, he says, in the text line, he said, Kyle, first, thanks for all that you do. I love watching your tips.

Would you be able to do a little video discussing some ground force, how they happen, and how you do it correctly? Right now, as a sidebar, if any of you guys wanna join our text line, all you gotta do is just if you go, you know, to even text right now, 614-541-1989, then you can text in questions and we can talk and, like, I'm literally, like, the one, like, answering the questions and so on and so forth. So that's 614-541-1989, and then we can kinda converse back and forth. But how what are ground forces? Because I mean, that term gets thrown around a lot. And like, what in the heck does that even mean? Right? It's kind of a new thing. I mean, it's not new in the fact of the it's not like the ground was just invented. Right? I mean, you had even players like Jack Nicklaus said, like, the for him, like, he felt he felt his swing through his feet. He built his swing from the ground up. Right? So, like, you've heard people talk about this, but this whole idea of ground force is something that's super popular.

1 of my teachers just got back from the Title's Performance Institute, and I was like, hey, how was the conference? He's like, good. It was all about ground force. So what is ground force? So ground force is really you pushing against the ground and using the ground nearly as like a trampoline for your swing. And if you think about or not if you think about it, but that's how these players, guys like Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler and all those tour players that are basically like my size, which is not very big. Right? Like, they're like 57, and they pound it. So the question is is how do you use the ground to maximize the force to create what I would call a force multiplier on your swing? So this will be easier, like, for those that are watching this on YouTube, when we talk about it. Because I can kinda show you with my hands. Right? So I got my trail foot and my lead foot.

Right? So in our setup, right, first just talking about we're gonna talk a lot about the ground in our feet. In our setup, we wanna have about 55% in our lead foot at setup. Now the reason we wanna do that is because it allows us to set in motion the energy, kind of like a like a boat, to get the energy and the force to start, like, to be able to be applied. So if we're starting with a 55% in our lead foot at setup, as we take the club back and then when we're taking the club back, we wanna feel like, the analogy that I always use is, like, the club is in a like, basically in quicksand, and I'm trying to rip it out of this the quicksand. Right? So the like Bryson DeChambeau, the tip that he gives him well, that he gives himself and that he would give, like, the recreational golfer is he would say, if you're trying to hit it far, make your backswing faster. So what he's saying there is that when you take your backswing and your weight's on your lead foot, so it's in your lead foot and then you're ripping it out of the ground, what's happening there is you're doing that. And as I rip it on the or out of the ground, my pressure is going from my lead foot to my trail foot. Right? So when my lead arm is parallel in the backswing, right, so it's like, you know, parallel with the ground, I wanna have 80% of the pressure into my trail foot.

But there's a difference, my friends, through there's a difference between pressure and mass. So mass is like, if you're watching this, this is me moving my shadow around. So when you move your shadow around, that's moving your mass. So we can move our pressure. Pressure is like me pushing on the table here and pushing down. I am applying pressure down. So I have pressure and mass. So we, in the backswing, we are going to be moving our mass a little bit.

Maybe that's like another episode for another time. But we mostly, as we're trying to move our pressure from our left foot to our right foot. So as I take it back, one way you could feel this is if you set up. And literally, this is one of my keys right now in my swing, is I will feel like at my set up, like, I'm a little bit more in my left heel, my lead foot, and a little bit more in my right toe. So like my my that you know, that's kinda like my weight distribution. So it's 55, 45 front to back, but then it's more left heel and right toe. So that when I go back, I'm going to feel like I'm slamming my right heel into the ground to create that ground force in my backswing. Because we want force in our backswing as well.

Right? So as I take it back and I slam that thing down and I get 80% of pressure into my lead foot, And this is where you guys wanna pay attention because the people who are like, I don't have any lag and I chunk it and, like, I don't need it far. This is why. Because now as I enter the backswing and I've got that 80%, I start to shift towards the target. And it's the change in direction that creates the lag in the shaft. Right? Just like whipping a towel, lag is an effect. It is not the cause. The cause is the change in direction. So if you don't have any lag, any whip, you flip it at the bottom, so on and so forth.

The reason is because you don't have a dynamic change in direction. Right? So as I'm going back, I'm slamming my right heel on the ground. It feels like my right my trail foot is like corkscrewing into the ground. Right? Then as I enter the top, I'm changing directions which creates the lag. And as I'm doing that, that change in direction is me now putting pressure down into my trail foot or not not my trail foot. Sorry. My lead foot. So as I went back, I had 80% of the pressure in my in my trail foot at left arm parallel.

Then in my downswing, when the shaft when my left arm is parallel again and the shaft is basically vertical, I have 80% of the pressure in my left foot. So it goes 80 on the backswing at left arm parallel, lead arm. Then 80 in the downswing at lead arm parallel. Right? So now, what ends up happening is now I'm in the downswing. The shaft is vertical, and I have pressure into my lead side. Now, as I have transitioned into my lead side, your mass will move. Many amateurs get that wrong. They go, I don't think I should I need to keep super still.

And it's like, no no no no no no. Like and this isn't a Kyle Morrisism. This is just the science. As I go up to the top, your pelvis should shift, like, 5, 6 inches towards the target. Like, it moves a lot. Right? And your chest is going to move in front of the ball. That allows you to hit down and hit hit the ball first along with the lag. Right? Just so you know.

Right? That's a little bit on the mass side. That's probably, like I said, probably a a different podcast for a different day. But as I take it back, right, I put pressure to my trail foot, then I shift dynamically into my lead foot. So now I have a left arm parallel. I have this. And now as I'm doing that, what ends up happening is if you can think about this like if you can think about a clock. Right? The clock swings back and forth like a pendulum. And if it was doing this or if I was swinging a golf club.

Right? Like I was holding the grip up and the club was swinging back and forth. Right? Kinda like a like a like a clock. Right? If I pulled the handle up, the club will go faster and it'll go like the clock would go all the way up and around, you know, all the way up. It wouldn't just be a pendulum back and forth. It would go all the way up when I pulled the handle up. So what why that's important to understand as a visual is that as I have shifted into my lead side, right, at that 80 and have 80% of the pressure on my lead side in my downswing. Now, I'm pushing up out of the ground as fast as I can because that's me pulling up on the handle. And when I pull up on the handle, the club goes down, which allows me to hit down onto the golf ball.

But then it creates a force multiplier at the bottom to where now I'm creating more speed at the bottom. Right? And that is all an element of how basically, how high you can jump. Hey, guys. I hope you are enjoying this episode of the Stock Shot Secrets podcast. If you are enjoying it, be sure to like this episode. Be sure to subscribe so you can always see when they are coming out. And most importantly, if you would be so kind to be able to share this podcast with other passionate golfers who are trying to get better and build Stock Shot because it grows through you sharing it. Thank you so much for tuning in.

And now back to Stock Shot Secrets. Right? So when you when you come to the golf room and you were to do like an experience at the golf room. Right? Or just any lesson for that matter, right, like, all of our lessons do this right now because it's mostly all membership based, is we wanna do some power testing. And the power testing allows us to see how much force can this guy really apply or girl. Right? So we're gonna measure, for example, how much you can do an overhead throw. Right? And that's measuring your core strength and the sequencing of being able to create speed. Right? We're also going to do a chest throw on a bench where we sit down and we throw a medicine ball and see how far that goes. And then the 3rd test will be, we will measure how high you can jump.

And with those measurements, we can tell you pretty much within a couple miles an hour how much speed should you produce in your swing. And then that's a determination of, like, okay. Is this a job for Lindsay and Aaron for them to make the player get faster because they just aren't that strong? Or is this a job of the coaches because they're they don't they should swing it at a 110, they swing it at 95, and they just don't have a proper technique to hit it as far as they should. Right? But the ground force piece is like when I'm doing that and I'm going back to the left, now it's a matter of how much I can pull out of the ground. And this, my friends, is why players can't do, like, a hit and hold. Right? A hit and hold meaning, like, you hit the ground and then you basically turn and match it up and almost like the like the like hitting, like, knock down punch stingers. And the reason that is is because they don't know how to apply the force into the ground and they're you and use the ground correctly. Because, like, if I'm doing a hit and hold, I can do it where I'm nearly not even holding the club.

Like, I'm not we're not doing hit and holds to train our hands. When we do a hit and hold, we're really training how to use the ground so that we're up using it from to maximize the force and really, like, create those force multipliers. Right? So and with the ground force. Right? Like, you kinda have 3 main types of, we'll say, ground pressures. You have what's called a horizontal, like, rotate like a rotation force, which is basically how much you can turn and torque. Then you've got a lateral force. So that is how fast you can shift from right to left. Think of like Barry Sanders or like a running back.

And the more that you can, like the quicker you can go from your lead foot to your trail foot and then back to your lead foot, that would create how much lag you can create in the shaft. Right? Then you've got the horizontal force. That's what we just talked about. That's your ability to then, you know, go left to right to left and turn. So that's the horizontal force. Right? Which is really, really important too. Because then that allows you to kinda like bring the club and like swing it back around. And then the third one would be the vertical force.

And that's the one where we talk about jumping. But usually, most people are really, really good at 2 or 3 of 2 of them, and they need to work on the 3rd. And that's really across the board. So you have some people who most people are either like their spinners and they can rotate really well, and they can have some verticals. But they do but they lack, the like the lateral force. Then you have some that do like me, for example. I'm very good with the lateral force, and I'm good with the rotational force. But I am not good with the vertical force.

Right? Unfortunately, I can never touch the net in basketball. My vertical sucks. So with that, I lose speed, and I never was like a very far hitter because of the fact of I never learned how to jump higher, right, to create that max speed at the bottom. And and the the nice part is is that speed is one of those things where you can train it, and it can get it can get dramatically better with some effort with great products like, you know, the like super speed programs or the stack program. But you're trying to learn how to make your body go fast. And and when you learn how to make it go fast, your swing can actually get better because there's a difference between swinging it hard and swinging it fast. Swinging it hard is when we try to do it with, like, our big muscles and we're spinning our chest. Swinging it fast is using our arms and our legs and our torque.

Right? So that you can create a the max velocity on the club head. And that's how you have players like Rory and, you know, these smaller guys who just pound it. Right? And, it allows them to hit it really, really far. So hopefully, that kind of, like, lets you understand a little bit about the about how it is. I mean, this was one of actually probably the earliest lessons I ever got, not on ground force, of course. It was it was a lot easier than that. But as a kid, the first instruction that I ever got, it wasn't in person, it was actually from Harvey Penick and the little red book. And it was a video series with Harvey Penick, Tom Kite, and Ben Crenshaw.

I should see if I could find this. It'd be great to go back and watch this. But, that was the first lesson I ever got. And I would go in my basement, and I would just watch that video on repeat over and over and over and over again. And I remember Harvey Penick saying, okay, you need to just go left, right, left. Left, right, left. And that was one of my early swing thoughts as like a 7, 8 year old's a 7 or 8 year old was going left foot, right foot, left foot. Left foot, right foot, left foot.

Right? So that would be maybe the cadence of you can maybe even use that as like some of your, intentions that you're paying attention to on the course. And then that way, you could try to work on some of that ground force. So that might be a way to apply it. But, you know, we've got a ton of stuff inside of, like, our our drill flicks, which is a cool thing we just came out with where we basically took all the tips I've ever said, all the videos, Instagram videos, basically organize it all in the category categories. Sorry. Categories so that you can like learn. So if you did have more questions on ground force, there's like there's stuff in there about that. So, you can be sure to go check that out at thegolffromeverywhere.com.

So, but hopefully, this helps you. Matt, thank you so much for your question. And like I said, if any of you do guys want to join, our text line, that number is 614-541-1989. So you can just text that, and then you can get in some of the updates. We'll send cool deals and promotions out there. And you're texting, like, directly with me. So give it give it a rip. And we will see you.

Hopefully, I'll be texting with you soon. But take care, and I'll see you guys back here next for the next time. Hey, guys. Thank you so much for listening to the latest episode of Stock Shot Secrets. Now, as a listener of Stock Shot Secrets, I wanna make sure that you have the opportunity to get better. So if you were to go to stock shotclub.com, I'm going to give you 7 days free access where you can send us your video, and we will give you personalized individual attention as to what you need to do so that you can start building stock shots. So just go to stock shot club.com and register there. We'll give you 7 days free where you can try it.

And then if we like it, you can stay inside the Stock Shot Club where we can become your coach and walk with you for your entire journey. Thank you so much, and be sure to go visit stockshotclub.com.