Rory McIlroy: Power source
Pound for pound, Rory McIlroy is the most powerful player in the game. How does he do it? Incredible hip speed and flawless swing sequencing.
Let’s keep things simple. Rory McIlroy hits the ball a long way because he gets great clubhead speed with his driver. Now let’s get complicated. It’s the hip bone connected to the thigh bone and the thigh bone connected to the knee bone and the… wait a moment, maybe we need a computer. At the Titleist Performance Institute in California they have one. What they weren’t prepared for though, were the read outs when McIlroy popped over there to hit balls.
As his club made contact with the ground, so did the jaws of the technicians. “We knew Rory was fast,” said Dave Phillips from TPI, “but when we plugged him into our software, we couldn’t believe our eyes. His downswing hip speed redlined at 717 degrees per second.”
No one has hip speed like that, this was breaking new territory. The guys at Titleist had been accustomed to logging speeds more in the mid 500 range. They had never registered numbers like this. “His freakish – and that’s putting it lightly – lower body action is the reason why Rory can drive it past everyone but the very longest in the field.”
He might only be 5ft 9in tall, but his hips move from 49° closed nearing the top of the backswing, to 62° open at impact and that, say the experts, is off the scale. The average for a Tour pro comes in at 30° closed to 48° open. But wait a minute, this isn’t just about hip speed. In the golf swing transition, with elite players like McIlroy, the lower body starts to turn back even before the club has reached the top of the backswing. This action creates torque (resistance) between the lower body and upper body, which helps to lag the club, storing energy and power.
Many golfers try and increase their power by looking at someone like McIlroy and trying to emulate his fast hips. There is a problem though. When the hips fire from the top of the backswing, the torso, then arms, then club need to fi re even faster to catch up. If they don’t, the club will get left behind. So equally as impressive as McIlroy’s hip speed is the fact that his torso and arm speed is also incredibly fast to catch those hips. Trying to swing the club like McIlroy would be an impossible dream for most people. But there are aspects to the McIlroy move that are worth remembering. Many amateur golfers focus on their swing path or plane on the downswing, but this is dictated by how you use your lower body. So, if you’re looking for an inside path to the ball, you must learn to disassociate your hips from your torso.
You can try a simple test by setting up in posture and crossing your arms across your chest. Can you rotate your hips back and forth without moving your torso? Remember, rotary back and forth not side to side. If you can do this without moving your torso, you have the ability to create separation like McIlroy.
