Distance potential is determined by vertical jump

tahoebum

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
19,228
Reaction score
13,094
Location
MN and FL
Handicap
1.9
I find this video very interesting and this data makes perfect sense to me. When I was in my early 20's(and longer) I had a 28" vertical jump and now it's more like 18". The longest PGA Tour hitters have a much larger vertical jump and the long drive champs are at another level. Obviously there are golfers that are exceptions to this rule(Phil's jump, lol) but the general correlation between vertical jump and hitting it far is real.

I love the discussion about squatting on the backswing and "jumping" or lifting as you approach impact.

 
FYI, just because you have big calves doesn't mean you can jump high either. Personal experience. :ROFLMAO:
 
Interesting. Thanks.
 
Interesting. Since I only have one functional leg I guess I am not going to be hitting 300+ yards anytime soon. It obviously makes perfect sense, just not really thought about.
 
There's a reason vertical jump is still used to determine performance potential in various sports.

I was actually working on my 'ground reaction force' (vertical jump applied to the swing) he talks about just yesterday at the range. It's always tough for me because my jacked up lower body parts don't love to squat and rotate at all, much less simultaneously. It definitely adds to distance potential when properly applied though.

My sister and I were very good competitive jumpers in our youth. BTW - randomly bringing up summers at Jump Camp still gets hilarious reactions to this day. Lol I honestly feel that despite countless roofs and tile jobs and the like on my decrepit knees I can/could still jump more impressively than I can generate speed with a golf club, because there are just less total decrepit/broken parts involved. Would have been interesting to see what I could have done with one back then with the kind of swing work I put in now.
 
This explains a lot.
 
The pulling of the butt of the club inward and upward, at impact was proven to increase clubhead velocity.
It was coined, Parametric Acceleration. Ref Miura 2001

"the pull motion increases the kinetic energy and eventually velocity of the clubhead"

https://waddengolfacademy.com/biomechanics/Muira_Parametric_Acceleration.pdf

Something to ponder, why TPI would not mention Parametric acceleration in relation to "jumping"
and TPI is still perpetuating the myth that power comes from the lower body.
The planet Earth continues to spin on its axis for millions of years, due to its momentum, not power.

You would think the experts at TPI would explain difference between Power and Momentum.
 
Last edited:
The pulling of the butt of the club inward and upward, at impact was proven to increase clubhead velocity.
It was coined, Parametric Acceleration. Ref Miura 2001

"the pull motion increases the kinetic energy and eventually velocity of the clubhead"

https://waddengolfacademy.com/biomechanics/Muira_Parametric_Acceleration.pdf

Something to ponder, why TPI would not mention Parametric acceleration in relation to "jumping"

I've heard the parametric accleration term long ago but forgot about it soon after. For the way I learn the above video is easy to understand and helpful. I went to the indoor Trackman simulator this morning and focused on implementing a bit more vertical "jumping" force through the ball and picked up about 3 mph of driver clubhead speed with no reduction in smash factor over my session on the same simulator two days ago.

My driver spin also jumped about 1,000 rpm to 3,600 (I never felt like that HZRDUS RDX Blue was a good fit) so it looks like I'm going to have to bring some the shafts I have lying around to the simulator and get my launch conditons dialed over the long winter. I really appreciate having regular access to an accurate LM for the first time in my life. :)
 
Something tells me John Daly was not much of a high jumper..
 
FYI, just because you have big calves doesn't mean you can jump high either. Personal experience. :ROFLMAO:

Generally it means the opposite.. Look at NBA players.. Bird legs..
 
I think I am an exception to the rule! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: 0 jumping ability!
 
Something tells me John Daly was not much of a high jumper..

Daly is a solid pick for even refusing to try a vertical jump unless a bottle of Vodka was way up high on a shelf. ;)

I was thinking Craig Stadler as a pefect exception that proves the rule. :)

Screen Shot 2021-11-11 at 1.13.52 PM.png
 
I find this video very interesting and this data makes perfect sense to me. When I was in my early 20's(and longer) I had a 28" vertical jump and now it's more like 18". The longest PGA Tour hitters have a much larger vertical jump and the long drive champs are at another level. Obviously there are golfers that are exceptions to this rule(Phil's jump, lol) but the general correlation between vertical jump and hitting it far is real.

I love the discussion about squatting on the backswing and "jumping" or lifting as you approach impact.



Explain Phil?
 
I've heard the parametric accleration term long ago but forgot about it soon after. For the way I learn the above video is easy to understand and helpful. I went to the indoor Trackman simulator this morning and focused on implementing a bit more vertical "jumping" force through the ball and picked up about 3 mph of driver clubhead speed with no reduction in smash factor over my session on the same simulator two days ago.

My driver spin also jumped about 1,000 rpm to 3,600 (I never felt like that HZRDUS RDX Blue was a good fit) so it looks like I'm going to have to bring some the shafts I have lying around to the simulator and get my launch conditons dialed over the long winter. I really appreciate having regular access to an accurate LM for the first time in my life. :)
Entrepreneurs in America are very good at making up easy to understand explanations for consumption by the masses,
who dont care or have no ability to discriminate whether it is science based or not.
exhibit A: Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes

Parametric acceleration was a peer reviewed scientific paper. Anyone can rip off the summary and fill in their own make believe explanation.
 
This all makes sense. I suppose i should've played golf in college when i was playing hoops though LOL. Woulda hit it a lot further!
 
What about all the big guys who can’t jump 4 inches? And pound the ball. Correlation is not causation.
 
I'm not even been surprised. As a football obsessive, vertical jump has long been a great way to measure explosive potential, even for guys like defensive ends who don't actually jump anywhere.

To state the obvious... if we're trying to play any sport, and we don't have a motor handy, our power in that sport is limited to the muscles we have. The leg muscles are the strongest of any of them. How fast you can unlock your greatest source of strength will be a good proxy for performance in almost anything athletic.

I would say that clubhead speed in golf comes down to a combo of quick twitch leg drive, and high flexibility to achieve big shoulder/leg splits and wide clubhead arcs. Flexibility might even be more important than leg drive, as the length of the club will naturally generate more leverage for you if you can rotate it further. But either way, those are #1 and #2.

Explain Phil?

We've seen Phil's vert before and it's not exactly great. But what you don't see is that he has some pretty freaky flexibility. Here he is kicking a water bottle off Zach Johnson's head at age 48.

 
Last edited:
I think what’s being missed is that while those players may have above average physical abilities, their freakish accuracy is what separates them from the best amateurs - many of whom have similar physical abilities, IMO.

Not arguing the importance and advantage of distance nor am I arguing the science behind the video, but those pga tour pros who cannot jump 20” make a decent living as well and most of them crush the ball by most of our standards. They get the most out of their abilities by developing the best swings in the world.
 
I won't/can't debate the data but building vertical jump comes from years of practice and has relationship to fast twitch muscle fibers as I recall. I was a basketball player and around 32 inches at one time. When I started doing regular squats and bulking up it hurt my verticle. Notice the guy jumping over a hurdle bar. That is the kind of activity to build verticle jump. Good for those less then 30 years of age maybe.
 
I find this video very interesting and this data makes perfect sense to me. When I was in my early 20's(and longer) I had a 28" vertical jump and now it's more like 18". The longest PGA Tour hitters have a much larger vertical jump and the long drive champs are at another level. Obviously there are golfers that are exceptions to this rule(Phil's jump, lol) but the general correlation between vertical jump and hitting it far is real.

I love the discussion about squatting on the backswing and "jumping" or lifting as you approach impact.


Yep, DJ comes to mind. As I posted in another thread it was said he could stand under the basket and dunk a basketball back in his younger days. That is a sweet vertical. I bet some volleyball players could smack a golf ball (if they learned the swing) as they have serious verticals. I remember one of the highest was somewhere about 40" which is ridiculous when you think about it. There is a Cuban volleyball player that has a 50" vertical and is 6' 5" tall. Strong legs right there.
 
Standing vertical jump is a test of neuromuscular efficiency. Being more neuromuscularly efficient means better potential to move quickly.
 
Standing vertical jump is a test of neuromuscular efficiency. Being more neuromuscularly efficient means better potential to move quickly.

The longest guy on my high school golf team was 5’10”, 145 lbs and could easily dunk a basketball. Not all of those with a huge vertical have developed an efficient golf swing, but like in every sport, a strong vertical jump can only help. As a competitive skier in my youth I did box jumps and other lower body exercises during the winter to improve my leg strength and lower body explosiveness and each spring when golf began I was always longer than I was at the end of the summer.

After seeing the video, I’m going to start going heavier on the squats and incorporating box jumps into my gym visits. Just knowing that I need to “jump” coming into impact allowed me to pick up 2-3mph of driver swing speed on the Trackman yesterday vs. Tuesday. I feel kinda foolish for not paying attention to this vertical swing force/movement until recently, golf is a constant learning process and some of us are stubborn and learn slowly. :)
 
Back
Top