Maximize your distance with this nifty hockey stick drill

It’s no secret that golfers love themselves some training aids, which are great ways to work on simple fundamentals and get instant feedback.

But you don’t necessarily need to spend a bunch of money in order to reap the benefits of a training aid, with plenty of common products like water bottles or towels more than capable of doing the trick.

Another item that can actually help your golf game? A hockey stick, which can be used to help produce the feeling you need to generate more power in the swing.

But before you just go grab one and start practicing your slap shot, take a look at the video above — which comes from Peter Kostis and Gary McCord’s “Off Their Rockers” podcast, a GOLF Production — where Kostis walks through a simple drill to try when you’re hoping to maximize distance.

Try this hockey stick drill to gain more clubhead speed

As Kostis says in the video, every golfer seeks more distance, whether that’s with the driver off the tee or with irons on approach shots.

“Everybody wants to hit it farther and everybody wants more clubhead speed, but how do you get it? It’s a combination of learning how to swing the club faster and learning how to stop your body,” Kostis says.

So what’s that mean? Instead of swaying or improperly transferring your weight, Kostis says you need to learn how to distribute energy to the right parts of your body at the right time in the golf swing.

“If you can’t slow your body down to transfer the speed to the clubhead, you’re not going to get maximum distance,” he adds.

This is where using a hockey stick can be a beneficial training aid, according to Kostis. It’s actually something he accidentally discovered years ago while using his kid’s old equipment.

“I took one of my son’s goalie sticks, I cut it off, and I started using a wall,” Kostis explains. “I learned how to swing the stick back and come back to hit the wall flush. As I did that, I could start to feel my body jump up and rotate, but break, which let the whole hockey stick come flush against the wall — [which is] the key to maximizing your distance.”

Whether you use a hockey stick and a foam wall or something similar, Kostis says this movement is a great feeling drill.

“If you come through and hit the upper part of the hockey stick [against the wall], you’re not going to get maximum speed,” he adds. “So you don’t even have to have a hockey stick and a wall, you can use a cardboard box or an impact bag.

“The key is to learn how to get all the way back [in your backswing], turned, come forward, and then learn to break at impact. This allows my body to react to what I want to do with this stick, and then once I get that feeling, I can take a golf club and get the same sense of clearing, rotating, and breaking at impact.”

To hear more from Kostis and McCord, you can listen to the entire episode below.

Nick Dimengo

Golf.com Editor