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By Sean Cochran
Special to PGATOUR.com

Last week we began to discuss how to utilize golf fitness training to improve your distance off the tee box. This week we will continue on with this topic and discuss the second category of golf fitness training to improve this aspect of your game.

GET TO KNOW SEAN COCHRAN

Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA TOUR regularly and works with TOUR professionals, most notably Masters and PGA Champion Phil Mickelson.   He has been involved in the production of numerous golf fitness videos and books including Core Golf Fitness. He has authored numerous articles with publication credits in Golf Digest, Sports Illustrated, and Golf Magazine.   In addition to working with Mickelson, Cochran has worked with LPGA Champion Hee Won Han, U.S. Open Champion Corey Pavin, world-renowned golf instructor Rick Smith and short game expert Dave Pelz.   Cochran continues to speak at seminars and clinics around the country on golf fitness. In his free time he enjoys golf and surfing. He resides in Del Mar, Calif.   To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs,  click here • Training tips archive,  click here • Off-season workout,  click here • Set-up exercises,  Click here • Tightness?  Here's your help

As discussed previously, tee shots -- especially those hit with your driver -- tend to be the area where most amateurs want to improve. It is also the area of the game where many amateurs struggle.

The reasons for difficulties in this part of the game can be explained through the swing mechanics entailed with hitting driver. Generally speaking, driver requires you to draw the club through a long range of motion on the correct swing plane. This results in a greater number of possibilities for compensations to occur -- an oversimplification of the process but ideal for our discussion.

Last week we learned that, in order to execute the mechanics of driver and limit the possibility of compensations, a number of physical components within the body must be development. The first of these is flexibility, which allows you to draw the club through the required range of motion of hitting driver.

The second component and the topic of this article is strength. Just as flexibility allows you to draw the club through the long range of motion required of hitting driver, muscular strength allows you to maintain the anatomical position and spine angle required when hitting driver.

Muscular strength can be defined as the ability of your muscles to exert the required levels of force to execute an athletic movement efficiently and effectively. As it pertains to golf, strength is the ability of your muscles to exert the amount of force needed to execute the mechanics of the golf swing efficiently.

If the body is lacking the required levels of muscular strength for the golf swing compensations will result. The most notable compensations will be viewed as changes in your spine angle and posture. To eliminate the possibility of these compensations from occurring and provide you the opportunity to execute the mechanics of hitting driver effectively, we can utilize golf fitness exercise to build strength within the muscles used in the swing.

These types of exercises will develop the strength within your muscles to maintain a fixed spine angle and the required postural positions of hitting driver, not to mention this type of strength development is the precursor to power development in your swing.

The majority of exercises focused upon developing strength for golf swing center on the core. The core is a reference to an anatomical area of the body in which the majority of movements within the golf swing occur.

Essentially the core is all the structures in the body from just above your knees to just below your chest. It includes all the muscles on the front, back, and sides of your body. Notable muscles found in the core are your glutes, abdominals, obliques, and hamstrings. It is these muscles and many more that make up the core.

So it goes without saying we will want to utilize exercises that develop strength within the musculature of the core. One exercise I often use to achieve this result is standing plate rotations. This is a great exercise to develop strength within the entire core as well as develop the rotational aspect of these muscles.

Begin this exercise by grasping a 10-20 lb. weight plate with both hands. Place your hands in front of your torso, elbows bent, and body set in a proper address position. Rotate your torso to the right while maintaining a fixed spine angle. Continue to rotate until a full shoulder turn is achieved. Pause for one second, return to the starting position of the exercise, and repeat the rotation in the opposite direction. Alternate rotating back and forth for 10-15 repetitions.

Remember it is muscular strength that allows you to maintain a fixed spine angle and the anatomical positions required of hitting driver.