I have a member who’s been putting in real work at the range, extra sessions, buckets of balls, chasing a faster swing. Months went by and the number on his launch monitor barely moved. If anything, a few weeks it dipped slightly. He was doing everything right, or so it looked, and getting nowhere.
Hitting balls trains timing, not power
Repetition at the range builds consistency, sequencing, and feel. It’s genuinely valuable. What it doesn’t do much of is build the actual capacity to produce force quickly, the rotational power that turns a technically sound swing into a faster one. Swing speed is a power output. Ball-striking practice is a skill practice. They overlap less than most people assume.
More reps just grooves the same ceiling deeper
Without something actually training the body’s ability to generate and transfer rotational force, more range time just reinforces whatever power ceiling is already there. The technique gets cleaner. The number stays put. It’s not a motivation problem or a technique problem, it’s a training stimulus that was never actually asking the body to get more powerful.
What actually worked
We added a short rotational power block twice a week, medicine ball rotational throws, jump variations, tempo work through the hips and torso, nothing that touched a golf club directly. Loaded and progressed the same way any other strength quality gets built.
Ten weeks in, his swing speed is up several miles per hour, and it happened without adding a single extra bucket of balls.
Small aside: figuring out when a plateau needs more skill practice versus more power development is exactly the kind of call the Bio-Performance Engine works through before building a plan, golf swing or otherwise.
Ramses
Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor
CoachNexus Founder