The effect of upper body sprint interval training on golf drive performance

Abstract

Improving golf fitness is one way to improve club head velocity and subsequently golf performance. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of a three-week upper-body sprint training (SIT) program on power output and golf performance. Eleven golfers (handicap: 5.5±2.8) completed the SIT intervention. This was a self-controlled experiment with three testing points (pre-control, post-control and post-intervention) where subjects completed a ballistic bench press, upper-body Wingate and golf testing session. Significant improvements were observed (13.3-15.5%) in peak and mean power production during the Wingate post-intervention in comparison to pre- and post-control time points (P<0.05). This was replicated in peak power for the ballistic bench press for both peak power (P<0.05), but significance for mean power was only observed between post-control and post-intervention (P<0.05) (improvements of 6.1-8.5%). These improvements were not seen consistently in golf performance variables measured, with no significance identified for the 7-iron and significant improvements (P<0.05) observed in Carry Distance (2.2%) and Ball Velocity (1.4%) between pre-control and post-intervention. Lack of golf performance improvements could be because of the natural variation in club-head velocity across sessions or the inability of subjects to utilise their power gains during the golf swing. Longer SIT interventions may be needed to observe improvements in golf performance.