Chapter 10 – Ready For Some Immediately Actionable Tips

Ready to defy your age and gain some more distance off the tee?

I can’t imagine any answer other than YES! Soon I’m going to give you some immediately actionable tips that you can start using NOW to begin your process of actually making a significant improvement in your ability to “make the ball get really small really fast.” Have you ever heard that phrase in relation to golf? It was actually one of my clients who told it to me for the first time. He said it after bragging that he hit a 285 yard drive! Before starting with us he averaged 220 off the tee... “It’s really exciting to make the ball get really small really fast.” I had to think about it for a second but it makes perfect sense! 

But first we need a quick review of why The Berman Method is NOT just another gimmick that might work for some and won’t for most. We must first remember that your overall golf game performance is composed of “4 Pillars”: Mentality, Strategy, Technicality, and Physicality. To better understand the 4 Pillars we used 4 tires on a sports car for an analogy. In order to get the best performance out of the car, you would need to have equal and ample air pressure in all 4 tires.

It should be easy to see that if one tire is running low on air pressure, the car will not perform optimally. 

Mentality is what happens between the ears and is the most difficult of the 4 tires to keep at optimal air pressure.

Strategy is as simple as course management and is the easiest of the 4 tires to keep properly inflated.

Technicality is your actual swing technique (swing plane, grip, weight shifts, etc) and is the 2nd hardest tire to keep properly inflated. This requires coaching from a golf professional and practice. And physicality is the 4th tire on the sports car which is usually the tire with the LEAST amount of air pressure out of all 4 tires! This is the tire that is the simplest to inflate AND maintain optimal air pressure (note I said simplest, not easiest!). 

So by using this example of the sports car, it should be very easy to see that if we simply add more air to the tire on the car that has the lowest air pressure to begin with, the car should perform better overall. How much better depends on how much air we are actually able to put into the physicality tire. 

The Physicality Pillar is simply all about biomechanics which is a fancy word for how much flexibility and strength you have and how you’re able to use that flexibility and strength during a movement (the golf swing). And to be clear, we want to focus on flexibility and strength at very specific areas when we are trying to increase distance off the tee. This is why it’s very simple but not easy to inflate your physicality tire. It’s as simple as improving the flexibility of your thoracic spine and both hip’s internal and external rotations followed by increasing the strength of your core and right glute (left glute for lefties). After improving those 4 areas, it is physically impossible for you to not generate more POWER during your golf swing.

PLEASE pay close attention to what I’m about to say next…

The human body has the ability to improve flexibility and increase strength until the day you die! Please read that sentence again! If you are still breathing, have the ability to move, and the will to get better- you absolutely can improve your flexibility AND strength. At the time of this writing, the oldest person to go through one of our Berman Method Golf Performance Programs was 94 years old and gained 8 more yards after 7 weeks and averaged 12 more yards after 12 weeks with us! I had to put that in there because age is NOT an excuse!

The Berman Method for Golf Performance has such a high success rate of helping golfers over the age of 60 increase distance off the tee because the method uses the laws of physics. Not theories. Not techniques. Not drills. The Berman Method uses straight up laws of physics so as long as you live on Planet Earth, this will work for you. 

Reason being, if you hit the golf ball with more Power, by the definition of Power via the laws of physics- it must go farther! And if you remember from earlier or by doing a quick Google search of the equation for Power you’ll see that Power = Work divided by Time. Work equals the amount of muscles you have performing the task (aka your golf swing) and time is the amount of time it takes to move the club head from the top of your backswing to impact. 

The only way to increase Power is to either increase the amount of Work (muscles) being used or to decrease the amount of Time it takes to get the club head from the top of your backswing to impact (aka swinging faster). By now we can all agree that golfers over the age of 60 generally are not swinging faster so the only other way on this planet to generate more Power is to increase the amount of Work being done! Simple right?

it Actually Takes “Work”

Yes simple but not easy. Reason being because it actually takes “work” to get more muscles to work! It requires you to expend physical energy to “workout” the right muscles in a very sport specific way so that it directly translates into the golf swing. Just because you do a bunch of core and glute exercises that you found on YouTube or Google does not mean that you will be able to generate more Power during your downswing. The exercises must be sport specific and be performed exactly 100% correctly or you might not even be using the right muscles to begin with.

I hear people tell me on a daily basis that I workout 3 days a week with my trainer or I walk 3 miles everyday or probably one of my favorites is I walk the golf course so my legs are strong. Yes I agree that all of those responses are good for overall physicality but none of those answers will directly improve your ability to hit the ball farther off the tee.

Exercise

So now without further ado, I’m going to give you my #1 favorite “exercise” to help wake up and strengthen your core and glute (just the right glute for righties, opposite for lefties). This example will be specifically for righties. I recommend reading through this at least 3 times before attempting these movements, then try them, and then reread these instructions again. Remember, these must be performed exactly 100% correctly or it’s possible that you won’t even be using the right muscles to begin with. It’s ideal to use a 36 inch foam roller for this exercise but you can also substitute a golf club or dowel if needed. You can even watch a video of me demonstrating this movement if you search for The Berman Method on YouTube. 

First take one end of the foam roller and place it against your chest bone. Then take your hands and reach out as far as possible towards the opposite end of the foam roller to grip the foam roller and to help pull it tight against your chest bone keeping your elbows straight. Next you’ll want to get into your golf stance. This will feel awkward.

Now as you keep the foam roller pulled firmly to your chest bone, slowly go into your backswing and pause at the top of your backswing. IMPORTANT: make sure your hands always stay exactly in front of your chest for the entirety of this exercise! Hold this position at the top of your backswing for 5 seconds and then slowly return back to your address position. As you repeat this motion back and forth, I want you to start focusing your attention on your right knee position and your head position. I do not want your right knee to straighten or your head to move much as you go into your backswing. Keep repeating this motion slowly with the 5 second pause at the top of your backswing.

Next I want you to think about pushing your entire right foot through the floor as you go into your backswing and push even harder as you return back to your address position. I want you to envision your entire right foot sinking evenly into the ground meaning I don’t want you to place more pressure through your heel or your toes. If anything, think about placing more pressure through the inside of the middle of your right foot, still keeping in mind that you are visioning your entire foot sink evenly into the ground. 

As you continue to perform these movements, you should start to notice some muscles “waking up” in your right hip/butt area. Sometimes this can take a while so keep doing this motion until you start to “feel it.” This is your right glute and by far the most important muscle required to generate Power in golfers over the age of 60 years old. 

Next I want you to think about taking the foam roller just a little bit farther into your backswing while keeping your hands directly in front of your chest, making sure that you are not letting your head move much, keeping your right knee bent, and thinking about pushing your right foot through the ground. Now you should start to feel some core muscles “waking up.” These muscles are the 2nd most important muscles to generate Power in golfers over the age of 60 years old.

And there you have it, one of the most simple yet effective sport specific exercises you can possibly do to wake up your Power muscles to start the process of hitting the ball farther off the tee AFTER the age of 60! I recommend doing at least 100 repetitions of this movement every day to help jumpstart your brain’s ability to activate those important Power muscles. And no, 100 reps/day is not too many! That shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes max. If you don’t have 5 extra minutes to invest towards increasing your distance off the tee then you shouldn’t be reading this…

As you start to get better at feeling your right glute and core firing through the backswing, into the downswing and ultimately to the impact position, I want you to exchange the foam roller for wedge. NOTE: make sure that your hands stay in front of your chest just like with the foam roller as the natural tendency is to let your hands “wrap around” your body at the end of your backswing. Now start to swing the wedge in more of a real time tempo making sure you can still feel your right glute and core muscles. Once you can successfully do this with the wedge, you are now ready to attempt to try it with the big stick!

Common reasons why this amazing exercise “won’t work” for you:

Final thoughts-

In preparation for writing this material I spent countless hours Googling and YouTubing this topic and found that the overwhelming majority of responses out there are what I consider to be “false prophets.” There’s a ton of people out there who promise the world, specifically to aging golfers, and try to justify it by using fancy words to make it sound like they really know what they are talking about in attempts to convince you that their way is unique and special. In reality, they are all saying LITERALLY the same exact thing using different words. After realizing this, I knew I truly did have something special here with The Berman Method of Golf Performance.

Then I was firmly reassured of this after helping a few Naples head golf professionals increase their clubhead speed and distance with the big stick. I’ll never forget what one of those pros said to me after our first session- “I’ve gone to the best golf academies in the country and had lessons with some of the most renowned teaching professionals in the world who charged me $750 an hour. And nobody has ever communicated these concepts to me in a way where I could immediately feel the difference. Not only immediately feel the difference but actually see it in real time on the screen (on our launch monitor). I’m actually excited about playing the game again!” 

With that said, I’m all about writing things down because once it’s in print it’s that much harder to give up on. My 5 year vision (so by 2027) for The Berman Method of Golf Performance is to be the #1 go-to facility in SW FL specifically for golfers over the age of 60 who want to increase distance off their tee shots. 25 more yards off the tee completely changes the way you play and your overall enjoyment of the game. So cheers to making the ball “get really small really fast!”