Part Three: Transfer Training
Welcome to the third and final article in our Offseason Training series: Transfer Training! If you haven’t checked out Part One or Part Two yet, definitely start there
Together, these build the foundation for the final piece: transfer training.
Three Connected Pieces of Offseason Training
As we wrap up the series, the goal for today is to talk about implementing transfer training, which is the final piece of the puzzle. It is important to think of your offseason program as three connected pieces:
- Strength and power training – building the “engine” you’ll rely on during the season.
- Mobility training – Reducing aches, improving movement quality, and supporting the strength you’ve built by making sure you’re able to express power through a wider range of motion.
- Transfer training – Taking the gains you’ve made in other areas and repatterning movement based on swing inefficiencies to make sure you’re seeing progress on the course!
By putting all three together, you’ll head into the next golf season stronger, more mobile, and better prepared to play your best.
What is Transfer Training?
Strength, power, and your ability to rotate are all incredibly important for increasing distance and consistency in your golf game. However, they don’t tell the entire story. Very often what we see is that even as golfers make gains in these areas, distance doesn’t really change immediately. This is where transfer training comes in!
Transfer training bridges that gap by helping off-course improvements transfer to on-course performance.
Think of it like a car:
- Strength training: The engine (horsepower)
- Mobility training: The transmission (express power effectively)
- Transfer training: Steering and control (direct power efficiently into your swing)
Transfer training is especially important in the offseason to:
- Reduce “swing rust” in early rounds
- Reinforce efficient movement patterns
- Keep you moving consistently throughout winter
A strong transfer program starts with understanding your swing tendencies and physical limitations.
Common Swing Issues
Through our research, we have identified that there are four groups of golfers consistent across all age groups:
- Above-average power + above-average mobility – Highest club head speed.
These are consistently the golfers with the highest club head speed!
2. Average power + above-average mobility – Slightly slower swings due to lower power output.
This group of golfers is generally going to have relatively high club head speed, but because their power metrics are lower than group 1, they are going to tend to swing a bit slower and might lose distance to their peers.
3. Average power + below-average mobility – Struggle to translate power into swing; slower club speed.
These golfers are going to struggle to connect their power with their swing and will tend to swing even slower than group 2.
4. Below-average power – Limited engine, requires intense strength work for distance.
This group of golfers are going to have an engine that isn’t capable of producing a lot of horsepower, so they are going to really struggle to create distance without some intense strength work.
As you can see, the foundation of everything is strength work; if you are stronger, you are generally going to hit the ball farther than someone who isn’t quite as strong. But once your power output is at least at an acceptable level, mobility is the next piece that will help you continue to gain. This is because when mobility is compromised, you’re going to have trouble creating an efficient, reproducible swing, leading to power leaks and inconsistent contact. Throughout the rest of this article, we’re going to cover four common swing inefficiencies and how to fix them.
Addressing Common Swing Inefficiencies
Early Extension
One of the most common swing inefficiencies is early extension, or loss of posture in the downswing. Early extension is what happens when you lose posture as you start the downswing, resulting in the trail hip pushing towards the ball instead of rotating through towards the target.
From a physical perspective, the primary contributors to early extension are lack of mobility and/or strength through the spine, hips, and hamstrings. A simple test of mobility of the entire posterior chain is a toe touch test. Stand with your feet together, and lean forward while keeping your knees completely extended to see if you can touch your toes. If you aren’t quite getting there, it is a good indicator that you lack the mobility to be able to stay down and maintain a hinged posture while swinging, which forces you into early extension. This also directly contributes to loss of power in the swing. In fact, our research has shown that on average, golfers that can touch their toes are able to swing 6 mph faster than golfers who can’t.
To eliminate early extension, the primary focus should be improving hinge strength using exercises like the RDL and improving hamstring mobility to the point you are able to touch your toes. As you are making improvements in these areas, your transfer training should focus around repatterning the swing to reinforce the feeling of staying in posture and rotating the hips at the same time. Below is a sample program to warm up your hips and practice rotating through the swing without early extending.
| Exercise | Sets | Time or Reps |
| Brush the Ground | 2 | 10 |
| Head on Wall Drill | 2 | 10 |
| Early Extension Drill | 3 | 5 |
Weight Shift
If you’re noticing that your weight doesn’t shift like it should in the swing, or maybe that you’re swaying or sliding in your swing, a structured transfer training program can go a long way towards helping you use the ground more effectively to create distance. Most commonly, the issue at play here is the hips lacking internal rotation, which we covered in part 2 of this series. If your hips aren’t rotating as well as they should be, you will tend to have a hard time turning while shifting weight, resulting in a sway into the backswing and a slide in the downswing. This creates losses in power, low back pain, inconsistent contact, and a host of other issues.
To improve the mechanics of the weight shift, we need to first mobilize the hips, and then incorporate transfer drills to help access that newfound range of motion and get you to feel what it’s like when weight is transferred efficiently. Below is a sample program designed to increase hip internal rotation and practice the weight shift!
| Exercise | Sets | Time or Reps |
| Seated FR Internal Rotations | 3 | 10 |
| Hip Disassociation with Pattern Assist | 3 | 10 |
| Penguin Walks | 3 | 10 |
| Swing Heel Pressure | 3 | 10 |
Reverse Spine Angle
If you notice that you are having trouble keeping your eye on the ball at the top of your backswing, you may have developed a reverse spine angle. A reverse spine angle is what happens when you start to bend your spine towards your target line at the top of your backswing. From a face on view, your body makes more of a “C” shape. What we’ve observed is that this often comes from stiffness in your neck through rotation and flexion. As a simple test to check this, you can sit in a chair, rotate your head as far as you can to your lead side, trying to get your chin parallel to your shoulder. From there, turn your head down and try to touch your chin to your collarbone.
The key here isn’t actually the neck, but the trunk. While the neck muscles are minor contributors in the swing, we have seen that there is an interaction between a golfer’s lead side neck rotation and their trail side trunk rotation and the relationship to club head speed. This makes sense, because if you are trying to rotate your torso into your backswing and your ability to turn your neck to keep eyes on the ball is limiting that move, most golfers aren’t going to shorten their backswing – they’re going to move their body to accommodate. This is where the reverse spine angle comes into play!
To fix the problem, the number one thing we have to do is mobilize the muscles in the neck, and then rotate the trunk while practicing maintaining posture. Below is a sample program designed to open up your neck rotation and build capacity through your neck muscles, increase your trunk rotation and maintain a consistent swing plane with a stable head to fix the reverse spine angle!
| Exercise | Sets | Time or Reps |
| Neck Rotation PNF Stretch | 3 | :10 |
| Neck Circles | 2 | 10 |
| DB Shrugs | 3 | 10 |
| Chest to Wall Drill | 3 | 10 |
Over the Top Swing
If your shoulders are lacking external rotation, it is very likely that if you look down the line, you’ll see an over the top swing as you move through your transition into the downswing. Instead of dropping the club into the slot and moving through a consistent swing path, you’ll come in too steep. This creates a massive loss of power, and also creates an environment that will lead to more swipes at the ball instead of solid contact, leading to bigger misses and shorter drives.
There are a few potential ways to fix the over the top move depending on what’s causing it. As a good rule of thumb, to improve your over the top swing, you want to focus heavily on the trail shoulder’s external rotation. But even once the external rotation is good, very frequently golfers will need some repatterning work to stay in a good swing plane and also reinforce what it feels like to keep the trail arm in the slot when moving through at game speed. In the sample program below, there are a couple of movement drills to increase your external rotation as well as a whoosh drill to reinforce good trail shoulder mechanics through the transition and the downswing!
| Exercise | Sets | Time or Reps |
| Shoulder Rotation PNF Stretch | 3 | :10 |
| Shoulder CARs | 2 | 10 |
| Backswing Plane Drill | 2 | 10 |
| Trail Side Whoosh Drill | 3 | 10 |
Recap: Key Takeaways for Golf Offseason Training
In summary, the most important things you can do to make next golf season even better than this year is to focus on increasing your power output through targeted strength training, improving your mobility through identifying and addressing movement limitations, and using your time away from the course to work on fixing inefficiencies in your swing through thoughtful transfer training.
To make the most of your offseason, start by completing a performance golf assessment to identify areas for improvement, and consider contacting our team for personalized guidance.
By focusing on these three pillars, you’ll enter the next season stronger, more mobile, pain-free, and ready to score lower.
