What a running start can teach you about balance, sequencing, and speed
Fit for Play
The Happy Gilmore
Effect
What a running start can teach you about balance, sequencing, and speed
W
HEN FORMER HOCKEY PLAYER HAPPY GILMORE stormed onto screens in 1996, he brought a swing no one had seen before— two running steps, a full-body launch, and a ball screaming 400 yards down the fairway. It was wild, funny, and unforgettable.
With the recent buzz around“ Happy Gilmore 2,” that iconic swing is top of mind again— and you might even find a bit of its logic worth testing on the range. Sure, the swing was meant for laughs. But beneath the chaos are real fundamentals: ground force, rotation, and timing.
While you certainly shouldn’ t be charging the tee box like Happy, there’ s something to learn from his exaggerated approach.
WHAT MAKES THE“ HAPPY SWING” SO POWERFUL? Happy’ s signature run-up adds momentum before impact. Instead of standing still and coiling, he creates a linear move into rotation— using that forward motion to drive his swing. It’ s the same principle elite players use, just turned up to eleven.
“ Instead of staying in one place, [ Happy ] adds forward movement, shifting his weight and adding more force into the swing,” says Spence Lanoue of CaddieHQ. In other words, he’ s using ground reaction force— when you push into the ground, it pushes back, sending energy up through your body.
As Golf Guidebook’ s Patrick Stephenson puts it,“ When you run up or step into the shot, you push into the ground, then the ground pushes back. That impulse becomes part of your swing’ s engine.”
TIMING OVER MUSCLE Happy’ s swing may look reckless, but his sequencing is solid. Power starts from the ground up— legs, hips, torso, arms, then clubhead. Most amateurs do the opposite, trying to muscle the ball with their hands and shoulders.
According to“ The Physics of Golf,” efficient swings channel energy in a kinetic chain— exactly what Happy stumbles into. He lets his body do the heavy lifting. That’ s a lesson worth copying, even if his delivery isn’ t.
SPEED WITHOUT CONTROL Another important takeaway from Happy’ s golf journey is that you can build all the speed you want, but if you miss the sweet spot, you’ ll waste energy and distance.“ If you strike the ball away from the center, you lose ball speed and control,” Stephenson explains. Pro tip: Use impact spray or tape during practice to see where you’ re making contact. Power only matters when it’ s efficient.
BOTTOM LINE The brilliance of Happy Gilmore’ s swing isn’ t that it breaks the rules— it exaggerates the ones that matter. Use the ground. Rotate through. Let your body unwind from the ground up. You’ ll make better contact, hit it farther, and maybe crack a grin doing it.
After all, as Chubbs said,“ It’ s all in the hips.” by DAVE POND
Step & Plant
This simple drill exaggerates how your lower body drives the swing. 1. Set up with any club. 2. At the top of the backswing, take a small step forward with your lead foot and plant it firmly.
3. Rotate through to finish, feeling weight shift to your lead side.
4. Do 8-10 slow reps, then return to a normal setup and apply that same“ step-plant-turn” feeling.
Rotational Med Ball Throw
Build rotational power in your core, hips, and legs. 1. Stand sideways to a wall, holding a 4-8 kg medicine ball.
2. Rotate back( like a backswing), then explode into a throw, shifting weight forward.
3. Catch, reset, and repeat for 8-10 reps on each side.
PHOTO: ALAMY; ILLUSTRATIONS BY MELANIE SCHUMACHER
36 V IRGINIA G OLFER | N OVEMBER / D ECEMBER 2025 vsga. org