Gerina Piller: Power & Speed

Known for being a great ball striker, Gerina Piller explains how she generates power and speed in her swing.


Transcript

What do you think you get all your power? Obviously, you've got some lag.

I do have lag.

Do you think it's from your hips, or your-- I don't-- I mean, I don't know. It's not like a trick question. I'm-- do you think--

I really think that it is a--

Do you think-- do you have a place that you get to at the other side, you're trying to get to on this--

No, a little bit of lag, timing, and having your speed in the right spot. And by that, I mean, if you were to take your club and turn it upside down. And you want to make that whoosh sound.

It's going to happen right there.

It's going to happen here or a little after.

Yeah.

Most people, they want to swing their hands fast, which if you swing your hands fast, where is the club? It's way back here.

Yeah.

So I could take it up as slow as I want, but if I have that speed there, that's perfect. I don't need any speed anywhere else.

That's right.

So having the speed at the right spot in your swing, I think, is a huge key to hitting it far and solid.

Will you always have power?

Actually, that's a great story. I actually forget this story often. I grew up in New Mexico, where the air's pretty thin. The ball goes far. Decent elevation. I think I first started I was hitting my 5-Iron 150. And I still remember to this day, if I hit a drive and I was 150, I was like, oh, my gosh, I have to hit my 5-Iron. Like, I just hated hitting it.

Well, I started taking lessons. I went from hitting my 5-Iron 150 to my 8-Iron. And the way we did that is the pro that I was taking lessons from-- his name is Tom Velarde-- and he would literally have me stand on the range and swing my hardest.

And I was swinging so hard. And he's like, OK, that's about 80%. Let's go 90. And I'm like, I can't go any harder.

I've got no more.

I hit one bucket of balls, and I'm like, I feel like I ran a marathon. So that was probably one of the biggest blessings, that he's ever--

So he made you amp it up?

Yes, and he's like, we can always fix this. You can't teach speed.

That's right.

And so he knew that I had it in me, because of baseball. If you think about baseball, it's all about torque. Because you're standing already at your backswing, and all you have for speed is your torque. What do you have to do? You step in it, twist, throw your hips, and then throw your hands. So a little similar to golf.

But you-- in this case, it makes perfect sense that you don't care much about your backswing, because in baseball, you didn't even have a backswing.

Right.

It just goes back to your comfort thing, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

It's all about what your ball is doing and what your clubface is doing on impact. I don't care if you're this, that. If you can get it back to there every time, then that's all that should matter.