If you play golf, you should get adjusted and checked to make sure that you are playing to your body’s ability. Just because a pro golfer can make a full turn and control his or her club, doesn’t mean you can. Look at a guy like John Rahm. if you ever watch him play you will notice that he does not take a full backswing. He can’t. He had an injury years ago and modified his swing to make his function. You need to do the same thing. Come in and let me check you to see what your function is and then we can talk about what you need to do to match that to your abilities.
There are three fundamental causes of golf injuries: postural instability, lack of flexibility and poor swing mechanics. The root cause of poor swing mechanics is often the result of physical restrictions and related mechanical adhesions that will interfere with the normal movement of bone and joint. When combined with a general lack of golf-specific flexibility and unstable posture, it’s no wonder you risk injury. I have post-graduate training in the diagnosis and treatment of golf injuries? I specialize in golf fitness and conditioning.
Golf Posture: The Athletic Position
When the decision is made to hit a golf ball, the club shaft will twirl around the body at anywhere from 90-115 mph. If you are not in the athletic position, it’s easy to lose your balance. Loss of balance puts you at risk of injury. For any athlete, the athletic position can be described as a state of readiness for motion and movement in any direction. There is positional alignment of the key load bearing joints of the body (the shoulders, the hips, the knees and the ankles) in the frontal and saggital planes. The upright spinal column maintains forward spinal curves in the neck and lower back. Sound golf posture is both static and dynamic. Static posture is responsible for your overall alignment at the address position before the swing begins. The ability to maintain good posture during the golf swing is a measure of your dynamic postural strength and fitness. The secondary spinal curves relate to your ability to rotate for a powerful golf swing. The positional alignment of your bones and joints dictates the function of your bones and joints. Good golf posture requires the secondary spinal curves to be in lordosis. The secondary spinal curves provide mechanical leverage for strength and facilitate you ability to rotate. Poor golf posture with a collapse of the secondary curves restricts spinal motion. If you cannot rotate you will compensate by over-swinging. Continuous overswinging leads to injury.
Barriers To Performance
Poor Flexibility
Lack of golf-specific flexibility will put you at risk of injury. When you describe the experience of tight muscles, they are half-right. It’s really the 3-dimensional web of connective tissue called fascia that is tight. Fascial tightness can pull or compress key structures in the body up to 2000 pounds per square inch.
Unstable Posture
Lack of postural stability will leave you weak and unstable at the top of your backswing. Improving stability is the key to improving consistency. A stable golf swing is made of 3 components: 1). Proper alignment of the back knee over the back ankle. 2). Gluteal muscles that are fit and conditioned to stabilize the hips and knees and 3). Quadriceps muscles that can support the transfer of body weight into the back leg at the top of the back swing.
Lack of Club Head Speed
The only way to hit longer and more powerful golf shots is to increase your club head speed. The only way to increase your club head speed is to increase your range of motion in your spine and upper extremities. To improve your performance, there are 14 areas of the body that must be conditioned for golf…. I can help you to get better conditioned in all 14 areas so that you can improve your golf game, shoot lower scores and best of all, make your friends jealous. At that point when they ask you how you got better, you have the choice of telling them you came and saw me or you can just tell them nothing!! The choice is yours.“Too often I see golfers end up taking pain killers or having to stop playing the game they love so much, all because of pain from golf. That’s why our main goal is to prevent injuries while better preparing golfers to withstand the high demands of a golf swing. The results that we see have been very eye opening. . . Not only are patients feeling better but they are playing better golf than ever!” Through extensive post-graduate training in the area of golf injury and fitness, I have been given the distinction of “Certified Golf Injury Doctor” which is held by only a few nationwide. I have trained under Dr. Jeff Blanchard, a chiropractor who plays professional golf in events on the Nationwide, PGA, and Champions Tour. His career low round is 62.