"The season favors the prepared."___ K. Wayne
Like it or not, winter is officially here and we are now in the off-season. The off-season is the perfect time to prepare for next season. That preparation begins with a fitness check-up. Those of us trained by the Titleist Performance Institute perform what’s known as the Level 1 Screen.
If you have been struggling with your body or certain aspects of your swing then it’s time to stop guessing and start assessing. I can quickly evaluate a player’s physical capabilities using the TPI Level 1 screen and understand how the assessment results correlate with the technical elements in the player’s swing. This helps a coach, trainer, or medical therapist quickly identify the key area that can hold a golfer back from playing their best. We call this the Body-Swing Connection.
“If I could give just one piece of advice to golfers of all levels, it’s to be physically assessed by a competent professional. A well-trained professional can identify key areas of weakness or imbalance and develop a highly effective exercise or rehabilitation program. It’s no guarantee that you’ll remain injury-free, as the golf swing puts incredible forces on the body, but it puts the odds in your favor.”__Dr. Greg Rose
What’s Next?
The screen reveals what’s working in your body and what’s not. How does the body move? Are there compensations that are occurring? The screen?measures movement efficiency as well as injury risk potential. Then I correlate your movement limitations to current injuries/complaints as well as known swing faults or swing fault possibilities. Then we prioritize what needs to get better and get to work.
For all of you, that begins with improving your mobility, and when I say mobility I mean your ability to rotate through the joints that need to rotate to help you create a more powerful, repeatable, and reliable golf swing.?Examples are the ability to rotate through your ribcage (Thoracic Spine) and hips. If you can’t rotate through these segments you are going to struggle mightily with golf!
If you don’t physically assess the golfer then you don’t know whether or not the student is just not getting the concept of the swing (a motor control problem) or they just physically can’t do it..(due to a physical limitation). in other words, not being able to move your body into the position to perform a mechanically correct golf swing.
“A Golf Pro is basically telling you what they think this is the best way to express your physiology to move the ball. But if you physically can’t do it? —- you’re going to spend thousands of hours with someone who has become a master at addressing your movement compensations.
BUT, if you show up with the full capacity to move the way a golf pro wants you to move —- you can use their expertise to become a better golfer because now you possess the movement foundation to do so.? (That’s the central difference between a golf pro and a golf fitness professional.” __Kelly Starrett, author of The Supple Leopard
“A Golf Pro is basically telling you what they think this is the best way to express your physiology to move the ball. But if you physically can’t do it? —- you’re going to spend thousands of hours with someone who has become a master at addressing your movement compensations.
Engage Your Core
If your core is weak and your glutes don’t work then I know your hips going to have limited mobility, if your hips have limited mobility you can only turn so much which means you will not be able to transfer any energy you create into a rotary pattern.
If you have limited hip internal rotation in your trail leg, limited thoracic mobility moving into the trail side, and limited shoulder external rotation, you’ll never get deep enough to feel like you can stay behind the ball through impact and as a result, you will likely come over the top and or stand straight up. That is known as Early Extension and that will kill your power and accuracy.
领英推荐
The golf club only does what you tell it to. If you don’t like where the ball is going, don’t blame the club. Blame it on how your body moves.
Train for the Game
Some of you already “workout” but is what you’re doing in the gym having any positive carry-over effect on your golf game? Probably not, that’s why you’re here.
Golf courses are not flat and you have to stand to swing the club. want to train you in such a way that when you’re presented with an unstable surface or an uneven lie out on the golf course, your brain and body can handle that environment without any difficulty.
This type of exercise will improve how you look but will not carry over to improved performance on the golf course.
*Please don't ever do this exercise. Not only will you never use your body this way anyplace outside of the gym but it puts excessive shear forces on the knee.
Exercises like the one below force your big toe, ankle, knee, hip, and thoracic spine to be mobile, your foot to be stable, your hip to be mobile, and your glutes to fire to stabilize your lower back and free up your thoracic spine to rotate. This is what good golf requires.
Hitting thousands of golf balls in preparation for next season is not preparing you for a different outcome from last season. Remember, any physical limitation turns into a movement compensation. You are simply ingraining your less-than-optimal movement pattern deeper into the brain. Once it’s in there, you can’t simply wipe it out or erase it. You need to create a new one to override it. You need a new software program to add to your new hardware capabilities.
Brett’s Bottom Line:
Being prepared for next season starts with knowing what you’re physical shortcomings are and working on them for the next 3 – 4? months. It’s the starting point for getting your body to move the way it needs to – to play golf the way you want to. After that, we can move on to becoming more injury-resilient and creating a powerful golf swing by adding strength and speed to a finely tuned suspension system.
Don’t sleep in the off-season. Let’s unlock your athletic potential and improve your game.
Use your winter wisely. Let’s get after it, the greens are waiting for you.
“Golf instructors are great. They can change your swing but they can’t change your body! The best way to get the most out of my significant investment in lessons is to have my body do more and give my pro more to work with.”__Ken Davenport.?
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(917) 596-8485