It is a good Thursday morning. I’ve got my cup of coffee working here. The kids are off to school for their second day. We are going to get a little more in depth with our golf fitness, golf performance, and golf rehab today. We had a great week! Congratulations to all the golfers who participated last week in the tour championship for the New Golf Tour at Reid Golf Course. It was nice to see all 95 golfers there. That was a fantastic weekend and the weather help up for us. 

We are getting back into school. Getting back into some fall golf. I know some of the local junior girls are off and running with their tournaments. Some of our current and past students are rocking it and doing REALLY well! We are super happy for them and excited to see all that they accomplish as the season progresses.

In honor of fall golf starting, I am going to talk about the Top 3 Golf Fitness Myths and what to do about them.

I am still trying to get the word out to people about what it is that we do. Obviously, the low hanging fruit for a lot of our individuals is golf-related pain. We help individuals get out of any pain that they are experiencing so that they can have the mobility, the strength, and crush the ball off the tee.

In terms of helping golfers feel better, play better, move better, and have more energy people are still a little uncertain about what it is that we actually do. One of the best ways is to start is to educate on awareness about what’s out there in terms of golf fitness and what maybe you are seeing on the interwebs of Instagram, Facebook, Google, and Youtube. Really, just starting to say what should we be doing and what should we not be doing.

Golf Fitness Guides

Before we get started, if anybody does have any interest in our e-guides you can find out more information below:

1.     Pillar Killers For Golfers: The first is specifically dedicated to strength, and in particular core strength for golfers. A lot of individuals are confused about that.

2.     7 Golf Tips to Ease Pain & Swing Easier: Second, is for individuals in pain.

If you have any interest in any of those, make sure that you click the links to check them out free of charge. Hopefully you learn how to help yourself with some of those topics.

#1: You are not going to get too tight or inflexible by getting strong for golf.

The age old question of, “if I try and get stronger for golf, then I might get tight, inflexible, might not be able to have as big of a turn,” is all HOGWASH. Eliminate it right now. There really is no debate about it anymore.

There are some thoughts about adding muscle mass and how that might change your body composition and overall change your swing. We’re not talking about adding muscle mass. I think a lot of us get this confused.

What to do about this is understand that you can add muscle strength for golf, for sports, and for life without adding muscle mass. The two technically can be separate things. Now, there are strategies to add muscle strength, but there are strategies to add strength AND mass. Those parameters for those workouts are different. Working with an individual like myself, we can help identify the difference and what to do about that.

You can get strong and build your neurological fire system from brain to muscle. You can have muscles contract with more rapid force production (rate of force development is what it is called). The muscle contract more rapidly for you in the golf swing. You can do these things without getting bigger. In the mean time, not only does this stuff help you with strength, it actually increases your flexibility. It increases your body’s ability to move through ranges of motion in space. So in terms of the, “if I get strong for golf I am going to become inflexible,” you can kind of shut that down right now. Actually, you are going to get more flexible. I think about some of the greatest athletes in the world, and in my opinion, are gymnasts. If you think about how strong they are, they are building strength, but they are also building their active flexibility and mobility.

It is very VERY possible to be stronger and add flexibility at the same time. Those two things do NOT have to be mutually exclusive. If you have questions about that, certainly reach out and I would be happy to help you.

ALSO, strength is going to be very beneficial for aging, other activities, and joint health which goes beyond golf.

#2 is a common thing that I hear…so common I heard it last weekend at the New Tour Championship. #2 is, “I need more turn for my golf swing. I need more flexibility for my golf swing.”

YOU DON’T NEED MORE TURN OR FLEXIBILITY LIKELY. When we look at a lot of individuals on video and 3D, I have stats upon stats that people are actually generating enough turn relative to what you would need for the golf swing. What they are not doing though, is they are not separating their body. They are not separating their upper and lower half. You don’t need more turn, you need more separation.

What I mean by that, is you can have all the flexibility in world but if I am turning and as I take the club back and take the club back down through impact and my turn is all turning as one and I can’t separate my upper from my lower body at all, then all the mobility is wasted…which doesn’t do us any good. You won’t have an efficient golf swing. You won’t produce any pop or snap. You are not going to have good sequencing. You wont have great energy transfer. At the end of the day, you just will not have an efficient golf swing. You may have a big turn, but you are not going to have an efficient golf swing.

So many of the golfers that we work with actually have pretty good turn relative to amount of flexibility. BUT they have a really hard time separating their upper and their lower half. That’s where a lot of the breakdown in the golf swing comes from.

What to do about this? First we need to identify your ability to separate your spine from your pelvis. You want to be able to separate your shoulders while keeping a stable lower body. You also want to be able to separate the pelvis while keeping the shoulders stable. This is a staple screen that we do in our Titleist Performance Institute Screen and something we could help you with as well.

This is one of the most common things. Just working on flexibility for flexibility sake does not really get us anywhere. You need to be able to separate your lower half to have an efficient golf swing.

#3 is balance. 

Balance is overrated. Just for the love of pete get good at using the ground.

If you follow any of the PGA tour pros, you are going to see a lot of people doing these drills where they are standing on a bosuball or kneeling on a physioball swinging a golf club. I don’t want to criticize anyone else, but it’s not ideal because we do not play golf on a bosuball or on a physioball. We play golf on the ground, on the earth.

You don’t need to worry so much about balance. Now balance for the sake of life, longevity, and down the road are important…but for the sake of golf so many of us (especially our male athletes, some of our amateurs, and junior athletes) really struggle just getting their body into the ground and reacting with the ground. At that point, balance is kind of useless. You need to be able to explode into the ground and react with the ground…and that’s what the golf swing is. It starts from the ground up and it goes through the body. If it is not starting efficiently with the ground, there is energy wasted from there and it is trying to play “catch up” all the way up from the club.

If we don’t need to worry so much about balance, but we need to really focus on using the ground…what the heck does that mean? Leg strength, lower body strength, and a whole heck of a lot of jumping. It can be very straightforward if you like squats, lunges, split squats, or deadlifts. Any of these things can help you build a lower body base and lower body strength. Also, starting to do some good old fashioned jumping. Jump as high as you can in place. Jump as high as you can and turn 90 degrees. Jump to a box. Jump down from a box and learn how to land efficiently. It is build the strength first, and then it is start to implement power production by jumping and using the ground.

Those types of things are going to give you so much more bang for your buck than standing on a bosuball or standing on one leg trying to swing the club. Make sure that you can explode and use the ground. The benefit with that is going to be a good start to your sequence of the golf swing and probably thee number 1 predictor of club head speed is how well you can use the ground. That is going to give you significant power and club head speed advantages if you can start to use the ground a little bit more efficiently.

BONUS MYTH: Don’t take bands or different weights or cables or pulleys and try and simulate your golf swing.

There are different things that we do rotationally with cables and bands, but don’t take bands and try to simulate the golf swing. It is just going to throw you off, slow you down, and mess you up. That is another common one that we commonly see.  

There are different rotational and banded drills that we certainly can do, but do not try and mimic your golf swing and assume it is going to carry over well to the golf course. That’s all that I will say about that.  

Those are the Top 3 Golf Fitness Myths for you and what to start and do about them. If you are feeling tight, restricted, or having mobility concerns for your golf, we have a free eguide for you.

If you have strength concerns, particularly what you are wondering to do about core strength for golf…I have an entire 12 week guide to follow step by step for you. It is called Pillar Killers for Golfers. It is our favorite core strength exercises which go way beyond crunches and sit ups.

We also have that guide for anyone who is struggling with pain. It gives a couple tips about what to do if you are in that camp. It is called “7 Golf Tips to Ease Pain & Swing Easier”

I hope everyone has a chance to play this weekend, I am certain that I probably will with the kids. That is what I have for you today. I hope everyone is doing well.

If you are ready to take advantage of our Body Swing Connection Evaluation analysis to find out how you can take your golf game to new heights, you can schedule your complimentary discovery visit by clicking HERE. If you simply want to find out more information, click HERE to inquire.