Instruction

Pilates Conditioning for Golf: Get Grounded

Published

10 years ago

Jan 10, 2014

A solid base to ground and empower your golf swing is every golfer’s goal. Why? Let’s talk (very) briefly about the mechanics of the anatomy vis-a-vis golf, and then what muscles would benefit from training.

Yeah, I know — anatomy — I’ll keep it light, no worries. Go get a coffee or hot chocolate and a snack: what you learn will not only get you motivated, but also keep you thinking as you move forward in your game.

Your legs aren’t just there to stand on and hit the ball. They provide stability throughout the golf swing. Your hamstrings create a base; they provide stability while the quadriceps help power the body through the ball and through the turn of the hips. By strengthening and stretching these muscles, you will create a more powerful swing.

No male I’ve ever worked with likes flexibility training. The general response to the stretching portion of a Pilates workout is a flat out, “I hate this” or the a more gently put “Aw, geez, really?” Women don’t love it either, yet somehow they generally regard it as a necessary evil. Flexibility in the legs is essential for golf. I cannot emphasize this enough. Tight hamstrings and hip flexors are the bane of most golfers. They don’t need to be.

Golfers need length in their hip flexors in order to swing the club properly. Tight hip flexors make it hard to rotate and keep the hips square to the target as you follow through. Think of it this way: You have no choice but to follow the momentum during your swing. It will take you through it, whether or not you have shortened, office chair-happy hip flexors. You want as little extraneous movement as possible during your swing. Stretch your hip flexors and find precision in your swing, as well as preventing possible strain. I know it’s not easy but stretching the hip flexors should always be part of your golf fitness program. Keep it gentle yet purposeful. There are several Pilates exercises on both the mat and apparatus that specifically stretch the hip flexors. Below are a couple of examples on the Avalon Chair and the Reformer. Those with knee or hip issues should modify these movements, and as always, working with a qualified Pilates professional will get you safely to your goals.

In the golf swing, the power production chain begins with the feet pushing off the ground. This energy, also known as the kinetic chain, travels up the legs to help steer the hips forward and this energy continues through the trunk and upper body and then finally to the arms. It sounds simple, right? Not so much in execution. So what can you do to keep the kinetic chain from kinking up?

Conditioning should include leg work, hip work, adductor and abductor work, and let’s not forget the gluteals. Your adductors are located along the inside line of your leg and internally rotate the hip — so important for controlling slide and sway in the golf swing. The abductors, located in the gluteal region, help you bring your leg away from the center of the body. They function mostly during the backswing and downswing. Good hip rotation in the golf swing and proper shifting of weight does not depend on upper body strength or even physical stature: shorter pros and women crush the ball, too. Hip abduction strength is higher in better golfers — a proven fact by the American College of Sports Medicine. For that reason, training your abductors should be high on your list.

Finally, the glutes need a mention here. They create hip extension, which allows you to drive your legs into the ground, supplying the inceptive energy to create that powerful swing. The gluteus medius and minimus stabilize the legs, and encourage the torso to rotate efficiently. The net result is a solid hit, rather than sliding or swaying as you swing.

The lower body is not only the foundation of the golf swing, it is its genesis. Work those muscles and you will improve your swing and your power production. Your Pilates program should be a full body program, where you learn to use your muscles in a coordinated way — in very similar way you use them in golf. Winter is the time to work on key golf performance muscles and it’s 2014, spring is coming (OK, in three months) so let’s get going.

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

2 days ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

Published

4 weeks ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.

As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.

The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.

Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:

Mis-aligned hands

By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.

The position of the grip in the upper/left hand

I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.

To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.

Too much lower (right) hand on the club

It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.

Gripping too tightly

Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.

So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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