There is one thing for certain when it comes to golf, none of us are getting any younger nor are we becoming more flexible naturally. In fact, it is absolutely amazing to me just how fast you seem to lose the simple things in your swing when you don’t swing the club for some time or pay much attention to the “basics” that you would normally focus on when practicing and playing during more serious times.

As I’ve understood more about my swing, I have reached the point where I hardly hit the ball any different regardless of how long it has been since I last touched a club. At this stage in my life I never practice, play 6-12 times a year, and rarely look at my golf swing on video. However, I was attending a TPI Seminar a few days ago and they wanted some sample videos for “case studies” during the class, so I videoed my swing and sent it in to help with the class.

When the video was put on the screen what I saw standing on the range and swinging was the SAME guy I had taught a million times in the past — but now it was me — a middle-aged guy, in reasonable shape, who had become a weekend player at best in terms of volume of rounds but needed a serious bout of gym work on his “golf muscles!”

It was astounding to me that over the last year or two I had completely lost my ability to hinge my hips properly, retract my scapular bones- pulling my shoulders back at address, and basically set up in a position athletically where I had the any chance to rotate- not lift the club with my arms to the top.

In fact the poor conditioning (caused by an overfocus on cardio) in my world had caused a major fault in my address posture. This issue exacerbated the lifting of my arms and put me in a position where I had no power nor control of the golf ball whatsoever.

To quote the great work of Dr. Greg Rose and David Phillips from The Titleist Performance Institute I was in C-Posture…

“C-Posture occurs when the shoulders and thoracic spine are slumped forward at address and there is a definitive roundness to the back from the tailbone to the back of the neck (looks like the letter “C”). This posture can limit the player’s ability to rotate by dramatically reducing thoracic spine mobility. If the player fails to keep the backswing short, they will find it difficult to maintain posture as they swing the club back. Any excessive rounding of the upper back or thoracic spine in the golf posture is termed a C-Posture. This posture can simply be the result of a poor setup position and can be corrected by physically adjusting the posture to a more neutral spine.”

Let’s take a quick look at my backswing from this C-Posture position that TPI described in my set-up. You can see that as I take the club back the shoulder turn begins to slow and stall while the arms lift the club to the top as a result. From here I have basically put myself into a position where I have compromised myself in the areas of power and control!

So now that I now understood where I stood, what caused this C-Posture? Was it my lack of resistance training, non-existent flexibility work, or just being “lazy” during my set up position? The old me- pre TPI- would have said without a doubt it me just being lazy at address and it would be a simple fix.

However, that was not the case as the seminar progressed as I later found out as Dr. Rose and David Philips continued to reiterate “that the majority of C-Postures are caused by a series of muscle imbalances and joint restrictions that are developed over many years that creep into your game slowly over time and then explode on to the scene “appearing” almost over-night!” Wonderful, my laziness in the gym had finally caught up with me!

UPPER CROSSED SYNDROME The muscle imbalances seen in the graphic below C-Posture illustration are collectively called an Upper Crossed Syndrome. The term, Upper Crossed, was also coined by Dr. Vladimir Janda. Dr. Janda noticed the same pattern of muscle imbalances on so many people that he started calling the pattern an Upper Crossed Syndrome. The most significant joint restriction seen in the C-Posture is the lack of thoracic spine extension (limited backward bend or arching of the upper back). This can make it almost impossible to eliminate the C-Posture. Lack of T-Spine extension can lead to a severe loss of spinal rotation, which in turn, will limit the ability to create a good backswing turn.

Because of my lack of conditioning and improper focus on cardio I had allowed myself to fall into a category of posture that is a direct result of inactivity. I had fallen victim to this UPPER CROSSED SYNDROME.

“This is the most significant joint restriction seen in C-Posture for golfers which is the lack of thoracic spine extension (limited backward bend or arching of the upper back.) This condition and posture can also lead to a severe loss of spinal rotation, which in turn limits the ability to create a good backswing turn. This can be the result of restricted hip hinging, which forces the player to compensate by excessively hinging from the thoracic spine.”

“For many players, simply telling them to stop rounding their shoulders or straightening their spine will not make a significant change and can actually be detrimental to their golf swing. Actually, most of our research shows that if C-Posture is a result of muscle and joint imbalances, the only way to correct the posture for good is to address these limitations in the gym or with a healthcare provider.” (TPI Level 1 Body-Swing Connection)

Now that I we understand what this C-Posture did to my swing and how this C-Posture was caused in my own personal world what am I left to do? Can I fix my swing?

Well, I have two options:

1. I can do nothing physiologically but try and set up keeping my posture in mind and see if it improves. (We know it won’t!)
2. I can do some work in the gym and work on my mechanics over time to truly eradicate this flaw at the root
   What should I do? What option do you thing would be the best way for me to have long-term success? Of course, choosing option number 2, however, golfers continually choose option 1 for not only C-Posture but many other issues that TPI has identified and wonder why their swing never improves.

I’m here to tell you that jumping from teacher to teacher is NOT the answer, it is to follow Greg and Dave’s advice and choose option 2…do it for yourself and the long-term health of your golf swing!

Think about it!

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