Instruction
Improve Flexibility with these Stretches
During the past five years, I have come to realize that no matter how badly golfers over 50 years old need to work on golf flexibility and golf exercise, the vast majority just do not do it.
Everybody wants the benefits and I am always answering golfers questions on how to regain a youthful swing. But as soon as I steer the conversation to golf flexibility “training” or “exercise,” I see the eyes glaze over and the interactive conversation that we were just having turns into a one-way conversation with only a few distracted grunts in response.
This has been one of my greatest obstacles.
Key to Golf Flexibility For the Busy Golfer
I have found the key to winning the hearts of these golfers is to keep it super short and super simple. If you are a busy golfer, I have put together a 5-minute golf stretching and spine stabilizing program that can be completed in five or six minutes and can be performed anywhere.
Do Not Stretch Before Golf: Warm Up Instead!
If you have followed the most current research into athletic performance, you know that the long held belief that static stretching before activity is not only pointless but can lead to increased risk of injuries and decreased performance (static stretching being defined as holding a stretch for longer than seven seconds). Therefore, before you tee it up, it is key to warm up using a dynamic motion warm up to heat up the muscles. Static stretching before you play golf will put you at a greater risk of injury — don’t do it.
However, stretching any other time, and often, is vital for a great golf swing. Especially as you pass the age of 50.
Here is a simple and short program that will improve your golf flexibility, golf balance, performance, as well as decrease your risk of injury.
Golf Super Stretch Series
1. Golf Stretch One
Setup: Take long step forward with your right leg. Bend forward at the hips and keep your back flat.
Golf Action: Holding the ends of a golf club, rotate your body to the right until you feel a stretch.
Parameters: Hold stretch for 30 seconds and repeat stretch to the left with left leg forward.
Keys to Success: If you find it difficult to balance in this position, move your feet further to the sides for a wide stance.
2. Golf Stretch Two: This exercise is slightly tweaked to stretch your hamstrings as well.
Setup: Same as Stretch One
Golf Action: Rotate your body to the right as done in the previous stretch, but also straighten your knees and then bend forward at the waist until you feel a strong hamstring stretch and hold.
3. Golf Stretch Three: This exercise is slightly tweaked to stretch your glutes and hamstrings.
Setup: Take a long step forward with your right foot.
Golf Action: Rotate around your right leg as before. Bend as far forward at the hips as you are able, until you feel a stretch in your glutes (butt).
Key to Success: Try to keep your back flat when bending forward.
4. Golf Stretch Four: This exercise is slightly tweaked to improve spinal muscular mobility.
Setup: Take a large step forward with your right leg.
Golf Action: Rotate your body to the right. Then side bend to your right until you feel a stretch in your left side.
5. Golf Stretch Five: This exercise is slightly tweaked to maximize hip and spinal rotational mobility.
Setup: Take a large step forward with your right leg.
Golf Action: Rotate as far as you are able to the right. Allow your head to rotate to the right as well. Now try and rotate your arms even further, pushing back with your left hand and pulling back with your right hand.
There it is. Five stretches, 30 seconds to each side. Only 5 minutes out of the 1,440 minutes available to you every day.
*In stretches Nos. 1-4, do not allow your head to rotate with your body. Focus on a point just in front of you.
**Repeat all stretches with the left leg forward, rotating around to the left.
***To improve your core and spinal stabilization, hold more than one golf club. Try holding three golf clubs at the same time and you will feel it!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
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
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.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
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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naflack
May 3, 2013 at 3:58 pm
I have participated in many stretching programs over the last ten years and can say with confidence that stretching has never done anything for me but cause pain and subsequent stiffness.
I have even gone so far as to see my doctor about this, he simply responded that anything that causes more stiffness will lead to more injury and that this is more common than people think. He continued that stretching is generally a good idea but isn’t for everyone. If others have had my experience it makes sense that so many gloss over in regards to stretching.
Ryan York
May 11, 2013 at 12:03 am
Naflack,
I am sorry to here you are having pain. Without seeing you myself, it is impossible to tell you exactly why you are having pain. However, I am irritated that your doctor did not pursue the issue further. Primary doctors are woefully undertrained when it comes to orthopedics. I would see an Orthopedic specialist, or you could see a physical therapist.
It could be a variety of issues. I am guessing that since you have been stretching for a while that your technique is not an issue and you don’t stretch to hard. Other issues would be arthritis but I would be concerned with vascular (blood flow) issues, maybe even nerve mobility restrictions.
Like I said, its hard to tell without seeing you an I am essentially guessing. I would really encourage you to see a good, orthopedic physical therapist. Preferable one that is a certified orthopedic specialist with and “OCS” credential.
Sorry I can’t offer you more but I would take it seriously and get checked out.
Dr. Ryan York, DPT CGS
Doctor of Physical Therapy
Certified Golf Performance Specialist
Age Defying Golf
Jack Cox
Apr 29, 2013 at 2:31 pm
I enjoyed reading about the stretching routine. Myself being 60 years old doesn’t get to the gym alot anymore so some simple routines like these should help my game..Thank you