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8 Dec 2017 admin

Golf’s Five Major Body Problem Areas

By Bert Jones USGTF Certified Golf Teaching Professional® Loomis, California

It is critical that golf instructors understand the five major body problem areas to prevent golf injuries, and be able to identify swing characteristics that can cause those injuries. The five areas that we will briefly y discuss in this article are the lower back, wrists, shoulder complex, elbow and hips.

Consider this: A golfer exerts a compressive force of eight times their weight on the lower back with each swing. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, you exert a compressive force of 1,600 pounds on your lower back each time you swing. Compare that to running, which is considered a high-impact sport that normally produces a compression force of three to four times the body weight. Lower back injuries account for 36% of all golf injuries. Ouch!

Posture is a critical component of the golf setup and we should be on the lookout for incorrect posture such as C and S posture. C posture occurs when the shoulders and the thoracic spine (12 vertebrae in the upper back) are slumped forward at address. Take note of the round back, thus the descriptor – C posture. It is important because it leads to poor spine rotation, which in turn limits the ability to make a good backswing. S posture is characterized by excessive arch in the player’s lower back at setup. The player is literally sticking their tailbone out to create an S curvature of the spine, which places the body out of position on the downswing and will affect the swing sequencing. S posture is caused by a combination of tight hip flexors and a tight lower back paired with weak abs and glutes, whereas C posture is caused by weak deep-neck flexors and low/mid traps paired with tight upper trapezius and pectoralis major and minor muscles. Statistically, 64.3% of amateur golfers lose their posture, and yes, the same amount early extend. Approximately two-thirds of those tested at the Titleist Performance Institute showed signs of posture breakdown: 25.3% had S Posture and 33.1% had C posture.

The wrists are a delicate part of the body that can be injured most often when a player hits a fat shot. Strengthening the wrists is critical to the golf swing to prevent loss of clubhead speed and prevent further injury. Once the wrists are injured, each and every swing will send vibrations down the shaft to the wrists, which slows the healing process. A wrist flexion and extension test can measure how much the player can fl ex their wrist downward or upward. We would like to see a flex of 60+ degrees of mobility. You can use a 6-iron (which has a lie angle of approximately 60 degrees) as tool to measure the player’s ability to fl ex the wrist. Use the angle of the iron to measure the angle of flex. Anything less than 60 degrees is a sign of boney and/or muscle mechanic problems. Common swing faults associated with this limitation are casting and over the top.

Let’s move on to the shoulder complex, where we see 75% of the injuries are to the lead shoulder. Very large ranges of motion in swing plane create an unstable joint that relies on soft tissue for stability. There are 20 muscles in the shoulder complex that deserve attention to avoid muscle imbalances. Poor flexibility leads to reverse spine angle, loss of posture, a flat shoulder plane and or early extension.

The elbow is also an area that creates problems for golfers. Causes include gripping the club too tightly, or altering the grip during the swing, which generates excessive forearm musculature forces. Swing flaws to watch for: The chicken-wing on the follow-through and early casting of the club in the downswing can cause tissue damage. It must be identified and corrected.

The last major problem area is the hips. We all know that hip rotation is essential to produce an efficient golf swing. Lack of rotation is caused by poor strength and flexibility conditioning, which can exert unnatural forces to produce a technically inefficient golf swing. Asking the hips to move with additional force to produce greater clubhead speed will stress the muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints. A seated trunk rotation test will help you identify thoracic spine, muscular and myofascial as well as cervical spine mobility restrictions.

Please Google the different tests listed in this article on YouTube for fuller explanation, and suggested exercises to enhance the golf swing.

4 Dec 2017 admin

Golf Teahcers And Respect For The Game

By Leo Perlmutter USGTF Member Rochester, New York

One of the great things about our game is that it’s different from other sports. In fact, the differences are so great that golf might just be in a category all by itself. In golf, the players referee the game among themselves. Imagine NBA or NFL players playing without referees, and instead calling their own fouls and penalties. It doesn’t take much thought to realize that within minutes, the games would devolve into complete chaos. And yet, golf at the highest levels are largely refereed by the players, even to the point of calling penalties on themselves (at least when they are aware of them).

Baseball, football, basketball and hockey have great histories and traditions that are revered by their aficionados, but golf goes above and beyond with the reverence for the past and its customs. Go into any bookstore – at least while they still exist– and you will find in the sports section that golf has more books than any other sport. In some bookstores, the golf books almost outnumber all the other sports books combined.

As an individual sport, golf is hard to beat. Tennis is a fine game, but you need an opponent to have a match. And most people don’t take a tennis vacation to play the awesome courts that some hotel in Hawaii have, because all courts are basically the same. In golf, there are no two holes exactly alike, although several courses have replica holes from other layouts. The fresh air and sunshine, combined with pleasant scenery and friends, seem to grab hold of a golfer’s soul to an extent far more than other sports do.

The golf teaching professional plays a large part in keeping the history and traditions of the game alive, and it’s imperative that a professional have great respect for these aspects if he or she is to be successful in the profession. While we are tasked with making a living through monetary means, it doesn’t mean that the pursuit of the dollar is first and foremost among those who impart golf instruction. No, it’s well known among most successful people that if you get into a business strictly for fame or fortune, you most likely won’t last long. Or if you do, you will wind up dreading the thought of going to work, and it won’t be long before customers and clients take notice.

Golf teaching professionals are fortunate to be able to impart the lessons that they do, but they often go above and beyond just teaching the mechanics of the game. A professional who is lucky enough to establish long-term relationships with his or her students often find that they have made a true friend in that person, and share parts of each other’s lives that they wouldn’t share with just anyone.

It used to be, a long time ago, that golf professionals were seen as just the hired help and not worthy to even enter the members’ clubhouse. They were relegated strictly to the pro shop and lesson tee, and the better playing professionals were able to make some extra cash by playing in tournaments and exhibitions. But even those professionals had to know their place, and that place wasn’t among the well-heeled membership that thought they were doing the pro a favor by paying his salary.

Today, teaching professionals are highly respected members of the golf com-munity – quite a change from the days of Harry Vardon. Once the public became aware of how valuable teaching and club professionals actually were, the door to the clubhouse, and other venues, opened wide. It behooves the modern professional to remember the past, honor the traditions of the game, and contribute to the well-being of the game through actions that are befitting the profession.