Golfers are way off course if they believe lessons and practice will guarantee a lower handicap . . . no, it’s posture and flexibility that really count
Every golfer wants to play better golf — from the professional golfer on the PGA circuit to the amateur beginner. For some, it’s a chance to relax, relieve stress, do business and exercise — and the desire to lower your handicap is always there, even in the most recreational player.
To do this, golfers will often seek professional lessons or practise diligently. Although this approach seems logical, it is the very reason golfers end up injured, and rarely reaching their potential.
No matter what the sport, strength is the foundation for athleticism. Not only will increasing your strength enhance your performance, it will also significantly ease the danger of injuries.
Amateur golfers achieve approximately 90pc of their peak muscle activity when driving a golf ball. This intensity is similar to picking up a weight that can only be lifted four times before total fatigue. This is something golfers fail to consider when they strike a ball 30-40 times a game with comparable intensity.
The result is that the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 1996 stated that as many as 30pc of all professionals are playing while injured at any given time and that 53pc of male and 45pc of female golfers are suffering from back pain. Injury prevention is only one benefit that strength training can bring. It can achieve results where technology has failed.
Golfers usually blame their clubs if there’s something wrong with their game, but the blame usually lies with the golfer. Golfers’ scores haven’t improved, despite technological advancements. The British Open at Royal Birkdale was won in 2008 by Padraig Harrington with a score of 283. This is the same score that Peter Thompson won the British Open with in 1954, on the same course.
Although the course may have been altered since then, the greens and the fairways will have certainly been in a better condition last year. Not to mention the advances in club and golf-ball technology since 1954!
In Bob Rotella’s book, The Golf Of Your Dreams, he mentions that the average American male golfer’s handicap is 16.2, while the female golfer’s handicap is 29. That’s the exact same as 15 years ago. The handicaps of amateurs will remain the same until they realise that clubs don’t play golf.
It is the individual using the club that plays the game. If you are sitting at a desk all day, it will affect your posture. As your posture deteriorates, so does your ability to rotate on an axis, limiting your backswing or follow-through. Poor flexibility, along with an inability to maintain a static posture, can affect your club-face alignment, swing path, angle of attack and your ability to hit the sweet spot.
American exercise kinesiologist Paul Chek recommends a thorough assessment of muscles and joints to analyse what is affecting your golf swing in his golf biomechanics certification course, which I have completed.
Mistake
Some golfers may attempt to improve their game by entering a gym. But the biggest mistake they can make is trying to mimic the swing in training.
Rotational exercises do not improve your golf. They simply exhaust muscles which are so over-trained from the game itself that they bring on a catalogue of injuries. This is better known as pattern overload.
To improve your golf game you need to improve the organism, ie the person, that plays the game. Strength training, combined with a proper nutrition and lifestyle programme, will have you bursting with energy on the back nine holes.
You must understand that the breakfast you consume can either make or break your round of golf, so don’t turn up at the Formula One race track in a beat-up Lada with no fuel in the tank and then expect miracles.
You must prepare your body for the challenges you will face. With the Whole In One body-training programme for golf offered by BFit4Life you will be receiving plaudits at the 19th hole when others are left drowning their sorrows.
