Creating a Golf Performance Program

Pros such as Larry Nelson, David Duval, Fred Couples, Greg Norman, and Tom Lehman have improved their fitness or rebounded from serious injury to play some of the best golf of their careers. There’s nothing magical in what they’ve accomplished: they all worked hard doing exercises just like the ones you’ll find on the following pages. As you’ll see, flexibility, strength and power, and endurance are the keys to better performance and lower scores. To get results from stretching and strengthening exercises, however, you need more than just motivation to drive the ball farther than your playing partners can. The exercises should flow together in a program that’s easy to followand easy to stick toand that’s the foundation of the Golf Performance Program. In this chapter you have an outline of how to create an individual program. Developing your program involves using these four steps: 1. Learn the basic mechanics of the golf swing and how they relate to the body. 2. Think about your training goals and what you want to accomplish from your performance program. 3. Test your current level of fitness using the Fitness Analyzer, an easy-to follow sequence of four tests, complete with scoring based on age and sex. 4. Follow the sample programs provided here in chapter 1, tailoring them to include exercises from chapters 2 through 6 as appropriate. The end result will be a custom program, one that is tailored to your body and your goals, one that will produce the results you want!Golf-Swing Mechanics. To get the most gains from this program you need to know the fundamental techniques of the golf swing and the parts of the body involved in golf-swing mechanics. Any type of movement involved in the golf swing (e.g., driving, chipping, putting) is delivered by muscles that lengthen or shorten across different joints of the body. The extension and contraction of muscles, along with the rotation of bones and joints, coordinate the upper and lower body to execute a swing. The golf swing is about feel. It is how you experience the swing motion through the muscles. Muscles begin the movement, and they control the speed and accuracy of the swing. The better the muscles are trained, the more accurate the feedback you will get. Muscle movement is initiated by the brain, and the more a certain movement is repeated, the more the brain can memorize it. This muscle memory increases your consistency as you practice the swing and engrain the correct swing path in the mind. Performing strength-training exercises to add power to the golf swing has proved to shorten the time it takes to relay information from the brain to the muscles. A training program for flexibility, strength, and endurance helps improve consistency of your golf swing throughout the course’s 18 holes, and it retards muscle fatigue. After the age of 30, a person’s muscle structure begins to degenerate; strength training therefore becomes even more important for golf enthusiasts who join the game during these later years. However, this process alone should convince younger golfers to start a fitness regimento assure their longevity in the game without injury. Many golfers believe that distance results from strong arm and shoulder muscles. Although these muscles do contribute, the larger muscles of the body also are engaged. (See figure 1.1 for a diagram of the muscles discussed here.) The leg’s abductors, adductors, and extensors move the hip backward and straighten it. The hip initiates the downswing, and at impact it is the driving force behind the ball. Strengthening the hip muscles and using the hip effectively during the swing relates to your gaining distance off the tee. Still other muscles beyond the arms and shoulders play important roles. The abdominals are used at address for correct posture and protection of the low back. The neck flexors come into play to tilt the head forward. The pectoralis major (in the chest) is activated to pull the arms in front of the body. The elbow extensors straighten the arms, and muscles of the wrists and hands afford a good grip of the club. Turning attention to the backswing, this stroke is initiated by the hip abductor while the knee flexors are still in a bent position but are starting to rotate. The hip flexor moves the opposite hip forward, and the external obliques turn the torso. The knee flexors (hamstrings) bend both knees slightly, while the ankle flexors are used to place both feet in the correct stance. The rotator cuffs turn the shoulders backward, whereas the biceps and triceps rotate the arms and assist in protecting the shoulder joint during the backswing. The trapezius turns the left shoulder blade outward, while the latissimus dorsi swings the right arm backward. The elbow flexor bends the right elbow slightly, and the wrist flexors bend both wrists.
During the downswing the muscle action is reversed. During the follow through the muscles used in the backswing repeat the same action for the opposite side of the body. In all, a balanced action equally involving both sides of the body creates the golf swing. The coiling of the upper body while the lower body resists, along with the power of the downswing and follow-through, can wreak havoc on a golfer’s back. It is the number-one injury seen in both amateurs and touring professionals. Muscles twist and pull at the lumbar spine. If the player has poor posture or poor abdominal strength and is inflexible, the spine’s discs are susceptible to being pressed during the swing, resulting in lower-back pain. Strength training gives the muscles surrounding the spine the power to cushion the blow at impact. Strength-training exercises also retard the brittleness of bones that comes with age