Dr. D. Ryan York, PT, DPT, CGS Doctorate in Physical Therapy Certified Golf Performance Specialist, GOLO Golf University

Transcription

1 Dr. D. Ryan York, PT, DPT, CGS Doctorate in Physical Therapy Certified Golf Performance Specialist, GOLO Golf University Dr. Chad Edwards, PT, DPT, CGFI Doctorate in Physical Therapy Certified Golf Fitness Instructor, Titleist Performance Institute 2013 by Age Defying Golf, Boise, ID. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Age Defying Golf.

2 Chapter 1. Swing and Body Self-Evaluation One of the reasons that Age Defying Golf Rx has been so successful is that we begin with the basic knowledge that the body of the year old golfer is physically different than golfers in other age ranges. You know this. But when you take a golf lesson, you will probably be evaluated with the same tool and given the same advice as that 20 something trying to bomb it past his young buddies. Our swing evaluation is different and is the first swing evaluation to be based on the known physical science of the body for your specific age range. I know, and you know, that you will probably never have the flexibility that you did when you where a teenager. In fact, some of the golf tips that you may be working on right now may not even be physically possible for you!!! Be careful! You may be ruining your swing, or worse, setting yourself up for injury. Instead of winding you up in knots and asking your body to do the impossible, let us first evaluate YOUR BODY. Let us determine what you can do and take a fresh approach to discover how Age Defying Golf Rx can not only improve your game, but protect you from injury so you can play the game you love and love the game you play. **Using a mirror or a partner will help you make an accurate assessment in this chapter. ** 2

3 I. Phase One: Setup Hitting the golf ball is a minor miracle in and of itself and it is even harder if you do not start in the correct position. How can you expect to be in the correct position as you hit the ball if you do not start in the correct position! So what do we look for in a correct address position? Certainly grip is a major factor, however, in my practice I focus on more physical factors and I would refer you to your PGA teaching professional with these type of technical issues. As a physical therapist and golf performance specialist, I want to know what your spine angle is (how far you bend forward at the waist) and how straight or flat your spine is. POSTURE AND SPINE ANGLE. Generally speaking, when I look at a golfer from the down the line view, men have a C posture or a hunched over posture. Women can also have a C posture OR and S posture (excessive spinal curves that gives the appearance of an S ). Due to the anatomy of the bones in your spine, the more bent over you are, the less the spine can rotate = limited backswing and loss of power. Unfortunately, posture changes are not a matter of just trying to standing up 3

4 straight. Poor posture over many years results in muscles changing lengths so that they are now gluing your spine in that poor posture. Thus, to stand up straight you have to fight your muscles adapted and now preferred position. The only way to really change posture is to change the length of muscles and this takes time. Refer to the Cervical and Upper Back Rx section in the Guide to Pain-Free Golf ( to improve your posture. Here is a sample exercise you can work on to improve posture: In addition, how do you know how far forward to bend? Or how much should you bend your knees? Instead of getting too technical here and giving you the perfect degree of knee bend, the best answer is the athletic position. The athletic position is the bodies position of absolute power in which the muscles around the ankles, knees, hips, back and shoulders are at their optimum length and angle for optimum power. Each muscle has a certain position in which it will produce the most power. Take your biceps for example (the muscle kids flex to show you how strong they are). The biceps muscle is the most powerful and can lift the most weight when the elbow is around a angle. If your arm is fully straight or if your elbow is fully bent, your bicep cannot produce nearly as much power. Luckily for us, the body instinctively knows these positions. If you are getting ready to lift a heavy object, you don t stand up straight with arms straight out in front of you. You get into the athletic position. You can get into the athletic position for golf by first standing with your feet shoulder width apart. Now, keeping your back flat, bend or 4

5 hinge forward at the waist to a comfortable and powerful feeling position. Lastly, bend your knees slightly. You should feel ready for action, ready to dodge a speeding car. That is all there is to it. A general clue to keep in mind is that most golfers tend to bend too far forward at the waist. So if in doubt, stand a little taller and make sure that your back is flat. Other body parts to keep track of include your head, arms and legs. First, most amateur golfers make the mistake of keeping their head tilted too far down because they are trying to keep their eye on the ball. The problem here is that when the golfer takes their backswing, their shoulders run into her chin and move her head backwards. It is very difficult to hit a stationary ball when your head is moving all over because your shoulders are running into your chin. Instead, Incorrect Head Position Correct Chin Up Position with your head in a relaxed position, your shoulders should have enough room to rotate underneath the chin and not affect the head. Second, once you have achieved your athletic position, the arms should hang down naturally. You should not feel that you are reaching for the ball. In fact, your arms and the shaft of Incorrect Arms reaching forward instead of hanging down naturally. 5

6 the club should NOT be aligned, but should be at different angles. This is absolutely true with irons. You can move your hands a little further forward for your fairway woods and your driver to create more of a sweeping motion, however, the shaft and your arms should still be at different angles. Finally, the legs. We have already mentioned the athletic bend in the knees, but we are now talking about their rotational position. For the average golfer, the front foot should be rotated outwards about 20 0 to This outward turn allows the hips to fully clear on the downswing and follow through. However, if you have tight hips or arthritis in the hips, it is ok if you also rotate your back foot outward. This reduces the Correct - L foot flared out 25 degrees at address strain on the hip and can also help you avoid some harmful compensatory moves that can ruin a good swing. Click this link to an article that addresses golf swing tips for golfers with physical limitations like hip restrictions: WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION AT ADDRESS. Weight distribution is important during all phases of the swing. At address, your weight should be evenly dispersed from side to side and from heel to toe. 6

7 Weight on Heels incorrect setup Weight Balanced - correct setup Golf Position Correct Incorrect YOUR SCORE Correct = 1 point Incorrect=0 points Spine Angle Back Flat C or S Curve Head Position Arm position Left Foot Position Weight Distribution Head relaxed, tilted high enough for shoulders to rotate underneath. Hanging down in relaxed position Turned towards target slightly: Equal weight on both feet from heel to toe. Your Total Score: Head down. Reaching too far forward Facing directly forward Weight too far on your heels or toes. Degree of Importance Very Very Moderately Moderately Why It Is pure contact, swing plane Pure contact pure contact, swing plane. injury prevention Pure contact 7

8 II. Phase II: Transition Phase THE RIGHT LEG. One position that we do address is the position of your right foot and right knee as you move into your backswing. In your backswing, your weight should stay on the INSIDE of your right foot. All too often, we see golfers shift their weight onto the outside of their right foot, called supination of the foot. This is a major flaw that leads to loss of power and poor contact. Correct Knee/Foot Position Supination ~ Rolled Foot R knee rotated - Reverse Pivot To test your self, take a full backswing and hold that position. Feel if your weight is on the inside of your back foot or if it has rolled to the outside. If it has rolled to the outside, try the Ball under back foot drill in the ADG Drills Book or you can follow this link to a brief article written to address this position: 8

9 In addition, your right knee should be allowed to straighten and rotate a little bit but the knee should not sway laterally. It should NOT fully straighten or go into full extension. Ideally, we don t want your This swing fault has several possible origins: 1)habit, 2)reverse pivot shift, 3) poor hip flexibility. knee to rotate too much in your backswing either. If your knee extends and rotates too much you have likely lost the power of your hips. This is troublesome because the hips should be the most powerful muscles contributing to your swing. To narrow down the culprit, have a friend or spouse assist you. Get into your normal address position and have your partner kneel down behind your right leg. In this position, they should hold your knee in position, not allowing it to straighten or rotate too much. Now take your backswing and feel the difference. If you feel significant tightness on the outside of your right hip, poor hip flexibility is to blame and this is addressed throughout the Age Defying Golf Rx program. If not, it is likely one of the other two causes. There are a lot of gadgets on the market that can help train your knee to maintain the proper position. In our practice, we have found the easiest way to train this position is to knock in your knee slightly at address. The importance of the right leg being stable has its roots in the X-Factor which is the difference between how much your shoulders rotate and how much your hips rotate. 9

10 For maximum power, you want there to be a large difference between the two with shoulder rotation maximized and hip rotation slightly minimized. If your weight shifts to the outside of your right foot and your knee cap rotates to far to the right, this means your hips will be allowed to rotate too much, limiting the X-Factor and losing the advantage of great shoulder rotation. It is like a coil; to tighten the coil you want to rotate the ends opposite directions, not the same direction. In your swing, you rotate your shoulders to the right and limit your hips from rotating too far to the right. (If you are a golfer over 65 who has not been working on your flexibility, you may not be physically able to limit your hip rotation for a big X-Factor. If this is the case, you can review this article for swing alternatives: WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION AT TOP OF BACKSWING. At the top of your backswing, we really begin to find weight distribution faults that are more prevalent in golfers over 50 years old. Generally speaking, you should have approximately 70% of your weight on your back foot and 30% still on your front foot. You have probably heard these or similar numbers before. However, that is not the whole story. In order for the golfer to properly and completely load the right side, you should have more weight on the heel of your right foot than the toe, an approximately 35% to 10

11 65% split respectively. We have found that golfers over 50 years old, predominately have too much weight on their toes. Too much weight on the toes can lead to a major loss of power coming from the right leg and a casting/slicing swing path. So why do we find this in golfers over 50? It is probably not the reason that you might expect. The answer again is hip flexibility. That s right, a weight distribution swing fault is typically caused by a physical limitation. In order to correctly load the back leg, you need to have approximately 55 0 of right hip internal rotation (leg rotating in) range of motion. If you don t have it (and you won t have it unless you are stretching consistently), your body will shift weight forward (toward the ball) in order to get a full backswing. that is bad news for your golf game. To check your position, take a full back swing and hold the position. Feel where your body weight is centered. Front to back and heel to toe. ELBOW POSITIONING. Your left and right elbow positions are key ingredients to creating more swing width. Most golfers over 50 that are striving for more power, often allow the elbows to break down in an effort to lengthen their swing kind of a John Daly attempt. However, John Daly can make that swing and still keep his left elbow straight, the rest of us mortals can t come close. As a result, the more powerful swing is almost always a shorter backswing that maintains width, one with a straight left elbow. 11

12 Collapsed Left Elbow Correct Left Elbow Position No less important is the position of the right elbow. Many golfers know that they should keep their left elbow straight, but rarely do golfers understand the right elbow and how to position it for power. At the top of your backswing, the right elbow should maintain a 90 0 angle for optimum power production. Collapsed R Elbow - Incorrect Correct R Elbow Position 12

13 In addition, your right forearm should be in line with your torso, or primary spine angle, instead of an elbow up or chicken wing position. We see this most often in golfers who grew up playing a lot of baseball keep your elbow up as my dad used to tell me. If hit is a significant issue for you, check out the Impact Ball Training Aid on this page: R Elbow chicken winged - incorrect R Elbow In-Line - correct The position of your left arm is also important as it relates to the head. It is much easier to consistently hit a golf ball if your head remains relatively still as opposed to a head that is moving. Many golfers move their head to the side as they take their backswing. This has several potential causes: 1) poor neck flexibility (the head needs to be able to rotate at least 70 0 in order to be still in the backswing) 2) the head is tilted too far downwards and your shoulder is running into your chin on the backswing (as discussed earlier in this section) or 3) you are raising your shoulders and they are running into your chin. 13

14 More often than not, the cause of the problem is that the head is tilted too far down which is usually the result of everyone telling to keep your head down or keep your head on the ball. A more correct instruction would be to keep your head still. You need to raise your chin up just enough to allow your shoulders to rotate cleanly underneath your chin. If you lack the range of motion to rotate your head properly, you can view a different article that I wrote for a popular golf instructional site: Golf Position Correct Incorrect YOUR SCORE Correct = 1 point Incorrect=0 points Right Foot Right Knee Weight Distribution (Left to Right) Weight Distribution (heel to toe). Weight over the inside of the right foot Knee cap facing forward 70% of your weight is on your back leg 65% of your weight is over your heel of your right foot compared to Weight rolled to the outside of the right foot Knee rotated towards the right. Too much weight is still on your front leg. Weight is more over your toes. Degree of Importance Extremely Extremely Extremely Why It Is Pure contact, power pure contact pure contact pure contact 14

15 the toe. Left Elbow Position Mostly straight Too much elbow bend Very pure contact Right Elbow Position 90 0 bend Greater than 90 0 bend Power Right Forearm/Elbow In line with your body Chicken winged swing plane Head Movement Minimal movement Excess movement Very Pure contact Your Total Score 15