Golf Fitness

This article was co-authored with Chris Gibson, an Australian AAA-rated golf professional. His teaching philosophy focuses on simplicity and longevity in the game, providing help for golfers at all levels. He focuses on interpreting information from technology and applying it in the simplest way possible to help his students

Before you begin reading this article, make sure you have read Part 1 in this series, otherwise not much of this is going to make sense! Here, in Part 2, Chris and I are going to offer solutions that will help you to develop better stability and control of those all-important shoulder blades.

But first, in response to requests for a more detailed photographic explanation, we will also show you the good and bad of scapula-positioning when standing upright and in a golf setup. The two models featured are an underdeveloped teen who has poor scapula control, and a top-100 player in the world who has five years of scapula stability training under his belt (in addition to other training).

You can see that in Pic 1; the teen had a lack of bulk and activation in the muscles surrounding the scapula and it appears to poke through the skin. This leads to the right shoulder sitting very low and internally rotated at set up (Pics 2 and 3), which as we suggested in Part 1 of this article, makes it ultimately more difficult to control the clubface consistently. Where as the more trained athlete (whilst still not perfect: right shoulder is low) holds his scapula better in standing and set up, which we believe gives him a better chance to repeatedly control the clubface efficiently in his action.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Hopefully that clears things up for you and we can finally offer you a solution to training those scaps. The scapula is notoriously difficult to control; instinctively, we generally have poor awareness and usually aren’t very strong or stable in the muscles that surround it. Training of these muscles can be be tricky and complicated, so we have tried to simplify it for you by delivering two sets of simple exercises that we use as a starting point for many of the players (elite or otherwise) that we work with.

These simple drills can be done using either a piece of rubber tubing or more ideally, the training piece you will see in the photos called the Gravity Fit Thoracic Pro.

We have created one mini program for home and one mini program for the practice range. The movements are simple and don’t require any kind of in-depth anatomical knowledge to perform them correctly. We have supplied photos and descriptions of how to perform the movements, but also welcome questions and queries.

Home Exercises

Circuit – 3 Rounds – 30 seconds of rest between exercises.

Tubing Push Out – Thoracic Pro – 12 reps

Wall Push Up – Thoracic Pro – 12 reps

Set Up Posture Drill – Thoracic Pro – 45 secs

Waist to Waist Turns – Thoracic Pro – 10 reps

1. Tubing Push Out

Purpose: Training scapula awareness, control and endurance

Method: Stand tall, press arms forward keeping shoulder blades and spine connected to back paddle, turn palms up as you near end range. Control back to start position and repeat.

2. Wall Push Up

Purpose: Training scapula awareness, control and endurance.

Method: Stand tall, lower your chest toward the wall keeping your shoulder blades and spine connected to back paddle. Control back to start position and repeat.

3. Set Up Posture Drill

Purpose: Training scapula awareness, control and endurance in golf setup.

Method: In golf set up with hands in tubing, turn shoulders/elbows/hands outwards. Gently pulse hands against tubing.

4. Waist to Waist Turns

Purpose: Training scapula awareness, control and endurance in rotation movement pattern.

Method: In golf setup with hands in tubing, turn shoulders/elbows/hands outwards. Turn into backswing then turn into follow through. Maintain shoulder/elbow/hand positioning all the way through.

Range Drills

Circuit – 10 rounds – 20 secs rest between drills

Set Up Posture Drill – Thoracic Pro – 20 secs

Waist to Waist Turns – Thoracic Pro – 10 reps

Preset, Backswing to Impact – 5 reps

Preset, backswing to hit ball – 3 reps

1. Set Up Posture Drill

Purpose: Training scapula awareness, control and endurance in golf setup.

Method: In golf set up with hands in tubing, turn shoulders/elbows/hands outwards. Gently pulse hands against tubing.

2. Waist to Waist Turns

Purpose: Training scapula awareness, control and endurance in rotation movement pattern.

Method: In golf set up with hands in tubing, turn shoulders/elbows/hands outwards. Turn into backswing then turn into follow through. Maintain shoulder/elbow/hand positioning all the way through.

3. Preset, Backswing to Impact

Purpose: Practice first move, top of backswing and back to impact in controlled manner. Opportunity to discover what positions feel like with quality scapular control under low load (moving slowly).

Method: Set club parallel to ground with good shoulder position (connected scapulae), slowly swing up to top of 3/4 backswing and back to impact.

4. Preset, backswing to hit ball

Purpose: Taking the movement patterns and control of the scapula and applying it to hitting balls.

Method: Set club parallel to ground with good shoulder position (connected scapulae), complete rest of swing and impact at normal speed

This article was co-authored with Chris Gibson, an Australian AAA-rated golf professional. His teaching philosophy centers on simplicity and longevity in the game, providing help for golfers at all levels. He focuses on interpreting information from technology and applying it in the simplest way possible to help his students.

The shoulder blade (scapula) is a strange bone, quite unlike any other in the body. It seems to float in a sea of 17 different muscles that attach to it without possessing any tangibly useful function. Not many people know why it’s there or really what to do with it.

Despite its odd appearance and awkward location, the scapula actually has a really important job to do, that of attaching the upper arm to the rest of the body. The muscles that run from the scapula to the upper arm essentially control movement at the shoulder, so the scapula has a pretty crucial role as far as most sporting actions are concerned, especially golf.

We (Chris and I) like to think of the relationship between the scapula and the clubface from a top-down, chain reaction perspective:

SCAPULA – GLENO HUMERAL JOINT (SHOULDER) – UPPER ARM – ELBOW – FOREARM – WRIST – GRIP/SHAFT – CLUBFACE

If you change something at the scapula, then this will have a chain reaction down the line. For instance, in the photo below, Chris is downwardly rotating his right scapula, which internally rotates the shoulder. That pronates the elbow and wrist and shuts the clubface. He demonstrates what this often looks like at address and also what commonly happens as a result in a golfer’s first move, especially with better players.

At Address

Common First Move

A re-routing of the club needs to happen at some point during the swing to produce workable conditions from here — think Ryan Moore as an extreme example. This will usually result in a club being delivered from the inside (see the data on the left in the image below).

Yes, it’s possible to manipulate any of the segments down the chain from the the scapula (and/or other parts of the body) in order to produce a different result at the clubface, but if we are chasing consistency of action and repeatability of strike, plus avoidance of injury, we believe that the less manipulation that occurs the better. We would prefer to see something more like the data on the right in the image below (apologies for the poor quality).

Common Questions, Queries, Arguments

What does clubface positioning have to do with anything??

It will come as no surprise that the position of the clubface at impact will have a very big influence on where your golf ball goes. In fact, the revised ball flight laws state that with the driver — provided there is no interference from off center strikes (a.k.a gear effect) —  75 percent of starting direction is dictated by clubface.

So what if my clubface isn’t perfect position. Can’t I just rely on skill and timing to square the clubface up at impact?

Some people do a great job of manipulating their body through impact to recover from less than ideal clubface control, but they tend to be the really talented ones. The majority of the population simply doesn’t have the skill/timing to do this repeatedly or they don’t practice nearly enough to make it habitual. An analogy I like is that of the highly talented race car driver being able to handle a car going into a 100 mph chicane from the wrong position. They will keep it on the track 9 out of 10 times. Most of us mere mortals could really benefit from being on the correct racing line, otherwise, we are going straight into the tires 9 out of 10 times!

Takeaway

The basic premise is this: control your shoulder blades better and you will find it much easier to control your shoulder, arm, wrist, shaft and ultimately your clubface, which will help you produce more consistent and repeatable shots.

In this series of five articles, I will be offer guidelines for golf-specific physical activity aimed at five different golfing demographics:

Kids

Teenagers

Club Players

Elite Players

Senior Players

This article covers the physical activity that’s best for teens interested in the game of golf, a period in which many changes start happening in the body. Hormones go crazy, which normally leads to growth spurts, acne and unpredictable mood swings amongst a whole host of other adaptations.

A teen’s body often feels strange, ungainly and uncomfortable to live in. Combine this self consciousness with a lifestyle that is increasingly centered around computers, phones and school work, and the solid upright posture that was demonstrated during their preteen years can rapidly disappear.

As trainers and golf coaches, we like to see good posture not only from a golf swing mechanics point of view, but also to ensure proper functional movement of the spine and the major joints in the body. A sloppy standing and seated posture will almost always be reflected in a golf swing with funky compensatory movements and poor control in basic gym exercises.

The first stop for any young teen who comes into either our golf academy or Australian state program is a postural analysis, followed by education and prescription of corrective exercises. It might not be glamorous or particularly fun at first, but we consider it absolutely essential for future development.

Once some postural education has been carried out, we move on to the basic gym exercises: push, pull, squat, lunge and brace. We prescribe an even balance of these exercises to ensure equal development and good awareness and control of the body in movement.

At first, these exercises use just bodyweight or very light loads, and almost always come with a high volume of repetitions. As mentioned before, the body is still growing throughout this period and it isn’t advised to repeatedly load the skeleton with heavy weight. The objective at this point is not to build a muscle-bound freak who pounds the ball 300 yards. We are still very much in the phase of developing a well-rounded athlete who has great body awareness, control and resilience to injury. We also recommend continuing to play other sports, as this will help develop coordination, joint stability and cardio-vascular fitness.

Neglecting the pillars of physical development — postural awareness, an introduction to the gym and participation in sports outside of golf — can lead to some worrying adaptations. “Reverse upper spine” and “crunch factor” are two fairly gruesome-sounding movements that we see leave their mark on the bodies of teen golfers on a regular basis. They are both attributed to poor body awareness and/or lack of strength when swinging the golf club. Lateral curvatures in the spine and injured shoulders and wrists are all too frequently the result.

The best practice is to see a good, golf-specific trainer or physio in your area who can set you down the right path. In the mean time, click on the image below to get access to a basic bodyweight posture and functional movement program that will get you started.

In this series of five articles, I will be offer guidelines for golf-specific physical activity aimed at five different golfing demographics:

Kids

Teenagers

Club Players

Elite Players

Senior Players

This article covers the physical activity that’s best for kids interested in the game of golf, and is beneficial for children who simply want to engage in golf as a hobby, as well as those who one day hope to play golf as a professional. What you’ll find is that in childhood, what’s good for a child’s physical development as a whole is also good for their golf future.

Kids

Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are what most people would call basic game play, i.e. running, throwing, catching, kicking and striking — all elements that used to make up typical lunchtime play sessions and after-school activities. With less time in school curriculums being devoted to sport, and an increasing amount of play is done with just two thumbs and controller, kids are not getting the FMS we as trainers and golf coaches would like to see.

You might ask what running, throwing, catching, kicking and striking have to do with getting better at golf – and rightly so. At first sight, golf only involves one of those movements, however, one of the major benefits of solid FMS is body awareness and control.

FMS is championed by knowledgeable golf coaches, physios and trainers who specialize in the development young players. They love to see a talented teenager with a multi-sport background who has good control and awareness of their body. It means that the teenager is able to detect the subtle changes in movement that a coach is trying to teach, or activate a certain muscle group that the physio or trainer wants to strengthen.

As a result, they are better able to make the necessary adaptations and improve their swing action a lot quicker than someone who has only swung a golf club the same way through their crucial development years.

Developing solid FMS skills also has far wider-reaching benefits than preparation for elite-level golf. The general benefits of good FMS are widely believed to indicate a higher participation rate in sport and are directly correlated with lower BMI and waist measurements. Perhaps most important, learning functional movement skills is great fun! I’ve been involved in plenty of FMS sessions for kids where they’re having so much fun that they don’t want to take the T-ball bat out their hands and do the actual golf part of their session.

I can see how specializing early might be tempting — most of us have heard about Tiger Woods shooting even par before the age of 3, which can make parents feel as though their 8-year-old is way behind the curve. But who would encourage a child to drop every other subject and only focus on music on age 5 just because Mozart was composing symphonies at the same age?

WITH THAT IN MIND, WHY WOULD WE SEE IT AS NECESSARY TO STUNT A CHILD’S OVERALL PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT BY FOCUSING ON A SINGLE SPORT?

In an age where inactivity is fast being recognized as our culture’s biggest threat to health and well being, isn’t it better to encourage the kids to run, jump, kick, throw and strike while learning some basic golf skills and having fun doing it?

If you are interested in getting your child involved in improving their FMS while they learn to play golf, then do a little homework on the junior golf programs in the area and find out if they run sessions that incorporate well thought out physical activity in their sessions.

In this series of five articles, I will be offering guidelines for golf-specific physical activity aimed at five different golfing demographics:

Kids

Teenagers

Club Players

Elite Players

Seniors

This story is for club golfers. The average club golfer has a handicap of 26.5 if they are female, and 14.3 if they are male. They don’t play a lot of golf and have limited time to practice because of their busy schedules. And they usually don’t have the time or the inclination to undertake an extensive physical regimen to improve their golf. But that doesn’t mean that the average golfer can’t benefit from some work on their body.

It is difficult to say exactly how average golfers can benefit from a fitness routine without a thorough physical screening and lifestyle questionnaire, which identifies the areas individuals need to work on. But there are a few common issues that tend to crop up again and again in club golfers that come through our academy.

Let’s have a look at the most common complaints and the methods we use to help.

The Issue: “I have pain in my lower back”

Lots of people play golf in pain. In fact, a 2006 study on golfer health conducted by Golf Digest showed that a staggering 64 percent of golfers suffer from low back pain of some description.

The Solution: Strength, Mobility + Postural Awareness and Control

Once a golfer has been cleared for serious spinal pathology and we are given the green light, we golf fitness experts get to work on making them stronger and more mobile. We often begin with awareness and activation drills for the core, spine and posture in general, along with mobility work on the muscles attaching to the pelvis that are pulling the low back into an uncomfortable position. On the hit list are invariably hip flexors, quads, deep glutes and hamstrings. While working on awareness and mobility, we also start to introduce basic strength exercises for the core, glutes, hamstrings and low back.

See below for a basic program of mobility and stability exercises for key muscles surrounding the pelvis and spine. The ideal equipment for this is a Golf Posture Training Kit, but you can also use a tennis ball, baseball, foam roller and a piece of rubber tubing or theraband.

The Issue: “I want to hit it farther”

The standard club golfer always wants to squeeze a few extra yards out of his or her driver and we can certainly help, but maybe not in the way that you might think we can.

The Solution: Movement Patterns and Sequencing

Rather than simply attempting to increase club head speed with loaded rotational core exercises, we first look at improving the efficiency of the golf swing itself. We do this by analyzing the swing and then prescribing movement pattern drills. This will not only increase club head speed, but also help golfers get more compression and better launch conditions. As we start to make significant progress in this area, we can then look at strength exercises to maximize the new, more efficient action. Below are a couple of the more basic movement pattern drills I use.

I’m pictured using the a 2XU Ramsay Posture Belt and micro power band, but you can also use a piece of rubber tubing for the hands and another tied around the knees.

The Issue: “I can’t swing it the way my coach wants me to”

In my experience, mobility is often the biggest inhibitor for club golfers when trying to get into the swing positions that their coach is teaching them. If the player does not have the range of motion in a particular joint or length in a particular muscle, then it will be impossible for them to get into the right position without a lot of compensation from other parts of the body.

The Solution: Self Massage, Functional Stretching and Activation Drills

Trail shoulder position (right shoulder for righties, left shoulder for lefties) is an area that is particularly affected by lack of mobility and also has a massive influence on shaft and club face position throughout the swing. Tight pectorals (pec major and minor) and inactive and/or weak “scap control muscles” (serratus anterior, mid and low traps, and the rotator cuff muscles) work together to drag the shoulder forward. From here it is difficult to set the shoulder correctly, and therefore arm and club head in the correct position in takeaway and at the top of the backswing.

We prescribe self massage release and stretching for the pecs and a series of activation drills for the scap control muscles. These can be performed in golf posture to help the player transfer the newfound mobility, control and strength around their shoulder directly into their golf swing.

See below for a mini program of scapula/shoulder setting exercises. Again, you can use a tennis ball, baseball and some rubber tubing to perform these simple exercises.

In this series of five articles, I will be offering guidelines for golf-specific physical activity aimed at five different golfing demographics:

Kids

Teenagers

Club Players

Elite Players

Seniors

This article is for elite amateur golfers and professionals. Once the foundation of physical competence has been laid down through solid gym and posture work, then it’s time to consider what physical characteristics are actually desirable to compete in golf at the highest level. In my opinion, golfers need a solid level of cardiovascular fitness, good flexibility and as much strength and power as possible along with great movement patterns. They also need to be able to manage their own body while on the road competing in tournaments.

In order to develop these capabilities I prescribe the following:

Gym work

Elite golfers need a program that focuses on strength and power while solidifying the work already done on stability and mobility. Below is an example lower-body workout from an intermediate/advanced-level program. The function exercises are included for stability and muscle activation, while the power exercises are simple jump and throw variations, focusing on generating speed. The strength work is designed for hypertrophy and focuses on multi-joint lifts. The core exercises incorporate a loaded rotation movement and a bracing, endurance hold.

Motor Pattern Program

At this stage, drills using the Ramsay Posture Belt and other postural training aids are directly related to the player’s swing and what they are trying to achieve from a technical standpoint. Here is an example of one my favorite drills to train lower body stability and dynamic rotation.

Flexibility

Exercises are prescribed using spiky balls and the corresponding stretches, usually targeting ankle, hip, shoulder and spinal mobility. Below is a typical mobility program that covers the key areas that are commonly affected by a predominantly sitting lifestyle combined with lots of practice and play.

Cardiovascular Work

Interval training is used to keep the energy output down while still stimulating the cardiovascular system and improving aerobic and anaerobic endurance. Here is a short but intense Tabata workout that is typical of the cardio work I prescribe.

Maintenance On the Road

A combination of basic gym work, posture and mobility exercises are combined with recovery practices such as hydrotherapy while traveling and attending tournaments. These techniques are used to help maintain the condition that has been developed in the prep phase before tournaments.

The individual application can vary quite considerably within this approach depending on the individual. I’ll present two methods I have used in dealing with a couple of different players:

Golfer 1: A young professional who has been under my care since the age of 16.

Golfer 2: An established professional in his 30s that I have been working with for around 18 months.

Golfer 1 has come through a state high-performance program, so he is used to having information delivered to him and is expected to comply with the instructions and programs delivered. Best practice is always used, compliance is high and progress is measurable and very consistent. It’s essentially an ideal scenario for a trainer as long-term development is the main focus and priority, sometimes at the expense of short-term performance.

Golfer 2 has come through a route that is much more self-learned and self-taught. The approach therefore has to be softened somewhat and worked in with the player’s current belief system. Exercises have to be adapted and programs changed or molded in order to develop the player’s athleticism, while not rocking the boat from a conceptual point of view. Remember at this stage, short-term performance is considered to be the highest priority and long-term development often has to take a back seat.

Best practice with Golfer 2 and those like him is sometimes compromised, and progress is often not very measurable. This is a small price to pay in order to keep a player’s belief high and ensure compliance is achieved. Without belief and compliance, results will not happen and I might as well prescribe aqua aerobics, calf raises and wrist curls!

In this series of five articles, I will be offering guidelines for golf-specific physical activity aimed at five different golfing demographics:

Kids

Teenagers

Club Players

Elite Players

Seniors

This article, the last in my five-part series, focuses on the backbone of the golfing population: seniors.

The main difference between a younger club golfer and a senior golfer from a lifestyle point of view is that the latter normally has a lot more time to play and practice, which is definitely a positive. It also gives them more time to repeat and ingrain poor movements that are less than ideal, however. When combined with the following physical limitations that normally affect seniors, I’ve seen many of their games go into a decline despite having extra time to practice and play.

Most senior golfers face challenges in the following areas:

Reduction in mobility: Joints become stiffer and muscles become shorter.

Muscle atrophy: Less testosterone in the body leads to a wasting of muscle tissue.

Reduction in bone density: Bone diseases such as osteopenia and osteoporosis lead to increased fragility in the skeletal system.

So what do we prescribe in order to help with these typical issues?

Increasing Mobility

When I train senior golfers, I usually prescribe a combination of spiky ball drills and dynamic stretching that target the following muscles: pectorals, hip flexors, glutes and erector spinae. What I call “soft stretching activities” such as yoga can be extremely beneficial for senior golfers, too.

Here is a mini program for gently increasing hip mobility.

Muscle Atrophy and Bone Density Reduction

These two issues can both be targeted with the same approach: lifting weights. Contrary to popular belief, strength training is neither dangerous nor detrimental for people of advancing age if done properly. In senior citizens, it has been proven to actually stimulate bone re-growth and significantly reduce the rate of muscular atrophy or wastage.

The best type of strength training is closed-chain, load-bearing exercises such as squats, lunges and push-ups. When injury or lack of mobility restricts the participant from making big movements, however, then open-chain, seated exercises such as seated row, chest/shoulder press and leg press will also help.

Poor Movement Patterns

What about those swing faults that just seem to be so deeply ingrained that there is no hope of changing? To start, increased strength and mobility will make it easier to get the body and the club head into a new position. To help break down old movement patterns and learn new ones, we prescribe activation and movement drills that “switch on” the correct muscles and mimic the movement that we want them to make in the golf swing. This is generally done using the Ramsay Posture Belt, among other posture and movement training aids.

Here’s a basic set of exercises than help to promote better posture and begin the journey towards more dynamic rotation.

Most of what is touted as “golf fitness” just doesn’t do the basics right. It doesn’t pay due diligence to the fundamentals, and often goes straight for the low-hanging fruit of rotational speed and power. Maybe even worse is that much of it tries to make golfers believe that an exercise such as an explosive wood chop or a gadget like a weighted club can instantly add 30 yards to their game. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.

JUST LIKE A CLASSIC GET-RICH-QUICK SCHEME, IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS.

Athletic ability for golf isn’t that different than athletic ability in other sports. You wouldn’t expect an aspiring soccer player to go straight to clean and jerks, heavy sled pulls and plyometrics. He needs to first gain the ability to run efficiently, sidestep and achieve good body position. Otherwise, he will never be able to apply the gains made from training to his on-field game.

It’s the same with golf.

If a golfer has poor posture and poor concepts of dynamic rotation, then the application of speed and power is going to be ineffective. This also applies if golfers are fundamentally unstable or have mobility issues in their major joints. Add to this the increased risk of injury from loading up with weighted rotation exercises and we have a situation where training isn’t only ineffective, but might even make golfers worse and lead to an injury that forces them to take time away for the game.

There are all too many horror stories where a severe injury from improper training derails a golfer’s career or causes them to lose passion for the game. This article hopes to limit those occurrences, as well as raise awareness of how golfers can improve their games and overall well-being through fitness.

What To Do Now

Get a Golf Lesson: Any golf coach worth their salt will be able to evaluate your setup posture and assess your concept of dynamic and efficient rotation specific to the golf swing. While an instructor may not know what movements need to be performed to fix certain flaws, many are familiar with top trainers in their area who specialize in just that. Ask them for their recommendation.

Get Screened: Follow up the lesson with a good, golf-specific physical screening that will identify your abilities in regards to stability, mobility and basic movement quality. I personally use a modified version of the Ramsay McMaster screening method, and add a few of my own tests. TPI certified trainers can also perform these screenings.

Get a Program: Now that you know where you are, it’s time to start moving up the chain. A quality training program will offer exercises that will challenge your level of stability, mobility and movement quality relevant to you and your golf. This program should also give you a strength stimulus by encouraging a gradual increase in load (pounds or kilos) and/or volume (sets and reps).

What To Do Next

Do these things frequently.

Change Up Your Program: Sticking to the same exercises for months on end will limit your ability to progress upward. A good trainer will anticipate positive and negative changes to your body, and tailor your routine to create continued progress in troublesome areas.

Get Golf Lessons: It’s really important to keep applying your increased physical capabilities to your game. Only a quality golf coach can reliably make this happen for you.

Eat Well: Quality nutrition is key to building muscle mass, getting stronger and staying healthy. Hydration is part of this, and golfers should aim to consume at least 1 pint of water for every 50 pounds of bodyweight per day.

Be Patient: Making lasting and tangible change takes time and consistent application.

Do these things occasionally.

Get Re-Screened: Monitor your progress by getting tested again. Once every three months is ideal.

Get Soft Tissue Massage: Yes, they’ll help you relax, but soft tissue massages also help with recovery from training.

What NOT To Do

Don’t be tempted by a “golf power” program that promises to add 30 yards in 30 days and blindly follows a non-progressive, non-specific set of exercises. Most of these programs completely ignore the principles of athletic development. You will likely end up disappointed, disillusioned and potentially injured.

Further, it’s important to stay the course if you do take the right steps. I’ve seen too many golfers bail on a program after three weeks because they haven’t broken par or some other scoring barrier.

The Takeaway

I am asking this question because we as golfers have limited time and financial resources to put toward getting better at the game we love. Therefore, if we want to improve, it’s necessary to be selective about what we choose to invest in. A common dilemma is whether to upgrade our equipment or invest in our bodies. I have gathered the opinions of a variety of experts in the field of golf to help you decide whether your clubs or your body is going to get a tune up this year.

Before we crack on, it’s probably worth defining exactly what I mean by “your equipment” and “your body.”

Equipment: Driver, Fairway Woods, Irons, Wedges, Putter and any custom fitting thereof.

Body: Golf Fitness Assessment, Personal Training, Golf Fitness Training Programs, Fitness Equipment (golf specific or not), Strength Training, Yoga, Pilates, Movement Pattern Training.

Note: Coaching deserves its own category (and article) and is not included in this debate.

So which is more worthy of an investment of your precious time and hard earned dollars?

Some would argue that without the right equipment, it doesn’t matter how good your body is. Incorrect shafts are going to produce inconsistent ball striking, and too little loft on your driver will reduce your carry distance by 10-15 percent. But even a golfer with a body like Rory McIlroy’s is going to struggle without the right gear.

Others might suggest that you can have all the gear, but if your body doesn’t function well you can’t make use of it properly. You might have a driver that is brand new and custom fit to your swing speed and delivery conditions. If your swing speed is 89 mph, your path is 9 degrees left and your angle of attack is 5 degrees down due to mobility restrictions and a lack of strength, however, then you will always have a pretty low potential for improving your driving distance and accuracy by investing in a driver.

I am quite clearly and unashamedly biased in this argument. As a strength and conditioning coach, I will always say that your body is more important than your equipment and you should invest your dollars and your time into getting fitter, stronger, more mobile and improving your movement patterns. In my opinion, improving your body will raise the ceiling of your golf-related physical capabilities such as strength/power, flexibility, coordination and movement patterns. With bettered athleticism comes the potential to swing the club more effectively and hit better golf shots. You can find out more about my methods for raising your ceiling of potential by clicking here.

I am aware, however, that you probably don’t just want to hear this predictable and one-eyed view of the situation, so I have asked eight of my esteemed colleagues to chip in with their opinions on the matter. I tried to harvest a range of views from people who do various different aspects of golf stuff for a living. There are golf coaches, GolfWRX editors, GolfWRX writers, strength and conditioning coaches and even a former CEO of a famous equipment manufacturer. It’s a pretty broad spectrum!

For each of their responses I’ll award a point to either “Equipment” or “Body,” tally the scores as we go and summarize which category came out as the overall winner.

Chris Gibson: Golf Coach, 2015 Queensland (Australia) Teaching Professional of the Year

“I guess there are several levels to my answer that cover the different types of client that I work with. To start with, obviously if the clubs are grossly out of proportion (i.e. too long/short, heavy/light, game improvement/blade, etc.) then getting them somewhere near suitable is really important.

“If somebody walked through my door as a raw beginner and didn’t have clubs, I would always suggest not to buy them until we can improve their technique, which includes the physical training of movement patterns.

“If we are talking a long-term program for a player and their goals are to be as good as they can be, then physical first. This can determine how much they can practice and play and therefore have a significant bearing on their long term goals.

“If they are players who know they can’t practice due to work commitments or just aren’t motivated to practice more and enjoy the social aspect only, then clubs may be better suited to help them improve.

“If I am talking elite level athletes that have had their clubs fitted, then physical will always out weigh clubs or technology. Elite level athletes will adapt even if they are not spot on with a club fit.”

We start with a halve.

Scoreboard: Body: 0.5, Equipment: 0.5

Barney Adams: Founder of Adams Golf and the inventor of the iconic “Tight Lies” fairway wood

“Given decent equipment, meaning that you might favor some older models that play perfectly, well then I say unequivocally that body is more important. I’m 76 and at best exercise might slow down the effects of age, so equating age to condition there is no way I play as well as my younger years. Body, no contest.”

Body takes an early lead with Barney’s full support.

Scoreboard: Body 1.5, Equipment 0.5

Kane Cochran: Co-founder of Full Glass Labs and creator of Ranger GPS

“For me… the body is more important to lowering your scores. If we assume we’re discussing any of the major, higher-quality pieces of equipment out there, there performance, as we’ve seen, is generally similar. Materials and craftsmanship sets equipment apart, but if we’re talking generally, moving your body the right way will have a bigger impact than say, upgrading your irons from last season’s model to this season. Yes, we all should have clubs fit for our BODY and our swing and it is possible to lower scores simply by getting a proper equipment fit.

“Better (lower handicap) golfers will, in my opinion, see a bigger benefit from getting their body to work more efficiently through better conditioning/fitness, which will let them get in better positions and fire everything in a better sequence.

“Higher-handicap golfers who have not been fit for their clubs or are using older technology can lower their scores with properly fit clubs or better technology (more forgiving drivers and irons for instance). But they will still see a bigger benefit from having a body that can get in the correct positions more easily, allowing them to swing the club better and improve at a faster pace.”

This is looking bad for equipment.

Scoreboard: Body 2.5, Equipment 0.5

Zak Kozuchowski: GolfWRX Editor

“Equipment changes are best for short-term improvement, by which I mean your next few rounds. Simple things such as establishing proper wedge gaps and dialing in playable lofts and lie angles can create huge improvements in consistency for golfers of every level, and they aren’t usually that expensive. A shaft swap can also really help if golfers find themselves not being able to hit a certain type of club (driver, irons, wedges) as well as others in their set.

That being said, if it was either this or that, most golfers should probably invest in their bodies first, because they’ll only use new clubs for limited amount of time. They’ll need their bodies for their rest of the lives.

The best advice I can give to junior golfers and aspiring professionals is to understand what parts of their bodies could be limiting them and what they can do on a day-to-day basis to prevent injuries. Seek out the smartest coaches and fitters in your area, and you might learn what I did — some of the work I was putting in at the gym and on the range was not really helping, and in some cases hurting me.

Another halved point. Can equipment hang in there?

Scoreboard: Body 3, Equipment 1

Tom Stickney: Director of Instruction at The Vidanta Golf Academies

“Obviously the body is a huge part of the success of the player, but I feel at the lower levels of playing ability the clubs are more important. This is because the higher handicapper struggles to make up for poorly fit or inappropriate clubs. At least we can alter the clubs to aid the improper body motions for golfers with less ability.”

A full point for equipment. Start of a comeback maybe?

Scoreboard: Body 3, Equipment 2

Andrew Tursky: GolfWRX Assistant Editor

“I would say equipment short-term and fitness long-term. Equipment can help a golfer shave strokes without changing their technique. But improvement has a ceiling by strictly getting a set of custom-fit golf clubs.

Fitness, however, can help a golfer achieve a golf body (flexibility, stronger core, etc.) that allows them to practice more, while reducing the risk of injury. Also, they can possibly achieve movement patterns they wouldn’t have been able to without a golf-specific fitness regimen.

A new set of clubs isn’t much good if a bad back and tight hamstrings keep you from spending the proper time on the practice tee.”

A great argument in favor of body.

Scoreboard: Body 4, Equipment 2

Richard Woodhouse: Director Of Instruction at KDV Sport

“In regards to priority, I will always address how the body is functioning first and foremost. The golf swing requires both mobility and stability. If one or both of these functions are compromised, an equipment change may only “Band Aid” over the true cause of the inefficiency in the golf swing.

“Regardless of age, gender, ability, or time availability, we can all work toward a more efficient functioning body; this might mean incorporating dynamic mobility/stability, dynamic balance and/or strength and conditioning program.

“When I have my students applying themselves with structured programs as listed above, I see a dramatic increase in acceptance of swing/technique improvement. I always believe that time spent working on an efficient mobility/stability pattern will decrease the time required to implement swing improvements on the range.

“As the pattern of the swing becomes consistent regarding sequencing, we can then address the equipment and fit the player to equipment that will in turn compliment the players development.”

The first golf coach to go all out for body. This is turning into a one-sided contest.

Scoreboard: Body 5, Equipment 2

Nick Buchan: Founder of Stronger Golf / Co Founder of the Association of Golf Strength and Conditioning (AGSC)

“Obviously, what your body is physically able to do and the equipment you use can directly affect your swing mechanics. Getting properly fitted for your clubs can have you walking out of a 30-minute custom fitting sessions swinging better and ultimately playing better very quickly!

“Improving the function of your body in golf swing by addressing weak points in your movement chain, correcting movement patterns and alignment, etc., will optimise biomechanics and also allow improvements in swing mechanics albeit will considerably more effort and time investment. This approach has two advantages; first, the law of diminishing returns will impact physical training much more slowly or even be non-existent. There will almost always be physical issues affecting a golfer, which we can work to improve.

“Second, and most importantly, improving equipment choice and even swing mechanics through coaching is the equivalent of fine-tuning a cars engine. Increasing strength and power through physical training is the equivalent to making the cars engine bigger. A bigger engine simply has more potential for speed.”

The S&C coach predictably drives home the knife with another point for body.

Scoreboard: Body 6, Equipment 2

There we have it folks, a resounding four-point victory in favor of “your body.” The best custom fit equipment will take you right up to the ceiling of potential for improvement of your game, and there is no doubt that up-to-date and properly fit equipment can help you lower your scores — but increasing your level of (golf specific) athletic ability can raise that ceiling higher than you ever thought possible.

It’s well worth noting that quality coaching plays a huge role in game improvement. Often the best physical adaptations aren’t worth much without being told how to apply them to the swing, and every contributing member to this article massively advocates committing to some level of professional instruction if you want to get better.

This article was co-authored with Chris Gibson, an Australian AAA-rated golf professional. His teaching philosophy focuses on simplicity and longevity in the game, providing help for golfers at all levels. He focuses on interpreting information from technology and applying it in the simplest way possible to help his students.

Rotation is a buzz word that gets used a lot when talking about the golf swing. And it should. Golf is a rotary sport that requires us to turn the body in order to generate power in the action of hitting the ball.

More often than not, rotation is discussed with reference to quantity: How far? How much? How many degrees?

In our opinion, body rotation in the golf swing (like so many things in life) should be discussed in terms of quality, not quantity.

Why is it important to change our attitude toward rotation? Because talking about it in terms of quantity, while claiming that more is better, does not help the majority of golfers.

The average club golfer is often incapable of achieving large ranges of quality rotation in the key areas of their bodies. Because they can’t find the range or stability in the right places, they look for it elsewhere and usually end up in one of two scenarios:

A reverse spine angle/over extension of spine, with a head that moves toward target (Photo 1).

A collapsed lower body (Photo 2).

Photo 1

Photo 2

It would benefit a huge amount of golfers around the world to get a better understanding of what quality rotation is and where it needs to happen.

Quality rotation is the act of a joint moving through a range of motion in a way that is efficient, controlled and repeatable. Essentially, the correct muscles are exerting the correct forces on the correct bones in order for them twist against one other in the correct way. This allows golfers to get into powerful positions in the backswing, which in turn allows us to rotate in the opposite direction and return the club back to the ball in the most efficient way possible.

3 Key Areas

The three areas that we need to generate quality rotation from are the hips, shouldersand thoracic spine. It’s not mere coincidence that these are three of the most mobile areas in our body and are specifically designed to achieve large ranges of motion.

At the hip, we are looking for efficient internal and external rotation (see Photo 3). That is the pelvis turning around the top of the thigh bone (femur) efficiently, without the all-too-common compensations (see Photo 2).

Photo 3

From the thoracic spine, we need the vertebrae to turn, one on top of the other (see Photo 4 of thoracic rotation). This allows the sternum (breastplate) to face away from the target, creating a wind-up effect in the torso without the usual compensations (see Photo 1).

Photo 4

Here, we would like the shoulder externally rotate, essentially turning the inside of the elbow outwards (see Photo 5). This allows the club to be set “on plane” without the common shoulder-level compensations (see Photo 6, flattened shoulder plane).

Photo 5

Photo 6

If golfers can find quality rotation in each key area, then they have a good chance to find a solid backswing position from which they can reverse the movement back to the golf ball.

Individuality

Different people have varying capabilities to rotate in the three key areas. Sandy Lyle, Jason Day and John Daly have completely different amounts of rotation in their bodies during the golf swing. They are all long hitters who generate huge amounts of power from varying QUANTITIES of QUALITY rotation.

If you have limited range of motion in one or more of the three key areas, don’t despair. Make the most of what you have, and you can still be efficient and powerful in your golf swing.

Learn how to train quality rotation

Technology does a great job of quantifying our body and club movements during the swing. The most popular and accessible form of movement analysis comes in the form of K-Vest. K-Vest essentially tells us the degrees of rotation that we are achieving at the pelvis (hips) and at the thorax (chest), as well as how far our pelvis tilts from front to back. While K-Vest gives recommendations for quantity of rotation, it’s up to the user to interpret the info, match it up to the way the body is moving and look for the quality of rotation.

Here’s an example (Photo 7). Nick is achieving the K-Vest recommended degrees of rotation at the pelvis and at the thorax, which is demonstrated in Photo 8 (green is good). The position looks pretty solid. There’s a nice dynamic rotation in the key areas.

Photo 7

Photo 8

In Photo 9, Nick is also achieving the K-Vest recommended degree of rotation at the pelvis and thorax, but you’ll notice that the position does not look very efficient. That’s why just looking at the numbers (Photo 10) can be detrimental to a golfer’s swing. We have to focus on the quality of rotation, because simply going after the quantity can be very misleading.

Photo 9

Photo 10

As golf coaches and golf fitness professionals, we need to learn to recognize what good rotation is and how to assess and measure it. As for golfers, they need to learn what quality rotation looks and feels like, then go about practicing and training it.

Let’s shift our context of rotation from “How much?” to “How well?” so we can play more golf, and better golf, too!

This is a light-hearted look at the five best and five worst pieces of gym/fitness equipment that you can use for your golf fitness routine.

I have personally used, experimented with, been given the sales spiel and watched the dodgy YouTube ads for every piece of equipment on these two lists.

How did the respective pieces of equipment qualify for their placing on the respective good and bad categories? They were put through an extremely subjective and moderately rigorous scrutiny, which involved absolutely no scientific process whatsoever. It comes from gut feeling, player feedback, listening to what other trainers have to say and of course, good old common sense. I’ve looked past the pseudo-science, ignored the preposterous claims and simply cast my judgment as a golf fitness professional.

Although there was categorically no science and very few facts that went into the rating of the equipment, I did come up with a fun scoring system:

Each piece of equipment is given a score out of 5 in the following categories, producing a total score out of 35:

Effectiveness

Versatility

Portability

Application to golf posture and swing

Cost

Injury risk

Chance of messing with swing mechanics

*The higher the number for each category, the better

The five lowest-scoring pieces of equipment were relegated to the “Worst Group” and the five best, promoted to the “Best Group.” I have included the score sheet at the end of the article.

To take a closer look at some of the items detailed, check out Golf Fit Pro.

So here they are, presented in order:

The Worst: No. 5 — Weighted Clubs

Score: 21 out of 35

Rapidly going out of fashion in golf and in baseball, the donuts give false feeling of load during the swing and has been shown to slow non-weighted swing speed while encouraging off-center hits. If you want to move the club faster, why practice moving a weighted version more slowly using the same action?

The Best: No. 5 — Dumbells/Kettlebells

Score: 26 out of 35

Timeless pieces of gym equipment that produce genuine gains in strength and power. These can be used in countless different ways with a wide variety of load. There’s a reason they have been around for for years and yet still remain popular.

The Worst: No. 4 — Bosu Ball

Score: 20 out of 35

Standing on the bosu ball will not magically “turn your core on” and help you with your golf swing. It’s more likely to send your ankle stabilizers into overdrive, rather than the important core and hip stabilizers.

The Best: No. 4 — Soft Sand

Score: 27 out of 35

Running, jumping and crawling in multiple directions in soft sand is highly effective for a number of reasons. Sand requires you to stabilize and balance with every step you take. But because sand has no reactive force, we can’t rely on the ankle and wrist stabilizers to do the job — now it’s up to our core, hamstrings, butt and shoulders to pick up the slack. It also smashes your lungs for cardio fitness and produces almost zero muscle soreness the next day.

The Worst: No. 3 — Somax Swing Trainer

Score: 13 out of 35

I can see what they were trying to do here: train the hips to move quicker and you’ll swing the golf club faster. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Fast club head speed requires the kinematic sequence of the golf swing to work in harmony. Simply training the hips to move as fast as possible and hoping the rest of the body will hold on is fundamentally flawed. Also I see a high potential injury risk while using this piece of kit. Lower backs look out!

The Best: No. 3 — Suspension Trainer

Score: 30 out of 35

Young and old, fit and unfit, elite or amateur, the suspension trainer offers something for everybody with its ability to dramatically alter the load and difficulty of an exercise with simple body positioning. Core integration is needed in order to perform the exercises, plus hip and shoulder girdle stability are challenged and trained with the unstable nature of the straps. It’s portable, durable and fun to use.

The Worst: No. 2 — Pec Dec Machine

Score: 12 out of 35

Tight pecs equals rounded and forward shoulders, which leads to impaired arm/body connection in the swing and ultimately funky swing actions to manipulate the club face. In terms of tightening pecs and rounding shoulders, the pec dec is king and, in my opinion, should be given a wide berth and left well alone.

The Best: No. 2 — Power Bands

Score: 32 out of 35

These beauties have much of the same positive characteristic as the Suspension Trainer, that is: portable, durable, versatile, scalable to different levels of people and great for training with a partner.

Two features see them ranked higher though:

The resistance increases the further you move into a resisted position. This means the exercise gets harder as you get to the least stable point of the movement, pure gold for stabilizer muscles.

They can be used to simultaneously support and encourage muscles and joints into positions that they wouldn’t otherwise be capable of. Leveraged properly, this means increased mobility in the key golf areas of the shoulder, mid/upper back and hips.

The Worst: No. 1 — Home Ab Machine

Score: 11 out of 35

Even setting aside the cringeworthy TV ads selling you lies, this equipment is the worst! The last thing a seated and sedentary society needs to do is be hunched over and crunncing ourselves into oblivion. The one that goes straight up and down is bad, it will shorten your already chronically tight abs and hip flexors and pull you into a more hunched posture.

The side-to-side version is the absolute pits for golfers. In a sport where the majority of people already have too much lateral flexion (side bend) in their swings, the last thing we want to be doing is repeating this action over-and-over again. It trains poor movement patterns, puts you at significant risk of low back injury and no, sorry, it won’t make your love handles melt away like butter.

The Best: No. 1 — Postural Training Aids

Score: 33 out of 35

Posture, Posture, Posture. I talk about it a lot, but it’s hard to stress how strongly I feel about training posture and dynamic rotation movement patterns. Without proper set up, it’s almost impossible to move well during your golf swing. Like anything, good set up posture is trained, not just assumed. These pieces of equipment have been designed for this exact purpose. They can be used anywhere and by anyone to directly assist the most important part of their golf swing — posture and quality rotation.

Conclusion

So there we have it. I’m sorry if I criticized your favorite piece of gear and caused you to question its inclusion in your gym routine. Hopefully it will encourage you to relegate it to the garage and pick up something useful instead!

On the flipside, I’m happy if I validated what you already use or even inspired you to add a couple of useful items to your golf fitness equipment kit.

No. 1: Establish Neutral Spine

Standing with your back up against a piece of flat wall, place your feet hip width apart and the heels about 6 inches from the wall. Connect your backside, upper back and back of your head to the wall, aiming to get even pressure in all three body parts.

Mobility restrictions or fixed postural issues might stop you feeling even pressure or getting the three body parts on the wall at the same time. If this is the case, try moving your feet farther away from the wall.

No. 2: Stand Tall, Narrow the Waist

The key thought here is to feel the top of your skull moving upward and drawing your spine “up and out” of the pelvis. You are, of course, not literally going to grow 6 inches taller, but this feeling will help to stack your vertebrae correctly and activate key spinal stabilizer muscles.

Narrowing the waist is the cue to help activate your deep core muscles. Imagine you have a very tight piece of string around your abdomen, the same height as your belly button. Now try to loosen the string off by narrowing your waist, but make sure to keep breathing normally. If you are finding breathing difficult, then there is too much bracing going on. Relax a little!

Once you are confident that you’re standing tall and have a narrowed waist, move off the wall and walk around for a while to practice holding the posture without the help from the wall.

No. 3: Activate Your Hip Stabilizers

You’ll need a micro-power band or piece of rubber tubing for this. Place the band around your knees, either above or below the knee cap, whichever feels more comfortable. Now take a small squat posture, feet about hip width apart, while maintaining the feeling of standing tall and narrowing your waist.

From here, take small, deliberate steps to the right for 10 meters (30 feet) and repeat to the left for 10 meters. Now try doing the same walking forward for 10 meters and backward (the reverse movement) for 10 meters. The more deliberate and “stomp like” your steps are, the better muscle activation you will get in the glute complex that helps stabilize your hips and pelvis.

The next level is moving the band to the ankle and speeding up the deliberate, stomping steps.

To access the best equipment for these exercises, check out Golf Fit Pro.

No. 4: Active Your Scapulae (shoulder blades) and Shoulder Stabilizers

For this drill, you would ideally use a 2XU Ramsay Posture Belt, but if you don’t have one then a piece of tubing will suffice in the short term.

Using the front band of the posture belt or piece of tubing, assume the correct arm position by taking an overhand grip, tucking the elbows into the side and spreading the hands outwards and upwards.This will take the shoulder into external rotation and help to set the scapulae (shoulder blades) in a position where they are hugged into the rib cage.

Now “pulse” the band by making very small outward circles with your hands. This will help to activate the key muscles surrounding the scapula and back of the shoulder. Again, the faster and more deliberate you make the movement, the better muscle activation you will get.

No. 5: Hinge Forward Into an Athletic Set Up

So far, we have established a neutral spine and activated the key muscles in the hips, core and shoulders. Now it’s time to apply to this to our golf set up.

With neutral spine established and waist narrowed, simply hinge forward from the hips into a setup position. Your feet should be around hip width apart, turned out slightly with a slight flex in the knee. Your waist will be narrowed and your shoulders set into external rotation with scapulas hugged into the ribcage.

From there simply let the arms hang down and take your grip on the club. This is your brand new athletic set up posture!

Like anything, posture has to be trained before it’s ingrained! I recommend repeating this process several times a day, especially around the time you are practicing. The more often you practice these key steps for set up, the less you will have to think about it on course.

For exercise guides and programs, check out the Golf Fit Pro app for iOS and Android.

As golf fans, we all dream of one day getting a taste of life on tour.

I got my taste in 2014 as part of a PGA Tour “entourage,” traveling to three consecutive PGA Tour events in Malaysia, Mississippi and Mexico. My role was that of trainer, massage therapist and nutritionist to Cameron Smith, and I had exclusive, inside-the-ropes access at each of the events.

The young Aussie is aiming to become only the seventh player in PGA Tour history to bypass tour qualifying school and the Web.com tour, and play his way on to the Tour through exemptions via top-10 finishes and sponsor invites. A T5 finish in Malaysia got him off on the right track.

As a fitness professional and a rusty six-marker, I learned a lot from this experience and wanted to share my insights about fitness, golf and life on tour. Below are the top five things I learned from my time spent with Cameron Smith, from which I hope you will benefit as well.

Insight No. 1

These guys are good, but they’re not perfect!

Tour Example

I watched a lot of golf during those three weeks, following Cameron during each competitive and practice round. He was paired with a variety of different players, from major champions and Ryder Cup heroes to journey-man pros. They all missed fairways, they all hit it in bunkers and they all lipped out short putts. Although there were many, many great golf shots from each and every player, not one of them played flawless golf for 18, 9 or even 5 holes in a row.

What to learn

If the best players in the world aren’t perfect, then neither are you or I. Accept that you’ll make mistakes — even count on it. Lower your expectations a little and have some fun. You might even shoot a better score!

Insight No. 2

Travel destroys posture.

Tour Example

Every time we got off a plane, I saw Cameron’s shoulder’s and head come forward and his hips tighten up — his movement quality declined as a result. We had to do lots of “anti-travel” exercises to compensate for this and get him back on track.

What to learn

You might not do a huge amount of plane travel, but I’m willing to bet you sit for extended periods of the day. The commute to work, using the computer and watching TV are the equivalent of those long plane journeys on tour. Sitting and slouching extensively reeks havoc with your posture, which leads to poor set-up, alignment, missed shots and even injury.

Sit less, move more, stretch often and do some postural training: Check out the GolfFit App here

Insight No. 3

PGA Tour pros don’t always aim at the flag.

Tour Example

Walking inside the ropes on practice rounds allowed me to eavesdrop on lots of strategic conversions between players and caddies. Often PGA Tour players are aiming 20-to-30 feet away from the hole. Why? Because they know they’re not perfect and don’t want to miss the green in a dangerous spot.

What to learn

These guys don’t miss by much, we miss by lots — so why on earth are we firing at flags? If we just aim at the middle of the green, we’ll probably end up closer to the hole!

A course-charting expert who works with Golf Australia is a firm believer that if we removed the flag stick from every hole, forcing us to simply aim for the middle of the green, then club golfers would score much better on average.

Insight No. 4

Nutrition and hydration are crucial.

Tour Example

At the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, it was really hot and incredibly humid. Regular small snacks and a water intake of around 6 liters (1.5 gallons) during the round were key to Cameron finishing strong each day. By contrast, many of his playing partners faded badly in the last few holes and were noticeably fatigued.

What to learn

I’m big on food and water consumption before, during and after golf. Being well hydrated and nourished could be the difference between finishing our rounds strong and riding the bogey train express all the way to the clubhouse.

Have a solid meal two hours before tee off. Then eat a mix of fruit, nuts and natural protein bars on hole Nos. 3, 9 and 15. Quantity is dependent on the individual — try not to stuff yourself, but don’t go hungry either!

Water intake should be higher than usual before, during and after the round. Aim for 1.5 pints before the round, three pints during the round and another one pint after. Double that if you are playing in hot and humid conditions.

Insight No. 5

You’ll see and hear more as a spectator during a practice round.

Tour Example

Being able to walk inside the ropes with no one else around gave me a great insight into strategy and on-course preparation. The experience taught me that these guys are good (but not perfect), and allowed me to take up-close video footage and even chat to some of the other players.

What to learn

Instead of going to an event to watch the weekend play and fighting the crowds to get a glimpse of the leaders, try turning up on Tuesday and watching the practice round. Take your camera and make some notes on what you see — you might just learn something!

What are the three most important areas of your body for golf? They are:

The Hips/Glutes

The Core/Pelvis

The Scapula (shoulder blades)/Upper Back

Why are they important?

We focus on these three parts of the body because they are key to you golf swing — no surprise there! The reason they are key to your swing is that they are the three areas that have the biggest influence over what the club does. If the three key areas work properly then we have a better chance of making a repeatable and bio-mechanically efficient swing. You know, the kind of swing that repeats time after time and doesn’t require a lot of timing and manipulation from the hands. That swing is more likely to produce a consistent strike and better control over the golf ball.

Each key area requires a certain amount of both mobility and stability — mobility from the joints, stability from the muscles. This means that we can achieve the required range of motion (mobility), but with complete control and awareness of how the key area is moving (stability).

Before we look at each area individually, it is a good idea to get comfortable with the idea that during the golf swing, each movement of the body has an influence over another part of body. It’s a domino effect and is sometimes referred to as the kinematic sequence or kinetic chain of the golf swing. This principle is especially relevant to the three key areas as they have a very large influence on the rest of the body and ultimately the club head and your golf ball.

Let’s examine each area and talk about how we want them to function and what effect they have on our swing.

Key Area No. 1: The Hips/Glutes

Mobility

The key to hip mobility is internal rotation; this is where your femur (thigh bone) rotates inwardly in your pelvis. If you are a right-handed golfer, then you make this movement in the right hip in the back swing and then in the left hip in your follow-through (see image 2). The opposite is true for lefties, of course.

We want a nice full range of motion in this movement so we can make a full hip turn both on the way back and on the way through. This hip turn is important because the amount of rotation we get affects the amount of trunk/shoulder turn, which also has domino-like effects further up the chain.

Stability

Our hips are stabilized by our glute (butt) muscles. If these muscles work properly, then we can control our hips and get them turning — not only to full range of motion, but also in the right direction and prevent non-efficient movements like lateral hip sway and slide (see figure 3). Good quality hip rotation will control where the hips are positioned in the golf swing and therefore where the trunk and shoulders are positioned and so on up the chain.

Key Area No. 2: The Core/Pelvis

Mobility

The range of motion in the pelvis is mainly relative to pelvic tilt, both forward and back (see figure 5). We want good range in this movement because our pelvis has to go into a degree of forward and backward tilt during the swing. Any restrictions here can lead to a poor spine position in the swing and the associated compensations having to be made by the arms and hands (see figure 6).

Stability

Good core stability is crucial to not only efficient movements during the swing, but also to the health of our lower back and spine. Our core muscles are essentially the support system for our spine and we need to get them to a good level of stability, strength and awareness. Then we will have some solid protection for our lower back during the golf swing, which imparts considerable load and strain on our bodies. With great core stability, we can also control the pelvic tilt we talked about earlier and maintain a good spinal posture throughout your swing.

Key Area No. 3: Scapula (shoulder blades)/Upper Back

Mobility

There are two things to cover here — rotational mobility in the upper back and mobility of the shoulder.

It’s no secret that we need to be able to rotate the upper back in order to make a decent shoulder turn. Without a good shoulder turn (between 75 and 100 degrees, depending on who you speak to) then you will either have a very short backswing, or you will make an inefficient movement somewhere else in the body to gain the required rotation (see image no. 8 for a typical lower body collapse compensation).

The key range of motion at the shoulder is external rotation (see image 9), we need good range here (more than 10 degrees) in order to set the club on plane.

Stability

The scapula has a huge influence on the movement and function of the shoulder, which affects the elbow, the wrist and ultimately the club. We can have fantastic range of motion in the shoulder, but if we are lacking control of the scapula then it is really difficult to get the club set in the right position and yep, you guessed it – we have to make an inefficient compensation somewhere else to do so.

With any luck, you now have a solid understanding as to why it is so important to have a combination of good mobility and solid stability in each segment. It might also be worth checking out the video summary below.

  So you are heading into the winter months and feel like it’s a good time to get busy with some physical training. It’s time to make a plan and get a training program sorted out, but you might feel a bit overwhelmed by the contrasting opinions and recommendations out there relating to golf fitness. If you are anything like the average golfer, then thoughts like this might be running through your head:

Will I need to join a gym?

How can I move my hips like Rory?

Is stretching good for me or not?

Should I get a trainer?

Maybe I’ll get the “Ab Flex Twisty Turner Fat Shredder Pro 9?” (the answer is a definite NO to this one!)

All these doubts essentially boil down to four key questions

What exercises are best for you?

How many reps should you do?

When should you do them?

How much load should I use?

Answering these four questions forms the nuts and bolts of constructing a training program. If we can figure out how to answer these questions best, then we are most of the way to getting you a decent training program.

What Exercises Are Best For You?

Everyone has an opinion on what exercises golfers should or shouldn’t do. If you listened to everybody you’d be either in the gym all day doing 73 different exercises per workout, or you’d be frozen to the spot thinking about why NOT to do them all!

A good rule of thumb is to include exercise variations of the following primal movements

Squat, Lunge, Push, Pull, Bend/Hinge, Brace

You’ll also want to target improvements in the following areas:

Strength

Stability

Mobility

Posture

This will ensure a balanced workout that incorporates a range of different movements and improves the way your body performs during the golf swing.

How Many Reps Will Do?

Again, opinions can be pretty polarized here. Some say do 5 reps for max strength or power, while others reckon that endurance is key and recommend doing 20 reps per set. I would advise to simply take the middle ground on this one. Aim for 8-to-12 reps and 2-to-3 sets and you can’t go too far wrong.

When Should You Do Them?

This really depends on a lot of your lifestyle and when you play golf during the week. Let’s use the example of someone who has some spare time during the week to exercise and plays their competitive round on a Saturday. In this case, go for three workouts per week and try to have a rest/recovery day on Friday. A schedule I often recommend is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.

How Much Load Should I Use?

Imagine a scale of exertion and effort relative to how hard the last two reps are in a set. At one end of the scale, you are you are in danger of bursting blood vessels in your eyes. This is a 10. At the other end of the scale, you are not even close to breaking a sweat and could do 250 more reps if your life really depended on it. This is a 1. I would recommend aiming for 7 or 8 on the scale.

In terms of what type of load, I like the following progression relative to ability and experience:

Bodyweight

Bands

Dumbbells

Barbells

An Example

For a nice simple example of how this looks in program format, take a look at the image below. This is a workout taken from a beginner level program that I often use to introduce players to training their body for golf.

It is well worth considering that this advice WILL NOT apply to everyone and program design should reflect your ability, experience, injuries and other individual peculiarities. It also should be known that as professionals, my contemporaries and I consider a few more factors to achieve a really top notch program:

What levels of exercises are suitable?

What exercise progressions to use and when?

Which exercises go together (and which ones do not)?

How much rest between sets?

What tempo (speed) to perform the exercises at?

What are the appropriate modifications to form and technique?

As you can see, designing a comprehensive golf fitness program by yourself is actually a pretty tricky task. Formal strength and conditioning education, extensive knowledge of the golf swing and plenty of experience are needed to properly answer all of the questions above.

For those of you who want to get specific, here’s a story on the three most important parts of your body for golf.

If you would like more specific information or a program more tailored to you then contact me directly through email – [email protected] – or check out what we have to offer at www.golffitapp.com.

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There have been some articles published recently about in/off season training and periodisation. In our opinion, their recommendations to avoid certain exercises or use a block periodisation method to target different athletic attributes are somewhat flawed.

We would like to propose a different way to look at managing your training loads during the golf season without giving up the proven, effective exercises that got you strong in the first place!

Before we come to the recommendations, it’s worth doing a little background research and actually looking a little closer at what periodisation is and how the principles are effectively applied.

What Is Periodisation?

Periodisation at it’s most basic level is not a lot more than a long-term plan for progress in your training. Or to put it better “periodisation is planned long-term variation of the volume and intensity of training to prevent overtraining and promote optimal performance at the desired time.” Note that there was no reference to exercise selection here.

Probably the most common method of periodisation amongst athletes is block periodisation. Block periodisation is utilised to allow the athlete to focus on developing one single athletic attribute above all else in each block before switching to another for the next block. The blocks will be ordered so that each one builds upon the attribute developed in the last. Speed and power being developed after a strength block for example, mobility and stability before adding strength.

In summary: By using periodisation we are seeking to manage fatigue from training in such a way that performance throughout the season is unaffected by our physical conditioning.

How Do We Apply It?

Now that we have a handle on what periodisation actually is, let’s take a look at who we are applying this method to. Below are some of the questions we must ask ourselves before putting together a periodised program for a golfer:

Question: What athletic attributes are needed for golf performance?

Answer: Strength, power, mobility, stability, basic cardiovascular fitness (for walking the course), balance, co-ordination

Q: What is the golfer trying to achieve from training?

Developing the characteristics above in order to improve our bodies’ functionality in swinging the golf club so we can hit the ball further off the tee, our irons closer to the hole and stay injury free in the process!

Q: How often are they competing?

For the vast majority of golfers this is likely to be a once a week, maybe with the addition of a mid-week comp for those with a little more time!

Q: How often are they involved in skills practice?

For the average amateur golfer (with a job, family, etc) this is likely to be something in the range of 1-2 hours, 1-2 times a week.

Q: What level of athlete are they? Do they have much/any experience training in a gym? Do they have a pretty solid athletic background? Are they in good physical condition right now and training on a regular basis?

The average amateur golfer, based on our combined experience, probably answers in the negative to most of those questions.

Q: Is training of the athletic characteristic going to negatively impact either skills training or performance?

We need to look at this from a few different angles.

Energy Systems Recovery — Strength training and golf require very different energy systems and therefore different recovery mechanisms are used. Residual fatigue from one activity is unlikely to affect the other and so strength training and golf could be performed on successive days with no negative effects.

Soreness — DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) can leave you feeling quite tender after a strength training session and this could potentially impact your full swing performance.

Limited flexibility from strength training — Strength training will not restrict your range of motion in key areas for golf unless you neglect your flexibility work. Sitting on your backside is much more likely to make you tight in all the wrong places!

Answer in summation… Yes, potentially if training isn’t managed effectively.

Who Are We Working With?

So after considering the answers to the key questions we have a decent idea of who we are working with. We have a golf athlete with a relatively low training age and experience, who competes once per week and practices 1-2 times per week, but needs to develop a whole host of athletic attributes in order to improve his/her performance.

Is it really wise to stop doing all the really effective exercises, drop all the weight off and use high repetitions for whole duration of the golf season and slowly but surely leak out all the gains made doing proper training in the winter time?

Or can we be a bit smarter and continue to get stronger, faster and more stable and solid all year round without affecting our performance on course?

Recommendations

By following the advice below, the average golfer can arrive at the course on comp day fresh, loose, limber, and in better shape than the week before!

Structure your in-season training to have more whole body routines. Thus getting decent workload on each area of the body and reducing soreness on particular areas of the body.

Reduce the overall volume (reps). Maintaining strength during the in-season is really important and doing less sets and/or reps will allow you to do so, whilst minimising DOMS and CNS fatigue.

Stretch and trigger after each training session, pay special attention to thoracic and hip rotation and gaining length in hip flexors and pecs

Hydrate and eat effectively. You should be doing this all the time, but especially before and after workouts as it will aid recovery

Keep doing the big movements. They are really effective!

Don’t let people convince you to give up really effective exercises for fear of becoming tight, sore or overtrained. Be smart with your training, seek out good advice and follow a program that will help you develop as a golf athlete all year round and improve your performance on course.

Example Workout

Here’s an what an example in-season workout might look like in terms of exercise selection, sets, reps, tempo and rest:

Please consider this is all relative, our recommendations are based on the AVERAGE golfer. Different levels of athlete competing at different levels of competition could and should adapt these recommendations to suit them.

Co-Authored by Nick Buchan, UK Strength and Conditioning Coach - http://strongergolf.org/

References

M. Siff (2003) Supertraining, Supertraining Institute M. Rippetoe & L. Kilgore (2008) Practical Programming for Strength, the Aasguaard Company M. Robertson (2013) Bulletproof Athlete, Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training