Flexibility, Strength and the Golf Swing

Consistency is a universal goal in the game of golf. One sure way to improve your scores is to develop a consistent and repeatable swing. Lessons, practice, more lessons and more practice will certainly help develop a more consistent and reliable swing but you also need ample flexibility and strength. Flexibility and strength work together to develop a more consistent and reliable swing by promoting a more efficient, stable, balanced and coordinated swing. Adequate flexibility and strength will enable you to take full advantage of your lessons, your time spent on the range and help reduce the risk of injury.

Flexibility
Although golf is a sport that is generally not considered strenuous, a minimum range of motion or flexibility is necessary. Adequate flexibility promotes an efficient swing by reducing stress on the many muscles, connective tissue and joints involved including those of the neck and back, shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands as well as the hips and knees. Restriction among any of these ‘links’ that make up the ‘kinetic chain’ that is our body promotes compensation. Compensation puts stress on areas above and below the area of restriction and eventually causes injury. For example, restricted shoulder motion causes excessive spinal rotation and can lead to injuries in the back and shoulder and visa versa. Restricted movement also promotes inconsistencies in our swing which may manifest themselves as slices, hooks, fat shots, thin shots, etc. Adequate flexibility results in a more efficient golf swing.

Strength
Strength is important to the golfer for many reasons: yes, strong muscles, tendons, and ligaments help keep us injury free by improving our body’s ability to absorb and distribute the stress of the golf swing. But strength training also provides stability and improves our coordination. Strength in our legs, hips, back, shoulders and arms, which make up the links that connect our kinetic chain, provides a stable base of support for each succeeding link to work off. This allows the forces we generate throughout the golf swing to be transferred through each link to the club head and golf ball in a more efficient and coordinated manner. Improved efficiency yields greater power with less effort and less stress on the body. Core strength (strength in our trunk and hips) is important because it provides the foundation for the extremities to move on. The more stable and efficient our trunk and hips, the more efficient our extremities are. It doesn’t matter how fast you can swing a golf club if the foundation on which you are swinging is not stable enough to control the path of the golf club.

Posture
Strength also provides the ability to maintain proper posture and spinal alignment. The ability to maintain your posture throughout the swing is one of the keys to a more consistent and repeatable swing. Postural strength and stability, combined with leg, hip and trunk strength, allows for a more reliable axis of rotation throughout the golf swing which allows for more precise coordination of the legs and arms with our core. Good posture is also less stressful on your spine and back muscles. The inability to maintain your address posture throughout the swing will result in fat shots, thin shots, slices, hooks, pushes and pulls and possible injury.

Balance
With club head speeds averaging 70-110 mph, the golf swing is a very dynamic movement. Good balance promotes crisp ball contact by preventing excessive movement such as hip slide or sway. In order to be most efficient and successful, to be more consistent and accurate, we need to maintain our balance throughout the swing. Adequate flexibility and proper strength training that includes balance training will contribute to a more balanced swing.

Endurance
Strength training also improves our muscular endurance which delays the onset of fatigue. Fatigue will cause a breakdown in one or more links within the chain and can lead to any number of faults such as loss of posture, balance, coordination and timing, which is not conducive to an efficient or reliable swing. Fatigue also leaves us more vulnerable to injury.

Injury prevention
All of the above reduces the risk of injury and promotes an efficient, more reliable and well coordinated golf swing. Of the hundreds of training devices on the market today, not one is more effective at improving your ability to play the game of golf better than your own body. It’s never too late to start a flexibility and strength training program.