It’s the desire of every golfer. We all want to get extra distance off the tee. Regardless of our age or ability, hitting the ball further opens up the options on the golf course and makes us a better player.
In my opinion, as a physiotherapist, players look to radical changes in their swing, equipment and set-up well before they are prepared to look at their own body. Simply going to the driving range and pounding more balls at a million miles per hour will not help either. If your hip or back simply cannot move like Rory McIlroy’s, how do you expect to hit it like him? We need to start looking at the physical capabilities of our own body, to better understand why we can’t hit it like we want.
The reason why your body can’t produce a repetitively powerful swing? It’s not capable. Yet.
Pain and previous injury are obvious candidates for changing the way we move. But too often I see people with a poor understanding of why the ‘ache’ in their back is taking 20 meters off their drive. Often that ‘ache’ is ‘just part of life’. But this ‘ache’ is a clear sign of movement dysfunction. And movement dysfunction is the crux of a poor golf swing.
The 3 main causes of movement dysfunction that affects drive distance are:
These 3 factors need to be trained in a golf-specific manner. This means a strong focus to rotation, balance and long flexible movements. To swing a golf club effectively takes a tremendous amount of golf specific strength, flexibility, coordination, balance and stability. None of this happens without improving your golf specific fitness.
To improve your driving distance you have to be prepared to work on your body off the course. It is as simple as that.
Not only will this approach improve your golf driving distance, but it will help eliminate low back pain and injury. Lower back pain is the most common complaint among golfers.
To get a better understanding of what YOU need to work on, PhysioActive Performance Golf specializes in Golf specific physical screening. This helps us plan golf specific exercise programs that are unique to your body.
Thanks for reading!
This post has been written by PhysioActive physiotherapist Joel Bates B.Sc, Physiotherapist, Manual Therapist, Sports Therapist, Golf Therapist.
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