Training for Golf – Part 1

Have you ever wished you could drive the ball further, harder, faster – and all while reducing the wear and tear on your body?

When training to improve your golf performance, we prioritize 3 main areas: mobility, strength, and power. We’re going to dive into what each of those look like, starting this week with mobility work.

In order to get the most out of your swing, you need adequate mobility in your spine, shoulders, hips, and ankles – it’s pretty demanding of your entire body. Any limitations here can alter swing mechanics, decrease the consistency of your technique, decrease the amount of power you can put into your swing, and increase your risk of injury.

To improve the range of motion during your swing, we need to push the focus away from static stretches (picture your classic gym class stretches, holding for 30 seconds at a time), and towards dynamic stretches (moving in and out of the stretches in a controlled manner). Your nervous system adapts to the demands placed on it, so in order to be able to make the adaptations to move into those ranges, we need to challenge the body to, well, move into those ranges, not just passively relax into stretched positions. To put it more simply:

Passive stretches = passive results. Active stretches = active results.

So, that’s all well and good, but are you stuck on what dynamic stretches you can do to improve mobility through these areas? Here are some of our favourites – give them a try in between rounds or add them to your morning routine: