If you golf this year, you have a 40% chance of getting injured. About half of injured golfers suffer from low back pain. Here are 3 things you can do to make sure you don’t become a statistic…
Why are these 3 keys SO important?
- If you make mistakes in these areas, you are almost certain to have an injury this golf season. Injuries mean the following is in your future…
- Missing golf events with your friends and family
- Not getting out doors
- Costly medical bills to fix the injury
- Time lost not only on the course but at work and with other family activities
- Higher handicaps – if you can’t golf you will get worse at the game
- Wasted money on golf memberships
Who does these 3 keys apply to?
- Anyone that is going to swing a golf club more than once this year
- Anyone interested in starting the great sport of golf who has never played before.
What will I learn if I keep reading?
- Everything you need to know to complete a full and healthy golf season without the fear and cost, both personal and financial, of an injury.
Terms to Know
I am going to try to keep this guide as non-medical as possible so that anyone can understand it. Here are some terms that you need to be familiar with…
Thoracic spine: This is the area of your spine between your neck and your low back. Basically the top of your shoulder blades down to the bottom of your shoulder blades. Its 12 segments of the spine where the ribs attach to protect your lungs, heart and other vital organs from damage should you get hit by a golf ball
- Fun fact: there are over 40,000 ER and doctor visits generated every year from injuries sustained when a golf ball or golf club hits another individual. Stay safe out there.
Lumbar spine: This is your low back. Basically the section of your spine from your belt up to the bottom of your shoulder blades. This is where a vast majority of injuries occur to golfers.
Rotation: Think of turning side to side. If you look over your shoulder as far as you can go in a standing position, you are rotating your neck and your thoracic spine.This happens a LOT in a golf swing and inability to stabilize rotation and/or lack of rotational mobility is the #1 reason for injury to the lumbar spine. Stay tuned… it will make more sense shortly.
Key #1: Improve your thoracic rotation
Have you ever seen professional golfers at the top of their back swing? For a right handed golfer, at the top of the backswing, you are in MAX right thoracic rotation. Hands up high and ready to attack the ball on the downswing.
At the time of this publication, Rory Mclleroy is the tour’s 2nd leading driver off the tee. His AVERAGE drive is 315 so you know he can get the ball out there 350 if he wants to. He is 5’9” and 160l bs soaking wet. If you have ever wondered how a guy that size can hit the ball that far? A lot of it has to do with his thoracic rotation.
If you can rotate your spine more, you will generate more club head speed and hit the ball farther.
How to test your thoracic rotation
What you need…
- A chair or bench
- 3 golf clubs
How to do the test…
- Make a cross with the clubs so that your feet are in one of the wedges of the cross as shown in the video
- Put your feet and knees together
- Cross your arms and hold a golf club across the front of hour shoulders
- Turn your body to look over your right shoulder as far as you can go
- Do the same movement to the left.
What does success look like?
If you can do the following, you have a normal range of motion…
- Rotate with no pain
- Rotate so that the club laying across your shoulders lines up with the club down at your feet.
What does it mean if I can’t get lined up?
If you can not get to the level of the club on the floor pain free…
- You might have an injury to your facet joints, discs, nerve roots or other soft tissue like ligaments or muscles in your spine.
- You lack full rotation of your spine that is decreasing your distance on the course and can set you up for future injury
What if I passed the test?
Congrats! You have “normal” range of motion. Not optimal range of motion though. Even small improvements in this motion can mean big differences on the course. We will show you how to improve if you keep reading…
What if I had PAIN during the test?
Pain with movement is never OK. This pain can indicate a small issue that is a quick fix or it could indicate significant structural damage. The best course of action is to get it checked out. If you are reading this and you live in the Lehigh Valley, we have a simple solution…
Come in for a free screen and get evaluated by one of our Docs. Click HERE for everything you need to know about our free screen program.
What if I failed the test?
Not to worry… well, you should be worried that you are more likely to have an injury and less likely to outdrive your friends on the course, but we have fixes for that. Here are your options….
Improving your thoracic rotation
Check out this video on how to improve your thoracic rotation so you can decrease your chance of injury and hit the ball longer!
Key #2: Improve your hip rotation
When it comes to hitting the ball farther and decreasing your chances for an injury in the lumbar spine, hip rotation is just as important as thoracic rotation. The lumbar spine is right in the middle of the thoracic spine and the hips. So, if your hips dont move and your thoracic spine doesn’t move, your low back takes on the trauma. It’s no wonder that low back pain is the #1 injury in golf.
And, it should be no wonder that if you can improve in hip and thoracic spine rotation, you can greatly decrease your chance of injury this season.
Oh, and you can out drive your friends on the course which is a nice side benefit 😉
How to test your hip rotation
What you need…
- A 6 iron
- 2 other clubs,, doesn’t matter what kind.
- A friend to evaluate your rotation
- Note: you don’t NEED a friend, but it helps to have another set of eyes on this test.
How to do the test…
- Get in a golf stance
- Place the 6 iron on the ground parallel to your toes
- Run another club along the bottom of the clubface of your 6 iron making an L with the 2 clubs. The lie angle of a 6 iron is 60 degrees, so this works perfectly.
- NOTE: Why 60 degrees? Well, the average PGA golfer has 60 degrees of internal and external rotation. The average Joe like you and me out there NOT playing on the PGA tour has about 40. So we are shooting for 60 so that if we can’t hit the ball quite as far as the pros, we can at least say we have the internal and external rotation of those guys and girls!
- Address your” L” set up with your left foot about 12 inches away from the angle of the “L”
- Put your right foot behind you with just a little bit of weight on it to maintain your balance. MOST of your weight is on that front foot.
- Put a golf club right across the front of your pelvis. For most people this is just below the belt line as shown in the video.
- Rotate all the way to your left with your foot planted on the ground and see if you can get the club lined up on your pelvis to match the bottom of your “L”
- If you can do this you have 60 degrees of rotation
- Repeat this test with your right foot forward.
- Now flip the “L” as shown in the video.
- Do the same test on both sides to check your rotation
What does success look like?
If you can do the following, you have a normal range of motion…
- Rotate with no pain
- Rotate so that the club laying across your pelvis lines up with the bottom of the “L”
What does it mean if I can’t get lined up?
If you can not get to the level of the club on the floor pain free…
- You might have an injury to your facet joints, discs, nerve roots or other soft tissue like ligaments or muscles in your spine.
- You lack full rotation of your spine that is decreasing your distance on the course and can set you up for future injury.
What if I passed the test?
Congrats! You have “normal” range of motion. Not optimal range of motion though. Even small improvements in this motion can mean big differences on the course. We will show you how to improve if you keep reading…
What if I had PAIN during the test?
Pain with movement is never OK. This pain can indicate a small issue that is a quick fix or it could indicate significant structural damage. The best course of action is to get it checked out. If you are reading this and you live in the Lehigh Valley, we have a simple solution…
Come in for a free screen and get evaluated by one of our Docs. Click HERE for everything you need to know about our free screen program.
What if I failed the test?
Not to worry… well, you should be worried that you are more likely to have an injury and less likely to outdrive your friends on the course, but we have fixes for that. Here are your options….
Improving your hip rotation
Check out this video on how to improve your hip rotation so you can decrease your chance of injury and hit the ball longer!
Key #3: Dynamic warmup before you hit
“I should stretch before golfing right?”
No.
This is one of the most common misconceptions in not only the golf world but sports in general.
Research shows that sustained stretching before an athletic activity does NOT help to prevent injury but can decrease performance.
Research also shows that a dynamic warm up DOES prevent injury.
Here is a golf specific dynamic warmup that will increase blood flow to all the areas of your body that need it for your golf match, driving range session or simulator session.
Final thoughts
Last but not least, please remember that my team is here to help you. If you have pain with movement, please take us up on our offer to take a look at the movement. Come in for a free screen. Click HERE to learn more about this program or call 610-841-3555 to schedule.
