Flexibility & The Golfer

Tiger Woods is always mentioned whenever golf and flexibility are discussed. He has conditioned his body to ensure that his flexibility and muscle balance will not prevent him from replicating his golf swing over and over again, even under extreme pressure.

He has worked hard to improve his flexibility in muscles that naturally tighten in golfers such as the hip flexors and pectoral muscles down the front of the body, but essentially stretching must always be balanced with strengthening up opposing muscles to prevent the shortened muscle from becoming tight again.

Most swing faults are actually biomechanical faults associated with restricted range of movement in a joint or muscle and thus all the professional instruction in the world cannot help you to become a better golfer, if your body won’t let you do what your golf pro is asking of you. This leads to frustration for the player as well as the golf pro when improvement is slow or non existent.

A lack of functional flexibility in your golf swing means that you will have to find a way to compensate for restrictions in your body by altering your swing. Physical limitations vary from day to day, affected by stress levels and even the weather thus causing lack of consistency in your swing.

In order to maximize your golf potential, you need to identify which muscles have become tight, either through your sport or occupation and address these in a daily programme. Random stretching of all groups is neither helpful nor efficient use of your time and in some instances increasing flexibility in weak overstretched muscles can lead to injury.

The best way to identify which muscles need to be stretched and which ones to avoid is through a golf specific muscle screening programme available through golf specific clinics such as my own. (See our web site www.angelajackson.co.uk for more details).

Once you have gained more range of movement in certain muscles through regular stretching it is important to gain control of your new found range through gentle core stabilising exercises. These will be addressed in our core strengthening section.

Flexibility is a key component of the successful golf swing because when a muscle is pretensioned, it can increase the elastic recoil of the muscle involved in the swing to allow the muscle to spring back like an elastic band and generate greater force and improve club head speeds, greater impact on the ball, and increase your drive distance.

Most golfers become tight through the muscles in the front of their body such as hip flexors and pectorals, however, people who sit more much of their life will also become tight in their calf and hamstring muscles down the back of the leg. This will affect your address and ability to swing especially on uphill lies.

The following exercises may help address some flexibility issues but are best done in conjunction with a golf physiotherapist who can guide you as to which are the most effective stretches for your body. Start gently and build up hold times. Remember not to bounce and hold each stretch for progessively longer periods as you get better at each one.

Hamstring stretch in spine neutral

In sitting, feet off the floor. Sit up tall and keep a straight back.
Pull your foot up from the ankle.
Slowly straighten your leg until the point where you can not keep your spine still.
Hold position x 30 seconds. Repeat regularly through the day.

Calf Stretch

Stand with foot half on a phone book (Fig 1)

Maintaining your spine in a neutral position ie. do not tip forwards

Lower heels to ground. You should feel a stretch in the calf

Pull in tummy muscles and buttock muscles to increase the stretch

Do not arch your back

Maintain the arch in your foot and keep it straight.

Try and bend your knee and repeat. You may find it easier to do one foot at a time (Fig 2)

Watch these pages for regular updates and new stretches