Golf is truly a mind & body sport. Concentration, strength, flexibility, mobility and power are all essential components. The workload placed on the spine and supporting structure is immense. When the body is out of balance the risk of injury intensifies.
The Mechanics of Your Golf Swing
During your golf swing your body acts like a whip. Power production begins at the feet, pushing against the ground, it travels up the legs to drive the hips forward. Force is transferred through the trunk to the chest upper back and arms. If any part of the chain is weak or stiff power is lost, the body will have to compensate somehow along the links of the chain resulting not only in loss of power but increasing the potential for injury.
Proper Sequencing - Your Golf Swing:
Your golf swing demands a strong, flexible, coordinated and balanced body. It's a physically demanding full body sport; only with specific training will injuries be avoided and improvements made to the quality of your performance. Even if you hire a professional golf coach to work on your technique, if your body is not capable of performing the drills because of stiffness, lack of core strength of mobility problems progress will be slow, at worse may never happen.
Strong leg, thigh and hip muscles to generate driving power:
These lower body forces must be transferred through a well conditioned mid-section to the upper body
Strong chest, back and shoulder muscles:
Allow for greater acceleration of the club whilst maintaining control through effective arms and forearms
You can see a perfectly executed golf swing needs overall body strength, flexibility and co-ordination - all Pilates principles are relevant.
Concentration, the ability to focus throughout the swing improves skill and power
Centering, the efficient use of the core to stabilise improves power through the hips to increase the length of Tee and Fairway shots.
Precision, the repetitive nature of golf demands consistency, working with this Pilates principle in mind will encourage exact performance every time.
Flowing Movement, will help you to "feel" the swing as opposed to just hitting the ball
Breath, in addition to keeping you fresh and alert throughout your game learning to use a full breath will increase the power and endurance of a shot. It will also help to create a smooth swing.
Routine, if you can replicate an effective swing pattern, consistency and accuracy, key to a great game of golf will be yours. The Pilates system of exercise is designed to help you work with focus when performing each movement every time this will eventually result in body awareness becoming automatic.
Pilates Programming: when you decide to add Pilates to your golf practice, here at the Studio in La Garde Freinet ( just opposite Bar du Soleil) you'll work with both the professional Pilates equipment as well as floor exercises, the combination of the two systems offer a complete workout whether you're new to exercise or a regular fitness practitioner.
To develop your best Golf Swing sequence you need to:
Contact me should you have questions or need an appointment I am here all year.
Tel: 06 73 99 37 85 email: Nuala@nualacoombspilates.com
Happy Golfing.......