Katie Dawkins - Advanced PGA ProfessionalWe all know how important it is to warm up before playing sport, it has been drummed us from or school days. But why is it that so many golfers I know and coach don’t warm up properly before a game?
REMEMBER: Always stretch within your own physical limits and devise warmup specific to uour swingalways stretch within your own physical limits and defies warmup with your PGA professional and or PT with your PGA professional and or PT.
The importance of warming up isn’t just to get your muscles ready to play your best golf. It’s also to prevent injury. Plus it doesn’t have to take long. Plusss it can totally make you play better golf. So let me run you through a short and spicy routine to get you all set on that first tee. Arrive with 15 minutes to spare and you can squeeze this in without rushing. If you feel a tad self-conscious much of this can be done in the car park or even in the changing rooms.
It’s important to warm everything up so start with those hip flexors and stand upright holding onto a bench or locker for support and swing your right leg in front of you smoothly and back as far as is comfortable. A balletic exercise that will warm those hips and help you fire through to a finish. This is important for anyone who sits down a lot on a daily basis. Looser hips mean a more fluid weight transition and better ball striking. A lack of rotation at the hips can lead to compensation at the knee and back, leading to overuse injuries. So get swinging and remember to do each side.
Now it’s time to get those arms swinging and that body turning. Supple arms swing the club fluidly, rigid muscles affect our balance and cause you to slash at the ball. Stiff muscles and tendons in the trunk and lower body inhibit proper set up and cause slouching – making proper shoulder turn impossible.
So either use my favourite gadget the Orange Whip or grab 2 clubs (7 and 8 irons held together as best you can) and build momentum and swing back and through and back again (Fig 1). You’re warming all the GOLFING MUSCLES up by loading your golf swing. Once warm then and only THEN can you stretch.
Think of your muscles like chewing gum, when it’s cold it doesn’t stretch it snaps. Yuck! So warming up before stretching is essential.
Introduce a few side bends by holding your club or the Whip and stretching it up above your head and lean to the left then the right (Fig 2). Then add a backward bend into the equation and finish with a fold to the floor (Fig 3 & 4) where you can hang for a few seconds. Take care coming up and roll through your spine as you do keeping the movement fluid.
The best stretch before golf is the cat stretch where you take an iron by the clubhead and anchor the grip on the floor. Then work your tailbone away from your hands making a wedge shape and fitting your face through the hole in your forearms. You’ll feel the stretch from your Achilles all the way up the legs and lower back to the arms. Sink into this and breathe deeply. Stretch your glutes by crouching or squatting to the ground from this anchored position. You should feel pretty awesome now.
If this is all you do amazing. You’ll have warmed the muscles up enough to swing freely.
A quick few squats will activate your glutes and help you send the ball a few extra yards, you butt is the engine of your golf swing with your core coming in a close second. So fire this up with squats and a few jumps and you’ll be jumping for joy when you see your drive fly on that first tee.
With your club bending your back or stretched in front of your chest do a few rotational exercises (Fig 5) from a golf posture, pausing briefly on each side and feel your body expel all that tension.