Hey, sports and health fans, coach Frank here. Today I’m gonna talk to you about how to potentially take 10 strokes off your golf game, a two-part series. And this is gonna help you figure out what things you’re doing that are holding you back from having that great golf outing. Do you see the pros do a lot of things behind the scenes that you don’t see?
And I want to give you some tips and some hints on how you can get to that kinda level as well. So do you want to take 10 strokes off your golf game? Stick around cuz I’m gonna tell you how to do that and more right after. Let’s do this game on sports, fitness and health fans with another episode of The Sporting Good Posture Digital Radio Experience.
Gear up for Coach Frank’s advice from the sidelines as he helps you crush your game no matter what sports, health or fitness game you play. Hey, this is Coach Frank. I’m sporting good posture. What are you sporting? Hey coach, what do you got for us today? Welcome back to another episode of Sporting Good Posture.
This is Coach Frank, and this is part one of two of how to improve your golf game and potentially take 10 strokes off your score, even if you’re already a good golfer or you’re just a beginner. The mechanics of the golf swing is very difficult, and there’s many parts that go into that to help you get the best result on your swing.
Today, I’m gonna be talking about a few of those things, including range of motion, posture and why you’re not as successful in your golf swing and how to identify these problems, and I’m gonna get into all that and more right after this. Where do you carry your stress? Whether you carry it in your shoulders, hold it in your neck, or feel it in your back.
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So today’s episode is gonna focus on range of motion and posture. . And if you remember, we’ve had Micah on for a couple episodes, the Golf pro in the area. He talked about some of these things, but in my practice, I’m seeing more golfers now. Last year with a lot of the restrictions, golf was one of the things you actually could do.
So a lot of people went out for the first time, played golf, or if they hadn’t played in a while, it was something they started picking up again and it’s gotten very popular. With both men and women, younger and older. So I find that I’m having more, a lot more golfers come in my office and I’m starting to see some of the reasons behind why their range of motion isn’t as good and why their golf game is suffering because of it.
So as far as the mechanics behind the golf swing, it really comes down to can you fully extend, can you. Open up your, your body so that you can get that full golf swing, cuz that’s part of the issue right there. When your body is just not moving enough and you can’t fully come back on your backswing and drive down through the ball, you end up not.
Having as good a game as you want, and part of the problem is then you start overcompensating and trying to power the ball instead of letting the club do the work. Basically, if you watch these golfers on tv, they’ve done this a long time, they can swing very powerfully and still have a straight drive or or relatively straight drive that goes very far.
The average person, an amateur golfer, a beginner, even an advanced golfer, really doesn’t have the ability to do that because you’re not able to practic. Every day and hit a thousand balls a day like most of these pros do. So what you need to do is figure out what’s going on with your body and what kind of restrictions that you may have, and then accommodate your swing accordingly.
So age also doesn’t matter as far as whether you’re young or you’re old because your potential range of emotion, your potential abilities are much greater than you think if you’re younger. and you think you’re at max range of motion. You think you’re at your max capability. That’s all you’ve ever known.
So you don’t realize that there’s always more potential in there. There’s always more capabilities of your body than you realize. If you’re older and you feel like it’s too far gone, where you, you don’t have a shot at improving anything. The body really is an amazing thing. It can heal and it doesn’t matter your age.
It doesn’t matter how many injuries you’ve had in the past or how neglectful you’ve been of your body. Your body is always trying to heal itself. That’s what it’s designed to do, and if you recognize that and you work for it, you can really see some differences in not only your golf swing, but just life in general.
Things just get easier, your. Needs that range of motion to be able to do these things, and posture really is the basis of that as well. I’ve seen this in my office over the, the last four or five years where I’m starting to see more golfers in my office, but also on myself as well as, as I’ve started getting older here.
My kids have gotten older, so now I have a little more time while they’re in school where I can play some more golf. I can really do some things that I haven’t been able to do for a while. I’ve seen a big improvement on myself. In range of motion and posture. And I’ve been someone that has been in good health, but I’ve not able to overcome some of my older injuries.
I’ve had a lot of injuries from playing football, nagging little injuries like in my knee and my back number of years ago, I hurt my shoulder benching. I was doing incline press and I was just lifting way too, too heavy. Um, I was able to lift it, but I ended. Hurting my rotator cuff and actually sprained my AC joint, which is also called a separated shoulder.
And for a number of years there, it was very restrictive for me, and even years later, there’s areas of my range of motion in my shoulders and my back that I noticed that we’re restricting my swing. I actually took photos and videos of me at the range just looking at what I was doing on my swing. And I figured out I really wasn’t, you know, extending all the way back and getting that full range of motion and I was trying to figure out what was restricting me.
You know, you can watch videos on YouTube. You can go and read articles and tips and tricks about how to get your golf swing improved. But until you really break down how your range of motion is and see what your posture’s doing, then you don’t really. , you’re just kind of guessing at that point. You’re just, you’re, you’re just kind of thinking, well, this is the best it’s gonna be, or, or, I’m at my best.
And there’s always retentional, there’s always room for improvement on mechanics of your golf swing. And again, it goes back to posture. It goes back to how are you, is your body structured? You know, one of the things Micah had talked about in his podcast was that overly bent over posture that many people get as they age.
It’s honestly not set in stone that that’s what’s gonna happen to your body. Many people think, oh, I’m older. This is just what normally happens that I, I’m not gonna be able to have great posture. I’m not gonna be able to have great range of motion. I’m not gonna be able to golf as well as I did or run as well as I did, or, or whatever activity that you’re looking at doing.
There really is a lot of people that think that, and unfortunately, it, it also mentally holds you back from improving in your life and also your golf game. And I have patience in their sixties and seventies that are in better health than some of the people I see in their thirties and forties in my office.
And there’s a big difference of, of why that happens. And again, it goes back to how are you taking care of your body? How are. Dealing with some of the older injuries that you’ve had, how are you figuring out how to improve? Because again, you can never stop improving. Your body’s always able to heal itself, and I have these people in their sixties and seventies that come in and I’m seeing them shooting par on these golf courses when I have people, myself included, that are shooting nineties and hundreds, and I’m way stronger and way in better shape than some of these older people.
But, , their golf game is way better. So what does it come down to? It’s not about power. Power is great, but can you control it? And is it even worth swinging that hard when you just slice the ball in the woods every time? You know, nobody wants to go to the course and go through a dozen golf balls and a round of, of golf and you know, be searching in the woods all day.
That’s, that’s not fun. So what is the problem with the swing again, it’s really about how. Potentially your body has through the range of motion and the posture that you already have, so can posture and range of motion alone be the single factors in potentially lowering your score? 10 strokes? Maybe. Does this mean that the improved range of motion will automatically get you that?
Possibly. However, there’s a lot more factors that go into that, and we’ll be getting to that in part two. and I wanted to just talk to you about golf in general. When you go out there and, and golf, you want to have just a day off where you can just enjoy nature, walk around p around with your friends, have a few beers, play some golf, and just see what happens.
And that’s really not only just the golf game, but also the social factor of it. Hanging out with your friends, hanging out with your family, and doing. Making a trip out of it. I know a lot of my friends and family have gone on vacations or bachelor parties and plan their golf trips around that. It really is a big factor in life.
It’s, it’s a sport that you can play really un until , you’re a hundred and something years old if you wanted to. I’ve seen people that, that old playing golf. So it’s really something you can do at any time and think about what it would feel. If you’re shooting over a hundred, what would it feel like to you to actually break a hundred?
I know when I finally broke a hundred that it really was a great feeling. I felt so much better about my golf game. I was shooting around one 10 and now I shoot in the nineties, and it’s such a better feeling when you have just a handful of better shots on the course. . There really is no feeling like that when you have some of those great shots that you hit, even if it’s just one during, during the course of your game.
Think about what that feels like when you hit that perfect drive or when you pitch that perfect shot and it lands right next to the pin. I mean, there’s nothing like that you, that’s why you. These rounds. That’s why you’ve put this time in, and not only is it about the social aspect, but really you want to go out there and play well.
You don’t want to be hitting the ball in the woods all day or in the water or keep chunking your shots or towing your drives. These are the kind of things that really just frustrate you. And there’s times when you’re out in the course where you get halfway through and you’re just like, I want to go home.
I don’t even wanna finish this course. And I’ve been there too. It’s not fun when, when you have that, that kind of day. But again, a lot of this goes back to your body’s capabilities. Your range of motion, your posture are these things in check where you can actually improve your game. And if they’re not, you gotta figure out why that’s happening.
And there’s a lot of reasons behind it. But again, going back through your life, think about the things you’ve been. Well, whether you’re younger or older, you’re sitting at a desk. You’ve had sports injuries, you’ve had car accidents, just many things that have happened over the years that can potentially damage a range of motion and affect your posture.
And these underlying conditions are the main factors in why the mechanics of a golf swinging will go wrong before it even starts. Even myself as I’ve played golf over the years, I’ve seen such a change, even as I’ve gotten older. I’m better now than I was in my twenties when I could blast it even further and I was stronger and I felt like I had better range of motion, but really in reality, I didn’t.
And I have improved now where I look back at some of the videos I took when I was younger. I was actually in a biomechanics class in college and part of our project. Was doing the mechanics of some kind of sports activity, whether it was hitting a baseball, shooting a foul shot, hitting a golf ball. So I chose to do the golf ball one because I really wanted to figure out why my swing wasn’t as good as it should be, and why I had problems with hitting it straighter and, and, and everything.
So looking back at, at those videos I took from 20 years ago till now, , I was way stronger than much better shape than I was, than I am now. And I definitely thought that would be the peak of my golf game, but really it’s not. It’s, it’s actually improved now more than it did then. And it’s, again, it’s not about age at this point, it’s about learning the things that are holding you back from having that great experience on the golf course and learning the things about your.
That are really slowing your potential. So there’s not just one set of mechanics in play here. It’s actually two. You have the mechanics of the human frame versus the mechanics of the golf swing. So with the mechanics of your golf swing, . That’s something that you’ve worked on now. You’ve played golf, you’ve watched videos, maybe you’ve taken lessons, you’ve read articles, you’ve watched the tour.
You’ve watched other players in their swings and how they golf. You’ve worked on that. But the mechanics of the human frame are one of the biggest factors that will hold you back from improving the mechanics of your golf game and then potentially taking 10 strokes off your. This is where we fall short.
This is where many people fall short because you don’t realize that there’s factors that you’re not even aware of that are influencing your swing and how well you’re gonna golf. So fortunately for you, you have the potential to figure out why this is happening, why the range of motion. And the posture are really the biggest factors behind why your golf swing isn’t where it should be.
And the mechanics of the human frame is what makes the posture and the range of motion, the biggest factors in why your golf swing isn’t where you want it to be. , you’ve had time to practice your swing. You’ve had time to practice everything that you wouldn’t know about golf. But if you don’t know why your body’s potential isn’t there, there’s many easy ways to figure it out.
One of the biggest things that you can do is just go in front of the mirror and look at yourself and see how your body’s positioned. Look to see if one shoulder’s higher than the. If one hip’s higher than the other, if you get a full length mirror, you can see if your, your knee or, or your foot’s turning in, your knee’s turning in, and you can see if your head tilts to one side, you can see if your one shoulder rotates forward more than the other side.
These are the things that you can easily do to see, and you know what good posture should look like, and if your body is not in that position, then you know that there’s more potential for it to be in that position and in. We’ll help you in your golf game or whatever game that you’re playing. Maybe you’ve always known that you have one leg longer than the other, or that your arches of your feet have now collapsed.
These are factors that will affect your posture and your ranger motion. If you have any of these indicators, then there’s much greater potential for your body to improve and improve your golf game than you even realize at this. , even if you already have a great range of motion, these are things that will be improved for your golf game.
So what can you do about it? Go in front of the mirror and check these things I just mentioned. Check to see if your head tilts. Check to see if one shoulder’s higher than the other. If you have your knees turning in your hips, dropping down your shoulders, rolling forward, or if your arches have dropped in your feet, check all these things.
If these don’t seem right, if they seem out of alignment, then I can help figure out why these things are happening. The most important thing is figuring out the why behind these things. Everybody’s different. Everybody’s body has been through different things in their life, and there’s many reasons why posture and range of motion can be restricted.
The important thing is knowing that there’s a problem and figuring out what to do. And that’s where I can help in my office. We can even evaluate your golf swing. We can have you get a club in there and actually go through the mechanics of your golf swing, check your range of motion, check your posture.
These are things that we can do and really evaluate and break down what might be holding you back from potentially taking 10 strokes off your game. So if you want to find out how far you. From Nature’s Athletic Blueprint for your body, I’m always happy to help you out and I wouldn’t think of charging you for these recommendations.
And as a fellow golfer, I want to help you improve your game even if I have to comp you a little bit of my time in person in the process. So reach out to me. Give us a call, 6 1 5 5 6 7 6 6 8 3 mention you heard this episode. Let my staff know and we can get you in for that evaluation if you have questions prior to that, you can follow N D M E on Instagram at Sporting Good Posture or PM me on Facebook at Ideal Health and Wellness Center and stay tuned for part two about how to improve your golf swing.
And some of the mechanics and some of the factors in why your golf game isn’t where it should be. I really want to help you take 10 or more strokes off your game and enjoy your golf outings with you and your friends. Remember, the coach’s door is always open. This is Coach Frank. I’m sporting good posture.
How about you? The Sporting Good Posture Podcast is a broadcast wellness production powered by Ideal Health Wellness Center, all content copyright 2021 all rights reserved. Executive producer Frank Sardella, coach Frank appears courtesy of Ideal Health Wellness Center in Franklin. For more information, visit sporting good posture.com and follow Coach on Instagram at Sporting Good Posture.
Hey Coach, what do you have for us today, ?