Perfect Posture Makes for a Perfect Swing

Golf Address Posture Essentials

When it comes to golf instruction, there are many different swing philosophies and teaching methods.  But, when interviewing hundreds of top golf professional instructors, there is one thing they will all agree on… your golf posture at address will make or break your full swing performance results.  Even the best golfers in the world will not hit the ball most effectively or with minimal body stress ‘if’ their address posture is less than optimal.

Here are the key elements of a proper golf address posture:

·         Your stance should be about shoulder width apart creating a stable, balanced base for your full swing.

·         A healthy, functional, address posture requires a straight ‘primary’ tilt spine angle that bends from your hips and knees only (not from your spine) to make a powerful spine coil.

·         Let your arms hang naturally, not too close or too far from your body and you should feel a gentle squeezing of your shoulder blades –down and together.

·         Your ‘primary’ tilt spine angle and golf club shaft plane should be approximately at a 90 degree angle to each other when viewed from the side.

·         Your right shoulder and hip should be lower than your left (for right-handed golfers) and your shoulder plane and hip/pelvic plane (‘secondary’ tilt) should be parallel to each other  when viewed from the front/back sides.

Off-Course Exercise-In front of mirror!

Practice your posture with each club in front of mirror.  Although most of the elements of a proper address posture remain the same, clubs are different lengths, so your degree of ‘primary’ tilt will be slightly different for each club. Also, your ball position in relationship to your stance will vary slightly per club, therefore, your ‘secondary’ tilt will need to be adjusted as well.

To learn the specifics for reaching your optimal golf address posture, please watch this video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWevmxMnFns

For more information about golf address posture and/or to schedule a complimentary golf posture screening, please contact Paul Callaway, PT, PhD by calling: 630.567.7572

or email: Paul@CallawayGolfFitness.com

Preventing Golfer’s Low Back Pain

As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. There is no more valuable a statement than this when it comes to preventing lower back problems for golfers.  Lower back pain is the #1 injury in golf for both amateurs and professionals.

As the first Director of Golf Fitness and Physical Therapist for the PGA Tour, I treated lower back problems on a daily basis. And, I can say for certain that preventing back problems is a much easier, enjoyable and affordable way to go than trying to resolve spine injuries after the fact.

There three key elements of low back pain prevention for golf include:

1.       Posture/structural alignment

              To learn more about how to achieve a proper golf address posture, watch:

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aWevmxMnFns

1.       Effective pre-golf warm-up

Learn how to perform an effective pre-golf warm-up sequence prior to practicing and/or playing golf by visiting:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHHBtPWzFQI

2.       Proper bio-mechanical swing education

To become familiar with the basics of a stress-free, efficient golf swing, watch the following video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp5vl_wOy80

For more information on how to prevent and/or manage lower back pain for golf, please contact

Paul Callaway, PT, PhD by calling: 630.567.7572 or email: Paul@CallawayGolfFitness.com

Callaway Golf Fitness Tips: Power Golf

Callaway Golf Fitness Tips: Power Golf: Training for more power on the course doesn't have to involve heavy weights or explosive ballistic workouts. For most golfers, a more po...

Power Golf

Training for more power on the course doesn't have to involve heavy weights or explosive ballistic workouts. For most golfers, a more powerful swing can better be achieved through establishing a balance between improved posture, core and extremity strength, balance, functional stability and mobility. 

That's why developing a more powerful swing is more safely and effectively achieved with a combination of golf-specific strengthening exercises that blend the golfer's own body weight against gravity with a gradual progression of free weights plus customized flexibility and functional mobility training directed at critical body regions that are most contributing to the full golf swing motion.

Here are three great examples of 'functional' strengthening exercises that specifically can help build more swing speed and power into your game. Do these  exercises 3 to 5 days a week to strengthen your power muscles and improve your golf-specific joint motion for a stronger swing and more distance off the tee. 

1) Side Split Squat:

• From a standing position on a a firm, flat surface, spread your legs as far apart as you can comfortably. 
• With your arms held straight in front of your chest, shift your weight to one leg and slowly sit back onto your one leg. 
• Emphasize moving your hips backward rather than pressing your knees forward as you squat onto your one leg. 
• Hold this 'side split squat' position for 1-2 breaths, then slowly transfer your weight to your opposite leg.
• Continue moving slowly back and forth from one leg to the other for up to 20 reps, and do 1-3 sets.
• As you get stronger and the exercise becomes easier at slower speeds, gradually increase the speed of your 'side split squats' but make sure that your full squat motion doesn't shorten.  

Purpose: Improves flexibility of your hips, knees and lower back while gaining strength and power in your larger golf muscles ... thighs, buttocks, and calves. 

2) Golf Squat:

• From a standing position with your feet positioned wider than shoulder-width apart on a firm, flat surface, hold a 5-10 pound dumbbell with a hand-over-hand grip. 
• Slowly bend your hips and knees and lower your body into a full squat position (as deep as comfortably possible).
• Hold the full squat for 1 breath then slowly rise your body up and twist your upper torso to the right while bending your elbows and raising the weight in your hands over your right shoulder.
• At the top of your twist, your hips should be facing to the right, with your weight over your right foot and your left heel off the floor. 
• Hold this full list and twist to the right for 1 breath, then slowly return to the starting position and repeat the 'golf squat' to the opposite side.
• Repeat up to 1-3 sets of 20 reps.
• As you get stronger and the exercise becomes easier at slower speeds, gradually increase the speed of your 'golf squats' and increase the dumbbell weight as you are able.

Purpose: Improves flexibility of your shoulders, spine, hips, knees and lower back while gaining strength and power in your larger golf muscles ... chest, shoulders, thighs, buttocks, and calves ... and promotes greater club control from the top of the full swing through impact.

3) Power Rotation with Clap:

• Stand in your proper golf-address posture with your arms hanging vertically down from your shoulders and your palms touching together (like you're praying)
• Keep your left arm pointing straight down toward the ground as you bend your right elbow and slowly rotate your upper torso to the full backswing position.
• Then swing your right arm down as fast as possible, clapping your right hand with left your left to make the loudest 'clap' sound that you can make with your open hands.
• Do 20 reps and repeat the exercise in the opposite direction.

• Then, from your golf address posture, bend both elbows in front of your chest so your elbows and shoulders are bent to the 90/90 degree position in front of your chest.
• Slowly begin to rotate your upper torso right and left keeping your arms 'in front' of your chest as you rotate.
• Repeat 20 upper body twists gaining speed gradually until you are rotating as fast as you can by the 20th rep. 

Purpose:  Increases explosive power from trunk (core) rotation muscles.

2010 Illinois Boys State Golf Champion!

Congratulations to Thomas O'Byan from Waubonsie High School for winning this year's Illinois High School Boys Golf 3A Championship! Thomas is a wonderful young man and deserves the title after working so hard these past several years on his total game.

I have had the pleasure of working with Thomas, along with his professional golf instructor, Connie Demattia, at the Cantigny Golf Academy for the past several years to help Thomas develop his golf-specific physical strength and conditioning program.

Thomas has done everything that I have asked him to do in his fitness training program and his total performance improvement has been a tremendous validation to the concept of 'integrated' performance enhancement - the complete, synergistic blend of golf instruction, physical training, mental training and custom golf equipment.

Thomas' parents have fully understood the value of supporting Thomas by providing him with all of the resources offered through the Cantigny Golf Academy http://www.cantignygolf.com/ and the results are evident. Thomas' scores have dropped consistently over the past two years, he has earned a Division-1 college golf scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Madision and he now is the best high school golfer in the state!

I wish Thomas all the best as he now moves forward into his college golf career and hopefully beyond to his goal of playing professionally on the PGA Tour. I can't think of a more deserving individual than, Thomas O'Bryan. Way to go Thomas!

For more information about developing a total golf performance program for your junior golfer, please contact me directly at Paul@CallawayGolfFitness.com , call me at 630-567-7572, or visit www.CallawayGolfFitness.com .

Free from Joint Pain!

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For over 25 years, my ankles, knees and lower back hurt all the time ... every step, every day! It was 'no fun' at all! I was 40 years old and I felt like I was 80 every time I tried to do anything physical.

My problem started when I was just a teenager playing sports. I was at a basketball camp and on the second day of camp, in a scrimmage game, I rolled my left ankle severely! I heard and felt a 'pop'! I tried to keep playing but the pain was so severe and my ankle swelled instantly to the size of a grapefruit. By the next day, I had major bruising all around the outside of my ankle and my participation in camp was over for that week.

Unfortunately, I had registered and pre-paid for another camp the following week. I attended the camp and played all week on my ankle without re-injuring it again BUT never gave it the proper rest and recovery it needed to completely heal. The rest is history. My ankle was never the same. I developed chronic instability in that left ankle and, year after year, no matter what I tried, I kept re-spraining that ankle and arthritis eventually set in.

Worse yet, because of how my body was attempting to compensate for the weakness, instability, pain and dysfunction in my left ankle, all my other joints ... right ankle, both knees, and my lower back took a beating. By the time I was in my mid-20's all of those other joints and the surrounding muscles were hurting as well. I was a mess! I felt like my 'physical' life was over!

Now the good news! Fast forward 20 years, after giving up everything except for playing golf (and having to take a cart whenever I played because of my joint pain), at the age of 40 I was introduced to some amazing, 'natural' (non-prescription) wellness technologies by my doctors that totally changed my life forever. There were a number of wellness products that were suggested to me at the time so I tried them as recommended. After all ... what did I have to lose? I hurt every day, I couldn't even take a walk with my family without hurting, and I had tried everything I knew of to feel better up to then but nothing had really helped.

What I discovered was that these products were extremely safe, so simple to use, and highly effective when used properly and consistently over time. In just 3 weeks I was feeling much better! And, in 3-4 months, my joint problems were GONE! I was amazed at how I felt! My ankles and feet, my knees and my lower back all felt so much better. I could stand, walk, and play golf again ... I could even walk 18 holes and play multiple rounds per week for the first time in years without any discomfort! My joint range of motion, flexibility, strength, balance and total function all improved. It seemed too good to be true!

For several months, I kept expecting my symptoms and dysfunction to all come back again as it had before with other short-term remedies that only addressed the symptoms. But this approach went to the 'source' of the problem. And, now 14 years later, I still have no joint-related challenges!

So, if you are hurting or if you know of someone who hurts, please do yourself/them a big favor and visit this link to learn more about what could just just turn out to be the best decision you ever made for your joints...

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So let me ask you ... What do you have to lose?  Is improved comfort and functional quality of the rest of your life worth it to you to check this out more completely? I hope so! I'm sure glad that I did!

Your partner in success,

Paul Callaway, PT, PhD

PS - If you have any questions after visiting this site and want any 1-on-1 counseling/advice/support to streamline your information process and accelerate your results, then please contact me directly at (630-567-7572) or emailing me at PaulCallaway@att.net