Golf is unique—both professionals and amateurs spend thousands of dollars and hours to master the sport. However, amateur and casual golfers often don’t condition and maintain their bodies with golf training to the physical demands and rigor necessary to prevent injuries and play at a high level, especially those with more sedentary professions.
The average amateur golfer played about one round of golf per month in 2019. This isn’t frequent enough to adapt your body to the physical requirements of golf movements. Whether you’re an amateur or a professional on tour, the actions and body movements you execute during the game are very different than everyday activities. That means repetitive stress from those movements without priming the body can lead to physical harm, preventing even the most seasoned athletes from reaching their potentials.
The perfectly timed movements, appropriate speeds, and coordination required to hit a ball a mile down a fairway softly into a hole require physical coordination and effort from specific joints and muscles. As an amateur, you need to regularly stretch your muscles and mobilize your joints to ensure you have the physical tools necessary to play your best rounds.
Your hips, shoulders, and lower back need to stay relatively loose to accommodate the monthly strain of hundreds of swings in one round. With each swing, your pelvis and each spinal vertebrae must rotate and coordinate with arm and leg joints. Add in the force and speed of a well-executed swing with a body not primed for these movements, and there’s a significant risk of injury.
Warming up before each round is vital! A quality warmup may include 15 to 20 minutes of golf-specific movements, targeting key muscles and joints of your pelvis or torso. You could perform stretches at home before leaving for the course or a range. The warmup could be hitting balls for 10 minutes on the range, or putting for five minutes to get the green speeds for the day. Add warmups to your golf training!
Preparing your body before you play can allow you to golf well into your golden years without worrying whether the next stroke will leave you with injury. Here are some pre-driving range stretches—complete 20 to 30 repetitions of each.
Trunk Rotation
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- Take a 5-iron stance and hold a club across your chest.
- Perform some purposeful full-range trunk rotations without moving your hips.
Hip Rotation
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- Stand on one leg with the opposite knee bent at 90 degrees, holding onto the cart or your bag for balance.
- Rotate the bent leg from the hip completely in and out.
- Do the hip rotation with the other leg.
Windmills
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- Bend forward with your right hand to your left foot.
- Return to full standing.
- Repeat the exercise with your left hand to your right foot.
Any way you do it, make a warmup routine part of your golf training. Your body, mind, and hopefully your scorecard will thank you.
If you are interested in creating a more personalized plan to prevent injury, address any movement restrictions, or find ways to improve your body for your golf game, a physical therapist can help. Also, certification through the Titleist Performance Institute will provide you with some of the same level of analysis that tour players receive so you can get the most out of your body and your game.
