At this time, most Texans are under shelter-in-place orders. Most of us can’t play golf or go to the practice range. Don’t let these limitations stop you from getting or staying fit while also working on your game.
If you remain sedentary long enough, you can gradually lose mobility and/or strength in your lower body. You might not even realize you have lost strength until you get back on the course and get injured or notice decreased distance.
So, let’s make the most of our time stuck inside. We can work on golf performance at home and make big improvements to your setup position, plus we can make better use of your lower body for vertical push and lateral stability.
In this session, I have three exercises for you. Each one addresses a specific aspect of a sound golf swing. Exercise 1, “Hip Hinge with Club on Spine,†helps you establish a powerful setup position. Exercise 2, “Deep Squat with Arms Up,†works to help you obtain a vertical push up from the ground through impact. Exercise 3, “Skaters and Stick the Landing,†improves your lateral stability, which helps prevent a slide or sway away from the ball in the takeaway.
Grab a club, get barefooted and use the video above to practice these movements with me.
Place a club or shaft along your spine with three points of contact: the hips, the upper back (between shoulder blades) and the back of your head. Keep the club secure along all three points, and then hinge from the hip into golf posture or deeper and stand back up. Maintain all three points of contact throughout the movement. Work to shift your weight into your heels when you hinge forward and allow the knees to be soft.
Pro Tips: If your head or hips come off the club, then try to shift the hinge back into the hips and not the spine. If only your mid-back comes off the club, then try to brace the front of your core to stabilize the spine.
Holding both ends of a club, lift your arms overhead and squat as deeply as you can. Your goal is to keep the heels down as you drop the hips as low as the knees while keeping the club over your footprint. Push down through the ground to rise up and squeeze your glutes as you come to a full standing position.
Pro Tips: Try changing the width of your feet to find the best “groove†for your squat. Shift hips down and back maintaining the whole foot on the ground. Maintain a stable core as if you have a club across your back as in the first exercise.
Position a club across the front of your hips or beltline. Step or jump laterally from one leg to the other leg and back by pushing off the ground. Stick the landing and balance for a few seconds to work on stability.
Pro Tips: Load each leg by squatting before you push off or explode to the other side. Jump for more intensity.
Use these exercises for efficient use of hips, legs and feet to load then produce force for power. Hips are the king of the golf swing! When they don’t move properly, other areas start to compensate or absorb the extra force. That’s not going to work for very long. I’d love to hear how these work for you!
Pam Owens is the Director of Fitness for Royal Oaks Country Club in Houston and the owner of Pam Owens Fitness. A two-time Golf Digest Top 50 Fitness Professional, Pam helps golfers all over the world get lean, bendy and powerful with online or in person coaching. For more golf-specific exercises, click here.
