You arrive at the course on time to warm up before you tee off. Things are going well for a few holes until you notice a group waiting to tee off. You look ahead and see a bottleneck of foursomes in the upcoming holes. Your momentum and tempo have just shifted to, “hurry up and wait” status. Slow play and long periods of standing can leave you with anxiety, plus they can contribute to on-the-course tightness and tension.
Tense or tight areas in your body can creep up with these delays and make shoulders, back or hips feel uncomfortable. The golf swing is a full body stretching and shortening movement that stops and starts across many hours. Yes, long delays, cool weather, previous injuries sites and negative thoughts all lead to tension or tightness during a round.
But we don’t have to just accept it.
You can use the downtime to stay loose with dynamic stretches right on the course. Bilateral dynamic stretches can offset the unilateral, repetitive swing demands on the body and release tension to help you stay more balanced and ready for power. Plus, using the time between shots or holes to reset your body can ensure the tightness doesn’t negatively affect your round.
In today’s lesson we train using three large dynamic movements in both directions to get loose and ready for the next shot. During these movements, try not to think about the technique of the golf swing. Instead, focus on tempo, staying balanced and the feeling of stretching to end ranges. When you add slow breathing, you’ll help reduce tension even more. Here are the three movements:
For hip twister, stand in golf posture holding the top of a club. Rotate hips slowly right and left around the spine while not moving shoulders. Repeat 3+ times in both directions.
PRO TIP: Avoid lateral movement.
While holding the ends of a 5-iron, squat and bend forward to place the right elbow on the right knee and the back of the right hand on the left knee. Lift the left arm up and behind the back while turning head to the left. Repeat 3 times on both sides.
PRO TIP: Sink hips back in your stance.
While holding one or two clubs for balance, cross the right leg over the left to form a figure four. Squat down on the left leg setting hips back and lowering the head and shoulders then stand up straight. Repeat 3 times on each leg.
PRO TIP: Maintain a tall spine with your chest out for more opening of the chest and more stretch in the hip or use a more flexed spine for more stretch in the lower back.
When you make better use of downtime between shots or holes with stretching, you’ll undoubtedly feel better, play better and stay golf-ready. Try these three stretches from the Driving Range Dozen, plus get the whole series of 12 stretches offered free at the link here.
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 the free Driving Range Dozen and for more resources, click here.
