Some of my swing problems come from the fact that I don’t get to a full finish in in the follow through, like you might see players on TV doing. Intuitively, you might be wondering why the finish is important. After all, once the ball is struck nothing else you do matters, right? Wrong. The golf swing is a complex system that involves your body, a golf club, and a golf ball. How you perform is directly related to your flexibility, stability, strength, and technique. If any of these areas is deficient, your swing will be deficient. Mistakes trickle down into subsequent segments of the swing. Problems in the finish indicate that something probably went wrong prior to that. To achieve maximum power, the club head needs to be accelerating when it meets the ball. If you’re not achieving a full finish, then chances are that you haven’t built up as much club head speed as you might have otherwise. That or you’re bleeding off stored power as your body resists that speed, knowing that
Pre-Round Warmup
Doing a pre-round warmup is important for shooting better scores and preventing injuries. This is something I need to get better at. Too often, it’s tempting to just check in at the pro shop and head right to the first tee. To perform optimally, we need to prepare our minds and bodies for the rigors of the game. Physical Warm up Getting the blood flowing and stretching out the muscles gets us loose and prepared to swing the golf club at peak speed and efficiency. This equates to power and consistency right off the bat. If we don’t stretch prior to the first tee, then it can take several holes to loosen up and get into a good swing groove. Trying to jump right into full swings also increases the chance for injury in muscles, tendons, and ligaments that are cold and tight. This can result in sprains, strains, and tears. At the very minimum, it’s good to hit some balls at the range before teeing off. Start with some half wedges, focusing on slow,
Flexibility
Ever since I started this journey, I’ve learned a lot about myself. Most of it is not good. That’s not negativity. That’s reality. Recently, I happened upon the website for the Titleist Performance Institute (I added it to my sidebar links). Golf fitness is a huge part of my goals. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can. The TPI website is a top-notch resource for all things golf fitness. For anyone that watches Golf Fitness Academy on the Golf Channel, you’ll be familiar with the TPI and it’s co-founders Dr. Greg Rose and Dave Phillips. As I explored the site (you have to sign up to get all the content, but it’s free), I discovered tons of exercises to help every part of your body, and also exercises geared toward specific faults and deficiencies. They even have a tool where you can view your own swing and draw lines for analysis. I highly recommend checking out the site. Now that my unpaid endorsement is out of the way, the reason I brought
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