One more for golf: The warm-up. We’ve looked at a few mobility activities to improve your movement potential and a few exercises to better develop power and coordination through your body’s movements — now what do you actually do at the course to get ready to play? A dynamic warm-up might be the missing link between preparing your body off the course and translating that work to on-course success.
Most golfers have a few stretches or movements they use to get loose before making their way to the first tee. But it is becoming more clear in both golf research and general athletics research that dynamic activities are likely preferable to static stretching when you’re looking for better athletic results soon after your warm-up. This means activities with more continuous motion and less holding of stretches for many seconds at a time are ideal.
With that in mind, here are five simple movements you can put together to make a full-body, golf-specific dynamic warm-up that will help make sure your body is ready to handle to golf swing when you play. This is borrowed from Jason Glass — a TPI Instructor (warm-up video here) — without significant modification because it is comprehensive, time efficient, and easy to complete at the course.
Lastly, if you think there just isn’t enough time for all of this before a round, the whole sequence takes me about 90-120 seconds to complete fully.
I do this routine before I play.
You probably should too.
1. Hip Swings
Hip mobility is important for many athletic activities, and golf is no exception. We usually think of the golf swing as an arms-and-shoulders movement, but preparing the hips for movement helps get the rest of the body involved too.
- Begin standing tall, holding a club in one hand for balance support. Swing the opposite leg forward and backwards as smoothly as possible to get the hip moving.
- No need to force movement! Take your leg as far as it will comfortably allow, but don’t worry too much about setting records for leg height in your warmup.
- Complete 6 repetitions (forward and backwards) for each leg.
2. Lateral Hip Swings
Hip joints move in more than one direction, so we also have a side-to-side hip swing. This lateral swing will create some rotation at the hip as well.
- Begin standing tall, holding a club in one hand for balance support. Swing the opposite leg out from the body and then cross over in front of your stance leg to the opposite side. Do this as smoothly as possible to get the hip joint moving.
- No need to force movement! Take your leg as far as it will comfortably allow, but don’t worry too much about setting records for leg height in your warmup. Some people do experience clicking or noises in the hip — that’s okay, but monitor yourself for discomfort. No pain should be experienced!
- Complete 6 repetitions (away and across) for each leg.
3. Rooted Rotation
A “Rooted Rotation” begins to prepare your body to stabilize in one location while moving in another. This can be a huge component of speed and consistency in golf, so developing this feeling before playing is important.
- Begin standing tall in an athletic stance, holding a club from either end out in front of your chest (1). “Root” yourself into the ground so the hips and legs are firmly planted, then rotate your upper body fully in one direction (2), and then the other (3). Very little movement from the belt buckle down should occur.
- Make this movement slowly to start. You can increase speed a little as you can going, but focus mostly on the feeling of the upper half moving and the lower half staying still.
- Complete 6 repetitions (1-2-3, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3) in total.
4. Full Rotation
Full Rotations are the next step, expanding on the Rooted Rotations you just finished. These mimic the golf swing pattern, but in a more free-flowing manner.
- Begin standing tall in an athletic stance, holding a club from either end out in front of your chest (1). Using your lower body to lead the movement, turn in one direction (2), and then the other (3). This should create a more typical “swinging” action familiar to golfers.
- Full Rotations help reinforce a kinematic sequence for golf — that is, movement starting from the ground up. When moving to a new position, try to get movement started “in order” — ie. weight shift, hips turn, torso turn, shoulder turn, arms follow… and then repeat in the opposite direction.
- Complete 6 repetitions (1-2-3, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3) in total.
5. Rooted Swings
The last move of the warm-up puts all the previous steps together to mimic a golf swing with the feeling of upper/lower body independence and good kinematic flow.
- Begin standing tall in an athletic stance, holding a club from either end out in front of your chest. Staying “rooted” to the ground, rotate your upper body in the direction of your backswing (1). Then, leading with the lower body, fully release the lower and upper body in the direction of your followthrough (2). Reset, and repeat. (One direction only — mimic your swing)
- Keep your movements smooth to start — remember these are to prepare you to hit a ball, so they don’t need to be completed at 150% effort.
- Complete 6 repetitions, resetting after each followthrough.
Re-posted from: http://drjimgilliard.com/2020/05/30/golf-dynamic-warm-up/
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