Meadows CC April 2019 Newsletter P1_MCC79088 April Newsletter | Page 8

LETTER FROM FITNESS
THE ANATOMY OF A GOLF SWING
The golf swing. It’s one of sports’ most challenging movements and it’s one that few people ever truly
master. In fact, according to surveys, only about 2% of golfers ever break 80 and it is estimated that
only about 25% ever break 100. To put the difficulty of this in perspective, during the same week that
Rob Oller of The Columbus Dispatch wrote about this survey in a 2013 article, 11 PGA pros failed to
break 80 during the PGA Championship. Hopefully that makes you feel better about your own scores.
Now I’ll be the first to admit, I am not a golf pro. I wouldn’t even try to pretend that I’m an expert at
the game of golf. One thing I know very well though is the anatomy of a golf swing. I’ve spent over
13 years studying the anatomy and biomechanics of the human muscle and skeletal system, and when
you understand that, you bring a unique perspective to the analysis of a golf swing. For instance, if
my client tells me that their pro is wanting them to be able to turn further on the backswing, get their
arms up higher or follow through better, I know what joint motions need to improve to make that
happen.
If you want this to really hit home, stand up and do a slow swing. While you do it, pay attention to
your hips, spine, knees, feet, shoulders, shoulder blades, elbows, forearms and wrists. If you count the
spine as one unit, by my count, there are over 24 separate motions occurring at these joints to make
that swing happen. In order for us to have a good swing, each moving part must be doing its job.
So, what happens if one of these moving parts starts lagging? Simple- you compensate through
something else. Consider this. If we need to turn our entire body roughly 90 degrees, then each of
those joints has to contribute a little bit of motion to make it happen. If you spread that 90 degrees
of motion across all the available moving parts, in the proper proportions, it is likely to feel smooth,
strong and controlled. If, for instance, you are limited by 5 degrees in each hip, something else must
pick up that remaining 10. Maybe it’ll be your spine, which could lead to back pain. Maybe it’ll be
your knees, which could lead to knee pain. Maybe it’ll be your arms leading to shoulder, forearm,
wrist or hand pain.
And what if you’re not in pain? Can limited motion affect you from a performance standpoint?
Absolutely. Imagine if you lost 1-2 degrees in each available joint in the chain. That could amount
to a serious restriction in your swing. This could greatly affect your performance, particularly in the
longer shots. Most people attribute this to age, but more accurately it is a loss of motion that very
often can be significantly improved with the right training approach.
So, what is that approach? What is the “secret” to improving range of motion at each joint, restoring
proper mechanics to the body and eliminating compensation patterns? One word- muscles. You may
know this already, but muscles create our movements. In order for any joint to move, whether it is
our hips, shoulders, spine, feet, knees or any others, it must be moved by muscles. That’s why their
full name is Skeletal Muscles.
My specialty is in the analysis of the motion of joints and the function of muscles. I help people
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