Golf Fitness For The Balance Of A Ballerina
A typical round of golf will have you hitting the ball from all sorts of angles and unstable footing. The ability to maintain your balance and center of gravity during the movement of the swing is essential.
Here’s a juicy golf tidbit for you. The average golfer can balance on 1 foot for only 7 seconds while the average professional golfer can balance on 1 foot for 25 seconds. Thus it only stands to reason exercises that focus on balance and core strength will greatly improve your balance and power.
Balance or Proprioception is an automatic sensitivity mechanism in the body that sends messages through the central nervous system. The central nervous system then relays information to rest of the body about how to react and with what amount of tension. Proprioception is unconscious initially, but can be enhanced with training. As an example, think about the female gymnastic athletes that balance and do back flips on that 4 inch wide piece of wood called the balance beam. Do you think they were born with that kind of balance? Of course not, it evolves from training. So it’s not surprising that balance can be learned, challenged, and improved with proprioceptive feedback.
Think about the golf swing and the constant motion. And yet with the constant motion, it is critical to keep your head still and your eye on the golf ball. As all your body parts are moving it is imperative you keep your body in balance while maintaining your spine angle and that oh-so-sweet swing plane.
Your body is the pendulum in the swing plane and if you are out of balance, then your pendulum is swinging back and forth in smaller increments while you’re trying to swing a golf club. Even if the body gets balance, the club will not be in the position it started, so it’s anyone’s guess what will happen when the club gets back to the ball.
We can train our bodies to improve the proprioception within the muscles, just by creating balance challenges for ourselves. Balance training is a facet of golf fitness where you will notice rapid improvements. I get excited about balance training because my students achieve rapid improvements and that excites them, just as it will excite you.
Similar to strength training, golf fitness balance training should be progressive and cyclical. Start with the basics and systematically progress in difficulty. After 8 weeks cycle back to the basics and make sure you have been maintaining good form. Examine your improvements. Can you hold your balance longer? Is it taking less effort? Is it easier to balance on one foot versus the other?
Balance is crucial for playing your best golf. If you are out of balance when you set up to the ball, your body will start trying to re-balance itself as soon as you start your backswing. This throws off your golf swing by changing your distance to the ball as your body redirects your muscles away from the golf swing in order to maintain balance. This in turn causes mishits of all types and persuasions. Additionally, the slight deviations in terrain we encounter as golfers require slight adjustments of balance to avoid injury.
Specialized sensory receptors in the muscles, joints and connective tissues enable the body to process information from a variety of stimuli, and turn that information into action. The skin, palms of the hands, soles of the feet and other senses collaborate to communicate with the brain about muscle tension, weight shifts, load and range of motion. Your core muscles and hips keeps you in balance. Balance is extremely important for accuracy in golf. You must be able to maintain a stable and balanced body position even while swinging the club to maintain your target line and avoid mishits.
We all know golf is a game of degrees. A 2 degree mishit can translate into 20 yards off the target line 200 yards down the fairway.
By making golf fitness balance training a part of your golf conditioning program, you will be able to much more easily maintain a proper stance and balance throughout your entire golf swing without moving off the ball.
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