It’s that time of year again golfers!

The snow is finally melting in town and we’re all thinking about shaking the winter rust off of our game. Several local driving ranges have opened and soon the courses will too. I’d like to offer some food for thought as we get this season going (albeit a little later than we all had hoped). Most of us here in Spokane spend five months or more without touching a club. That’s an awfully long time for our flexibility and conditioning of golf specific muscles to suffer. A recent study suggests that up to 41% of amateur golfers will experience some type of golf related injury annually. More than 1/3rd of these injuries are to the lower back, with the remainder involving primarily the upper extremity. The overwhelming majority of these injuries can be blamed on overuse, lack of flexibility and swing faults. These statistics should be a little frightening to all of us that love the game, but there is good news! Studies report that a simple warm-up done consistently can reduce injury rates by 50% or more. I’ll address 3 topics that I believe can really help reduce injuries amongst amateur golfers. We’ll discuss the importance of hip strength and mobility, thoracic spine mobility and proper warm up.

Hip Strength and Mobility:

Our hips play a critical role in the golf swing. Not only are they a huge source of our power, but dysfunction in the hips during the golf swing really increases the potential for injury to the low back. A quick overview of the hips during the golf swing: At the top of the backswing the right hip is maximally internally rotated and the left hip is externally rotated (for the right-handed player). This process reverses on the downswing where the left hip is maximally internally rotated while the right hip externally rotates. Deficits in hip mobility while shortening our turn, decrease power, increase the likelihood of swing faults and increase the potential for injury to the low back. Here’s a simple test to find out how your hip rotation measures up!