Question: What is the best way to loosen up the golf swing? I haven't touched a club all winter, but I am getting excited to get back on the course and would like the muscles to be ready when I go.
Answer: This is a great question, because muscles do lose flexibility for any activity when they are not used. If you do the proper exercises, you can get the muscles ready and improve your swing as well.
Before I introduce the exercises, let me review the proper address position from which these exercises should be done. It may seem boring to practice the address position, but Dr. Ralph Mann, a biomechanics expert who has studied the golf swing with high-speed photography and computer analysis, says that a good swing is impossible without a proper setup. In both the pros and the amateurs he studied, Mann could trace most swing errors to mistakes at address.
First, be sure the body is aligned properly to the target. Visualize yourself standing with your toes touching the inside rail of a railroad track. To be properly aligned, the outside rail would be pointing directly to the target, and your knees, hips and shoulders would be aligned parallel to the inside rail.
The posture of the body as you address the ball is similar to that of a quarterback about to receive a snap. To get the proper posture, stand erect with the right foot square and the left foot turned out about 30 degrees toward the target. Then, place your fingers on your hip joints in front of your front pockets, and push your hips straight back, until the upper body is bent forward about 30 degrees. Be sure to keep the back straight as the body bends forward from the hips. Now, simply bend your knees slightly, and you have the proper posture.
Two exercises I will describe will help you learn the proper body turn and loosen the muscles at the same time.
Exercise one: Stand straight, with the feet about shoulder-width apart. Hold a club against your chest, with your arms crossed and the clubhead pointing at the target. From this position, turn back until the club is 90 degrees from address; then turn through until your chest points to the target. Allow your knees to work to the center of your stance and the feet to roll toward the middle. Note that the club (and therefore the shoulders) makes 180 degrees of rotation on a plane perpendicular to the spine.
Now, bend forward about 30 degrees with the proper posture for golf and turn back until the club is 90 degrees from address. (See Figure 1.) Be sure your right leg remains flexed and that the knee is inside the right foot. Then, turn through until your chest points to the target as though you were making a golf swing. The right knee should finish almost touching the left knee and all the weight is on the left side (see Figure 2). Be sure that the club still rotates perpendicular to the spine so that the left shoulder is lower on the backswing and the right shoulder is lower on the follow through.
Next week I will describe the second turning exercise and mention some other ways to get your body ready for golf.