Body4Golf Swing Analysis of Luke Donald

Swing evaluations are from the bodies perspective and are based on body principles that can increase power, speed, stability, and accuracy, as well as decrease injury.  Keep in mind that many golfers have great swing patterns and very effective golf games regardless of whether they are monopolizing on these principles.  This group of golfers can have more….more speed, more power, more stability, and more accuracy.  By using these principles a golfer will decrease their chances of injury and increase the length of their career.

This powerhouse golfer takes advantage of his smaller rather muscular frame.  Luke has probably the most effective core on tour.  Train your core like Luke does to improve your performance on the golf course.  Add training to improve your pelvic and hip strength and dominate on the golf course.

Stance:  He balances rather uniquely with the mid-line occurring at an oblique angle.  He does this by utilizing more of his posterior hip musculature on the left side and anterior/medial musculature on his right leg.  I like his nice flat back at address.

Backswing:  Luke has beautiful tempo between arms and trunk as he moves the club into the backswing.  His weight bearing between right and left foot is about 50/50 for the entire backswing with the oblique angle of muscle use reversing from his stance.  It would be nice to see his pelvis remain level as there is noted downward and anterior motion of his pelvis over his left hip.

Downswing:  The strength of his lower core becomes very apparent as he effectively swings the club almost entirely with this part of his body.  He begins his downswing utilizing pelvic motion and hip strength, but before impact he relies on range of motion (ROM) of this area to assist his swing rather than strength.  I have observed several videos were his pelvis over hip motion had some extra unnecessary wobble.  It appears this has been improved.

Impact:  He has a unique jolt during impact again paying tribute to his amazing core and how well this area functions during his swing. The jolt occurs in the core letting me know he is driving his entire swing from his core monopolizing on a basic body principle.  As the jolt occurs, it lifts his left leg up and almost off the ground.  From a body’s perspective it would be better to absorb this force with no notable jolt.

Follow through:  He has a brilliant follow through allowing his core to effectively decelerate the club.  Luke is the first professional I have assessed who is able to do this.

Impact and Recommendations:  Luke would need about 4 to 6 hours of manual physical therapy to address problems in his pelvis, tight IT bands and calves.  He would also need specific ROM, stability, and strengthening exercises to improve the role of his hips/pelvis/low back in his swing.  Luke could gain additional yardage very quickly from this program as his core is already working so beautifully.    You can have more!

These are the two videos I observed for this analysis
http://www.progolfswingvideos.com/2011/02/martin-kaymer-vs-luke-donald-slow.html

To view previous swing analysis of other professional golfers:
http://body4golf.wordpress.com/

Body4Golf Swing Analysis of Nick Chertock

Swing evaluations are from the bodies perspective and are based on body principles that can increase power, speed, stability, and accuracy, as well as decrease injury.  Keep in mind that many golfers have great swing patterns and very effective golf games regardless of whether they are monopolizing on these principles.  This group of golfers can have more….more speed, more power, more stability, and more accuracy.  By using these principles a golfer will decrease their chances of injury and increase the length of their career.

Overall Nick’s swing is rather sound.  He has a few joint dysfunctions mainly in his right pelvis/hip/knee/foot and ankle that affects how much power he can generate for his swing.  His strength lies in the ability of his pelvic floor to work properly through almost his entire swing and the rotation of his pelvis over his left leg.

Address:  Nice weight bearing balance between his right and left legs.  There is some curvature in his back between thoracic 9 through thoracic 12 vertebrae.

Backswing:  Near the end of the backswing the right side of the pelvis stops moving over the hip.  At this point the left side continues to rotate and move forward to make up for this loss of motion.  Throughout the swing there is no femur internal or external rotation on the tibia.

 

Downswing:  The right heal lifts rather quickly to insure no rotation between the femur and tibia, letting me know there is some loss of foot and ankle range of motion ROM.  The right pelvis over hip is a little awkward, but the pelvis over the left hip is beautiful.  The pelvic floor is firing perfectly throughout most of the down swing.  There is slight medial placement of knees to optimize the hip adductor firing and how this synchronizes with the pelvic floor.

Impact:  Absorption of impact is rather good with just the minutest of jolts, almost hardly visible.  There is slight pushing off of the right foot which I like to see, but a little too much weight on the left side to monopolize on pelvic stability. At impact there is a little more curvature between T8-T12 this happens due to ineffective use of the breathing musculature.

Follow Through:  Pretty good with nice absorption some with ROM and some with strength.  Throughout the backswing, downswing and follow through,  the trunk and arms are synchronous which is quite a feat considering there are quite a few more vertebrae he could be using for this rotation.  In other words he could have quite the X factor as he is not utilizing all his vertebrae for his rotation.  Also he has overall rather nice scapula positioning on the rib cage.

Impact and Recommendations:  Nick would need about 4 or so hours of therapy to address restrictions followed by a flexibility program and strengthening program to address areas mentioned.  Check out this flexibility exercise as it would help you immensely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBWf5y5M3HE

 

Nick’s video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxxZE5JvDsI

 

Body4Golf Swing Analysis of Justin Rose

Swing evaluations are from the bodies perspective and are based on body principles that can increase power, speed, stability, and accuracy, as well as decrease injury.  Keep in mind that many golfers have great swing patterns and very effective golf games regardless of whether they are monopolizing on these principles.  This group of golfers can have more….more speed, more power, more stability, and more accuracy.  By using these principles a golfer will decrease their chances of injury and increase the length of their career.

 

Overall His swing looks like layers of band aids brilliantly placed, by golf instructors to keep him successful on the golf course, over poor body functioning.  Justin strength shines through in his swing and is especially visible during impact as he is the first professional assessment I have done where the force of impact is absorbed properly by the body.  Unfortunately he is losing efficiency by rotating around multiple axes during the downswing losing speed and power.  Power, that his strong body would easily handle with aditional stability that could be created by utilizing some body principles that he is not monopolizing on.

Stance Phase:  He has visual curvature in his middle to upper back or thoracic area and positions his arms pulled forward from his trunk, sacrificing strength for lever arm.  This leaves the scapulas positioned away from his spine.  The toe of his left foot is pointed out from midline farther than the right.  This position happens from the left hip being externally rotated.  The weight bearing is far from even looking about 70 percent right and 30 percent left.

Backswing:  As he begins his backswing his weight bearing quickly moves to a 90 percent right leg and 10 percent left leg.  He has good trunk and arm tempo until his left arm is about a hands distance from parallel to the ground and then it is all arms, fracturing his arms from his trunk and leaving him in a position of weakened shoulder and therefore arm strength.   His left wrist and hand looks rather uncomfortable as he moves the club into the backswing position.  He is mainly using his quadriceps and outer leg musculature as he rotates his pelvis to the right slightly collapsing over his right hip.

Downswing:   It looks like he is turning around 3 different axes.  He looks disconnected as different body parts including pelvis, lower core, upper core, and arms are not in synch.  His pelvis turns around a large circle instead of a single axis, loosing efficiency and power.

Impact:  He absorbs impact well with fluid range of motion, so no jolts to mention.  He has impressive lower abdominal strength and this area works very well at this point of his swing.  He is almost fully weight bearing on his left leg as he rolls out onto to outside of his left foot.

Follow through:  He effectively absorbs the deceleration of the club with range of motion.  The club wraps fully around to almost parallel to the ground placing great torque on the fingers, hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders.

 

Impact and Recommendations:  He would need at least 8 hours of Manual Physical Therapy, followed by muscle reeducation to improve connection between all his body parts. His home program would include specific movement exercises to improve range of motion while also improving strength, stability, and synchronicity of muscle groups.  It is obvious his strengthening program is effective and that the body issues are more joint restrictions, flexibility, and proper coordination of muscle groups.

 

 

http://www.progolfswingvideos.com/2011/09/justin-rose-swing-vision-slow-motion.html

Body4Golf Swing Analysis of Yani Tseng

Eat your heart out guys, this lady has range of motion (ROM) you could only dream of having and according to Kevin Hinton, PGA professional, the move.  I am extremely impressed with the combination of grace and power in her swing.  The velocity of her club in relationship to the weight of her small frame, almost launches her airborne at impact.

ADDRESS:  Her address is picture perfect with excellent posture, equal weight bearing, and overly apparent pelvic stability.

BACKSWING:  She has a textbook backswing including beautiful tempo between her arms and her core, excellent pelvic control, fantastic trunk ROM which is evenly shared throughout her thoracic vertebrae and rib cage, and an almost equal weight bearing between right and left legs (looks to be about 55% right and 45% left).  From the bodies perspective this is what I like to see.  The only notable body stressing move happens at her left knee as she begins the downswing.

DOWNSWING: Her left knee is positioned toward the midline of the body and kicks in toward the right leg at the beginning of her downswing.  This move is stressing the medial or inside of her left knee.  She is missing some crucial motion in this side of her knee as the affect of this movement.  She has excellent right pelvic control and muscle firing and coordination for the entire downswing.  She is having problems contracting the lower part of her gluteus musculature for over half of the downswing on the left side of her pelvis.

IMPACT:  I absolutely love her weight bearing at impact with her right foot looking like 35% and her left 65%.  She is still pushing her right foot into the ground at impact.  I have been preaching this for about 3 years now and felt like no one would listen.  She does slightly roll her left foot out at impact but as a reaction to the force she is generating with her club, and not because of a loss of ROM.  She finishes squarely over her left foot.  There is a slight jolt in her left groin area (the pubic symphysis to be exact) at impact.  This is one of those which came first, the chicken or the egg scenarios.  Is her swing creating the loss of ROM at the knee and the shearing at the pubic symphysis in two directions, or were these limitations already there and creating the two small issues in her swing?  I would have to treat her, send her to practice and then look at her body and her swing again to know the answer.

FOLLOW THROUGH:  What a follow through.  This is where her incredible ROM shines through and is very apparent.  Her club wraps around and finishes above parallel to the ground.  This is putting some torque on her hands, wrists and even into her shoulder in a not so optimal way.  Unfortunately she has to absorb the deceleration of the club and since she is not getting full performance out of her core musculature to slow down the club, she is using ROM to complete the deceleration job.  What she is missing is a small amount of ROM between her pelvis and hips (this is not an anterior posterior tilt problem).  The effect of this loss of ROM could be seen if Yani was wearing some 4 inch heels.  She would be bent over between her pelvis and her hips and swaying her back to compensate. Most golfers are missing this motion, but it is rarely apparent because they do not move as well as Yani.

IMPACT AND RECOMMENDATIONS:  She would need at most 2 hours of manual Physical Therapy Treatment to address minimal ROM issues at her knee and pelvis, followed by 3 30 minute Pilates reformer training sessions per week for about 2 to 4 weeks to address the pelvis over hip ROM problem.  She would need to continue this training for a very long time as this problem has been there a long time. The affect of the pelvis over hip problem is decreased lower core contraction ability.  Now it is incredibly apparent that this young lady has  very strong core and pelvic musculature, but this pelvis positioning will neurologically inhibit the lower core from working to its maximum potential.   After completing the recommended therapy, she will have one of two things happen:  Either she will not launch herself at impact, or she will continue to slightly launch herself, and gain more yardage on her drive.   You can have MORE!

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/blogs/theinstructionblog/2011/06/monday-swing-analysis-yanis-at.html

Body4Golf Swing Analysis of Webb Simpson

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/blogs/theinstructionblog/2011/08/monday-swing-analysis-webbs-gr.html

Body4Golf Swing Analysis:  Webb Simpson

Overall I really like his swing.

Address: He has great posture in his address with equal weight bearing between his feet.   I love his nice straight back.

Backswing:   He has great tempo between his trunk and arms as me moves into his backswing, except right when his left arm is parallel to the ground.  At this point his trunk stops moving and his arms continue for about 4 inches, fracturing his arms from his trunk.  He finishes his backswing with the same great tempo.  This tells me he has a few ribs between 6 and 10 not moving properly.  This might be why he is feeling very comfortable with that long putter.  To putt with a short putter, these ribs need to move properly.

Downswing:  At the beginning of the downswing it looks like the weight bearing between the right and left leg is about 85% and 15%.  I don’t like to see such a large difference.  For about 2/3 of his downswing his pelvis does not stay level and is moving in 3 different planes.  This tells me there is some instability in this area (the reason to be revealed later).  During the final 1/3 of his downswing, his weight bearing is beautifully balanced and for the full downswing his tempo between trunk and arms is quite amazing.

Impact:  At impact he gets a double jolt; one jolt between his right hip and pelvis, and the second between his sacrum and lumbar vertebrae.  These jolts occur because movement in one direction is suddenly stopped and the force from the velocity of the club needs to be absorbed somehow.  Think of the jolt as a slight backwards motion or stopping before changing direction toward a direction there is still range of motion to move.  In other words, the pelvis motion at this point is not stable.  At impact he is slightly rolling to the outside of his left foot.  This tells me he does not have enough range of motion in his left ankle to keep it flat on the ground at this point, creating a loss of stability in his ankle and therefore his pelvis.  At this point it is obvious that the left hip bone is rotated posteriorly and the Left Tensor Fascia Lata and Gluteus Medius are tight(IT band as well).  This is a minor misalignment of the pelvis and easy to fix.  The real problem causing the pelvis instability and far from optimal movement is the loss of left ankle and or foot motion.  Overall the ankle is affecting the hip as well as the left latissimus dorsi which is affecting the ribs.

Follow  Through:  Just after impact he begins a beautiful level finish of his pelvis and a picture perfect  follow through including trunk musculature slowing down the club.  He has fantastic range of motion for his follow through.

Overall:  He exhibits loss of ankle and ribs 6-10 ROM as well as a minor misalignment of the pelvis and tight Left lateral leg musculature.    The effect of this is instability in his hip/pelvis/low back complex at impact and just before and after impact.  This instability affects the functional strength of his core.  It is obvious he has fantastic strength in his core due to how this group of muscles is working for the follow through and downswing phases of his golf swing.  The strength of the core is completely dependent on the stability of the hip/pelvis/low back area and vice versa.   Because he loses stability in his pelvis at impact, his musculature is neurologically inhibited and cannot function to its optimum ability.

Recommendations:  He would need two hours of manual Physical Therapy at my clinic with a home exercise program consisting of about 4 to 5 exercises.  Optimally, I would want to see him for 2 more hours to train the core and hip/pelvis/low back area to work properly together again once motion is regained.

 

Body4Golf: Is it different from TPI?

I am constantly being asked if what I do is similar to TPI.  My overall basic answer to this question is that I am incredibly precise.  I know exactly which areas are not working properly and will prescribe very specific exercises to improve these areas.
I have been fortunate enough to learn about the golf swing backwards.  I have worked on over 105 professional golfers throughout the years.  When I originally began working with golfers I had never watched or played golf.  What I brought to the table, was 30 years of working with athletes, and 10 years of classes with some of the best Osteopathic Doctors in the world.  When I worked in the system(at a hospital), not one athlete missed an event unless there was something broken or torn.  All athletes with surgical repairs returned to their sport 2 to 3 months earlier than the general doctor protocol, and with more strength and stability than pre-injury. I also had a 95 percent return to work with no limitations for all workman’s comp clients.  How I accomplished this was by making sure every body part worked to it’s fullest potential and then trained stability into important areas.
As I learned a fundamental understanding of the golf swing, I started to question golf professionals on training and body concepts.  I began to notice trends with recurring injuries.  This is when I began researching what was being taught about the body in the golfing community.  Body principles are fact.  What you do with that information to improve your swing is up to you.  I have been able to consistently prove body principles and how they effect the golf swing.  I also can prove why many training methods are relatively useless for golf.
I know exactly what I want to do with a golfers body and how to accomplish my goal.  This year I was privileged enough to work with a futures tour player.  I changed her entire weight training program and overall fitness training program.  Six weeks later she drove the ball 285 yards, and there is more to improve .   If a 5 foot 5, 128 pound gal can drive the ball 285 yards, think what you are capable of.
My motto “is you can have more.”  I have observed that many golfers are golfing with about 5 to 7 out of 14 gears.  As long as this is the norm, there is no reason to be any better or search for a potentially better way to do something.  Do you want more?

Use Caution when Transitioning from Arms to Core

I had a client with slightly kyphotic posture. (A little rounded forward through the shoulders and upper back).  This client, a recreational golfer, was plagued with shoulder and elbow problems.  His new golf instructor, appropriately so, was instructing him how to swing with his core.  Two weeks later he is in my office with severe back pain and can hardly move.  I work on him and ask him to see his Dr. about getting an MRI, letting him know that he has either fractured something or damaged a disc.  The results of the MRI were three bulging thoracic vertebral discs. This client did not have enough trunk ROM or effective trunk strength to golf with his core.
It is very important to prepare properly for any athletic endeavor. You must walk before you can run, and crawl before you can walk. When golfing crawling would be making sure you are flexible enough to swing. Walking would be ensuring all musculature is coordinating and working properly together. Running would be swinging the club using all the musculature in a manner that creates the most speed, the most power, the most stability, and therefore no chance of injury.
To test your golf specific trunk flexibility purchase my book Body 4 Golf: Getting Into the Swing available at  http://www.amazon.com/Body-Golf-Getting-Into-Swing/dp/0983057516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299629041&sr=8-1.

Watch this video to determine your optimum core contraction range.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVX36QHTxP8

Stay tuned for more information about the body and golf.

 

Swinging the Club Primarily with Your Arms Leads to Injuries

Injuries, that is more than one, occur when swinging primarily with your arms.  Every golfer I have worked on, mostly recreational, that primarily swing the club with their arms has chronic wrist, elbow, and shoulder problems. This complex group of muscles was not designed to do all the work when swinging a club.
If you are trying to optimize your body’s role in the golf swing, you will want to swing the club with your core. The core GENERATES the golf swing and drives the club from backswing to impact and should decelerate the club until the end of your follow through.  The core teams up with the hips/pelvis/low back to provide the power for your swing. There are more square inches of muscle in the core and pelvis combined than the arms.  Also some of the pelvic muscles are quite large. Taking this information into consideration, wouldn’t you want to use the larger quantity of musculature to do the job?

ESPN Golf Talk Radio Show Podcast

This show was much fun.  I was able to share information from my book and how to use this information to maximize your bodies potential on the golf course.
Enjoy!
http://golftalkradiomikeandbilly.libsyn.com/webpage

ESPN Golf Talk Radio this Saturday

Body 4 Golf will be on Golf Talk Radio this Saturday 9:05 pacific time:
LISTEN TO GTR WITH MIKE & BILLY LIVE EVERY SATURDAY
FROM 8:05AM TO 10:00AM PST TIME ON THE DIAL AT ESPN
1280AM IN SLO COUNTY OR ESPN 1230AM IN BAKERSFIELD.
LISTEN ONLINE AT WWW.ESPNRADIO1280.COM. E-MAIL THE
SHOW AT INFO@GOLFTALKRADIO.COM.