Posture2

"Take your stance and set up with a good posture."
We often hear this when we take a golf lesson.
"But...What is good posture?"

Good posture begins with the knowledge of the spine and the four natural curves of the spine. When the four curves of the spine are in alignment, the shoulders and the hips are in alignment. If the four curves are out of alignment, the shoulders and/or hips are out of alignment. Imagine a straight line from the center of the ear hole down through the center of the shoulder and hip joints, behind the knee joint, and through the center of the ankle joint. This is neutral joint alignment and the way the body was designed to carry itself.

Imagine the shoulders like a rectangular box and the hips like a square box. These boxes will be level if the spine is in alignment. If the spine is out of alignment, these boxes will be tilted.

Because of lifestyle and lack of knowledge, most of our spines are out of alignment, causing the head and shoulders to tilt forward. This forward tilt of the head and shoulders will cause the hips to tilt backwards. When these primary body components are not in alignment, they move as separate components creating instability,

excess movement, and usually pain. “It’s like the tail wagging the dog, instead of the dog wagging the tail.”

We hear more and more about the need for flexibility to play better golf. We do need flexibility or normal range of motion to play golf effectively, but lack of flexibility is more of a strength issue than a flexibility issue. There are muscle groups that flex the body and muscle groups that extend the body. Some of these muscle groups may overdevelop while others underdevelop, forcing the underdeveloped
muscles to be in a protective mode and resist normal range of motion.

A good example would be someone stating that they have tight hamstrings. The hamstrings are usually not tight, the quadriceps are just much stronger. The hamstrings are simply protecting themselves from extending to a normal range of motion. Why is this? Most of our lower body movement when walking, jogging, training or sporting activities is usually performed in the balls of the feet, activating the calf and quadriceps muscles. These muscle groups get stronger while the opposing groups, the gluts, hamstrings and shin muscles become weaker.

So, what can we do to correct our alignment? Get a physical golf assessment!!!

• You need to know your muscle strengths and muscle weaknesses.
• What muscle groups are over developed and what muscle groups are under developed?
• What muscle groups have shortened and what muscle groups have lengthened?
• What skeletal joints are out of alignment?

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