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Being a "larger" golfer, Should I do anything differently?


mmoan2
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Aside from having less flexibility and stamina, is there anything I should be doing differently with my swing because of my body type (aside from exercising more)? I'm about 6'2 and 280 lbs, trying to get down to my normal adult weight of 200 (I was at 340, so I'm getting there), but it's been tougher than I've expected. I watched a video of Craig Stadler right now, and I noticed that his club barely goes past being perpendicular from the ground on the backswing, even with driver. I don't think he's physically capable of going parallel, yet I get my club near parallel and I'm pretty big myself. I have a feeling I'm sacrificing solid mechanics to overextend myself, though, because his swing looks pretty much like his more svelte compadres, just a lot shorter.

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I would say concentrate on tempo and weight shift, no offence but that's lots of weight to shift and I knew a big guy who could hit it miles, and I presumeded it was down to his tempo, lag and weight shift! Mind you, I suppose that's the same for anyone!

Gaz Lee

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I hear you. I am pre-diabetic and come from a long line of type II diabetics. It's important to try to loose weight more from a health perspective than a golf perspective. I'm 5-6 and 205ish. I maintain a good cardiovascular health despite my size, but still struggle to drop the pounds. Having a wife that is a great cook, especially when it comes to sweets, certainly does not help.

From a health perspective, I would recommend good cardiovascular health from cardio exercise first off. As for golf, I would focus exercise on leg and core strength along with flexibility (shoulders, neck, hip flexors, legs, etc.) Walking a round of golf can be great exercise. I would do that as much as possible.

Good luck. Interested in hearing others thoughts on this as well.

- Shane

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Go see a golf pro who is large in my opinion. I am 6  6  300  and I should be 240 which is what I played at in College. I ws 195 in High School so Ive put on 100 lbs in 20 years.  I never go parallel with my swing and I tire out around 13th hole every round.  My 1st 9 is always better than my back 9 and I am going to see a nutritionist soon.  Good luck!

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Tempo, tempo, tempo! well, for me at least. I am 6'0" and 240. Far from a swimmers body, but I carry it rather well I guess. I am 37 years old. It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to realize that I'll not have the limber and lenghty follow-through of Rory, Wie, or any number of other young guns out there. I am an 8 currently and i strike the ball rather far and consistent. Really focusing on the Ball Flight Laws, consistent tempo throughout my bag, and a concerted effort to hit THROUGH the ball keeps me in the wallets of many long and lean "Adam Scotts" at my local courses. One of the teaching pros at the course I work at part time was trained/taught/certified through TPI and he seems to focus on instilling solid golf truths and skills built around the body that you present to him. In other words, the 48 year old that stands 5'8", weighs 230, and suffers from chronic knee problems PROBABLY should not be taught in the image of a 25 year old with 5% body fat. However, solid ball striking knows no build and a golf ball will respond pleasantly when struck well by whomever.
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Go see a golf pro who is large in my opinion. I am 6  6  300  and I should be 240 which is what I played at in College. I ws 195 in High School so Ive put on 100 lbs in 20 years.  I never go parallel with my swing and I tire out around 13th hole every round.  My 1st 9 is always better than my back 9 and I am going to see a nutritionist soon.  Good luck!

I guess there's hope if you are a .8 handicap! I hear you about the back 9 syndrome. I've blown several rounds by the 16th hole because of my stamina. My swing tends to break down by then, especially since my mechanics are suspect anyway.

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Aside from having less flexibility and stamina, is there anything I should be doing differently with my swing because of my body type (aside from exercising more)? I'm about 6'2 and 280 lbs, trying to get down to my normal adult weight of 200 (I was at 340, so I'm getting there), but it's been tougher than I've expected. I watched a video of Craig Stadler right now, and I noticed that his club barely goes past being perpendicular from the ground on the backswing, even with driver. I don't think he's physically capable of going parallel, yet I get my club near parallel and I'm pretty big myself. I have a feeling I'm sacrificing solid mechanics to overextend myself, though, because his swing looks pretty much like his more svelte compadres, just a lot shorter.

John Daly goes way beyond parallel.

As far as getting down to 200 is concerned, you need to burn calories in the early morning. Get a slight sweat going and you should be able to feel the metabolism "starting" up.

The actual burn from the exercise is pretty minimal, like a couple hundred calories, but the fact that the metabolism is raised burns more calories throughout the entire day.

I would add a power walk before lunch for 20 minutes to reduce the appetite and continue the metabolism burn throughout the day.

My schedule has been golf swings with the fan like club early in the morning. Walk to lunch for about 20 minutes every day. I am able to lose a moderate amount of weight. Got from about 220 down to 195, and still working to get down to 185 again. I am about 4" shorter than you with a medium build, so my goal is 20 pounds less.

If you do weighted swings you might gain some flexibility, but don't overdo anything no matter how good you feel while working out. Yoga also helps with flexibility.

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I guess there's hope if you are a .8 handicap! I hear you about the back 9 syndrome. I've blown several rounds by the 16th hole because of my stamina. My swing tends to break down by then, especially since my mechanics are suspect anyway.

I don't know how to change it.  As of now my Ghin is 4.5   It has gone between 0-8 for the last 18 months.  I shot 83-73-37 today so it just depends.  I haven't played so much in a long time and I drink maybe 1-20 times on the course.  I played with college buddy and drank a tonnnnnnn today and was so tired but having a blast.  Won 1240  so it was all worth it.   I am in poker tourney tmrw but have meeting with trainer this weekend. Time to get to work

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I don't know how to change it.  As of now my Ghin is 4.5   It has gone between 0-8 for the last 18 months.  I shot 83-73-37 today so it just depends.  I haven't played so much in a long time and I drink maybe 1-20 times on the course.  I played with college buddy and drank a tonnnnnnn today and was so tired but having a blast.  Won 1240  so it was all worth it.   I am in poker tourney tmrw but have meeting with trainer this weekend. Time to get to work

Is your real name John Daly? You won $1240 and had about 10 drinks while shooting a 73? I would't imagine you'd want to change it. I'm a relative newbie and gave up drinking about 10 years ago, so I lead a different kind of life. I'm trying to improve to become more competitive, as I miss that being in my life. Anyway, good luck in the tourney. Thanks for sharing.

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Aside from having less flexibility and stamina, is there anything I should be doing differently with my swing because of my body type (aside from exercising more)? I'm about 6'2 and 280 lbs, trying to get down to my normal adult weight of 200 (I was at 340, so I'm getting there), but it's been tougher than I've expected. I watched a video of Craig Stadler right now, and I noticed that his club barely goes past being perpendicular from the ground on the backswing, even with driver. I don't think he's physically capable of going parallel, yet I get my club near parallel and I'm pretty big myself. I have a feeling I'm sacrificing solid mechanics to overextend myself, though, because his swing looks pretty much like his more svelte compadres, just a lot shorter.

Same for any golfer, find the priority piece and make that better. You can achieve functional positions even if you're bigger than average, like these guys below. I typically don't see many flexibility issues, it's more of a knowledge/implementation issue. Mario (MAB) makes a big turn with a steady head and I can guarantee you he isn't doing any flexibility work. Having said that I do think it's harder for bigger guys to externally rotate their rear arm/elbow or keep it rotated. So the elbow will tend to get more "punchy" but that is concerning more intricate pieces and more due to having enough room to work with rather than flexibility IMO

Mike McLoughlin

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Is your real name John Daly? You won $1240 and had about 10 drinks while shooting a 73? I would't imagine you'd want to change it. I'm a relative newbie and gave up drinking about 10 years ago, so I lead a different kind of life. I'm trying to improve to become more competitive, as I miss that being in my life. Anyway, good luck in the tourney. Thanks for sharing.

Not john daly lol he could shoot 63& I hardly ever drink while playing. It was a weird day to say the least . I drink maybe once out of every 30 rounds on course

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Aside from having less flexibility and stamina, is there anything I should be doing differently with my swing because of my body type (aside from exercising more)? I'm about 6'2 and 280 lbs, trying to get down to my normal adult weight of 200 (I was at 340, so I'm getting there), but it's been tougher than I've expected. I watched a video of Craig Stadler right now, and I noticed that his club barely goes past being perpendicular from the ground on the backswing, even with driver. I don't think he's physically capable of going parallel, yet I get my club near parallel and I'm pretty big myself. I have a feeling I'm sacrificing solid mechanics to overextend myself, though, because his swing looks pretty much like his more svelte compadres, just a lot shorter.

I'm 50 years old and the same height you are, and I weigh 310. I do a lot of cardio work in the gym and a lot of walking on the course (many 9-hole rounds and occasionally a full 18 despite a badly damaged left leg) and I don't really experience any stamina problems. My weight issue is due to a gargantuan appetite that I somehow have to get under control.

I haven't seen my swing on video since I returned to the game 2 years ago following a 10-year-layoff, and I don't particularly want to. However, I think it most closely resembles the guy in the bottom video -- pretty short and very slow going back and then a full rotation on the follow-through. One of the swing keys that's actually been working for me is making sure my considerable gut goes down and through the ball and that I end up pointing my belly button toward the target.

My tee shots under normal conditions max out about 265, but I hit a lot of them in that vicinity and hit a lot of fairways (relatively speaking). Any attempts to gain distance by getting closer to parallel on the backswing mess my tempo up royally.

What I'm doing at the moment seems to be working pretty well for me. I often wonder about what would happen to my swing if (when!) I lose a bunch of weight. Regardless of the golf ramifications, I need to do it for my future health.

John

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Find yourself a physical therapist who works regularly with golfers. Such a person can take a look at your swing motion, and see if you have any physical problems which hinder your swing.

Losing weight is a good start, because your hand position, arm hand and torso rotation will be different at 200 lbs. than at 280 lbs.

Good luck!

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This thread makes me think of something I've often wondered about: Has anybody ever heard of a "Clydesdale" tournament for golfers? Footraces (5Ks, 10Ks, etc.) sometimes have such a division for competitors over a certain weight, and I don't personally know anybody heavier than me who's better than me.

I'd like to see the weight minimum for such a tournament set at 280. That would be to eliminate our 2012 club champion, who's probably as fat as I am but much, much shorter and thus not nearly as heavy. The guy's a legitimate 3-capper with a strong penchant for hitting his absolute best shots when they matter the most. If the criteria for the event were based purely on Body Mass Index or percentage of body fat or anything like that and handicaps were thrown out, he'd mop the floor with me.

John

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I'm a bigger guy 5'10" 235 and I actually play a better back 9 than front. I don't have fatigue issues. My teacher had me focus on tempo and not swinging out my shoes. Since then I have been able to stay consistent as far as distance although I did lose distance across the board because my back swing is shorter now. But the good news is I have a repetitive swing and consistent ball flight. I have been working on losing weight and am down from 270 but I'm a long way from my 185 high school days.
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