The Top 6 Physical Attributes Of Elite Golfers

[mvmac]

While I agree a lot of this stuff happens in a good golf swing, don't buy into the thinking that you need to be an "elite" athlete in order to perform these movements to make a good golf swing. I wouldn't call guys that played in the 50's and 60's elite athletes but they all made full turns and rotated their body's on a steep enough angle.

The article does bust the myth of "restricting" your lower body in the golf swing. Basically the whole thing is how important the lower body is to making a functional golf swing. They also mention that anterior tilt (S posture) makes it harder to turn.

http://www.mytpi.com/articles/fitness/the_top_6_physical_attributes_of_elite_golfers

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Tour players have been shown to have hip internal rotation of at least 45 degrees on both sides, not having adequate hip internal rotation will limit your ability to rotate in the golf swing, possibly resulting in sway or slide during the swing.

Unfortunately, these ranges of motion are usually the first to go in the dysfunctional lumbopelvic (hip/lower back) postures we often see with younger athletes or desk jockeys. As the pelvis dumps forward into anterior tilt, it blocks off internal rotation – and the athlete will extend and rotate through the lower back instead of the hip.

This leads to not only limited hip function, but also an increased risk of injury. The athlete may develop a number of hip issues (bony overgrowth on the head of the femur or the hip socket, a torn labrum, sports hernia, etc). There may also be extension-based lower back pain, including stress fractures and disc injuries.

 

Quote

If you take a look at the swings of the best golfers in the world you will see that whilst the pelvis usually starts in a neutral, it moves into a small amount of anterior tilt in the backswing and posterior tilt in the downswing.

Note how Rory’s belt line moves slightly to point dow towards the floor more as he swings back, then moves quite a bit during his downswing to a much more horizontal position at impact.

[iacas]

I concur.  

[cmherrbach]

Excellent information there. Thank you for sharing!

[freshmanUTA]

No wonder we see a lot of professional hockey players with good golf swings. These are all important in a hockey shot!

[RandallT]

On 11/2/2015 at 2:26 PM, mvmac said:

As the pelvis dumps forward into anterior tilt, it blocks off internal rotation – and the athlete will extend and rotate through the lower back instead of the hip.

I recall reading this thread on posture...:

 

...and fixing my spine curvature at address. I think I've gotten to a decent posture at address, and in my "My Swing" thread, I believe you mentioned that address looked good (but downhill from there! lol). Anyway, this pic was helpful to me then.  

I still get lower back issues when I play a fair amount (rare for me!), and it just now crosses my mind now during the winter when I can't really get out and practice much that during the swing, I am shifting from posterior at address to anterior tilt in my finish. I think I get confused by my goal to extend to a finish with my belt buckle pointing to the sky, so my subconscious tries to arch my back (which then adds some anterior tilt)- which doesn't help at all. When I go to a static finish position now in my foyer, I can adjust my hips to try both ways, and I feel like my finish position has been more "anterior" than "posterior" above.  

In fact, the anterior tilt also seems to be my "default" position when I'm relaxed doing routine daily things, which I think is not good. It's my lazy position when I allow my posture to go to its natural state. I definitely need to engage my core to keep the posterior tilt, so it's a conscious effort. I think I make the conscious effort at address when golfing, but my natural tendencies take over on the downswing, and I lose the posterior tilt.

Anyway, this is not intended to discuss my own personal issues, but do you ever see people who start out with a good hip tilt at address when they are conscious of it, but lose that tilt dynamically during their swing? Or is that too hard to analyze?

[GinetteQuiroz]

Good one. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[boogielicious]

2 hours ago, GinetteQuiroz said:

Good one. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Welcome to the site! Please pick an avatar when you have a chance.

[GolfLug]

On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 9:04 AM, RandallT said:

I recall reading this thread on posture...:

 

...and fixing my spine curvature at address. I think I've gotten to a decent posture at address, and in my "My Swing" thread, I believe you mentioned that address looked good (but downhill from there! lol). Anyway, this pic was helpful to me then.  

I still get lower back issues when I play a fair amount (rare for me!), and it just now crosses my mind now during the winter when I can't really get out and practice much that during the swing, I am shifting from posterior at address to anterior tilt in my finish. I think I get confused by my goal to extend to a finish with my belt buckle pointing to the sky, so my subconscious tries to arch my back (which then adds some anterior tilt)- which doesn't help at all. When I go to a static finish position now in my foyer, I can adjust my hips to try both ways, and I feel like my finish position has been more "anterior" than "posterior" above.  

In fact, the anterior tilt also seems to be my "default" position when I'm relaxed doing routine daily things, which I think is not good. It's my lazy position when I allow my posture to go to its natural state. I definitely need to engage my core to keep the posterior tilt, so it's a conscious effort. I think I make the conscious effort at address when golfing, but my natural tendencies take over on the downswing, and I lose the posterior tilt.

Anyway, this is not intended to discuss my own personal issues, but do you ever see people who start out with a good hip tilt at address when they are conscious of it, but lose that tilt dynamically during their swing? Or is that too hard to analyze?

Yes, when you are fresh and the strong you let your entire torso tilt (posterior tilt) using your lower back (lumbar area muscles). All is well when you are doing this adequately. But slowly as you get tired (it is not just the subconscious) you let just let your upper back decouple from lower back (anterior tilt - kinking the mid back, slumping or allowing the spine to round out - they all mean the same thing, it is the lazy/tired way of creating the spine tilt for the swing). This creates two separate effective axes of rotation for the upper and lower spine. You effectively start using just the upper spine as your rotational component for the swing (the lower spine is decoupled and less active since is not aligned with upper spine anymore). Result is either you do fake turns (no shoulder turn) or if you mindfully try to turn properly you overuse your upper back and neck muscles (smaller muscles), lock out your lower back to hips (which grinds the lower back spine against the hip at joints). Effectively you eff up both ends. Top end because of overuse, bottom end (hip joint) because the lower spine will keep grinding and fighting the lock.

Solution - Squats with or without weights are king. Also, do a lot of stretching, twisting with a bit of weight with a proper posterior tilt position. Helps both swing and back health. Box jumps (I love these) Downward dogs and cobras are great too.      

[Mike Boatright]

Today's attributes are height flexible and powerful. I think the older guys were better in some aspects because they played with very hard to hit equipment and sometimes smashed it. This guy once hit it 500 yards in Las Vegas tourney His name was Mike Austin. Overall today With some power training and good athletic ability today's golf is way easier then yester years. 

 

http://hardhittinggolfer.com/mike-austin-swing/515-yard-drive/

Edited March 7, 2016 by Mike Boatright