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Hi. I’m Michael, and I’m Tom, and welcome to Pilates for golfers. So first thing you need to know when you’re talking and working with golfers, that there is really no such thing as the perfect swing as it all depends on their abilities, and we’re gonna talk about that more as we go along. So what is completely linked is if you want to improve your swing, you’re going to have to improve your body. So the better your body moves, the better your swing will be. So, therefore, everything in Pilates, where we do traditional Pilates exercises will help the golfer.
You don’t really have to do anything specific. However, you can become more specific and help them out in specific areas with some specific exercises. And those are the ones we’re going to cover today. So traditional Pilates will do the trick. Specific exercises is just gonna bring it up a nudge.
So the first thing we’re gonna talk about is this setup position. And in order for do a good setup position, you wanna to the front, is that it needs to be in full balance. And that’s the hardest part for the client to for the golfer to be. Let’s go sideways. So when they move from the standing position into their setup position, so you’re gonna bend the knee slightly, and they’re gonna hinge in the hips over.
It needs to be really specific. And a lot of times, they the golfer and even some instructors see this as a very static position as you stand here to prepare. But we all know that there’s no such thing is a static position. The weight and the center of gravity, the body mechanics, it always moves And depending on where they stand, they’re going to have to constantly redefining their balance. So when we go over the setup position.
There are really three things that are important. Can they keep their spine elongated when they go into that position? The forward hinging part of the body and can they divide their weight evenly over their feet when they get into that position? So those are the three sections we’re going to focus on during our setup, and that’s where we’re going to start. So we are going to start with the elongation of the spine.
So like we said, the elongation is not passive, It is active. And when we look at the spine, we look at it from two poles. We have the head pole, and we have the pelvis pole. And they need to be moving all slightly away from each other, and they created rotation, the head going forward, and the pelvis going slightly back. And that creates then that length and that pretension in that body, and that needs to be constant. So they constantly throughout the whole swing need to be working on that elongation of the spine.
So it can be kind of tricky to visualize that. So the easiest way to get your client to understand the whole principle is if cones the pelvis. I’m the head up here, and this is the spine. Now they rotate away from each other, which is that elongation, which creates that pretension in the spine, which, if I was in my golf swing, there’s that pretension, the minute you let go. Like, stay. He sticks out.
You’ve lost that pretension. So you’re not set up for movement, and that’s when injuries can happen. So you need to pull, and it’s the same with the rotation in a golf swing. If I let the head go back, look what happens. There’s no pretension in the spine.
The minute the two poles are rotating away from each other, as I rotate, you’ve got the pretension in the spine. So it’s the easiest way with just two little small balls. I’m using spiky balls, but you could use tennis balls in a fair band. You can teach your client the concept that we’re after with the elongation of the spine. Right.
So here comes the big reveal who is going to be the golfer. And there she is. Amy. You’re the golfer of the months. Thank you for being here.
So we’re going to do very simple sercises because we feel the simple, more direct. They can take it with them. They can practice it at home. It’s all very doable. So we’re gonna start in a quadrupet position.
That’s I do not care. You like this one better? So we want to make sure that her hips are over her knees. Her shoulders are right over her wrists. And now we’re gonna play with that elongation that Michael just told, showed you with the Therabant in the balls.
So we had the pole and we had the pole, and they kind of like move away from each other. Now to what we often do is let the head come up and let the body sink. So they feel this is bad, Now lengthened by those 2 moving them away from each other. Hold that for a sec for a second. And then slowly let that sink away from you, give in on it. And I’ll find it again, press, and keep it elongation. Yes.
Now watch out that they don’t do it in the rips that they, when they release, it just not becomes a drop. And then when they connect, it becomes a lift. We really want that length happening from those 2 spiky balls, lengthening that spine in between. So once they have found that we can start moving that with what we call the rocking. There we go. So for the rocking, she’s gonna keep that beautiful long spine, but what I’m gonna now add to it is connecting the shoulders and the hips with movements. So she’s gonna think of an outward rotation in the humeral head there.
And all she’s gonna do is rock back, keeping the spine all long, and forward. So it’s just a rocking motion trying to keep this in that elongation. And adding the movement and adding the connection of the shoulders and the hips. Then we can take this and make it even more active, she can go forward and circle around still keeping this elongation and then we can switch the circles. Jeez. Zueroa rock in the way, and you come back center.
And she just sits back and roll it up, and we’re going over to the reformer. So the next one to challenge that even more, we’re going to use the reformer. So for this reformer, we have put it on to 1 spring, As we know, every reformer is slightly different, so adjust accordingly. And we’re going to be facing the back, and you’re gonna be on your knees. With the knees firmly against the shoulder boxes. Again, we’re in the in the quadruped position.
So, again, we wanna make sure the knee knees and hips are lined up and the shoulders and the wrists are lined up. From here, we create that elongation that we just found, Now we’re going to make sure it stays that way, and she’s just going to pull with the knees forward. And then she’s very slowly going to release it. So we want that release to be slow, So that we really work that eccentric control as we go. Now one of the biggest thing.
There are two things that you’ll see a lot when people do this. They start to pull in round the spine, so they’re gonna curl it in. So that would obviously lose the elongation that we don’t want, or then don’t wanna use their hip flexors and the abdominals and they start to move the carriage out by using their arms. So we wanna be very, very specific here of, like, maintain that elongation, and just the legs come in, and it doesn’t matter how far they go. It just mattered a quality of movement. So we have that hinge in the hip, We have a small pool, and then she relaxes.
And once she gets that, we are good to go. So those are some options of working with that challenging, that elongation of the spine that we need for our setup. So moving on to our forward hinge of the upper body. So when we look at that, we’re looking at the alignment of the head, the pelvis, and the chest moving in the right way. We’re looking at being able to stabilize the trunk when we’re doing that.
And of course, we need to move the initiation of the movement start from the hip joint and not in the spine. So that’s gonna be the tricky part because most people wanna do it in their spine. But you really want to hinge forward from that hip joint and not from the spine. Doing it correctly allows you that big rotate and doing it safely. If you start to rotate when you hinge forward from the spine, meaning he will round slightly, or he will arch slightly.
Now if he starts rotating, he puts his lumbar spar in a very ding risk position. So we wanna make sure that that does not happen. So the setup position is going to prevent us from a lot of choose down the road in our swing. So most people, they are not able to do that because of for hip mobility. They have a lack of strength in the trunk and are not able to isolate the trunk from their hips.
So it all moves in one piece or nothing at all. So there again, we’re going to do a couple of exercises that will help for the client to understand what we wanna do. And the first one is the tray table with Amy. Yeah. So come on.
You’re gonna stand up. And what you’re gonna do, yeah, on top. So you’re center stage. So she’s just gonna place her hand, her fingers right there. Thumbs will be there, and she’ll be here, and it’s the same image from here.
All you’re gonna do is just think of folding, sending the sits bones back, think of lifting the back of your brains, and here’s that elongation, and you come back out of it. So right now, I’m trying to get the golfer to feel that elongation in the setup position. Remember, the balls down here at the ground and bring it up. And that’s all it is. Is that tabled?
Tray table and relax. And then we turn around. We’re gonna turn it around. Are we gonna challenge that position in different ways. 1 of the easiest way is with our tower or Cadillac.
Now the higher the springs are going to be, the more strength or the more challenge it’s gonna be for most people. So you’re gonna have to find the right, spring setting in regards to heights and in regards to the springs. You could actually use the leg springs as well if that were for people. So play around with it and find the right one. We’re gonna step back a little bit, and the arms are straight.
So what she’s going to do is doing exactly what she just did with Michael, which is bending the knees and hinging from that ink from the pelvis, not from the ribs like she wants to, and then we come back up moving from the pelvis. And sit back in the hips. Yes. And allow the arms to move with you. So bring it in and hinge. Now If we wanna challenge this more, we’re going to stay in that hinge position. Keep the arms ready to relax a little bit.
There we go. And now nothing changes as she starts pulling those springs towards her and release. Now what you’ll see if something goes wrong, is as she starts to pull, these ribs will start to move down. So she will instead of bringing the spring towards her, she will go towards the spring. Right? So we wanna make sure that this is still and that the spring comes to her and not pool and go towards the spring. So that is very important for them to understand of, can I In this hinge position is forward hinge without changing and getting that strength in that core as we are going and then slowly stand back up? Does that make sense? Then she’s gonna stay standing right there, and we’re gonna do the Beyonce.
So all she’s gonna do is just stand We’re gonna have a 3 to £5 weight in one hand. Let’s do the downstage hand. So all she’s gonna do is from there, she’s just gonna keep it just A little bit this way. And from there, she’s just going to bend that. Uh-huh. This leg. Yes.
Because I was like, you’re Beyonce’s a little off. Because as she goes down here, and this hand is gonna be place back here to keep so she can press back up into it to keep that lumbar spine long. And from here, she just folds over keeping the weight even on this foot. So it means she wants to think of from underneath the ball or the big toe. Down to the outside of the calcaneus, the hillbound.
And there’s her fiance. I love it. And keep this leg straight if you can. Beyonce would not bend her leg. Give me a little more Beyonce attitude there. And you wanna keep the weight because right now what we’re doing is challenging the weight on that leg, and you can feel And especially when you’re doing it, like, oh, the weight, I’m not gonna kill you. Yeah.
The weight of the softness here It’s like the grass. It’s uneven. So you really wanna try and keep the weight. There you go. And we’ll relax, and we’re gonna head over. We’re gonna head over to our reformer.
And what Michael was talking about, it’s time to challenge that because as we know in the golf course, the service is not the same. It’s always different, and every course is going to be different. And whether you are in the rough or in the or in the, what do you call it, those sand pits? What do you call it? The bunkers. That’s what they call it.
I knew I had it somewhere in my head. So what we’re going to do is we’re gonna stand on top of the carriage facing you facing this way. And then, almost on the edge. Lift let’s live dangerously. Then you’re gonna bend your knees and reach for this.
Now I always help them because, obviously, the floor is going to move underneath her. So she’s gonna very slowly stand up and it’s going to move the carriage out. So now you’re going to do exactly what we did over there is you very slowly allow yourself to go into that hinge position, bending the knees, and control that. And then come back up. Right? So it just needs a lot of control of making sure that we stay in control over the spring.
If she’s in control of the spring, she’s in control of her body. So that’s how we know. Right? So the smoother she can make it, the more control she has. So we do that a couple of times to make sure that they sit in the hip watch out if you don’t do it, the app. There we go. So let’s do that one more time.
Because we always wanna end on a high note. Yeah. No ribs. No rips. No spare ribs for dinner. Then we’re gonna bend the knees and bring the carriage all the way back home so she can drop them and give them to me. I hold the machine still, and she can step off. And that’s our couple of ways to challenge that forward hinch.
Okay. Our next segment is being able to divide our weight evenly over our feet. So every golfer will have a slightly different stance. They, as far as width, but also in regards to which foot might be slightly in front, or which foot is slightly open. Generally, the right handed golfer will have his left foot slightly open. Not everyone, but generally.
So you want to make sure that you understand how they are playing the person that you’re working with so that you can re, use that as the stands rather than Pilates stands or parallel because that’s not the stands they’re going to be living in. So we want to recreate as much as we can what they’re going to do outside here inside. So when we’re looking at dividing the weight, when they stand in their setup position, we want to make sure if they do that same hinge Right. Right. No, facing that way first. So when he’s going into that setup position, I want to make sure that there is, weight on both feet equally and that they don’t start to lean into one leg or the other leg.
Now roughly there’s going to be a little bit more weight on one like than the other because of when they hold the, the club, One hand is gonna be lower, which makes them slightly tilt to that one side. But from our point of view, when we’re looking at the body, we want even weight right left. Now, not only right left. He has that elongation in the spine. I also wanna make sure from the ball of the foot to the heel, when they are on the heels, it’s going to affect their swing, and the ball, they’re not gonna be in control over the ball.
If they have too much weight on their toes, it will prevent them from being able to rotate correctly. So Both are going to be bad. One is going to create a bat swing. The other one is going to create a bat back. Neither of them are great.
So we want to make sure that the feet are even, right left, front and back as well. So we’re going to start with waking up the bottoms of those feet. Exciting. Especially because of golf shoes, they’re heavy in that. And most people, your proprio perception comes from your eyes and the bottoms of your feet.
So Amy’s gonna stand up. We’re gonna take the little spiky ball. I’m gonna place it right underneath her foot. And what she’s gonna do is just put the weight on this one and bend this knee softly. And she’s just gonna go over it lightly and then press more and more You can get aggressive.
I love your tattoo. You can go as fast or slow. And just sort of warm it up and wake it up. Then just like on the foot correct, if she’s gonna place her heel down, She’s gonna think of curling her toes over, almost as if she was grabbing them, and she’s gonna press down and release. So for it’s much more comfortable than a foot corrector.
And so you just squish it and down and squish and down. And to balance, you can also bend this knee more. It will help the balance. Or if they really need a lot of help, they can always hold on to a bar. If I’m your bar or your hand, then she’s gonna bring her arch across, and she’s just gonna press down just like the foot corrector, and you can bend this knee to It’s all about just waking up the propier perception of the feet. And after she’s done the arts, she comes forward and places the ball of the it down and then presses on the heel down, down, down, Then she just rolls all the way back over it.
Then she’s gonna place her arch right on it. She’s gonna press down And then she’s just gonna allow the foot. You can hold to roll off to the sides, the outside, just so that way, keeping it just so you’re here and just roll off, and then you can bring it back on top. And you’re gonna roll in so you stretch that foot. So and you can bend that knee more. So all you’re doing is just pushing down and then just letting it roll off.
Just to sort of get the ankle anytime. Yeah. And then we’re gonna stop she’s gonna place her heel down. And then she’s gonna do what we call the windshield wiper. So the heel’s gonna stay, and she’s just gonna go from side to side.
Just as if it were a windshield wiper, wiping and relax. And she should feel a bit of a difference in that foot. And because I like Amy, I’m gonna do the other side as well. So I’m gonna go over to this side so they can change view so they can see it from the side too. So she’s just starting off in the beginning just lightly, just like a feather. It’s just she’s And I’m gonna turn a little bit more to the side so they can see it from both ways. So it’s just slightly, and then she slowly starts to press it more. Let me get aggressive and squishing.
Yes. And it’s just to wake up the bonds of the feet. Then what she’s gonna do is place your heel just like on the foot corrector. But only you’ve got the option here because this is round. She can work on the front. Dome of the foot. So she just rounds over and release and press it in. And like I said, I don’t care if those legs are straight.
We’re just trying to wake up the feet. So she just presses there. Then she brings the ball right underneath the arch of her foot. And from here, she’s just gonna press down. And release. So it’s pressing down and release, pressing down and release. Then from here, she’s gonna onto the ball of her foot, making sure the weight like what tone talked about is still in the big toe as well.
And then she’s gonna press down in the heel. And press it down and up, press it down, and up, down. She leaves it down. She rolls all the way back over and in, then she’s gonna place the arch of her foot on top. She’s gonna press it down and you’re just gonna roll off the ball to the side, bringing it back on, and roll in. So it’s just stretching the foot.
Last time, Josh, getting her ankle and everything warmed up. Then from here, she’s gonna bring the heel down curl those toes over, and it’s like what we call the windshield wiper. So she’s just gonna go side. Swish. Swish.
Just like your windshield even makes the same noise, that squeaky noise. There we go. And relax. And you just how do your feet awake? Yes. They are. Good. Then we’re gonna head over. To the reformer, and we are going to challenge our weight distribution.
So, depending on your reformer, this might be a very small frame, and some have that platform that you can put in, but we are just going to use the frame as it is. Since her foot is going to be right on it, we often just move this bar in so that she has full access to it and it doesn’t bother her. It might be possible in your reformer. It might not. But find a way to have as much stability on the frame side as possible. We’re going to be again on 1 spring, check your springs, and she’s going to be standing this way.
Sounds like a good plan to me. Right. Now she’s a right handed player. So that means that the left foot most likely is going to be slightly out. So this is when it matters, right? So whatever they do on the course, that’s the one we want to recreate here. So if their stance is slightly more parallel, or even if one leg is slightly in front of the other, we’re just gonna allow them to do that for right now. We’re going to bend our knees, and we’re gonna be in that set position.
So we have that slight hinge. What we’re going to do is, and by we, I mean you, you are going to straighten the leg on the frame, moving all the weight onto this foot. Then we’re gonna bring the carriage in pending this knee and getting the weight back over both feet. So we’re gonna make sure this is divided and make sure that this is correct, and then we come back in. So what we’re looking for is that this leg is underneath her and that she’s sitting in that hip, the tendency is, can you push it out more, is that they start pushing with this leg and be out, right? We want the weight on that foot and then bring it in. So let’s go to the other side.
I’ll hold it now. In a normal situation, we would reverse it. So her left foot was turned out, which was when we faced me the leg that was on the frame. But since we are now doing golf specific, I’m going to keep that same leg turned out. So that would be now on the carriage.
Right? So we’re not flipping it over exactly because we wanna make it as specific as possible. So from here, she’s going to go over again, making sure she’s on that leg, and then we are coming back in. So when you go over, sit more into this hip, there you go, dare to sit into it and bring it home. Now, I can also look once I’m happy with her and and trust her that she is not gonna fall. I can make sure that she’s also staying ball heel in balance and that she’s not leaning on her heels or leaning on her toes. That we talked about earlier that is going to really mess up her swing or her body or potentially both.
So then we come back in, and we hold it again so that she can gracefully step off. And those are some ways to get them planted on their feet equally. Okay. Moving on to the actual swing. Exciting. So Every swing, as we talked about earlier, is going to be different because it’s going to depend on the anatomy of the player. So no matter what they look like, the movement sequence is basically the same.
So it starts at the feet. It goes up their legs, goes into the pelvis, to the trunk, to the shoulders, to the arms, and to the wrist, and to the club, and hopefully the ball. So it is a sequence of movement that goes through the body, and that sequence always is the same, but how it’s gonna look is going to be slightly different based on their ability and based on their anatomy. So there’s certain things we’re gonna look at. We looked at already at the division of the weight on the feet.
So now we’re gonna look at the legs. And the knees. So you want us to be in the front? Let’s be in the front. The force on each leg is going to be different based on which part of the swing we are. So when he’s going into his setup position and he has that position and holding the club, as he goes into his backswing, he’s the right handed player.
Gonna have more force on the right leg as he starts his rotation. And when he goes into his downswing, it will be more on his left leg. So even though there is forces on both legs within the swing, it’s going to be more on one side or the other. When we look at the force, what we prefer or what it’s going to be the most helpful for the pay, for the patient the golfer. The patient.
In several ways, the patient’s is that the middle of the hip. So when he goes onto his leg, the middle of the hip, the knee, and the second, and third toe are roughly in alignment, which gives us the safest position for this leg. While there is a lot of force on it. Then obviously when he comes down into his downswing, it has to shift to this side. And, again, we have that middle of the hip, center of the patella, second, and third toe, kind of alignment so that that is always the same. That means when he goes into his backswing because the pelvis is going to change, This femur has to internally rotate, and this femur is going to have to externally rotate Because if he wouldn’t, then he would either fall in or out.
Neither are good. So that rotation switches when he goes into his downswing and the follow through This starts to internally rotate. This starts to externally rotate. Right? So that dynamic that coordination of those rotations need to be very exact, to prevent any kind of issues with the knees, the hips, the ankles, and etcetera, etcetera. So we’re going to trying to figure out to make those rotations.
And we’re gonna do that with what we call the sitting like spiral. How exciting. So our gulphur of the day. Now you can use a towel or a plate or a slider or a glider because we need to be able to slide the foot. So you’re gonna sit down for me on your little booty, and we’re only gonna use use one leg.
The other leg, I don’t care what you do with it, and you can have it the foot flex. So the easiest way to do this is to kind of like fold your Therabande in the long way, at least once. So then we’re gonna place this under the ball of the big toe And we’re gonna wrap it around once or twice to make sure that it stays there. Then it goes to the outside. And then, oh, we’re gonna wrap you up, girl.
We’re going to go on the inside. And then you’re gonna hold that on your Greater Trokentor over there. So now The more you can keep the band wide while you’re doing that, the more feedback they’re going to get, but it’s not always possible. So you do the best you can. She’s gonna flex this foot, bend this knee in more if you can, and really tighten that band.
So it’s nice and tight. Now Her job is to make sure that we have that center of the hip, the patella, second or third, second, and third toe, right in line. So now she’s gonna press it out, and she’s gonna make sure it stays that way. And then when she bends the knee, she’s going to make sure it stays that way. Whoops. It doesn’t wanna slide with you.
I can be a glider. So when she presses it out, there’s a couple of things that’s gonna most likely are going to happen. The foot is wanting to go in this direction because it’s being pulled that direction. She’s gonna have to move through that foot out. When we bend the knee, it most likely either wants to go out or in.
So there is a slight rotation to lift that knee back up. So when she’s gonna slide out, make sure it stays in line. And then when you lift it up, that first bending is where it you We start from the straight knee. That initial bend is where we can see whether that knee is going to go one way or the other. And if they do it here, they’re going to do it in their golf swing as well.
So we just wanna make sure that they have that counter rotation down and have control over that. So once they have that, we can move on to the standing flex spiral. And for that, we are standing as the name says. I go figure. Standing means standing.
So what she’s gonna do is take the Taliban. And you can stand up on your stage. Be center stage. Take the stage. She’s gonna wrap this around the shoulders.
She’s gonna be in a lunge position. Do you wanna face this way? Front leg is just gonna be bent. So your knee You’re gonna be up on the toe, on the ball, the foot. And what we’re gonna try and do is keep the weight even on the feet. And so we’re using, again, the soft cushion, which duplicates the ground on the golf course.
Arms are gonna be straight. She’s just gonna hold it this way. She’s gonna have that beautiful elongated back. Keeping the weight even on this foot. This knee has to stay right here.
And from here, she’s just gonna keep this, and she’s gonna swing her arms And allowed. Uh-huh. So everything, the torso is moving. The arms are staying straight. Straight is straight, Amy. I know.
And this has to stay and the hip stay. So what we’re working on right now is stabilizing the leg and the foot and the pelvis as a torso is moving in rotation, which is needed, for your golf swing. Then let’s change legs. You’re good? Could you tell if that one’s getting moved? Yeah. I could. To get tight.
So Alright. Set up again. It’s in that lunge position. This knee is gonna stay over the middle toes. I can help as the teacher. She’s gonna be up on the ball of that foot.
So she really goes forward into that lunge. Of course, we have the elongated spine. And she’s going to swing. Hip stay. I’ve got your hips.
Am I supposed to be chewing my ribs or my Yep. Your whole thoracic spine, the whole take the whole rib cage. And you can bring your arms closer together. Thank you. So we have that swing. Yes. That.
Swing Amy. Swing. Oh, don’t wobble, swing. There we go. Yeah. It’s hard. It is. It looks easy, but it’s a lot harder.
To keep all those things going at the one time. Yep. But that’s to get the strength that someone was talking about earlier. Right. Good. So now we have contact with those external rotators and all. Let’s challenge them a little bit more. Oh. On the reformer.
So there’s a couple of things that we can do. I can take that. Yeah. Thanks. We can put it on, like, the milder springs that you normally work on, or we can make it lighter or harder. What do you normally work on? Your footwork. Sorry.
2 in a month. Yeah. 3. That’s good. 3 red. 3 reds. So let’s start there. If we need to change it, we can change it. And then we have something that looks like a golf ball, but it’s not.
It is actually squishy and a little bit soft. So we like a small ball that has a little give. So it gives them a service to make contact with. If the ball is too hard, it’s gonna slide out really quickly, and all you’re gonna do is keep picking up a ball. So we’re gonna be in a splice stance position.
And I’m gonna place the ball between her heels. Now, the tendency is once you put something in between the heels is that they’re gonna squeeze it to make sure it doesn’t fall. I don’t want you to squeeze it. What I want you to do is rotate both heels towards it rather than squeezing it. Do you feel that difference in the rotation?
So I want to use the external rotators to go into it. And now hold that and press it out, and keep that external rotation when you come back in, which is the excellent rotation that she needed when when she was doing Michael’s work standing on top of that. Fold into this one a little bit more. So pressing it out. Now what can happen, which just happens a little bit with Amy, is that they rotate so much that they end up being really on the outside of their toes. So this is where we can use the Therabant as well. So what I’m going to do is going to fold it double the lengthwise twice.
And then once they’re width wise, and it gets me a little square. And I put that underneath the ball of her 1 Vic 2. Then I reach for the other side, and I do the same thing. Twice the longs way. Once the short way, and place that underneath.
Oh, you’re talented. Bring it on the other. That creates a loop. She’s going to hold on to that loop. Don’t put too much tension on it because you’re gonna lose it. And now don’t lose the Therabant and don’t lose the ball.
So I have that external rotation for her to work on, to find that rotation that we want. And we have the counter rotation of the lower leg because we don’t want them to lose contact with the floor. So this is just adapting a traditional footwork motion and At things to make sure it gets more golf specific for our players. So Those are a couple of ways to teach them the spirals of the leg that they need during their game. So we’re gonna move on to the pelvis and the hip joint. So for rotation, the rotation of the pelvis is going to be very, important for the golfer in ord because it starts that rotation.
And it protects the lumbar spine as we do that. So when we are standing, both feet, and we’re making a rotation. The pelvis needs to move three dimensionally on top of that femur. So if you sent sideways, I think they would be able to see. And you go into that setup position, and he’s has that elongation, When he goes onto the right foot for his backswing, this pelvis needs to rotate backwards, downwards, and out. It makes that full three-dimensional rotation of going this way, this way, and then that way.
So he moves all the way into that three dimensional, pattern. On the downswing, the left hip in this case is going to do the same thing. So they need to be able to move that pelvis in a three-dimensional way or around 3 axis. In order to protect their lower back. If they cannot do that or if they don’t do that, there’s going to be a lot of pressure either above it or below it.
So either the lower back is gonna pay the price for it or their knee is going to pay the price. For it. So it’s kind of like, if you get that pelvis to rotate correctly, it will prevent a lot of issues down the road. So we are going to start with an exercise called the turnout stretch. So here we go. So Amy is going to sit on a, in a kneeling 1 leg kneeling position.
There we are. And, let’s start facing front. So we’re gonna sit the whole setup. So she’s going to be absolutely parallel. So from this parallel position, we are going to have a slight turnout in the bottom leg, so we’re gonna let foot come in a little bit.
And then this foot is going to go or leg is gonna be roughly 45. So we’re gonna move this also open. This allows her to keep her pelvis relatively straightforward. Right? So we’re not gonna go cockeyed on ourselves. You’re gonna be as even as possible. Then her right hand is going to hold on to the right femur And her left hand is gonna cross over and hold on to that right ASIS. Did you get that? It’s a lot of crossing.
So now as she lunches forward slowly with her right hand she encourages this external rotation in the femur. While with the left hand, she incurred the internal rotation or the inward spiral of the pelvis because the pelvis and the femur rotate against each other in this position. She might feel an ad doctor stretch as she does that. Most of the time, quite high up by the groin but not everybody is gonna feel that. Making sure that the knee stays right in line with that second and third toe.
We can make this more fascia related and go more, faster and get sort of like a a recoil kind of position. So that they get that bounce into the body as that is how they’re going to have to absorb the force during their swing. Groups or attach for that knee. Make sure it goes stays there. Right? Obviously, we wanna do both sides.
So let’s do the other side. Be has, as we showed with Michael, the position is going to be the same. One leg is going to be challenged on the backswing. One is gonna be challenged from the downswing. So in this case, we’re going to have to be very even.
And there we go. So she’s gonna rotate that out. So the femur, in this case, the left femur is guided into the external rotation while the pelvis is moving in encounters. On the way back, she can release both. So they rotate against them on the way out, and they rotate rotate against them each other as they come back in. Once they have done it slow, we can add that recoil.
So we have that really bounce back. And bounce back. And and Let’s do 2 more and then relax. And another exercise, so don’t relax too much is with the spiky ball. So she’s gonna get in a z position. You choose your side.
She’s gonna place the spiky ball right underneath her sits bum, and she’s gonna have to wiggle around a bit to find the sweet spot, as they say, or where it feels comfortable. It’s sort of around your sits bone, but it’s gonna be individual for everyone. Now what she’s gonna do is this hip is up, so she’s just gonna allow this hip the inward spiral, and she can manipulate it by having the hand just this way and then the outward spiral. So it’s just an inward spiral and an outward spiral, all with the hip, Then we get fancy. So the hip’s gonna go in as the thigh externally rotates.
So you had that opposition. Now as the hip goes back, it goes so we’re going in opposition. You can see with my hands and her hands, but now She’s gonna have to do it all by herself. She’s gonna have to pull it in and out. Or she can just use that hand for support and just think of bringing this as that goes as the hip rotates in this, you have to pull back. That as this goes back, she pulls this forward.
Must feel really good. Yeah. This is a sticky hip for me anyway. So It’s good. There she goes. So you’re just having the opposition with the hip and the femur. And would you like to do the other side? Or is this side sticky too?
Stickier? So on the z set, you really wanna try and make sure this hip is in line with this hip. And this hip is in line with that one. And now the focus is all with this. And so we just start easy. Everything goes in and then it goes out.
You don’t have to talk about internal, external, or inward spiral. Just go in and out. And then as the hip goes in, this goes back. As the hip goes back, this goes forward. So you have that opposition.
Then because Amy is so smart and moves so well, she can do it all by herself. As the hip there you go. As the hip goes in, this goes out. And as the hip goes back, that goes in. Opposition. All of life is opposition. There we go. That should feel sort of good even on the wonky hip on your sticky hip. Mhmm.
And then we can also take this over to the reformer, continuing with sticky hip. Oh, we’re going to do a variation of what is commonly known as Eve’s lunch. So, we like to do that on one spring. Whatever your spring is, what do you normally do it on? Bread. Bread. Perfect. You can adjust the height of the bar, whatever they need. So she’s going to lunge forward Now let’s have this foot about the beginning of the frame and what we’ve before she gets really into it, we want that elongation again that we started with.
So we’re gonna have the length and don’t move it out yet. We’re going to get this pulled up. So we have this lift. While we’re doing that, we’re gonna press that heel into the shoulder box. We’re gonna maintain that. Now we can bend that front leg a little bit to create that stretch.
And now we’re going to go down on the way back in, she’s going to make sure that she keeps that heel pressing and then come back up and go forward. Keep this leg as bend as we can. So we go forward and guide this tie down to the floor as much as we can, and then pull the front up to come back home. Press it out and bring it in. Now to challenge that rotation over the hip, When we go out, she’s going to allow the pelvis to move towards the reformer. On the way back in, she’s coming back to that square position. So as she goes out, this pelvis goes in.
She’s going to have to externally rotate the femur in order to keep that alignment. And then obviously when this goes out, this leg turns in in relationship to that pelvis. And then she comes back home one more time. Are you okay? Going into it?
Oh, my god. This knee doesn’t fall in. Yep. There you go. And bring it back home. Now, they walk a little funny going to the other side because you’re like, oh, law. Sort of like Bambi, but they’ll get over it. So let’s set it up. They’re going to have that elongation in the pelvis, and then activate that heel to press out on it.
There you go. And then bring it back home. So in the beginning, both hip joint or both AS ISS, are straightforward, and they stay straightforward. You do not move. So this is more the traditional classical eaves lunch. Now we’re gonna add. We’re gonna golf a size it.
We’re gonna press it out and allow that to happen without that knee falling forward. And then this hip comes forward. So press of the heel, just let the hip go. It will just go where it wants to go. Now move this hip forward and up to come back home.
So reach and come back home one more time. Going out. Bring it back in. And then she can gracefully step off. And those are some ideas to work with that external internal rotation of the pelvis and the hip joint.
So we’re gonna move on to the core, or for us, the powerhouse. It’s all the same depending on how you look at it. So The powerhouse is the one or the core that transfers the force from the legs that we have built up in our rotation up the body to the arms to the club. Now the lumbar spine, this lower part, of the spine is not specifically designed for a lot of rotation. It’s a real stable part of our spine.
And we want to keep it stable. However, there is some rotation possible, and we cannot keep the lower back stiff while we’re doing that rotation. So there’s about if you add it all up roughly about 5 degrees, of rotation that is possible in the lumbar spine. As we go up the spine, the spine gets more mobile, But if we don’t use those 5 degrees down here, we’re going to have to make that up while we’re going up. And that puts the other ones in danger as we go. So, yes, we need to work on stability.
Especially in the lumbar spine, but we cannot forget that it does need to rotate somewhat. So we’re going to play with that motion of stability and mobility in that lower back and make sure we stay straight. What we talked about before If the lumbar spine is not in the right alignment while we rotate, it creates a lot of problems. So We might wanna prevent that. So the first thing we’re going to do is We’re gonna do what are we gonna do? The thi slide.
So with Amy, and all we’re gonna do on that is you’re just gonna bend in your setup, and all you’re gonna do is just shift the torso, trying to keep these points, and you can make it bigger. Shift. Shift. Stick those cheeks out. Yep. There we go.
And soften the ribs. Keep the elongation. Remember the balls. There we go. And go ahead. Now let the hips move.
So you start off without the hips moving the square, then you allow the hips to move like you would in a golf swing I said hips, not ribs. There we go. And relax. Now that she has tipped herself out, we’re going to, again, golf a size a more traditional exercise that we do on the Cadillac, which is the, what we call it, the butterfly or the moth people have different names for it. So we’re gonna stand on top of the tower, and we’re gonna turn ourselves around. Now just like we did before, we can use leg springs, or we can use the different height of our springs.
Generally, We want a hook that is about shoulder height or slightly higher. It depends on how the springs hit your body and the and and the tension of it. We’re going to be in the arms open position, and we’re gonna lean slightly into it. And then we are going to do a little site bend, and then we’re going to this is where it gets tricky. For the professional Pilates person, we have always been taught to do the, the butterfly this way. With this, I’m going down and this one going up.
To pre golf a size it, We are going to change that. So as we rotate to the right, that site actually comes up. And then we come back up. Because when we go into our backswing, we rotate, and that side comes up, it does not come down because we don’t want any lateral shift while we are in our gulf. So we want a pure rotation.
We wanna go both ways because this would be your follow through position. So we want to do both sides in this case. Again, you can start with keeping the pelvis still. Or you can allow this hip to slightly bend or select bend for some rotation in the pelvis And we wanna make sure that this side comes up now. Don’t let this hip pop out on you when you mhmm.
So make sure that the alignment is still straight. And when they bend the knee, that they don’t let that hip go to the side. Okay? So then we bounce back. Are you okay?
Then we’re gonna move on to what we call the power of exercise. So we’re going to stand sideways. Now this can be sometimes a little bit tricky with an arms spring because can be quite a lot. You could always change this and wrap a theraband around the pole and and use the Therabend. We’re gonna have both legs bent, so we’re gonna be in our setup position and have the arms right in front of a sternum and the arms are going to be bent.
She’s not gonna move anything. She’s just gonna press the arms straight. Down on the angle. Yep. And then bring it back in. So when she’s pushing it out, the spring should move her towards the tower, and she’s going to use her abdominals to make sure she stays even.
The second level is she’s gonna go out and she’s gonna stay there. Now very slowly, you’re gonna give him on the tension Once there’s no more tension, you’re gonna go back to the center. So you’re gonna go slowly release quick back home. Slowly release, quick back home. One more time. Slowly release.
Now everything is gonna go slow. She’s gonna slowly go towards her backswing, and now we’re gonna go slowly move through the whole swing. Again, for stability reasons, we want to keep this square and still. So we really use that core and not relying on the pelvis rotation. We wanna keep everything still as we go. And then relax. You can do this on both sides, but for the traditional golfer to work on this fifty, you would only do it on one side, but there’s nothing wrong if you wanna work evenly to do the other side as well.
The next one, we are going to go to the reformer. We’ve already set it up, so that’s nice and handy. We’re gonna have the long box on, and we’re going to have a spring, one spring, And for Amy, we 2, we chose 1 blue swing. Blue swing blue spring. So the hand is going to be in the middle because that is going to prevent the box from sliding.
The other hand if it is works for them. You’re gonna grab right underneath your armpit. And when you grab there, you can feel your ribs. Right? So roughly she, again, she’s in her setup position. She’s going to press the carriage out, and she’s going to pull those ribs up around, and then she’s gonna move them back.
So again, we’re gonna keep this all still. And so she’s gonna work this side against the resistance of the spring. Strengthening and using her core to create that rotation rather than letting that rotation just happen. She’s actually gonna have to work for it now. There we go. And since we have rotation to both sides, during the swing, we should do both sides.
So in this case, for her rotation to that side, would be her follow through or her downswing. Now we can focus on this hip make sure it stays away. Right? This hip is one to come up. So we have that elongation that we started with while we’re doing our rotation. So elongation in rotation.
Then she comes back up and she relaxes, and those are a couple of ways to strengthen that core that powerhouse while we are rotating for our swing. So we’re gonna move on to our thoracic spine. We talked about the stability of the lumbar spine. And as we go up the spine, past the lumbar. This is where the real rotation happens. And technically, if we add all of this rotation up, There is a lot of rotation possible.
About 50 degrees of rotation is possible in that section. However, nowadays most people cannot get moved past 30 to 40 degrees based on our lifestyles and that we’re doing now these days as he just beautifully indicates So, we have to work on that because it’s not natural for us to rotate that much anymore, unfortunately. So how do you know they have a lot of mobility? It’s really able to see their swing. So if the more harmonious they move and integrated they move, the more coordination and mobility they have in that thoracic spine because that kind of, like, connects the whole swing through.
So if you see somebody with a very beautiful, even moving kind of swing, we can assume that a thoracic spine is rotating quite nicely. So let’s see how our golfer does. Let’s see how she does. Let’s see how she rotates. No pressure.
However, so we have set it up for Amy on one blue spring. Again, we can always change the spring. She’s going to have one leg in between our shoulder boxes with the knee right in front of the shoulder box, Then the other foot is going to be in front, in line with that hip. Then I, if I was a nice teacher, which apparently I’m not. I would have given her the strap, and she holds it and the elbows are in. So this is the starting position the carriage most likely is going to be slightly out, and that is okay.
Then we’re gonna make sure that the pelvis, the knee, and the foot are right in line, and she’s going to rotate herself to the front, reaching long. Now take your time and you bend it and really feel that rotation happening in the thoracic spine and guide it as far as you can. The spring will help her coming in a little bit, and now she used to find it to go out. This would be a strength component. And here she uses that control and she slowly moves into that rotation one more time. She presses it out, and then she brings it back in.
Thank you. And then bring the arms down. It makes it a little bit harder to lift it up. And then bring it back to the side. Watch out if we don’t turn out. Keep that elongation. Reaching long. So we wanna make sure this stays long and then bring it back home.
And one more time going up and bring it down. So once she’s down, we’re going to gracefully step off because we have to do the other side because we have rotation on both sides in this case. So she’s come to squeeze yourself in. Now for some people, depending on your reformer, this little peg can really annoy the ankle, So you might want to put a path there. It’s not that I mean she didn’t want it.
So there you go. I did ask. But she didn’t want it. And if you don’t ask, you’re not gonna get it. So pressing it out and bring it back in. Keeping this long.
There we go. And press, watch out if it doesn’t hike up on you. And then allow that rotation to occur. One more time going all the way through. Nice. And then bring it down, and we’ll do it with the arm straight.
So she’s gonna guide it up. And bring it back down and lift it up. Right? And the machine, the beauty of the machine is it teaches her, right, if she’s feels that machine getting jerky underneath her, it teaches her to move gracefully and also with control especially on the way back. So then make sure to carry just all the way in before they step off and It’s been a long day. Then she’s gonna come over here for even more excitement So we’re gonna hook up.
It’s gonna be a variation on the cat stretch with the push through bar. So she’s gonna get nice and close. And she’s gonna have one hand in the middle. Let’s start with this one. So it’s directly in the middle.
The other hand is gonna go underneath and crossover there. So from here, she’s gonna bring it down, same beginning as the cat’s stretch. But as she goes out, there’ll be rotation and then she’s gonna slowly bring it up Once she’s up, the bottom arm, she’s gonna take out, bring up around by her ear, From here, she’s gonna hinge back. So we have one beautiful hinge that she presses the bar down. She rotates again. All about the rotation brings it down.
Arm comes to the back edge, and we come back up. So she goes through. I can guide with a bar or I can help on her rotation, which I know Amy likes So that’s why I’m doing that for Amy and brewing it up, brings the arm up. She hinges back. Then she opens into that rotation circles it down and around and bring it up and let’s change.
How does it feel? Good. Really good. Wait. So yeah. I was like, And she’s gonna rotate, look at me. There we go. And we had that one. Oh, nice pop. And she comes up.
Bottom arm comes off up by the ear. She hinges back beautifully. She rotates And that circles down and around and back in. And once more with feelings. So she rotates Keeping this square.
There we go. And then she comes up. Arm got There we go. So it’s just a variation on the theme from the cat stretch. But adding much more golficized cat stretch. Is that a word golficized?
It is now. Moving on to the shoulder girdle. We are from a functional movement point of view, the the rotation of the thoracic spine is linked to the movement of our shoulder blades. So they help the rotation or increase our rotation. So they need to be able to move independently.
In the golf swing, the the major movement they’re going to make is protraction and retraction. So when he goes has that elongation in his setup, and he goes into his rotation. Now to increase that rotation, hit the right shoulder blade, retracts and moves towards the spine. And the other one protrex and moves away from the and that gives him more rotation than just the spine. Then obviously on the way back, that changes And in the follow through, the left one moves into a protraction, while the right one goes into protraction.
So the gliding of those shoulder blades on top of the rib cage, that coordination is super important because we can get more out of a size called look there. Where? There. Oh, there we go. So Amy is going to stand with her legs in her setup position, and she’s going to she’s a right handed one. So she’s going to we’re gonna start with her backswing. So we’re gonna have the arms on top of each other.
So you’re gonna be slightly hinged forward. Now you’re gonna rotate towards me into your backswing, This hand goes up and pulls that shoulder blade back. And this one goes like, look there. And there we are. And then we’re going to go to the other side.
So she’s going to move up. The top arm is going to move back into that retraction. This one pushes away into the protraction. And now we’re going to make it really smooth. So we’re gonna go from 1.
This one moves up. Let that turn out. And then we go from the other side and bring it back. Let’s do 2 more sets. So really make sure that one shoulder goes into that Yes.
So does we really feel those shoulder blades gliding in an asymmetrical way One moves into retraction, one goes into protraction, guided together with that thoracic rotation. Relax. You feel those? Moving? So she was looking there. Mhmm. Not here. Not here, but there, So the next one she’s gonna do is protraction and retraction. So we’re gonna start with the protraction. So you’re gonna face over there. And all she’s gonna do is take the handle, and she’s gonna just slightly hinge forward, and it’s gonna depend upon the spring setting.
And from here, she’s just gonna bring the arms out. And from here, Mhmm. So she’s just gonna come forward like Tone talked about the protraction and then let the springs do the work of bringing it back. So what’s happening as she goes into that protraction, she allows the springs, and it’s just the shoulder blades just glide down. She protract towards me. There we go. And then she allows the springs just to go back. So you reach. There you go.
And they just glide back. So there’s your protraction. Now how about a little retraction? So we’re gonna turnaround. I What? I was adding it already.
You were a bit, but that’s okay. She gets excited about her protraction and retraction. So this time, we’re gonna start in protraction, and then the action comes with retraction by pulling it back. So from the back view, she’s going there, protraction towards, and then they just slide down. So that’s what the shoulder blades are doing.
And no, winging. Don’t squeeze them together. Just let them. Yes. You feel the difference? We have a winger in the house, and relax. Thank you.
Then we’re gonna move on to the shoulder joint. So flexibility, stability, and strength. In that order, we basically going to use the shoulder joint. Now, obviously, obviously. It needs to be in a coordinated way with the shoulder girdle or with the scapula, which we already covered.
So those 2 need to work together, and then those work together with the trunk. So that’s all how it’s all layered in the swing. One leads into the other leads into the other leads into the other. Now for a golfer, when they are in this 1990 position, they need to have about 90 degree external rotation in that arm. So they need to be able to get the arm to at least here. Preferably, a little bit more, but at least to there without compromising the position of the shoulder blade. So what you’ll see a lot is to get the arm here, they’re going to pop this forward, or in order to get this back, they’re going to arch their backs. They’re gonna move the ribs forward to get the arm back.
Right? So that’s why we need that flexibility so that when the arm moves backward It does not distort anything else that we’ve been working on. So one fantastic exercise we’re going to do is the supine external rotation. What a mouthful. So, Amy, it’s gonna lie down. She’s gonna have the theraband.
She’s gonna hold well, you probably want that end. She’s gonna bend her legs. The legs have been pushed the feet, help for the support. She’s gonna put this in right around her center or your navel. She’s gonna stretch that arm up So you want a little bit of tension, but you don’t want too much tension. Then she’s gonna bend the elbow and bring it out.
Now Tennancy, especially when you’re up here, is you’re gonna wanna drop that down. You wanna keep it up. And from here, all she’s gonna do is bring it back up, brewing it in, keeping all of this. Does it feel? Oh, I can hear the snap crack on pop with my fingers and relax.
And we’ll go to the other side. So, again, the setup is And I like doing it in the beginning with a Theraben that’s sort of easy, so it’s not so hard. And you can even come closer to me more down on this edge. She’s got it tight. And from there, she’s just gonna bend keeping this up. So in a perfect world that doesn’t touch, and bring it back up so I can spot here, but you wanna make sure you don’t On this side, Amy, just wants to slightly go out that way.
No. No. You keep it there. Yep. And relax yourself out and smile and relax. I wouldn’t do too many of these. They’re pretty intense.
Then we’re gonna challenge the arm in the different direction. So she’s gonna stand on top of the tower facing that way. And we’re going to have the hand holding on to the handle with the hand that’s closest to the spring with the spring roughly in front of your sternum. You don’t want too much tension at this point because it can get a little tricky. So what you’re going to do is from here, you’re going to rotate towards me.
You’re gonna press it down and out, you pushing through. So now we’re gonna work a little bit more on that strength in that arm for when that arm comes down and pushes the ball away. Pressing through. Obviously, if I want it to be harder for her, all I have to do is take a little step out Don’t do too big of a step. And then go out.
She’s very enthusiastic. Now if I want to add some rotation, I can allow her to bend this knee as you come over towards me, and that allows her to get a little bit more rotation that can get that really, that push feel out into that shoulder, which, Adri, don’t display this hip. Give her some incentive. Right? And then, technically, we don’t have to do the other side, but we can, to be even, why not? Why not? Why not? You’re here. I’m here.
Everybody’s here. The Cadillac is here. Tower. Here we go. So get the elongation. First, we just do the arm. And press it over.
Yep. See is if you can get as much to that wall as we can. There we are. And then add that rotation. Allow. Yeah. So let’s keep this leg a little soft. And really bend that one.
There we go. That was close. And reach long. There we go. So for Amy, I didn’t want this leg to be straight because when the leg is straight, she kinda, like, pops into that hip So for her, it helps if both legs are slightly bent. You’re gonna have to adjust as we go. So Okay.
So we have worked our way through our whole swing from the bottom. To the top. We hope it was helpful if you got some ideas. Again, General Polay’s works as well, but just golf a size a couple of things so that they can take that information to their game. Thank you, Amy.
Thank you very much. And thank you. Thank you. See you next time.
