In Golf – It’s the Little Things that Often Count the Most

Over the past few months I’ve been enjoying a rebirth of my golf swing and thus my game under the mentorship and tutelage of Don Trahan and his wonderful Peak Performance Golf Swing.

I now have a set of clubs (Tour Edge – Wide Soles) that I can hit well from LW to 3i. This has enabled me to improve my GIR stat.

Everything was going along smoothly when all of sudden I couldn’t make solid contact with the ball. The dreaded Sh….’s appeared. What was I doing wrong? I wondered. I went to the range. No help. I found a practice area where I could hit full 9’s – oh no, what the heck is going on?

To go from feeling powerful and in control of my swing and game to this – oh the emotional  roller coaster ride of golf.

Don Trahan has drilled into me that the problem was most likely to be found in my set up.

Today was my day off and I wanted to play badly. It was a dry, but threatening fall Seattle day. I decided I’d best go to the range and find out where the balls were going. Oh no! Not that again. I finished the bucket without figuring anything out and decided to go to another range near-by that I felt more comfortable at.

I started off poorly. Wham, I hit a good shot. I checked my set up to see if I could discern what had changed. It was my GRIP! My thumb was rolled over to the right further. A shift of only 1pm to 2pm. A shift from a weak grip to a slightly stronger one.

This tiny, simple change made all the difference in the world. All of a sudden the balls were flying staight and the distances I’d been used to albeit 5 yrds less due to the colder temperature.

I was really shocked to realize that this minor adjustment could cause shot an improvement. I found myself thinking, “How can I mark my grips so I’ll make sure to put my thumb in the right place.”

Guess Don is right when he says, if you’re not hitting it well there’s probably a problem with your grip, stance, or alignment – your set-up!

The Better your Back, The Better your Golf

As more and more of us head out to the links it behooves us to understand how a healthy flexible back can make the game of Golf much more enjoyable. Lowing your risk of injury is just as important as lowering your score and handicap. The following article orginally written by Steve Horwitz of Maryland Sports Injury Center explores how having a healthy back can impact not only your Golf game, but your life.

GOLFER’S BACK

As amateur golfers, many of us have something in common with Jack Nicklaus and Lee Travino – a bad back. If you are among those who have already experienced episodes of this affliction, then you know how debilitating it can be. Low back pain accounts for almost 25% of all athletic injuries. In the western world, 80% of the population will experience disabling low back pain during their lives.

Back pain is now second only to the common cold as a cause of employee absenteeism and, in 1992, cost the U.S. economy $60 billion. A 1989 workers’ compensation study from Liberty Mutual revealed the average cost of a low back pain case was $8,321. Low back pain clearly represents the single greatest and most inefficient expenditure of health care resources in our society today.

Golfer’s Elbow

While Golfer’s are more prone to injuries that cause low back pain, another vulnerable area is the Elbow. Come see me, I can fix this injury in a relatively short period of time.

The game of golf does not produce the number of serious injuries which are common in more vigorous sporting activities. However, golf injuries do warrant attention. It is quite common for recreational golfers to complain of lower back pain after the season’s first round. Second only to lower back pain are elbow injuries.

This condition plagues not only golfers, but tennis players, bowlers, mechanics or anyone who uses frequent rotary movements of the forearm. It is caused by excessive strain on the muscles of the forearm, which run from the wrist to the elbow. These muscles produce forward and backward movement at the wrist.

Severe Arm Pain Relieved in Minutes

CASE HISTORY: Symptom Severe Arm Pain. loss of function, decreased range of motion, cannot swing golf club.

I just had a rather surprising experience with one of my clients I wanted to share with you. My client came in with a burning pain in her upper arm. The pain was so bad that she had been unable to sleep for several nights. She was also unable to use the arm to wash the dishes, do her hair, and she certainly couldn’t play golf.

The first thing I did was an application of propriocussion as this typically provides immediate relief. And, while it did help, there were several positions that the client couldn’t move her arm into that this course of treatment didn’t relieve. I applied Laser therapy which also helped a little more, but after I returned to check her arm after treating the burning in her feet, we found that the relief provided by the laser had beena short lived.

Than I remembered having used my percussor on the head of one client so I decided to use this approach as nothing had been fully successful to that point.

I first percussed over the right parietal bone which did nothing. Than I percuissed over her left parietal bone and found a point that the patient felt in her ailing arm. As I continued to percuss this point, her pain began to dissipate. My client was able to lift her arm normally. As she lowered it, the pain returned. I did another application of propriocussion over the left parietal finding a point that again the client felt. Within a few minutes this treatment provided complete relief.

My client sat up, moved her arm through normal ranges of motion and was both thrilled and amazed that she no longer had any pain or discomfort. As she was leaving she reached for the door handle and declared I couldn’t do this just a few minutes ago. And I cannot believe how much more energy I have.