Unless you live in a warm climate, it’s probably been a while since you’ve swung your club. But as the old saying goes – champions are made in the off season.
Being forced to stay inside can have its advantages. Use this time to improve two crucial elements for progressing your game: strength and flexibility.
It’s pretty simple, if you want to hit farther, you need to generate more club head speed. When people see older golfers hit the ball far, they assume that they don’t need to do any golf exercises to stay in shape. However, what they fail to realize is how strong and flexible professional golfers really are. A golf swing relies heavily on muscles throughout your legs, torso and arms. In order to improve your golf game and get more distance, you must strengthen and stretch these muscles.
Strength
Whether you like him or not, Tiger Woods goes down as one of the best golfers in the game. He has been able to be on top of the golf world for so long by staying in phenomenal shape. Like a baseball swing or tennis stroke, a golf swing involves a lot of rotation which comes from your core – and so do abdominal golf exercises. Focus on doing ones that involve rotation, like hammer twists. Instead of doing regular crunches, get on a declined bench and get a medicine ball. When you crunch up, simultaneously twist right. On your next crunch twist left. Do the same thing with your lunges. Doing exercises that involves the core and a body rotation will help you develop muscles that will give you more distance.
Flexibility
Unlike Tiger, it’s hard to look at John Daly and think that he is a great athlete or has great core strength. However, he is one of the golf’s longest off the tee. Daly is able to drive the ball 400+ yards because he has phenomenal flexibility. It’s key to have great back, shoulder and oblique flexibility if you want a faster club head speed. This flexibility will allow you to bring your club further back while maintaining a solid rhythm. Check out our list of 10 Best Stretches for Total Body Flexibility for ideas on how to improve your flexibility. If you combine these stretches with good core exercises, you will see the results in your game.
