Part 3: In-season balance training

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Last week we introduced the concept of balance training into your in-season golf fitness program. Let's quickly review balance. We define it as the ability of the golfer to maintain a fixed spine angle and the correct postural positions throughout each phase of the swing. A golfer lacking the balance capacities to execute the swing correctly will struggle with creating an efficient golf swing.

Sean Cochran

Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA TOUR regularly and works with TOUR professionals, most notably Masters and PGA Champion Phil Mickelson.
He has been involved in the production of numerous golf fitness videos and books including Core Golf Fitness. He has authored numerous articles with publication credits in Golf Digest, Sports Illustrated, and Golf Magazine.
In addition to working with Mickelson, Cochran has worked with LPGA Champion Hee Won Han, U.S. Open Champion Corey Pavin, world-renowned golf instructor Rick Smith and short game expert Dave Pelz.
Cochran continues to speak at seminars and clinics around the country on golf fitness. In his free time he enjoys golf and surfing. He resides in Del Mar, Calif.
To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs, click here

As discussed last week, improvement in one's balance capacities can be accomplished through the implementation of certain exercises within your in-season golf fitness program. This process was begun last week with a review of your Single Leg Balance Test and introduction of the Address Position Single Leg Rotations exercise.

Before presenting the second exercise in this section of your program it is necessary to discuss a very important component of balance training: progression.

Progression can be defined as the implementation of exercises that progressively force the muscular and nervous systems of the body to work harder. In turn this places an overload on these systems and forces the body to adapt over time.

A simple example of the concept of progression is a standard dumbbell bicep curl. If you started to perform a standard bicep curl with 10 pound dumbbells for 15 repetitions, the exercise would be difficult at first. The reason for the difficulty is the curling action with 10 pounds is above and beyond what your muscles are accustomed to. Over time your body would adapt to the 10-pound dumbbells and, if your desire was to continue to get stronger biceps, it would be necessary to progress to a more challenging exercise.

This is a simple example of the principle of progression at work but is very relative to our balance training exercises. Recalling last week's article, a golfer's normal base of support is standing on two feet. Once the golfer moves outside this base of support, they begin to challenge their own limits of stability. This "challenging" of their individual limits of stability is what develops enhanced balance capacities.

We utilize the principle of progression as a guideline on how to continually challenge your balance capacities and enhance them within your neuromuscular system. If we know the golfer's normal base of support is standing on two feet, challenging this base of support would utilize the principle of progression in the following processes: Begin with static exercises (stationary with two feet on a stable surface) and progress to dynamic (moving with two feet on a stable surface); begin with slow exercise movements and advance to fast; start with exercises in a stable environment (i.e. two feet on a stable surface) and move to unstable training (i.e. one foot on a unstable surface); commence with low force output exercises and progress to high output.

As you can see from the above information, the principle of progression is very beneficial as it relates to our balance training exercises. If we follow this guideline, adding a more challenging exercise such as Single Leg Airplane Rotations with Physio-Ball to our current fitness program would be ideal.

To perform this exercise sit on top of the physio-ball, feet shoulder width apart, torso upright, eyes looking forward, arms straight out from the shoulders, and left foot off the floor.

Slowly rotate the arms and shoulders to your left keeping the eyes looking forward. Continue rotating to the left until the arms are perpendicular to your hips and pause for one second. Continue the exercise by rotating to your right. Alternate the rotation left and right for 10-15 repetitions. Repeat the exercise keeping the right foot off the floor.

Keep the principle of progression in mind as you develop the balance training section of your program. Next week we will continue the development of this section of your in-season golf fitness program.