Improve this off-season in your golf game

text size

Learn more: Sean Cochran fitness page | Sean Cochran archive

It is the time where the golf season is winding down, and when many amateur golfers are putting their clubs away until next season. Reflection upon this past season of golf probably brings about a mixed bag of joy, frustration, and every emotion in between. Good shots, bad shots, great putts, poor chips, long drives, smooth swings, hooks, shanks, tops, and every other imaginable shot can probably be replayed in your head from this past season. Regardless, I imagine each and every one of you is still an avid golfer looking to improve their game and wants to continue to pursue perfection in this great game of golf.

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 Phil Mickelson.
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.
To learn more about Sean and his golf fitness programs, click here

Interestingly enough, this time of the year (i.e. the off-season) is the ideal time to improve your golf game for the upcoming season. This is exactly what many PGA TOUR players do at this time of the year, and it is something I recommend you do as well. Regardless, if you are in a warm weather climate allowing you to play all year around, I still suggest taking a period of 6-8 weeks where the focus is not on playing but rather on improving your golf swing.

Using the "blue print" of a PGA TOUR player, the first step in the process of swing improvement during the off-season is assessment. Assessment begins with a review of your previous year. Take a moment, put pen to paper, and write down the overall satisfaction of your playing last year.

Once you have completed this point, begin to dissect each facet of your game. Start with your putting and move back to the tee. Write down how well you did with short putts, lag putts, uphill, downhill, left-to-right breakers, etc. Then move onto just off the green, and assess how you performed in chipping, pitching, bunker play. Once complete, take a look at shots from 100 yards into the green. Continue to move back and look at iron shots, long irons, fairway woods, and finally tee shots.

After completion of this summarization, take a step back and look at all the information. A review should begin to pinpoint areas of the game requiring attention this off-season. For example, you may have notice lag putting was a "strength", whereas the short three-footers had you missing birdie opportunities. This should give you an idea of what areas of the game require work this off-season.

The second piece of the assessment is a review of your golf swing. Again, take out a piece of paper and begin analyzing your golf swing. This section may require a phone call to your swing coach, but in general a pattern will probably be apparent relative to poor shots hit during the season. For example, was the common swing fault a slice or a hook? The list of swing faults might be one common theme, such as a slice, or a couple, such as hooks and pushes. Regardless, get them down on paper and this again will give you an idea of what requires attention this off-season.

The final portion of this assessment will be physical. The off-season is the time at which the physical foundation for golf swing is developed. Most every amateur at this point in time is probably well aware of the connection between the body and the golf swing. We know it is your physical body executing the mechanics of the swing and, if certain physical parameters are not present in the golf swing, the ability to execute the swing will be compromised. This situation where the body does not have the flexibility, balance, strength, or power to execute the golf swing will directly affect your golf swing and can be an underlying reason for swing faults or poor performance on the course.

The PGA TOUR player is well aware of the need to develop a physical foundation to support the golf swing and improve it. Our goal with the amateur player is to do the same during this time of the year: Address the physical components of the golf swing in order to create a strong foundation for your golf swing. This process begins with an assessment of your current physical makeup.

Before we begin the physical assessment for this off-season, let's take a look at a simple model of how the body operates in the golf swing. Human movement occurs through an alternating pattern of mobile joints and stabile body segments. This principle is referred to as the mobility/stability pattern of the human movement.

This principle was first noted by physical therapist Gray Cook and strength coach Mike Boyle. This principle states efficient movement within the kinetic chain of the human body occurs in an alternating pattern of mobile joints and stable segments. If this pattern of mobile joints and stable segments is altered, dysfunction in movement patterns will occur, and compensations in these movement patterns will be the result. The table below provides a joint-by-joint view of this pattern within the human body:

As you can see from the above table, the human body "feet to fingertips" operates in an alternating pattern of a mobile joint followed by a stable joint throughout the entire kinetic chain (i.e. body). It is obvious joints such as the elbow and knee are not rod-like pieces of iron that do not flex or extend, but rather these joints are stable in terms of limited degrees of motion. For example, we know the knee bends and extends. It does not rotate 360 degrees like the hip and shoulders. As a result, we consider the knee joint to be a stable joint and the hips and shoulders to be mobile joints.

Relative to the golf swing the mobility/stability pattern of human movement allows for the creation and transfer of energy through the kinetic chain from "feet to fingertips" into the golf club. If the mobility/stability pattern is dysfunctional relative to the golf swing, the development of speed will be limited, transfers of this speed to the golf ball will be compromised, and compensations in the golf swing will occur.

For example, if a golfer has limited hip mobility, the ability to create an "X-Factor" in the backswing would be limited, and the initiation of the downswing by the hips would be negated. This would result in a loss of speed in the swing, an inefficient transfer of this speed to the golf club, and most likely the development of compensations in the biomechanics of the swing.

Next week we will begin the physical assessment of the body for the upcoming off-season. Between now and then, take the time to review both your golf game and swing of this past season.