We’ve been discussing phases of the golf swing and we’re into the backswing now. The biggest and most obvious component that is an integral part of the backswing is balance. Simply put, improving balance improves the backswing. The catch is the term balance is often misunderstood and only connected to golf swing mechanics. It’s much more than that and it’s a big part of golf fitness.

Essentially, balance is the ability to maintain control of the body during any physical activity. When we talk about balance in the golf swing, it’s defined as the ability of the body to maintain proper postural alignment and center of gravity during all phases of the swing. Relating balance to the golf swing, we really start to see it’s involvement in the linear and rotational actions found in the backswing. Knowing that piece of information, we can see where balance has a great affect on the ability to execute each part of the swing efficiently.

When we get more into the definition of balance, it essentially has two physical components working together to allow either efficient or inefficient balancing capacities. These two physical components are your muscles and nerves. These two systems working together allow for postural alignments, center of gravities, weight transfer, and spine angles, to be adjusted and maintained during all phases of the swing. So if we keep that in mind, if I have an inefficient nervous system and a weak muscular system, the ability to maintain balance in the golf swing is going to be compromised. So in order to improve balance capacities, you have to develop these two physical components of the body. The first is to improve strength in the muscular system and second is to create a greater efficiency within the nervous system.

When strengthening the muscular system, we’re trying to improve the ability of the muscular system to produce the required amount of force to maintain the anatomical postures contained within the biomechanics of the golf swing. That comes down to the muscles of your body being strong enough to maintain the correct spine angle and postural positions in all phases of the golf swing. If muscles are not strong enough in certain areas, then the ability to maintain postural alignments, rotate around a fixed spine angle, and perform proper sequences of the swing will be compromised.

Next, we have the nervous system, which is basically your brain and nerves telling your body and muscles what to do. The process by which your brain and nerves interact with muscles can be efficient or inefficient. If the nervous system is efficient at regulating the muscles in the swing and telling the muscles what to do in the swing, the ability to have better weight transfer, postural angle uniformity and a greater efficiency in every phase of the golf swing is a greater possibility. On the flip side, if your brain, nerves and muscle interaction are inefficient or slow, the ability to create movement and interconnected movement in the golf swing are less than optimal.

When improving the nervous system, we again are trying to create a greater efficiency in the interaction of the brain, nerves, and muscles. This is done through a series of golf specific exercises, similar to the muscular strengthening exercises, which in time improves the coordination of these systems within the body. The benefit of these types of exercises in relation to the golf swing is a greater efficiency in the ability to execute the biomechanics of the golf swing correctly.

So what you have when you talk about balance is the muscular system and nervous system working as a unit within the body to create the ability to perform the biomechanics of the golf swing correctly and efficiently.

If the body lacks balancing capacity to perform the swing correctly, it will show up as compensations in your swing. On the flip side, if we physically improve balance capacities thru balance training exercises that are cross-specific to the golf swing in terms of movement, position, and golf swing action, it invariably creates a transfer of training effect in the golf swing. The muscles of body that are utilized in the golf swing through balance training will become stronger, the efficiency in which the brain, nerves and muscles operate will become more efficient and, as a result, the effects will show up in your golf swing. Many amateurs find balance training has the greatest impact on the golf swing in a very short amount of time.