The past two weeks we have talked about static and dynamic balance training to improve your golf swing. Ultimately, we know in order to get into the correct position and to execute the golf swing, we need to develop the balancing capacities of our body. The bottom line is the greater efficiency in which you balance, the greater ease you will have executing most any shot on the golf course. In the last two weeks, we looked at the static balance exercises airplane rotations and for dynamic balance, we added the side-to-side stabilization hops.

Both of these exercises challenge your nervous and muscular systems. Eventually if you continue to perform both of these golf fitness exercises, your nervous and muscular systems are going to adapt to these exercises. Once this occurs, the benefit from these two exercises will be minimal. It is necessary if you wish to continue to improve you balance capacity in relation to the golf swing to increase the difficulty of these exercises. In order to do this, we utilize the principle of progression. Simply stated, this is the implementation of golf fitness exercises that progressively force the muscles and nervous systems of your body to work harder. The result will be continual benefit from your golf fitness training and balance exercises.

You can easily use this principle for other areas of your golf swing improvement program, especially swing drills where you begin with a basic fundamental drill and once you master that, you add progressively more difficult swing drills to continue improvement of your golf swing.

It’s the same thing in golf fitness. When talking about balance exercises and the principle of progression, what we need to do is create a training environment, which forces your nerves and muscles to work harder. This is done through the implementation of an unstable training surface. Again, as we said, this results in continued improvement in the efficiency in which both systems of your body operate.

A half-foam roller is a great item to use to create an unstable training environment.

Common tools I use to advance balance exercises and create unstable training environments are half-foam rollers, physio balls, balance boards, and bosu balls. Taking and implementing any of these training tools into your balance training exercises will create a more difficult exercise and, in the long run, continue to benefit your golf swing.

For example, look at the airplane rotation. When we discussed this exercise two weeks ago, we started with your foot on the ground. The ground is considered a stable training environment. Now to create an unstable training environment, place a half- foam roller under your balancing foot. This will force your muscles and nerves to work harder, continuing the benefit of the exercise. You can take this thought process and utilize it throughout, and implement it into any exercise to add the principle of progression, creating a more difficult golf fitness exercise.

Remember, we have two components of balance we need to develop in the body – static and dynamic – and at some point during your golf fitness training program, you’ll need to utilize the principle of progression and make these exercises more difficult. This will allow you to continue to receive benefit from these golf fitness balance exercises and your training program in general.

Next week, we’ll answer all the great questions I have been receiving. If you have any last minute questions, send them in.

Sean M. Cochran is the personal strength and conditioning coach for 2006 Masters winner Phil Mickelson. He is co-owner of BioForceGolf.com and the author of several books, including most recently, Your Body & Your Swing. Cochran, who has worked as a strength and conditioning coach for the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres as well as working individually with players like Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, started working with professional golfers, most notably Mickelson (who won the 2004 and 2006 Masters, and the 2005 PGA Championship), in 2002. Recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities in golf-specific strength training, he has spoken at numerous seminars and clinics around the country. BioForceGolf.com was founded in late 2004 to respond to the need of the amateur golfer for quality information on golf-specific-strength training. The site provides subscribers the highest quality information in the areas of golf training, nutrition, and general instruction.