Balanced Swing, Balanced Body, Balanced Nutrition

In the sport of golf, it is easy to see that both the professional men and women are working hard to condition their bodies for success on the course. Why not make it an integral part of an amateur golfer’s training? We spend a lot of money on equipment, and hopefully lessons, so why not do something that is going to improve not only our golf game but also our health?

So many of us get frustrated by our golf game but do nothing to improve it. Some things are easy to correct with the proper training, attitude, and desire to improve. There are three major areas that are really quite simple to correct and adjust:

1) Look at the biomechanics of your golf swing;
2) Concentrate on exercising and strengthening the weak parts of your body; 3) Proper nutrition and cleansing to help remove toxins from your body so you can lose weight, increase muscle mass, sleep better, and be more focused.

These are the three basic areas that will help you shave strokes off of your score. Many golfers will spend $500 dollars or more on a new driver, but won’t even consider working with an instructor or a professional strength coach, or listening to a nutritional expert on how to improve one’s overall health.

Let’s start with physical conditioning. Many amateur players are unaware that certain muscles support a golf swing. If you are weak in certain areas, it definitely will affect a proper swing.

A good place to start is with a professional, and you can find certified instructors from the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI). When it comes to golf fitness, we suggest staying with a professional who has some formal training in golf and has great knowledge of the body, like a physical therapist or athletic trainer.

Some places claim they have the technology that can help you change your game. But a TPI professional has the proper knowledge to help you single out areas that need improvement.

If you actually strengthen areas that are identified as being weak, you have a much better chance for success when you work with your golf professional during your lessons.

You must maintain a certain level of mobility and flexibility to execute an efficient golf swing. If you are not flexible and strong, your success is limited on the golf course. The key to a successful shot is having a stable swing with proper timing. A proficient golf swing is one what has no physical barriers to alter your swing. Once a professional identifies the areas of weakness, it is easy to implement specific strength and conditioning programs.

So many amateur golfers think that just hitting the gym with a wide range of exercises will help their game. This is true to some extent. But why not identify and concentrate on your weakness to really improve what is needed? The nice part of this method is that it can help players on the high school golf team as easy as it will help older women and men.

Balanced Swing

When you’re watching a golf tournament on TV, you hear the announcers talk about “cookie-cutter” swings, and how all of the players’ swings today look the same. Well, it wasn’t always this way.

If you look at the players’ swings as recently as Arnold Palmer's era, there were many players that didn't look even remotely close to one another. Jack Nicklaus’s swing was powerful, but his right elbow moved out of position during his swing. Arnold’s swipe at the ball was basically all the speed that he summoned to hit the ball hard. That’s what caused the unique follow-through that he is known for. Lee Trevino grew up hitting rocks with a stick. His open setup to the ball and his target line led to his controlled fading of the ball. If you saw Orville Moody swing and didn’t know who he was, you would think that you could beat him. Gary Player was a short, thin man who couldn’t even reach the short par 5s at Augusta when he first played there. That led to him finding the proper exercise and nutrition to make his body stronger. His step through finish allowed him to send all of his body weight through the ball at impact. The next year when he played at Augusta, he was able to get the ball to all of the par 5's when he needed to. He still follows a diet and exercise regimen and looks physically superior to his contemporaries.

The equipment that these players were using was much harder to hit than the equipment that we use today. Don’t believe me; come visit me at the range. I still have persimmon headed and strata-block drivers there that you can try to hit. The key word in that sentence is “try.”­­

The thing that all of these players did well was keep their bodies in place so that they could do whatever it was during their swings and still deliver the clubface to the ball squarely on their target line. I mentioned cookie-cutter swings earlier. While it would be nice if everyone could swing the same way, it’s just not possible with all the variables involved such as height, weight, body type, etc. If you can maintain your balance during your swing, you can develop your own movement and keep the ball in play. While researching information for this article, I found it interesting that Arnie's father, Jack’s teacher Jack Grout, and Tiger’s father all told their student the same thing: “Hit it hard!” This was the common theme in the early instruction of all these players. To hit the ball hard, the player must be balanced so that he can get the clubface in the proper position.

To improve your own balance, go to the range, stand with your feet together, and try to swing as hard as you can without falling over. One disclaimer here: You have to be flexible to do this. If you are not in shape and not very flexible, do this drill slowly while concentrating on the feeling of staying balanced.

Good luck, and remember the 5 Ps: Perfect Practice Prevents Poor Performance!

Tom Beeler is a Class A Member of the PGA of America and the Tri-State Section PGA. He is the director of instruction at Bill's Golfland in Belle Vernon and co-host of the ”Tom & Tom Golf Show” on FoxSports Radio 970 AM.

Balanced Body

The athleticism required to play competitive golf in this era has come to the forefront in recent decades. The introduction of Tiger Woods to the tour made all players aware that if they wanted to be able to compete to win, golf-specific exercise and training was no longer an option but rather a necessity. One of the most talked about and analyzed components of a competitive golfer’s physical attributes is his balance.

Most people think of good balance as being able to walk a tight rope or perform a gymnastics routine on a balance beam. These are good examples of high-level balance activity, but they involve moving the feet, taking steps, and displacing the body from point A to point B.

In golf, good balance is required to keep the body stationary and controlled over the ball while unleashing a 120+ mph swing of the club, in the hopes of making perfect contact. So what is required of the golfer to maintain steady control of the body while swinging at this speed? The answer includes many physical attributes athletes train to improve upon all the time.

Initially, you must have joint flexibility. If your ankles, knees, hips, and spine don’t move freely through required ranges of motion, you will be forced to slide or fall off of the ball during various components of the swing. If your ankle is immobilized, secondary to a fracture or a sprain, you will be unable to walk and maintain balance normally. The same is true with the golf swing.

Neurologically, a player must be intact in order for the brain to communicate appropriately with the joint receptors. If there is an absence of neurological disease or injury both in the brain and the peripheral nervous system, joint receptors can be trained to respond more effectively and efficiently during different aspects of the golf swing. Often times this is an area that most people have never addressed. Once these training activities are introduced and repeated in the right format, improvements in this aspect of balance are often quick and dramatic.

For the healthy individual, I believe that the most important component to developing and maintaining good balance is strength. Peripherally, this is important in the hip, knee, and ankle musculature, as these areas of the body are essential in making and maintaining contact with the ground. That being said, symmetrical and balanced strength in the core of the body is the most essential physical attribute of a golfer with excellent balance. As the buzzword in the fitness world today, the core is often misrepresented as the abdominal region of the body; however, the abdominals represent only a portion of the core. The core includes all aspects of the hip, back extensors, oblique muscles, thoracic musculature, and the upper aspects of the thigh. The golfer must have balanced strength in all aspects of these areas to maintain proper position of the body while effectively initiating and completing a competitive golf swing. This is the area of concentration of most respected golf-specific exercise programs, such as the Titleist Performance Institute.

Golf has become a game for the masses, which means more play, more competition, and more preparation to play your best. Golfers that have learned how to work properly on their balance have seen improvements in their accuracy, distance, and ultimately their enjoyment. It’s fun to play golf, but it’s a blast to play well.

Clifford Milowicki is a licensed Physical Therapist who earned his Masters Degree from Thomas Jefferson University. In addition, He is a Certified Golf Fitness Instructor (CGFI) from the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI). He is the co-owner of Alliance Physical Therapy and Performance Center in Peters Township with a second location in Penn Hills. He is also a level 3 Certified USA Hockey coach, and serves as a mentor and past participant on the triathlons team for the “Team in Training” division of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Balanced Nutrition

If you are like me, you love to golf. I’ve met so many people golfing who simply cannot perform well due to the limits they put on themselves by being overweight. I’ve been able to help hundreds of people improve their golf game by simply becoming healthier. I’ve seen so many people that have to swing around their belly when they play golf. My goal is to get people into shape the easiest way I know how. It is easier than you think!

A body that is nutritionally bankrupt and toxic is a body with an invitation to illness, disease and injury. It is so simple to cleanse and properly fuel and maintain your internal body. We change the filters in our car and our heating and air-conditioning regularly because they would break down if clogged. We do all these things to maintain and cleanse other areas of our life, but what do we do to take care of the most important asset that we have—our internal body?

Before – 296-1/2 lbs. After – 201-1/2 lbs Tim Roberts – Roscoe, PA Lost 95 Pounds in 6 Months

Kim Olsen BEFORE

Kim Olsen AFTER

You should strongly consider helping the filters in your body. I was introduced to a nutritional cleaning program that has changed my life and the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals. This balanced program includes high grade New Zealand whey protein, 70 ionic trace minerals, antioxidants, vitamins, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and adaptogens, just to name a few of the amazing ingredients. The quality and purity of the products rivals anything I have seen in the nutritional industry, and many of the nutrients fuel the two detoxification pathways of the liver. This is important because your liver is the most vital detoxification organ of your body. All of these nutrients fuel your cells and vital organs and make the body a much better natural detoxifier.

This process is very simple and extremely easy to follow. It does not require a drastic lifestyle change. In fact, it helps you maintain your normal lifestyle. This is actually a cellular cleanse and it is not to be confused with a colon cleanse. The two are not even similar.

I firmly believe that if you nutritionally replenish the body and help the body internally cleanse at a cellular level, it’s possible to achieve optimal health and wellness beyond your wildest dreams. This type of healing is not a Band-Aid approach to health, but instead is a lifestyle approach that puts each of us individually in control. Now is the best time to take control of your health and your future.

The program is perfect for both men and women. In my opinion, this program will definitely help you rid your body of toxins and lose weight.

I introduced a friend of mine to this cellular cleansing and meal-replacement program less than a year ago. Since then, he has since lost over 100 pounds and can enjoy playing golf again. He is also a barefoot water skier, and it is much easier for him to water ski at 200 pounds than it was at 300. And he did all of this without hitting the gym. He followed the program and watched what he ate. He replaced useless foods full of preservatives and junk with some of the purist and nutritionally loaded products in the world.

If you are interested in talking about a nutritional program that could help you get into better shape for golf and everything else you do, feel free to call me at (724) 640-2278.

Doug is owner of Open Air Imaging and has been a life long enthusiast of nutrition, bodybuilding and training. He has personally helped hundreds of people become healthier by education and utilization of nutritional and cleansing products.

If you want to get your, mind, body and swing in shape...call to reserve your space today. Limited Space Available! (412) 819-5154.