Learn From Other Sports To Improve Your Golf

In athletics, "Cross Training" has proven to help athletes take their abilities to a higher level. In golf, you too can take your game to a higher level by learning from other sports and participating in them. I have heard countless numbers of times "My friends tell me I swing the club like a baseball bat and that is bad!". My response to that statement is "During the golf swing your arms rotate exactly like swinging a baseball bat, so that is good! But your body moves like throwing a ball and that is what you need to learn.". You can learn a great deal by observing players in other sports and how they move their bodies.

Take a look at great athletes playing various sports, they have several things in common. A great athlete is always in good position to execute, they are in balance, they have great timing, and their arms and body move in concert not in opposition. But all these traits are learned. They have ingrained these traits from not only playing their sport, but several sports.

For example, let's take a tennis player hitting a backhand. The player gets their racket and body into position as early as possible, then in order to hit their shot they rotate their core back and through while keeping the racquet in front of their body to execute the desired shot. In fact, there are a lot of similarities between swinging a tennis racquet and a golf club. Tennis is a great cross training sport for golf. Playing tennis will help you become more aware of your balance and how to rotate your body to create better shots. By becoming better at rotating your core with a tennis racquet you can improve your core rotation with a golf club in your hands. By playing other sports, you can improve your game while and not get burned out or bored from hitting too many balls. So mix up your practices to have more fun and you might just be surprised how much you can learn.

Comments

[Ryan Hartley, DPT]

Excellent post, Scott. Being well-rounded as an athlete is a huge advantage.

Hockey players also tend to be good golfers thanks not only to the swing similarities but also due to the hand-eye coordination involved. The swings are different, but you still need to shift your weight correctly with good timing and strike a small target (ball/puck) from several feet away.

Readers, playing some pickup games of any sport is a good mental and physical break from golf, and as Scott said, can help your game when you get back on the course.

This is also something to consider for your kids playing sports - variety goes a long way (more to come on this soon)!!!