Fit For Golf

Jackson Koivun

After Ryan Fox’s win last week, side bend in the golf swing, and the role it plays in injury risk got a lot of attention. Here we can see another excellent player, and very exciting prospect Jackson Koivun also demonstrating a large amount of side bend.

Like many things, people have strongly held beliefs on this subject. A lot of it is unsupported by rigorous research, and is predominantly from single player case studies.

The body of published scientific research on swing mechanics and injury risk does not show a conclusive link. There are been two systematic reviews that dig into this question specifically. Watson et al 2023, and Smith at al 2018. You can look them up.

This does not mean there isn’t a link, it just hasn’t been shown.

Swing mechanics play a huge role in where stress is placed, but stress does not necessarily mean injury, as the body is so amazingly adaptable. We see lots of examples of this throughout sports.

Injury is very complex. There are golfers with very neutral swing mechanics with debilitating pain, and golfers with extreme mechanics that don’t have any issues. The golf swing is a stressful move in general!

It is definitely an area where longer term and higher quality research is needed.

I wrote a short review of the available research on this topic in my latest newsletter. If you comment research, it will be DM’ed to you.

Video: GPOD GOLF | The best phone holder in golf

If you follow my work, you already know we lose muscle as we age, and that this loss comes primarily from our fast twitch fibres. 💪

A huge issue for golf performance and for general function. 🏌🏽

This research review is about where in our body we lose that muscle mass from.

Full Review- https://us16.campaign-archive.com/?u=d1ea12a2b3cd6e67d31260741&id=3bc21c65d3

Lifelong Golf ⛳️
How long can you play well? 🏌️‍♀️

How many more years of your best golf do you want? Not just playing, but actually enjoying it. The kind where you can walk 18 holes without getting tired, swing with real power, and play again in a few days without thinking twice about it.

Thats your golf span ⛳️

Which kind of training programmes are most effective for actually adding club head speed and distance?

That is the topic of this weeks research review, which I send out to my email list weekly.

A 2021 review in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research set out to answer exactly this question, and the takeaway is all about training specificity.

There is also good news for the middle-aged and older among you: you may stand to gain more than the younger players, not less.

Any questions 🙂?

Uthoff A, Sommerfield LM, Pichardo AW. Effects of Resistance Training Methods on Golf Clubhead Speed and Hitting Distance: A Systematic Review. J Strength Cond Res. 2021;35(9):2651 to 2660.