Imagine being 10-20 yards closer to the green after every drive. How much would that help your score? Nearly every week I talk to or work with a player that can no longer reach long par 4’s in two shots because they don’t hit the ball far enough. There can be many physical factors that go into hitting the golf ball further. Improving strength, improving power and improving speed are all crucial. But sometimes, especially as you age, decreased mobility can play a role. Adding a few golf mobility drills to your warm up can be an easy way to prevent these issues.
Mobility is essentially how much active control you have over the motion of your joints. It is a combination of how flexible you are and how well you can control your own body. Improving your mobility will help you get a bigger turn in your backswing, maintain your posture, and be more efficient in delivering the golf club back to impact.
With that being said, here are four golf mobility drills you can try in your warm up or workout to help you hit longer drives.
The largest mobility restriction that we see in golfers that are losing distance is the ability to rotate. Typically, this is restricted in the upper back and rib cage, or in the hips.
The seated t-spine rotation drill is a simple golf mobility drill that uses breathing, rotation and side-bending to open up the sides of your rib cage and upper back. This should provide an immediate increase in your ability to rotate.
However, these immediate changes won’t last forever. You need to do this regularly and couple it with exercise to be able to control your new increase in motion.
The hip airplane is our favorite hip mobility exercise, and makes a great golf mobility drill as well. Not only does it work on improving your hip mobility, it will also work your glute muscles and help you with single leg stability. Single leg stability is important in your golf game to create a steady base on a single leg while you are rotating in your golf swing.
Once we start improving the ability for your hips and upper back to rotate, you need to build up the strength and control over your muscles that control those movements. Additionally, we want to work on the ability to separate your shoulders from your hips. This creates the “x-factor” stretch and proper sequencing that will help improve the efficiency of your swing.
This rotational row is a great golf mobility drill to work on your ability to build the strength of your upper back muscles. This specifically will help you rotate into your backswing while learning to stabilize your lower body.
Now it is time to speed things up! You need to be able to rotate your body quickly and separate your shoulders from your hips. This is a great drill that works on utilizing your new found range of motion from the above golf mobility drills, while incorporating it into higher speed movements.
Try sitting on a bench or box that has your knees and hips bent about 90 degrees. Then, focus on rotating your chest and shoulders side to side to throw the ball to the wall behind you while making sure you keep your feet flat and knees pointing forward the whole time.
If you start performing these golf mobility drills consistently, you will start to feel like you have a bigger turn, you can hit key positions in your swing easier, and start seeing your driving distance increase!
If you’d like to learn more about how to improve your club head speed, check out our podcast with world long drive competitor, Josh Koch. If you need a simple but effective golf warm up to perform before your rounds, download our free golf warm up today!
At Kinetic Sports Medicine and Performance, our physical therapists have been trained by the Titleist Performance Institute. They work with golfers of all ages and ability levels. We have helped golfers of all ages and ability levels recover from injuries or play better golf. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you move and play better.