Golf Fitness: Balance pt. 1

So, I recently tested my balance and realized it was an absolute abomination.

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Balance is something I take into consideration with almost everyone's program golfer or not. It is important to performance and being able as we all age.

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It has made me think though, of the time and place to program for it and how to progress balance exercises.

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Today we will talk about the When And Where

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This really depends on your starting out point. If your balance is an issue, then balance drills will find its way all up in your program.

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Let's assume for today that your balance is good, but not great.

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The way that I program for golfers is breaking everything down the year into phases.

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To me the first season is right now which is early pre-season.

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Balance work will be a primary focus in 3 main areas of the golf season. Pre-season, In-season, and early offseason.

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Pre season and in-season make sense because we want to ensure you are balanced when developing power and actually playing. The entire point of a pre-season is to prepare to “peak” at certain points during the season.

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Golf is weird where you need to be “peaked” multiple times throughout the course of a very short time period. Due to this, balance is incredibly important because it is a foundational component to the entire sport.

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Without being balanced, you will have decreased force production, decreased ability to reproduce a swing, decrease ability for short game and putting, and (in my opinion) being more fatigued throughout the round because it take greater muscle activity to produce these movements.

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Early offseason is something I do because I want to make sure you remain balanced as we start to develop strength.

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Depending on the athlete; balance is something that might find its way into the entire offseason. If the only way for them to get better and develop more power is through balance, then that is what we are going to do.

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In most cases, it is something that is included, but barely a supporting character.

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Okay, now the where. Normally balance work is something I include in the beginning of a workout. If it is more of a primary focus, then it will be all throughout it.

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A simple layout would be something like core stability drills in the warm up like a deadbug. Then we would progress to a SL med ball variation in the movement prep. From there balance is season dependent. It will be present in a variety of ways such as different types of single leg exercise variations like single leg deadlift etc…

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Next time we will talk about the way that we progress balance exercises.

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Yours in strength,

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Nate

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