Adapt to Your Golf Injuries Like Tiger Woods

Jeff Mitchell: Hi, this is Jeff Mitchell with The Golf Standard.

Today we're talking about making adaptations if you have either an injury or some physical limitations.

If you've got a sore ankle, sore back, sore knees, those things could really make a big difference in your golf swing.

Today we're going to talk about a couple of ways that you might be able to change some things in your setup to make that a little bit better process. This first example would be, say, I've got a sore left ankle today and I want to make sure that as I turn I'm not putting a great deal of pressure on that ankle, or it's going to interfere with my ability to take a normal swing.

What I'm going to do is I'm simply going to try and change my setup position.

If I get in a normal setup position, my right foot is just about perpendicular to my target line, my left foot is angled out slightly. If I've got a really sore ankle, the last thing I want to do is to pivot or to twist on that ankle.

It's going to create a lot of pain and it's going to interfere with my golf swing.

All I'm going to do is make a minor setup change, so that when I setup I'm going to turn that left foot out, and I might even turn the right foot in just a little bit, so I'm taking a little bit shorter back swing and then as I come through and I turn onto to that left ankle, there's not going to be so much torque.

I'm going to be able to turn better, get to a good finish position without creating a great deal of pressure on that injured ankle. This next example might be if you have a little bit of a hip problem on either side, or maybe some lower back issues.

Again we're going to talk about this as it goes to the setup.

What I would do is instead of going into a very normal setup, what I would do is setup my feet in what I call a duck walk situation, where they are both pointed out at about 45 degrees. What this is going to do, and the difference between this and a normal setup, is it's going to allow you to turn the upper body and the lower body together instead of independently.

When you turn back you're going to turn the shoulders but the hips are going to turn as well.

What that's going to do is it's going to keep you from creating that strain on that right hip in the back swing. Same thing would be true coming through, we're going to turn the hips, we're also going to turn the shoulders if we come through.

Again, that's going to take some of that pressure off of the hip joint.

Now, it's going to obviously change some things in the golf swing, you're going to have to be a lot more mindful or your posture, staying consistent with the golf ball and really work on good balance, because you don't have quite that same center kind of a balance as you would in a normal golf swing.

By turning your feet out at about 45 degrees, not only will it take pressure off the hips, but it will also you to turn your hips, shoulders together, which if you have lower back issues, that's going to take a lot of strain off of the lower back as well. This last example would be for someone who maybe has some shoulder issues.

I've got a good friend of mine, he's had a number of different surgeries and he has physical limitations.

We've talked about trying to get this foot out, that foot out, those kinds of things so he's able to use the lower body.

He's a very fit person overall but with certain limitations in flexibility.

He likes having what he would call an athletic golf swing, but you have to deal with what you have. He can't raise his right arm any more than about right here.

All that means is that as he goes longer and longer into the back swing, his club gets very, very steep, gets over the top.

He has a hard time delivering to the back of the golf ball.

One of the things that I suggest is that if you have some shoulder issues and not a lot flexibility, then what you're going to try to do is to simply keep the arms and hands more out, in front of the body throughout the golf swing. What this is going to do is as you go back, you're going to have what you would consider a shorter swing, even though it's really not.

You can get a good full turn with the shoulders, but have a short arm swing.

That's going to allow you to stay more on plane, that's going to allow you to have fewer moving parts, and the way that it works is with the arms out in front you're simply going to use the big muscles in the body a little bit more to hit the shot. What would happen, instead of going way back here, big long turn, long arm swing, back and through, you would take the club only to shoulder height, it's going to stay out in front of your chest here, and then you can turn very aggressively with the body.

It eliminates the need for having a long arm swing. Find somebody that you trust with your golf swing, help them to help you make some modifications so that even if you have an injury or physical limitations you can still enjoy this great game of golf.

Till next time.