Best Way to Get Fit for Golf

Never assume that golfers don’t need to be fit. For a professional or top-class amateur golfer, playing competitive golf requires mobility, strength and stamina.

A top golfer may put as much effort into a drive as a javelin thrower does in throwing a javelin. Over a 36-hole, one-day event, that may mean hitting over 20 drives at full strength, with some aggressively hit irons and fairway woods. The javelin thrower trains rigorously and meticulously for perhaps 1 2 throws in the day – and doesn’t have to walk 10 miles at speed in between throws! Need I say more! If you want to be fit for a golfing season, walk, walk and walk some more. Use a treadmill at a gym through the winter – not running or even jogging-but walking at speed.

An average game of golf probably takes around four hours. Many players have nothing to eat or drink for an hour before that. It is a mistake. The body and brain need fuel to sustain performance. If you weren’t on the golf course you would rarely go five hours or more without some form of fluid or nourishment. Don’t assume that fluid intake is only required in the heat. Many golfers have a mental and physical crisis around the 12^th hole on the course. Tiredness sets in. Never expect to play good golf without taking on board both food and fluid during the round.

When you think of the golf swing, it requires flexibility. In the finish, your left foot stays pointing straight in front while your hips turn at right angles to this. Your ankles need looseness. Your back and waist need to be loose to turn and pivot. The left arm needs to work across the body towards your right shoulder, your wrists need to be flexible and your neck needs freedom to allow your head to stay still. Fortunately women have better mobility than men, but here are some exercises to help flexibility and strength.

Head and neck

Tip your head to the right as though touching your right shoulder with your right ear. Then tip it to the left, forwards and to the right. Shrug the shoulders up and down. Get rid of all the creaks and groans and feel the neck stretching.

Wrists

Just keep easing the thumbs back onto the inside of the wrists, and set them back to form right angles. Encourage fliexibility by making fists and spreading your fingers as wide as possible.

Toe touching

Practice bending from the hips — the posture you need in the golf swing – touching your toes. If you can do this with ease, try the same standing on the bottom step of a flight of stairs and ease the fingertips downwards.

Ham string stretch

Now move on to the legs. Put your right foot in front of you and squat down with your hands on your right knee. Put the left leg out straight behind you, with the left foot straight in front, forming a straight line along the left foot and right foot. Simply press down on the right knee and remain completely stationary for a few seconds. Don’t bounce. I hen repeat it with the other leg.

Arms and fingers

To strengthen, try this very simple exercise. Simple hold the arms out at arms length, with the fingers stretched. Pull the fingers in and out, in and out as fast as possible. It seems innocuous. But as you build up the numbers to 100 or more you will start feeling the good it is doing!

Another very simple exercise, which again has more effect than one would imagine, is to hold a golf club out at arms length and to write your name in the air with the clubhead. Do it with each hand. It builds up strength and helps you make friends with the clubhead.

One of the most widely used exercises with women pros is to attach a practice ball bag with a piece of rope to a club shaft or broom handle. Hold it out at arm s length and wind it upwards and downwards again. Increase the number of balls in the bag as your strength develops.

If you are a fitness enthusiast, use a pair of dumb-bells and twist them in and out, first with the elbows supported and then without them supported. The first will exercise the upper arms, the second the lower arms.

Legs, to exercise your legs, stand with one foot on a firm chair. Push yourself slowly up and down on the leg. Then repeat it for the other leg. Another popular exercise for golfers is to hang your practice ball bag over your ankle and to lilt the leg up and down.

Remember that the simpler the exercises are, the more likely you are to repeat them. Done regularly, they will help you stay loose.