Josh’s Tips & Tricks: Shoulder Mobility

Intro

Hello golfers, welcome to this week’s tips & tricks. A couple of simple exercises for you today to help with your shoulder mobility. Shoulder mobility in the golf swing is crucial and if you struggle with movement through the shoulder joints, this could be limiting your progress. Lets take a look.

Shoulder Mobility

Take a look at the following video and then we will discuss the importance of shoulder mobility and how you should be moving the trail shoulder in the swing.

Shoulder flexibility in golf is an essential aspect of a fluid golf swing. The shoulder joint itself is a classic ball and socket joint. It’s similar to the hip, but with a lot less stabilization. This design allows the joint a lot of motion in all planes of movement, but puts it at a greater risk of injury.

Even as mobile as the shoulder joint is made to be, if not moved through its full range of motion on a regular basis, you will begin to lose the motion needed for a consistent golf swing.

The Shoulder in the Golf Backswing

Lead Shoulder (left shoulder for right-handers)
Assuming you are right-handed, the left arm needs to reach across the body during the backswing. The upper half of your left arm should be touching your left chest muscle (called horizontal adduction).

Trail Shoulder/Arm (right shoulder for right-handers)
Your back shoulder needs to have good range in two different motions: abduction plus external rotation.

Shoulder External Rotation
We find a lot of golfers older than 50 lacking the shoulder external rotation needed to get the golf swing on plane. This will cause your elbow to “fly out” or “chicken wing” in your backswing.

To check yourself, have a friend watch you. Take a full backswing and stop at the top of the backswing. Check to make sure the point of your trail elbow is pointing straight down to the ground. If it is angled and pointing behind you, that can be a problem.

Exercises

Try to get your back, head, heels, and bum as flat and touching the wall as possible. Try to keep the shoulders against the wall when performing the exercises. If you struggle to complete a full range of motion or your body starts to come off the wall to compensate for it, you need to work on your shoulder mobility. I try to complete these exercises at least several times a week to ensure that I can move my body properly to help you guys understand it. I have previously injured my left shoulder so know what it’s like to go through rehab and have limited shoulder mobility.

Summary

If you struggle to complete the exercises shown you need to start thinking about some physiotherapy or some physical activity to help improve it. If you’re serious about your golf you will give yourself the best chance of improving by physically conditioning yourself. The golf swing can be a very explosive and dynamic movement and without the sufficcient range of motion it can become difficult and inefficient.

If you feel like you struggle with your position at the top of your backswing and would like me to take a look you can CLICK HERE TO BOOK A LESSON NOW.

Catch you soon.

Cheers,

Josh