Common Swing Faults With Physical Fixes

All the above are reasons why a player's swing faults are hard to improve long term. Aside from blatant lack of skill, muscle imbalance is by far the most common source of altered neuromechanics and both poor and/or inconsistent swing mechanics. Teaching pros need to be able to identify and correct length-tension relationships. Length-tension relationships (the balance between muscles and groups of muscles) represent and dictate both the real-time function of the working joints and how well the body executes the brain.s swing command. In the presence of muscle length-tension imbalances, what may be a very good motor engram leaving the brain often manifests as a swing with notable faults. A player with muscle imbalance is most easily identified by his/her poor posture. Altered spinal curvatures disrupt spinal mechanics, leading to compensatory movement at other joints. When the player.s muscle balance and postural alignment are optimal, there is minimal engram (motor command sequence) disruption. In this state, good motor programming results in long term correction of swing faults and minimizes chances of orthopedic injury. One of the main reasons for muscle imbalance is the way our muscles are designed. We have muscles that are classified as TONIC and muscles that are classified as PHASIC. The physiological reality of how these two muscle types react to both physical and mental stress is what underlies many chronic swing faults that persist despite having spent large sums of money on elite coaching and high-tech clubs! Tonic muscles are ideally suited to postural duties such as holding an address posture and an optimal swing axis. Tonic muscles react to aberrant physical or mental stress by shortening and tightening. Phasic muscles are more suited to dynamic movements such as actually swinging and accelerating the club. Phasic muscles react to aberrant physical or mental stress by lengthening and weakening. One of the key reasons for the difference responses between the muscle types is the threshold of stimulation; tonic muscles have a low threshold of stimulation, while phasic muscles have a high threshold of stimulation Additionally, as we age (beyond 40) our phasic abdominal and gluteal (butt) muscles tend to weaken, further encouraging muscle imbalance. Experienced golfers often have a very good mental image, or consciousness of the ideal swing, and try with all intent to execute one. Because tonic muscles have a lower threshold of stimulation than phasic muscles and tend to override commands to antagonistic and synergistic phasic muscles, which have a high threshold of stimulation, the physical image or expression of the motor command may not represent the mental image used to generate the movement. Here the tonic lumbar erectors and hip flexors override the phasic abdominal and gluteal musculature, pulling the player into an over-swing; not only does the player frequently not realize he/she is doing this, back pain is a common byproduct. Note that muscle imbalance is most easily identified as poor posture (the key is recognizing what is poor posture versus good posture!). When a player develops any degree of muscle imbalance, the swing motor engram that leaves the player.s brain is altered in proportion to the degree of facilitation and muscle imbalance that exists in the musculoskeletal system. Additionally, each time a player executes a swing in the presence of muscle imbalance, the engram is progressively altered and the muscle imbalance is further facilitated. This is one reason that golfers play for five or even ten years with minimal improvement in their handicap; even though their understanding of the game is improving, their level of neuromechanical imbalance is of greater influence on their game! THERE IS A SOLUTION! You can make significant gains toward a better swing by simply stretching the shortened tonic muscles just before you play.