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Unstable
Training Is Great For
Advanced Balance Exercises
The past two weeks we
have talked about static and dynamic balance
training to improve your golf swing. Ultimately, we
know in order to get into the correct position and
to execute the golf swing, we need to develop the
balancing capacities of our body. The bottom line is
the greater efficiency in which you balance, the
greater ease you will have executing most any shot
on the golf course. In the last two weeks, we looked
at the static balance exercises airplane rotations
and for dynamic balance, we added the side-to-side
stabilization hops.
Both of these
exercises challenge your nervous and muscular
systems. Eventually if you continue to perform both
of these golf fitness exercises, your nervous and
muscular systems are going to adapt to these
exercises. Once this occurs, the benefit from these
two exercises will be minimal. It is necessary if
you wish to continue to improve you balance capacity
in relation to the golf swing to increase the
difficulty of these exercises. In order to do this,
we utilize the principle of progression. Simply
stated, this is the implementation of golf fitness
exercises that progressively force the muscles and
nervous systems of your body to work harder. The
result will be continual benefit from your golf
fitness training and balance exercises.
You can easily use
this principle for other areas of your golf swing
improvement program, especially swing drills where
you begin with a basic fundamental drill and once
you master that, you add progressively more
difficult swing drills to continue improvement of
your golf swing.
It's the same thing
in golf fitness. When talking about balance
exercises and the principle of progression, what we
need to do is create a training environment, which
forces your nerves and muscles to work harder. This
is done through the implementation of an unstable
training surface. Again, as we said, this results in
continued improvement in the efficiency in which
both systems of your body operate. A half-foam
roller is a great item to use to create an unstable
training environment.
Common tools I use to
advance balance exercises and create unstable
training environments are half-foam rollers, physio
balls, balance boards, and bosu balls. Taking and
implementing any of these training tools into your
balance training exercises will create a more
difficult exercise and, in the long run, continue to
benefit your golf swing.
For example, look at
the airplane rotation. When we discussed this
exercise two weeks ago, we started with your foot on
the ground. The ground is considered a stable
training environment. Now to create an unstable
training environment, place a half- foam roller
under your balancing foot. This will force your
muscles and nerves to work harder, continuing the
benefit of the exercise. You can take this thought
process and utilize it throughout, and implement it
into any exercise to add the principle of
progression, creating a more difficult golf fitness
exercise.
Remember, we have two
components of balance we need to develop in the body
- static and dynamic - and at some point during your
golf fitness training program, you'll need to
utilize the principle of progression and make these
exercises more difficult. This will allow you to
continue to receive benefit from these golf fitness
balance exercises and your training program in
general.
Next week, we'll
answer all the great questions I have been
receiving. If you have any last minute questions,
send them in.
Sean Cochran
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