Golf
Warm-up for Golf
Golfers need to be educated about the benefits of warm-ups, particularly for injury prevention, according to Fradkin et al. (2003)[2]. A survey of more than a thousand randomly selected amateur golfers from three different golfing venues in Melbourne in June 1999 confirmed the widely held suspicion that most golfers do not bother warming up. More than 70% of the sample said they never or seldom warmed up, while a mere 3.8% reported warming up on every occasion they played. Golfers claiming to warm up stated that they generally performed stretches (89.6%), ball hits (27.1%), or air swings (23%), with only 0.2% performing aerobic exercise.
The most common reasons given for warming up included:
- To play better (74.5%)
- To prevent injury (27%)
- Because everyone else does (13.2%)
Common reasons for not warming up were:
- Do not need to (38.7%)
- Do not have enough time (36.4%)
- Cannot be bothered (33.7%)
Does it matter, you may ask? Yes, it does for injury prevention since golf is a popular sport with no age limits. The tendency for the players to be older and often not in good physical condition contributes to injury risk. Ironically but perhaps predictably, the more senior golfers in this study were least likely to warm up.
According to emergency departments and sports medicine clinics, the researchers point out that golfers commonly suffer sprains and other overuse injuries, as well as acute traumatic injuries, falls, and impacts with golf balls. Pro-golfers have a higher injury rate (lifetime injury risk of 89% compared with 57-62% for amateurs). Still, amateurs tend to have less well-conditioned bodies and place higher stress on their musculoskeletal systems during the golf swing.
An appropriate warm up for golfers would include aerobic exercise to raise body temperature, followed by stretching the "golf muscles and joints" (hands, wrists, forearms, shoulders, lower back, chest, trunk, hamstrings, and groin) and, finally, by a series of golf swings with progressive increases in the range of movement and vigour.
In this study, golfers, who claimed to know what sort of warm-up reduced injury risk, were more likely to warm-up than those who didn't. And the researchers conclude: 'Knowledge of the injury prevention benefits of warming up appears to be a significant motivator of positive attitudes and behaviours.
Although warming up is widely promoted as an essential measure to enhance performance and prevent injury in amateur and professional golfing, there has been no scientific proof that it works. But that has all changed with the research by Fradkin et al. (2004)[3] of the first controlled study to investigate the effects of a golf-specific warm-up and conditioning programme on clubhead speeds in amateur golfers, which has demonstrated significant benefits.
Twenty male golfers were matched in pairs for age and handicap, with one of each pair randomly placed in either an exercise or control group. The exercise group completed a golf-specific warm-up routine and conditioning programme 4-5 times per week for five weeks, while the control group adhered to their usual practice routines.
Clubhead speed of 10 practice strokes, assessed by two-dimensional video analysis in a laboratory setting at the outset of the study, was rechecked one week later and then again seven weeks later.
Key findings were as follows:
- Between weeks 1 and 2, golfers in the exercise group improved their clubhead speed by 3-6 metres per second by performing the warm-up immediately before their ten strokes. This 12.8% increase in speed equated to a decreased handicap of approximately four shots
- Between weeks 1 and 7, golfers in the exercise group improved their clubhead speed by 7-l0m/s by performing the warm-up programme before the ten strokes, having performed it 4-5 times a week for five weeks. This equated to a decrease in the handicap of approximately seven shots
- By contrast, golfers in the control group did not significantly improve their clubhead speed over the seven weeks. Exception for one outlying participant, whose mean clubhead speeds varied by about 1.7m/s (but not in a progressive manner), mean clubhead speeds did not vary by more than 0.8m/s over the three testing periods
"While the practice is essential for perfecting the golf swing," conclude the researchers, "data from this study suggests that sport-specific conditioning is also valuable... This study has shown that by warming up immediately before play performance is significantly improved, and by performing it 4 or 5 times a week for five weeks, performance is even further improved."
Article Reference
The information on this page is adapted from Walker (2003)[1] with the kind permission of Electric Word plc.
References
- WALKER, I. (2003) Why Golfers do not bother to warm up. Peak Performance, 190, p. 11-12
- FRADKIN, A. et al. (2003) Warm-up attitudes and behaviours of amateur golfers. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 6 (2), p. 210-215
- FRADKIN, A. et al. (2004) Improving golf performance with a warm up conditioning programme. Br J Sports Med, 38, p. 762-765
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- WALKER, I. (2003) Warm-up for Golf [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article031.htm [Accessed