Avoiding Golf Injuries
Blogs, / By Winsen Citra
Golf is not an easy sport. It may look effortless when you watch a pro do it, but it requires a high degree of technique. Unfortunately, to achieve good technique, you require a fair amount of strength, flexibility, and body control. If you do not have good body control, because you sit at your desk 8 hours a day, then you will be prone to having aches and pains all over your body.
Usually, an article like this tells you what to do when you get injured, but I thought it might be better to help you prevent them in the first place.
Why you get injured playing golf
The simple answer is you have poor technique. If you’ve spent a lot of time and effort to correcting your golf swing technique, but still can’t get it right and end up getting injured, then the problem lies with the following issues:
- You lack flexibility – unfortunately, no matter how much you get coaching, or watch videos on proper golf swing technique, it won’t matter. You require good trunk flexibility to rotate enough to get to the right positions. If your body is unable to get there, then improving your flexibility is where you should start.
- You lack strength – golf swings require you to have great overall body strength to do correctly
- You are too tense – this is a side effect of not having enough strength or having poor technique. You end up putting in too much power in your golf swings in a bid to get more distance. This usually ends with you pulling a muscle or injuring your tendons.
How to avoid getting injured
Here are simple steps that you can do to avoid getting injured:
- Stretch – Stretch before and after playing golf. For best effect you would want to include a stretching routine daily.
- Strengthen – One of the best kinds of strengthening you can do is Pilates as it improves your core strength which is crucial in your golf swing.
- Do not overswing – Learn to relax when you swing. overswinging can lead to injuries in many areas of your body.
- Improve your endurance – A round of golf is lengthy. You want to have enough stamina to last through eighteen holes.
We hope this has been beneficial for you. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Also, check out our Instagram page for useful exercises you can do.
Winsen Citra
Principal Physiotherapist
Winsen graduated from University of Melbourne in 2012. He worked in organisations of various sizes such as Singapore General Hospital, Pain Relief Practice, and Physioclinic before working at Elevate Physiotherapy. He specialises in sports and musculoskeletal injuries and has worked with athletes of various sports such as fencing, dancing, dragon boating, and cycling.
In his spare time he enjoys singing and playing chess.