Maintaining balance at address and through the entire swing is essential to hitting good golf shots. Proper balance allows you to keep the club on the correct swing path more easily, square the club face to the target at impact and transfer your weight at the right time — all things that the best players do with consistency.
Airplane Rotation
Golf fitness specialist Sean Cochran recommends the use of an airplane-rotation exercise for balance training. For this exercise, begin with your feet together and arms extended straight out. Bend at the hips, keeping your back flat and chest parallel to the ground. Lift your right foot, balancing your weight on your left foot. Extend your right leg back from your hip. Rotate your left arm down toward the ground and right arm toward the sky and then return to the starting point. Do five to 15 repetitions before switching feet and repeating the process.
Side to Side Stabilization Hops
Cochran suggests following the airplane rotation with side to side stabilization hops. To begin, stand upright, with your feet shoulder-width apart, hands on hips and eyes forward. Lift your right leg off the ground, bend your left knee 45 degrees and jump laterally onto your right foot, landing solely on that foot and balancing for two seconds. Jump laterally back to your left foot, maintaining balance there. Cochran recommends starting with five reps — that is, leaps between right and left — ultimately building to 15 repetitions.
Progression
Sean Cochran also makes the point that over time your nervous and muscular systems will adapt to the airplane-rotation and side to side stabilization hop exercises. Consequently, it is important to use progression — modifying the exercises to make them more challenging — to get ongoing benefits from balance training. Cochran suggests creating unstable training environments by taking your stance on balance boards or BOSU balls to increase the difficulty.
No-peek Drill
Ladies Professional Golf Association pro Lynn Marriott offers a drill to help you test and improve your balance with a club in your hands. Begin by finding a safe, low-activity part of the driving range. Take a normal swing, with your eyes open and focused on the target, but don't strike the ball. Follow that with a swing while blindfolded — or with your eyes closed. Finally, step up to the ball and try to hit it without looking. Such a drill will help you to identify any disturbance in your balance during the swing because you won't be focused on following the flight of the ball.
References
- PGATour.com: Unstable Training Is Great for Advanced Balance Exercises; Sean Cochran; July 2006
- "Golf"; Balancing Act; Lynn Marriott; December 2006
- PGATour.com: Watch your Game Soar with the Airplane Rotation; Sean Cochran; July 2006
- PGATour.com: Develop your Dynamic Balance with Stabilization Hops; Sean Cochran; July 2006
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