Alderley Edge Golf ClubToday I thought I would write about the link between poor golf swing mechanics and lower back pain. A recent study of 31,000 golfers found that 28.1% of them had to deal with lower back pain after every round. When I first saw this number I found it quite alarming that such I high number of golfers are swinging the club in a way that is causing them to suffer pain.
In this article I am going to focus on the swing fault that most commonly cause lower back pain – Reverse Spine Angle (RSA). This can be defined as any upper body backward bend (towards the target) during the backswing. This puts excessive extension into the spine at the top of the backswing, which causes the pain.
Below you will see a before/after picture of Michael, one of my students. He also suffers from lower back pain so it is a priority of ours to eliminate his RSA. As you can see in the K-Vest date below, his upper body bend at the top of the swing was -7 degrees (7 degrees towards the target). This can also be seen in the ‘before’ picture below.
To help Michael remove this fault from his swing, we placed a stability ball between his legs and encouraged him to ‘rotate’ his shoulders instead of ‘tilting’ them.
As you can see from the K-Vest data from the end of the lesson, Michael’s upper body was leaning 3 degrees away from the target, an improvement of 10 degrees!
Precise Practice Makes Permanent
Changing your swing within a golf lesson is not the end of the story; the majority of golfers will slip back into bad habits the next time they practice. Michael is using the K-Vest to practice to make sure that does not happen to him.
Hire the K-Vest to practice for as little as £5
For £5 you can practice for 30 minutes, if you are in the wrong position you will not be given the biofeedback (music playing). This is guaranteed to make your practice more effective.
If you would like to come and try the K-Vest, please call the pro shop on 01625 586200 (ext 2)