Do you play golf or want to start? We strongly recommend you sort your biomechanics whilst playing golf because doing so can have a significant impact on your golf swing.
We work with golfers of all levels from beginners, novice to professionals. Improving their golf swing and resolving knee, hip, shoulder, back and pain injuries.
Typical biomechanics of golfers
If you golf then you may already be aware that it is common for golfers to have one leg shorter than the other. This can be the result of years of swinging the golf club on the same side thus compressing the lateral trunk on that side. The pelvis on this side tends to drop therefore the position of all the major joints of the body will change. We’ll talk you through it using Zander, a professional golfer and patient that we have had the pleasure of working with for the past 5 years. Zanders displays a typical golfers alignment, maybe the only exception is the extent of over-pronation of Zanders
How’s your standing posture?
Zander swings on the right side of his body. From the image you will see the drop of the right side of the pelvis. This has caused the right femur (thigh bone) to adduct (shift inwards) and internally rotate, the tibia (shin bone) to internally rotate and the foot pronation (“flat foot”) to increase. It’s a catch 22 because the increased pronation then increases the tibial internal rotation, the knee and hip adduction etc etc
What affect does this change in position have on the body?
THE HIP.
The excess hip adduction will inhibit hip muscles, in particular the gluteus medius. The gluteus medius muscle is very important because it stabilises the hip, preventing excess hip adduction. And as you can see from the first image, excess hip adduction has a negative knock on affect on alignment throughout the body.
THE LATERAL TRUNK
The drop on around the right hip has a knock on effect on the thigh as we’ve just demonstrated, although it also effects the lateral trunk by increasing the compressive forces on that side. So golfers should be sure to stretch the lateral upper trunk too.
THE KNEE
As demonstrated, the drop around the hip will result in an increase in femora adduction and this increase in knee adduction will result in an increase in the tensile (stretch) over the inner aspect of the knee. There will an increase in the compressive forces over the lateral aspect of the knee, predisposing this area of the knee to cartilage injuries.
THE FOOT.
The above alignment changes will result in an increase in lower leg internal rotation and therefore foot pronation. Foot pronation is the lowering of the arch of the foot (sort of…) and the inwards tilt of the heel. As explained above, increased foot pronation further exacerbates the aforementioned alignment changes and the cycle continues.
What our Biomechanical Assessment involves:
We have heavily invested to be able to incorporate 3 different analysis software packages to be able to analysis multiple data of your gait. We are able to do so much more than just highlight joint positions from a video taken of your walking and running gait. We do that, in detail, but also much more!
Specifically, we are able to show you the position of your foot, knee, hip, spine, shoulder and head at each different phase of the gait cycle. We analyse this information from a video play back of your walking and running. Most clinics now offer some sort of video play back but where we differ is in our ability to understand what this information actually means. In addition to this, we measure detail which is not possible to capture from a video analysis; measure in numerical value your balance and coordination and direction of movement.
AND at the same time whilst this information is being captured, measured and analysed we have another software system running which is capturing and measuring information at the level of your feet to analyse info such as step length, loading times, flight time…
How do we alter this alignment?
Zander was prescribed foot orthotics with significant corrective forces and this worked to reduce the over pronation and thus reduce the hip adduction enough to enhance glut muscle activation. The abnormal stress around the knee reduces and the knee is less at risk of injury. Zander isn’t so fussed about all that, he’s just happy that his golf swing feels easier and more free!
