Effects of an Eight week Golf Specific Core Stabilisation Exercise Programme on Swing Stability and Club Head Velocity in Amateur Golfers

By: Mika Janhunen, K A Edlund

Anglo-European College of Chiropractic

ABSTRACT

Objective: This investigation aimed to determine the effect of an 8 week focused, golf specific core stabilising exercise programme on swing stability and club head velocity in a sample of amateur golfers.

Design: A non-randomised comparative cohort study

Setting: Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, Bournemouth, UK

Subjects: 40 amateur male golfers with at least 2 years of regular golf experience (10 rounds of golf per year) were included in this investigation, of which 36 completed the study. Subjects were excluded if they had begun any new exercise programs or golf tuition, or planned during the 8 week period of this investigation to begin any such program. Subjects were divided into experimental (n=19) and control (n=17) groups.

Methods: Club head velocity (CHV) was recorded before and after the intervention for all individuals using a standard 6 iron. The subjects were also video recorded to measure the lateral sway during the golf swing. The experimental group participated in an intervention consisting of 8 weeks of 3 times weekly core stabilising training aimed at increasing strength and endurance of the core stabilising muscles.

Results: The experimental group experienced a statistically significant post-intervention decrease in lateral body sway during back swing of 0.61 cm (p=0.0467) representing a mean change of 23.80% and a statistically extremely significant increase in CHV of 4.84mph (p=0.0007) representing a relative increase of 7.45%. The control group showed an insignificant (p=0.1893) increase in CHV of 1.71mph (2.35%) over the same period. An increase in CHV of this magnitude can result in a performance gain of approximately 14 yards driver distance. An increase in driving distance has been shown to be directly related to lower scores and therefore improved performance.

Conclusion: A focused, golf specific core stabilising training programme had the effect of increasing club head velocity. The core stabilising exercises do decrease the amount of lateral sway during the golf swing. Combined, these factors do increase the distance and accuracy of golf performance, in a sample of amateur male golfers. The specificity of resistance training of the power generating muscles of the golf swing and flexibility training of the primary joints of the golf swing can be attributed to this improvement.

Read the article on Core Stability here.

Find out how all of this ties in together with chiropractic treatment here.