Golf can be one of those sports you love, and one you love to hate. Almost every golfer is looking for that one way of increasing his or her abilities, of figuring out how to be a better golfer, how to improve the game. What if the answer was something as simple as stretching?



Your golf game will improve dramatically when you are stronger and more flexible. Flexibility for golf is often undervalued. Take a look at the basic golf movements: your golf swing uses your hip and knee joints, your shoulders, elbow and wrist joints. A smooth swing is a result of smooth movements through these joints, which comes with greater flexibility.

Flexibility is the ability of your body to move in a smooth range of motion. Our bodies are great mechanical devices. And like any machine, requires routine maintenance to keep it at optimum performance. Golf stretching is essentially part of the maintenance process. It warms up the muscles and lengthens the connective tissues that attach to the muscles. As a result, you have more movement through your joints. This can have an enormous change on your golf swing - you'll have more strength, greater control and an improved range of motion.

Without proper golf stretching, you'll notice a distinctive "tightness" in the areas of your body that are affected as you swing your golf club. These muscle groups are large muscles - the lower back or core muscles, hips, hamstrings and shoulders. If you haven't stretched these muscles on a consistent basis, or warmed them up prior to the game, the tightness that happens naturally keeps your golf swing from moving in a smooth pass.

As a result, your swing suffers.

In golf, the power of your swing is a direct result of the range of motion as you move through the swing plane. The greater your range of motion, the greater the power you can generate while swinging. This increases your club head speed, which also increases the distance of your drive.

It seems only logical that if you want to improve your golf game, you need to start with some golf stretching exercises. While it's great to warm up before the game with some static stretches, a consistent routine of dynamic stretches will add great flexibility for golf. These exercises can be done at home, without a lot of expensive equipment or a huge investment of time. Just 10 minutes a few nights a week will improve your flexibility, your range of motion and make you a winner on the golf course.

Copyright (c) 2008 Nancy Rishworth