How to stay in golfing shape over the winter
Among the other sometimes troublesome things about winter is that it can hurt your golf game.
“If you’re not playing golf, you’re losing golf muscle,” said Catherine Hoell, DPT, OCS, a physical therapist at the CCHC Golf Performance Center in Hyannis.
That lack of practice and exercise might even result in an injury when you return to the fairways in the spring.
“If you try to get up to the tee box and ‘grip it and it rip it’, you could end up injuring yourself,” she said.
But winter also offers opportunity to get in better form and address issues of strength, mobility, balance and any deficits caused by chronic conditions or old injuries. Hoell and fellow Golf Center physical therapist Matthew DiBona can assess a golfer’s condition and provide therapies, exercises and advice to correct problems and improve his or her game. Both Hoell and DiBona are certified by the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI).
“When you feel better, you play better” Hoell said.
Balance and Power
Problems with balance can rob power and distance from a golf swing, and older golfers “should definitely” include balance work in their winter conditioning program, she said. Improper balance can “cause the swing to be less efficient through the impact position.”
Golfing on uneven ground requires good balance and proprioception, our ability to sense the location and movement of our joints and limbs, she said. These two factors allow golfers to adjust their play to the ground’s condition.
She suggested golfers try this simple method at home to check if they have problems with balance: Go to a spot where you can safely sit or brace yourself, if need be, and then try standing on one leg without holding onto anything. If you can achieve this for 30 seconds, you have good balance.
The “tour-quality” balance test used at the Golf Center requires standing on one leg with the other leg raised and the bent knee at belt level, and both eyes closed. Holding the position for at least 15 seconds means you’re at normal “tour level,” Hoell said.
A comprehensive winter conditioning program should also seek to build strength in not just the core muscles of the lower trunk and back, but also the legs and upper body for overall strength, she said.
An Assessment and Game Plan
Every client at the center begins with a 90-minute evaluation performed according to TPI screening standards. The evaluation includes 3-D motion and biofeedback analysis. There’s also a hitting bay “to look at your hitting characteristics,” Hoell said.
“We can see things that could be setting up for a potential injury or be corrected through exercise,” she said. “We don’t guess; we assess.”
From the results of the evaluation, a game plan of exercise and therapy is formulated. Therapy may include tissue work, dry needling and cupping.
Use of the Golf Center is self-pay. Because clients pay for the services, they don’t need to get a referral from a doctor. And because the Center is part of Cape Cod Healthcare, the therapists can access a golfer’s MRI scans and work with that patient’s medical team, Dr. Hoell said.
The initial evaluation costs $249, and the golf center offers packages of four, eight and 12 sessions. The evaluation includes setting up a home exercise app customized to the customer’s needs. Some customers may opt for only the initial evaluation, thinking “I just want to know what’s up so I can take this to my pro and personal trainer,” she said.
The four-session package focuses on mobility; the eight-session package, on strength and balance; and the 12-session package “really can get into making these changes stick,” she said.
The recently opened Golf Center aims to work with area golf pros, said.
“We want to be community collaborative in partnership with the local courses on Cape Cod,” she said.
