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"Golf Fitness For Juniors"

By Mike Hansen

The athleticism of golfers will change dramatically in the next few years, making junior golf fitness and conditioning imperative to an aspiring player’s success. The future of golf contains much longer courses, making it much more of an athletic event. Without having fitness in the picture, there are very clear limits to junior development.

Junior golfers have multiple avenues to develop their performance, and golf fitness for juniors has become one of the mainstays, also one of the most important. Just hitting balls will not get you to the tour anymore. I am a firm believer in participating in multiple sports as a youth. The reason for this being that they develop other athletic skills that carry over to the golf swing; it also takes their mind off of golf in the off season and avoids burnout.

When starting a junior golfer on a fitness routine it is important to seek professional guidance to ensure proper technique and avoid injury. Most juniors need to participate in workouts geared toward movements, not individual muscles. The goal of any golfer should be to enhance and support their development with training, not break it down. During the golf swing, the mind recruits groups of muscles to perform in certain patterns and should be trained accordingly.

Flexibility exercises are just as important as strength training; the goal is to never lose flexibility for strength. The golf swing requires optimal flexibility in the shoulders, hips, lower back and hamstrings. Developing a pre round stretching routine that they will continue to utilize is a must.

Here are two must have exercises in a junior golfer’s fitness routine, as well as an important stretch.

Diagonal Chop-
You can use a medicine ball 4-10lbs or a Resistance band for this exercise
1. Starting Position: Start with your arms extended holding the medicine ball up and to your right.
2. Bring medicine ball down in a wood chopping motion towards your left foot.
3. During this motion your feet stay stationary and you rotate at your trunk.

Dumbbell Squat with Rotational Swings
1. Starting position: Holding a 5-10lb dumbbell in each hand start in squatted position with dumbbells between legs.
2. Start movement by standing up and keeping arms straight rotate shoulders and trunk towards the left.
3. Return to the starting position and repeat to the other side.

Supine Twist Stretch
1. Lie on your back on the floor.
2. Gently rotate trunk and legs to side so that your knees are facing entirely to a side.
3. Hold for 20-30 seconds.
4. Remember to keep shoulders on the ground.

About the Author:

Mike Hansen holds a degree in Exercise Science and is a Titleist Performance Institute Certified Golf Fitness Instructor, located in Irvine, CA. He is the featured golf fitness columnist for Southland Golf magazine. His website is www.healthygolfer.com