PETER COWEN ACADEMY TIP OF THE MONTH

TIP OF THE MONTH SPRING LOADED FOR SUCCESS

PART TWO: SHOULDER/ARM SPIRAL

BY STEPHEN DEANA

Dear Members,

We trust all’s well and you’ve been enjoying your golfing season. It’s been great to see many of you enjoying The Peter Cowen Academy and developing your games with regular tuition.

This month I’d like to share with you some exercises that will help you understand how to use the ground better, now to match your body and arms correctly and take control of his overall game.

At the Peter Cowen Academy we teach our students the movement patterns required for the swing.

Follow the below exercises and let’s get you all moving better! Again stand vertical with your feet together as we increase the movement up through the shoulders and arms.

If the body is working like a spring up, the shoulders have to spiral up and down also

As we start the second part of the exercise the left arm spirals left and the right arm spirals right

The spiral continues up to the shoulders. Most players have been taught to turn and turn. Unfortunately they don’t get the spiral with the body and certainly not with the shoulders and arms. For many players this has and will create lower back problems which can be avoided when moving correctly.

PART ONE: BODY SPIRAL

Simply stand vertical with your feet together.

Imagine your body as a spring, that’s why we call it a coiling motion. Now mimic this spring like coiling action with your body. Once up let the shoulders/arms drop to create a momentum drop. This drop creates acceleration in the implement you’re holding and this can be increased the higher you spiral your arms during the initial movement pattern.

Simply pull your weight up and around from the ground with a spring like coil as shown below. This movement pattern is the first thing we have to get right. If we don’t the body won’t work properly and we will struggle.

The spiralling body pattern pulling against the ground, with your abs, midsection and chest spiralling up whilst keeping our shoulders level. It’s important for us that all our students understand the spiral.

PART THREE: MATCHING MOVEMENTS

Again from a vertical position with our feet together we combine the body and arm spiral.

A simple movement pattern but now we’re matching the movements and everything’s in sync. The basis of our coaching is to get the body working better and combine the hand arm and club movement together.

Eventually we put an implement in our hands and that moves as a consequence of the body and arms moving correctly.

The above movement pattern exercises should be used as part of your daily warmup. A minimum of 60 secs per exercise and you’ll enjoy the improvement in your game.