Golf: Hip Overpronation!

If you have ever looked at the biomechanics of the backswing in golf it becomes obvious that being ‘on plane’ is a perfect functional combination of the three planes of movement available to the body, sagittal, transverse and frontal. My recent foray into the world of video analysis with golf has inspired my post!!

This also kind of ties in with my friend Dave Westerman’s recent video explanation of biomechanics involved during the golf backswing.

When we may start to see problems is when the body does not have the capacity to move in the plane required. A strategy we may see is the body obtaining more movement in the plane it can get to compensate for movement in the plane that it can’t get.

The required motions in the backswing at the hip are extension (in a flexed position), ADDuction and internal rotation. The aim in the backswing is to not shift the Centre of mass to far to the right for a right handed golfer. The larger shift in mass and translation of the pelvis comes during ball striking and follow through. This acceleration of mass creates the force required to propel the ball.

A common swing fault can occur when instead of using the transverse plane to create relative internal rotation at the hip, we instead utilize frontal plane translation. This pushes our centre of mass over to the right for a right handed golfer.

What we now see is an inability to sequence correct motions in the swing. The shift in weight cannot be reversed in time so that the hips can create a proximal acceleration to provide additional load to the core, chest and shoulder. By the time the hands have started the down swing the hips are still lagging behind, unable to cover the range in the timeframe available. This frontal plane translation could also compensate for the ability to get opposite side lateral flexion. The shift in mass through hip motion creating more or the illusion of more lateral flexion.

This change in sequence can lead to inefficient and ineffective swing mechanics and also to injury to the tissue that relies on this correct sequencing. The lack of mass in the F=MA equation will also severely reduce power.

This is very similar to what happens during overpronation at the foot. The large motion and increased range into pronation means that the body is unable to reverse this motion into supination by the time the swing phase of gait is initiated. This leads to a back foot pronation and reduced movement in the rest of the kinetic chain.

As with all sport golf, relies on the sequencing of movements to accelerate our mass at the correct time.  Our ability to understand our client’s function and our clients ability to perform their function is vital to our success.

Check out Cor-Kinetic facebook.com/corkinetic for loads more functional info and course dates.