Golf, the performance zone and meccano!!

I am no golfer but understand a bit about the biomechanics. I have been involved with a golfer recently trying to improve his swing. Obviously when we look at the swing we see two ends or transformational zones (TZ) for those who have GIFTed or seen a video digest. The third zone or ball strike could be called the performance zone.

Now, many times we look at the load and strike of the ball and don't pay much attention to the other end or deceleration of the swing. This for me maybe the most important part. With this golfer the load was perfect but the ball strike not. The question to be asked is does the second TZ affect the performance zone. For me the answer would be a resounding yes!!! If the body does not feel it can decelerate the motion then this will affect the down swing right from the top of the backswing. It has to work out a way to decelerate the motion and this will change the swing dynamics and result in inconsistent and erratic shots.

This was certainly happening in this case. The gentleman in questions left hip did not like to internally rotate. The huge rotation of the left foot gave that away when swinging!!! The internal rotation demand on the left hip is pretty large in the down swing especially with the larger clubs. Working on the follow through has produced pretty amazing results in this case. Little time has been spent looking at the loading on the backswing apart from working on the left calcaneal eversion. This probably has an impact on his left hip in gait as well as golf which showed up pretty quick in testing.  Pretty happy with this one!!!!!

I also saw a lady this week who had had her ankle put back together with medical meccano after an accident. Sometimes AFS can give us accelerated results, other times we have to settle in the for he long haul. I think this is one of the latter scenarios.

Her Dorsi flexion was hugely limited and it is hard to know what can be got out of it with the mechanical restrictions. The dorsi flexion was worse when coupled with inversion and limiting hip extension, creating a little limp onto the right leg. She was also suffering from some left shoulder pain. Her spinal motion was limited into left rotation so it maybe the hip also has some capsular problems both anterior and posterior ligaments affecting the front foot TZ in gait when the T spine is left rotating.

I used the BAPS for driving inversion through the external rotation of the leg in a load bearing single leg stance and it really seemed to help. The mechanical energy always seems to get stuff going!!

Watch this space for info on the progress.

Catch you soon!! Ben