Balance is undoubtedly one of the key attributes that you must have in order to hit long, straight drives. Without balance, establishing consistency in your swing and tempo is nearly impossible and solid contact becomes difficult. A balanced swing helps you keep your swing on plane, develop and transfer power at the correct times and will allow you to make better, more consistent contact with the ball. In order to understand how we can work on balance, we must first understand exactly what balance is.

What is Balance?

In the most basic terms, balance is control over one’s own center of gravity. It is a sense of awareness about where your body and its parts are during any given point of time and the ability to maintain a stable body in unstable conditions. Balance traditionally is thought of something that happens in a static position. We usually measure it by seeing how long we can maintain a given position on some kind of unstable surface (14,16).

In reality, balance is very dynamic, with you constantly losing and regaining your center of gravity over and over again. There are continual adjustments being made to both the forces of gravity and also the surfaces you are exerting forces against. This process takes place even when you are standing perfectly still. This minimal resting level of activity is called tone. It is an automatic process that you do not notice that helps to relieve stress on your joints and nerves and also helps to optimize blood flow.

In golf, as well as any other athletic movement, when you are out of balance your power is significantly reduced (15,16). This happens for two reasons. First, some of the energy that would go into your swing is wasted just to maintain your equilibrium. Second, your body must return to a balanced state before in can contribute any additional power to your swing. You end up swinging slower, and as physics tell us, speed is huge in producing power.

Bad Posture, Bad Injuries

The golf swing by nature puts a tremendous amount of strain on your joints (5). If you do not have proper balance and posture then these forces are magnified many times over. It makes sense that if one part of your body is out of balance, other parts must also be out of balance in order to compensate, much like a stack of dominos that are out of alignment. This additional stress causes the rest of your structure to compensate, causing further postural misalignment.

An example of a common trait among men that causes postural misalignment is the “beer belly”. This is a mass of tissue that is completely out of alignment with the body’s support structure. Since this tissue is far outside your body’s Center of Gravity, your whole structure has to change just to compensate. This compensation ends up putting continual and significant stress on your neck, shoulders, low back, hips and knees. By getting rid of the gut, you can usually relieve yourself of much of the joint issues that are a result of weight gain.

If you have posture issues in your swing, and they are not addressed, then they could potentially develop into a chronic condition (6). Poor posture in your swing can manifest itself initially as a stiff, nagging lower back or a sore shoulder. If left untreated, it could potentially develop into a serious chronic injury which could adversely affect your enjoyment of the game, your ability to play, your on-course performance and overall quality of life. All this can be avoided by making sure that you are always in the best balance and posture throughout your swing and the Pure Power Program can help you achieve this.

Chapter 5-Balance Summary:

• Without balance, establishing consistency in your swing and tempo is nearly impossible and solid contact becomes difficult.
  
• When you are out of balance, your power is greatly reduced
  
• Ensuring that your posture is correct at setup and ensuring that your muscles are strong enough to maintain that posture through the swing are surefire ways to quickly improve your game.
  
• Balance is perhaps one of the easiest qualities to train and the Pure Power Program will show you exactly what you can do to improve your balance immediately.