Power is very important for sending a golf ball on a long trip. However, there is one quality that is absolutely critical for the development of power: flexibility. It is very difficult for power to be developed without flexibility (14,16). Inflexible muscles tend to be tight and restricted, and tight muscles do not perform very well. Watch world class sprinters when they are running the 100 meters. They are running as fast as they possibly can yet are so relaxed when they run that you can see their cheeks wobbling. It is a beautiful example of maximum power with minimum effort.

You must make sure when you are developing flexibility that you are also concurrently developing strength so that your muscles are strong enough to keep the joint in control and safe from dangerous ranges of motion (14). When you watch a powerful golf swing in slow motion, you can see that there is a significant amount of stress and torque on the body (1,5).

This stress and torque represent opportunities for your joints to be moved into positions that they do not regularly go into. By participating in a golf specific performance enhancement program and developing the dynamic strength needed to manage these forces, you can protect your joints from overexertion, thereby reducing the likelihood of injury (14).

When you participate in the Pure Power Program, every workout will be developing concomitantly the qualities of strength and flexibility along with the various other components of golf fitness which will have you driving the ball farther and straighter than ever before.

Static vs. Dynamic Flexibility Programs

There are two main types of identifiable flexibility: active, also referred to as dynamic, and passive, or static, flexibility. Static stretching usually refers to the typical stretching maneuvers everyone did in gym class, such as the sit and reach. They usually involve loading the soft tissues with either the weight of the body or its limbs.

For the serious golfer, static stretching is insufficient to develop the full range of movement, power, strength, stability and mobility required by golf. Part of the reason for this is because static stretching elongates the muscle over a gradual time frame, but the golf swing is completed in under a second. If a muscle is trained to gradually stretch over 30 seconds (static stretching), but really needs to stretch in a half second (golf swing) then it is easy to see why static stretching does very little for golf specific flexibility.

Stretching must be combined with high intensity dynamic activities, full range resistance activities, and low intensity cardiovascular activity to develop complete and stable ranges of motion. It should also be noted that heavy resistance training used over a full range of motion constitutes a very efficient and effective means of active stretching.

It is unnecessary to perform a wide variety of specific flexibility movements in order to enhance the flexibility of the entire body, as this would be extremely inefficient and time-consuming. You can develop tremendous golf-specific flexibility by doing a few simple functional movements that closely simulate the golf swing.

A few dynamic stretches in which you gradually increase the range and duration of the multi-joint motions found in the golf swing will serve you much better than a single extended session of many single-jointed stretches. Again, we want to stretch various muscles together since they operate together in the golf swing.

Your Get What You Train For

The ultimate point is that you get what you train for. If you stretch in a static state, you get static flexibility. If you stretch in a dynamic state, you get dynamic flexibility. Static stretching does little to improve active joint mobility, which is by far the most important flexibility quality needed in golf.

Since golf is a dynamic movement, you want to spend most of your time focusing on dynamic stretches to optimize your golf specific flexibility. Some examples of dynamic stretches/flexibility exercises include:

• Weight Training
  
• Medicine Ball Training
  
• Cable/Pulley Training