Check Your Posture For A Better Golf Swing

According to the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI), the most common fault of nearly 70 percent of amateur golfers is “standing up” or losing posture on the downswing. This produces errant shots, powerless strokes and poor control. Sound familiar?

“This loss of posture causes inconsistency because the lower body and trunk are moving out of position,” says Eanna Rushe, a founder of the Greenwich, CT-based BioSport Technologies LLC, which specializes in golf motion analysis, biomechanics and performance enhancement. “The pros and better golfers maintain their posture or spine angle which allows them to be much more consistent and create much higher club head speed,” he explains. “Good golfers can maintain their posture because of the way they use their lower body, not because they try to keep their head down.”

To correct this problem and help golfers feel and understand what it’s like to be in the optimal swing position, Rushe developed an innovative training aid, the GolfPosturePODTM. Not only does the product assist golfers in keeping the necessary spine angle during their swing, but it is also a tool to strengthen important muscles in the lower body.

Golfers place their backsides against a moveable pad that measures motion. A large LCD screen provides immediate visual feedback about their swing and whether or not posture was maintained. Feedback and feel are keys to an effective training aid, according to Rushe. Golf professionals and fitness trainers can use specific exercises that the golfer can perform on the GolfPosturePODTM to increase lower body and core strength, stability and balance and also work on other common swing faults, such as swaying, sliding and poor weight transfer. Portable and versatile, the GolfPosturePODTM can be used in a fitness center, personal training studio, country club, university golf program or on a driving range.

Paul Kenney, PGA teaching professional at Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford, describes it as a marriage of fitness and swing training. “It’s usually one or the other; the two rarely meet,” says Kenney, who has been using the GolfPosturePODTM to help golfers at Rushe’s Greenwich studio and hopes to bring the device to his club. “The key is that it helps strengthen the golfer while he or she is in the correct positions.”

John Deigan, PGA teaching professional at the Wykagyl Country Club in New Rochelle, says the GolfPosturePODTM helped contribute to one of his students increasing her driver club head speed by eight miles per hour. “Unless you feel the right motion yourself, you’re not going to make that ultimate connection to learn it.”

The GolfPosturePOD™ debuted at the PGA Golf Show in Florida this winter. The commercial product is now available for country clubs, fitness centers and academies. A consumer version will be out next year. For more information, visit www.GolfPosturePOD.com

In addition to writing about golf, Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.