(Text on screen): Swing Into Action. 4: Working the arms and joints

Simon Holmes, professional golf coach: Tim, we're now going to talk a little bit about how to warm up shoulders, elbows, and wrists.

Now, these are areas which really do get damaged in the golf swing if you're not careful. It's so important, especially those shoulders, there's so much torque.

You know, the weight of the golf club gets very, very heavy and we're really trying to get as much speed as possible, so we need to warm that up.

And what I want you to do, just arms out. And now really little circles. Just really little. Just like this. Both. That's it.

Really little. Not very dynamic.

And now just reverse those circles. You can feel those shoulders burning, can't you?

Tim: For sure.

Simon Holmes: So, it's such a critical area. Very, very important. There's so many shoulder injuries that occur through not warming up correctly.

Now, what we're gonna do, just start to expand those circles. That's it.

And, again, it's not a dynamic movement. You're not trying to do it as fast as possible. Very important with stretching not to try to get it over with in a hurry.

OK? And now really, just one arm down and one arm up. And really big circles.

That's it. And now both ways. Back down the other way. Excellent.

Very critical area in the shoulders. Strength, flexibility, and mobility all of those different areas we're trying to improve.

So, the next one here is obviously in the golf swing you have a lot of rotation on your arms.

Now, what I'd like for you to do, Tim, just hold; I've got a 5-iron here. Hold that in the middle.

OK? Straight out in front of you. And just little circles there, both ways. So, that's it. Stretch it out. Give that a little bit more. There you go. That's it. And back again.

Try to stabilize it, though. Don't let it flop. You feel that?

Tim: Yeah.

Simon Holmes: So, elbows, wrists, and shoulders all in one really good exercise.

If that feels a little bit easy for you, what you can do, just open your hand up there, is give it a little bit more weight. And you'll find that that puts a lot more stress on it.

But that's something you need to work up towards. You feel that?

Tim: It's good.

Simon Holmes: Excellent. And now swap arms again, so hold it in the middle there.

That's it. Palm up, palm down, there you go.

So, just trying to increase that range of motion.

OK? Yep. See if you can do it that way. Other way around. Here we go. That's it. There you go.

Over the other side. Not as fast as that. You don't want to have that catch as you go over there. You feel how it's sort of; you support it. Support it all the way.

OK? So, now the final one that we're gonna do is really, if you just come swap places with me.

So, what I want you to do: You know, obviously, we are now starting to get combinations of what's happening with your arm swing, what's happening with your body movement.

And what I want you to do, just feet together here. Make that backswing so you get the wrist to set. And as it's finishing, as this is finishing, I want you to step forward and make a swing through.

Slowly to start with.

And let that work through. So, now your warm-up is starting to look more and more like your golf swing. And this is really the last thing that you do before you actually start hitting golf balls.

So, golf grip there.

So, feet together. That's it. So, start to make your backswing. As you feel this finishing; so, as you feel this finishing. . . That's it. Left foot out to there. And now swing through.

Good. And again.

So, get that to set. That's it. And start to add some speed.

So, what we're doing here is we're getting those arms to start moving like a golf swing. We're getting that weight shift and the sequence to start going.

And we're adding some speed. And again.

Excellent.

So, what we've done is this exercise is we've got shoulders, elbows, and wrists all engaged, all warmed up, going through all of the range of motion.

Again, it's a gentle exercise. You don't want to put stress. You can see if you let it flop and do it too aggressively, that's when you can catch an injury.

The last exercise there is when we're starting to make our warm up really look like the golf swing. Get those arms working off your chest.

And as you feel that club finishing, step out strong in front with this left foot so it walks across there. And then let it release through.

You should now have sort of a really balanced warm-up where all of the different areas are warmed up, they're ready to go, and the key thing is that we're trying to do, again: injury prevention and then to really make sure that that first tee shot is as good as all of the other ones out on the golf course.

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