Biomechanics of the Golf Swing to Prevent Injuries and Hit the Ball Farther
Michael Hughes
Welcome to the Gymnazo podcast where you get to peek behind the curtains of what it takes to create and run a seven figure fitness facility that ranks in the top 5% of boutique fitness studios for revenue. But to be honest, that’s the least important thing about us. Founded by me, Michael Hughes Gymnazo has created an ecosystem of services that blend performance with restoration techniques and attracts top coaches to its facility hosted by its owners Paden, and myself and our top coaches. This podcast shares our best practices on everything, from how to build a sustainable fitness business, to how to program for maximum results to how to build a hybrid training module that’s online and in person. We have marketing secrets, movement, innovation, and breaking down trends in the industry. If you’re a fitness professional or fitness business owner, this is where you learn how to sharpen your skills and to see maximum results.
CJ
Welcome back to the Gymnazo podcast. I’m your host, CJ Kobliska and I have got a wonderful guest on today. You’ve heard him before, his name is Mr. Michael Hughes. And we’re going to be breaking down a sport and specifically the biomechanics of this sport, and how to program for the sport. And I’d say the sport because it’s a sport that I’m not so great at. I consider myself quite mathlete. But as soon as I pick up a golf club, all the athleticism goes out the window. And so I’m, I’m stoked to break this down. Why that is. And I think it’s going to have something to do with practice and consistency, and just good old fashioned hard work. But certainly some skills involved in figuring out which directions we’re going, when we’re twisting, when we’re leaning and what goes into essentially a golf swing, and how you can make a golf swing more powerful, but not only more powerful access more ranges, so that you don’t end up getting injured. A lot of injuries can happen in golf and the elbows and the back and the knees and the hips, even down into the ankles and into the feet. And it’s it’s kind of a funky thing, because it’s just a lot of rotation, you’re swinging the club, but it’s amazing how much force you’re able to produce in your body with a something like a golf swing, or any kind of swing, really. And there’s a lot of acceleration and deceleration and a lot of transformational zones. Really not a ton. There’s two, there’s a load, and there’s an exploit that goes into the load. But I’m going to have Michael break those things down. Because I am not the expert in this. I in fact, just had my first top golf experience recently. And it was wonderful just to aim at things and not have to worry about making something into a hole or hitting other people. So without further ado, Michael. Welcome to this podcast.
Michael Hughes
I’ve been looking for this podcast for a long time. I love golf and playing golf since well, my grandma would let me go to her country club in grade school.
CJ
So you’ve had a club in your hands for a long time,
Michael Hughes
a long time. I don’t want to call myself anything more than a person who highly enjoys the game. My score is not the best, but sometimes score doesn’t matter.
CJ
I guess I want to start with how did you get into golf? Was it just because you had access to clubs in a course and your family was involved in it? How did you decide to pick up a golf club?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, like for me like golf is just like, you know, waterskiing, wakeboarding, snow skiing, you have to live in the area, you got to be close to it. It’s certainly not like football in the European sense, where you just need a ball and kick it around. Like you really have to have some means and my grandma’s certainly hooked it up in that in that way. You know, I got clubs, Hami downs, Big Five secondhand clubs, and she had a country club membership and grandchildren got to go for free. So besides being in the country club, we get to drive the golf cart around which was the best part. And we get unlimited goldfish and nuts. So what else you got to do? Yeah, so but my family always golf, not just for my grandma’s side. But for my my dad golf as well. And his dad was an avid golfer. So both my grandparents really like their Saturdays were golfing. That was it. So just kind of trickled down.
CJ
Were you invited along to come play at a young age? Or was it kind of like, Hey, you gotta learn the ropes. And then there was like an inaugural like, Okay, you’re gonna come play with us?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, no, yeah. You don’t play with the grandparents because you’re not good enough. You play with the Grinch. You know? So yeah, we kept we played with our own basically the grandchildren play with the grandchildren or I play with my cousins. And that’s where it really kind of came came into it brothers played with brothers so all my brothers played. They actually on the golf team in high school. I never did. I never went to the golf team in high school. I really enjoyed it, but nothing. I wouldn’t do a high school sport. I just didn’t think I was good enough, but I really enjoy it. I really enjoy it. I’ve probably I’ve played Yeah, I mean, all the way definitely strong in high school. Do Hi, certainly, elementary school dabbled, you know, and then I remember like when the first time I got my like my own really good set of clubs. It’s like if you wakeboard or you ski like you finally stopped renting skis, you just finally said, you know, I’m gonna get some good set of set of clubs, and they’re gonna be my clubs for a long time. And, yeah, so
CJ
is there something to that, I mean, I’ve had a lot of rental clubs in my hands, and it doesn’t seem to make me any better. Yeah,
Michael Hughes
it’s kind of one of those things. The tool is only as good as the person using the tool. But golf is one of those interesting games because technology is actually advancing it so much faster than I think any other sport, like football is could just couldn’t be a football. It just it’s Erina and pigskin basically, where golf like you have the ball, you have the type of club you even have the shoes that make a difference to and that’s like that’s that’s three different places where you where you can actually gain a lot of growth. The club’s the massive changer because you can have like a cavity back or more like a I’ll use I tend to use use terms we’re like the back of the clubs like opened and we’re just gives a much bigger sweet spot. Like a baseball bat right you hit on the fat part ball is gonna go further hit on the skinny part balls not gonna go that far. Drivers, they I mean, a they used to be would literally they’re called woods. Now the metal. The shafts used to be metal now they’re like titanium they flex. So technology plays a huge game in the game of golf. Besides the ball. I haven’t talked about that yet. They’re actually limiting ball performance. Because balls just go into too far. They really can’t make golf courses bigger. They take up so much room already. So there’s trying to kind of de escalate the technology. These professionals, they’re nuts. They’re they they crushed the ball. I mean, think about like how far someone can like kick a football. They can go like double that. For we’re talking like 400 yards. I mean, this is like, let me be like in the golf game. 300 yards is is. That’s like standard 30 yards. That’s three football fields. Yeah, that’s insane. That’s insane. And accurately to like, you fit it on, like, I don’t know, 50 yard left and right, easily.
CJ
What is it about the ball that allows it to go that far? Are you familiar with the pieces? Or is it
Michael Hughes
what it is simple? Yeah. So basically, there’s a shell, that’s up a compound plastic. And then this inside there could be like a gel or, or a set of it’s it’s more like a compound gel. But it’s not like gel like you put your hair in. It’s a hard compound. But it’s the dimples to the dimples are very ancient, because it grips the air just like a tire tread grips the road and certain tire treads, do certain things. Balls do the same thing, a golf ball. So you can actually you can actually shape the shot based on how you spin the ball. If you’ve ever played Tiger Woods, golf, you know that you can really
CJ
spend a lot. I’ve been doing it all wrong. I’ve just been trying to hit it as hard as possible as far as but yeah,
Michael Hughes
that’s usually what people do swing as hard as possible. And that’s about the worst thing.
CJ
I’ve been told my swing looks fairly decent. But for whatever reason, the ball does not replicate what my swing yeah represents.
Michael Hughes
But like, like on a golf swing, if you if you come in tight, close to your body, that means you’re going to come out wide. If you come out wide, you’re going to come in tight.
CJ
Let me say that a different way of speaking gibberish to me. Yeah. So
Michael Hughes
like, so like, think about in a golf swing like you if you bring the club in a in a line and an angulation. That’s a diagonal, right? So you’re going to come in, like, you’re going to come in close to the body. But when you come out, you have to go, why did the body you can’t do it in? You can’t do out, right? It’s a path in travel Exactly. Well, that path is not a straight line, it’s a diagonal. So therefore when you hit the ball, you’re going to hit the ball, let’s say you tuck in really tight, and then you’re going to have to extend out or further away from body. Well, that comes that hits hits the ball, and then No, I’m on video here. So when it hits the ball, and it puts a diagonal path into that ball, which spins the ball, but it spins it to the right. If you spin it to the right, doesn’t mean the ball is going to go right because it’s cutting the air so it may actually go left and vice versa. And you can put topspin on the ball, which I do all the time. And it just hits the ground. So I can’t get low enough on it. At least not on the first one and you could put and you could put backspin on it just like a bowling ball. You could make a bowling ball and a golf ball perimeter do the exact same thing. Really seriously
CJ
with the spin with Oh yeah, directions. Yeah, the balls on the road not as far but no bowling. Much much different suddenly needs basically a ton of body control.
Michael Hughes
It’s massive. Physics and body control. Yes.
CJ
So awareness of how tight your swing is how far out your swing is essentially the distance away from your body. Yep. And the club you use how you set up with the wall, right? Yeah. And then which club you use some a little bit longer. So is it different lengths? Or is it like one length standard?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, no, no, each club is longer, longer, longer, longer, the lower the number goes, Golf is a really messed up game. It’s really paradoxical. So the lower the number, the longer the club. The longer the ball.
CJ
The longer is that standard across. There’s no golfer who has like seem, because I’d imagine you can modify certain things for your shot. Yes, yes. It’s just any golfer that has all the same length club. It’s just a different head. I’ve never seen it. You’d want to have different links for different reasons. I guess
Michael Hughes
I would. Yeah, it’s just leverage. Again, the golf is just golf and pool. Right? The game of pool it’s just it’s just it’s just angulations geometry. Physics. It’s all it is. It’s all I mean it that’s why it’s so freakin hard. Because it changes what should what shouldn’t change is your swing. What should change is the club but professionals they can break rules because they’re they understand these things and they can change their swing. Overly speaking they can shape their swing differently. To make the ball do something different.
CJ
They have seen some pretty gnarly Creek creativeness. Yeah, I mean, they can make the clock backwards club sideways. You underneath the tree getting weird funky angles, like it’s all those things going to just switch up your swing entirely. It’s
Michael Hughes
stupid, how good that they are. It’s yeah,
CJ
so Okay, we got club lengths. We got different heads. We’ve got different types of balls, I guess made of different things. Yeah. Same shape, but slight differences. What about the swing? I mean, we know that every golfer kind of has their swing, what goes into that swing? What’s standard across every person’s swing in golf?
Michael Hughes
That they’re either right handed or left handed.
CJ
Everything else is no switch
Michael Hughes
switch hitting
CJ
aside typical episode, yeah, there is a
Michael Hughes
there is a side that I’ve never seen a golfer switch positions, switch hands in a game that was you know, intentional to the club, they may have done it because there’s a tree in their way. But now the club’s Miss Miss position, they just still figured it out. So that’s pretty standard. It’s pretty standard that you’re going to draw the club backwards, and then draw the club. It’s like a baseball swing. That’s pretty standard. But how someone swings the club. There is no standard. It’s really fascinating. Like, there are people that like there’s a lot of a lot of golf coaches, I’ve been to even being a strength and conditioning coach for a Junior Golf Academy does a school and a golf training. It was both like you lived where you played golf. It was pretty wild. Actually, I can imagine you’re pretty good. Hope. So that’s all you do. Right? It’s like being at a boarding school, but your sport is golf. So these, these coaches will say, Oh, here’s the ideal swing. Here’s Tiger Woods swing or here’s Phil. Phil. Gosh, why
CJ
Mike Nichols and swings me? I know. Yeah.
Michael Hughes
You know where the case is. And they try to say, here’s how you can map it to be their swing. And it’s it’s really more for a reference. Right? It’s for reference the, you should have your own swing. But there’s ideal paths like if for us, like we’ll go through, here’s a lunge. Here’s an ideal biomechanical path. You can do it differently. Yeah, I’m saying. So that’s how the golf swing goes.
CJ
So it even more so. So if there’s a backswing and there’s a follow through, I mean, that’s, you’re gonna have to have that in a swing. What’s involved in that backswing that then can be modified. So if we’re going through a certain direction, is if we’re aiming for an ideal path, like somebody’s just starting out swinging a club, what are you looking at in terms of like rotation or position when they’re in their backswing? And what are you looking to, for in their follow through?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, so you’re gonna want and here’s, here’s a different thing you want if you may want square feet, and as we call x, x x feet, some people want a little bit towed out on their lead foot on their follow through foot. You’re gonna want so you’re gonna want some some definitely dorsiflexion in the ankles, some flexion in the knees, flexion in the hip, and then flexion of the thoracic spine. Then you’re going to want to have a essentially a type one rotation. Now to unpack that you want to spin your body to the back, or we’ll call it right for, just keep it simple. And then a lateral lean to the left. So spin right, right shoulder goes backwards, but left shoulder goes down, his right shoulder goes up. And you want your eyes your neck fixate Get on the ball. So you can’t move your eye position can’t move your neck so your neck moves independently or does not move quote unquote, right. And then your arms, your, your, your, if you’re a right handed golfer, you want your left arm to be relatively straight, and your right arm to be relatively bent. It’s basically coiling. You want your right elbow tucked, how tucked won’t That depends. And you want to draw that club or your hands backwards, straight, just to keep it simple. And your hands move first backwards, then your shoulders than your hips, and then it loads into your feet. The on the return, it’s the exact opposite. Now I’m gonna use the word feet, but more likely hips, you know, the real drivers, but you can essentially move your feet first and rotate, but your hips go first chain reaction comes back up with your thoracic spine, that goes into your shoulders, and then ends with your wrists, literally just little cocking, left and right, you know, and there’s a golf swing, simply put,
CJ
so I need to work on my type one rotation to the right, and then your type one rotation to the left. So follow through is exactly the same filters, which
Michael Hughes
is essentially the same, but you’re much wider, you’re not, you’re not as tucked in, you’re not as coiled in much more long, straight arms, and your back foot lifts, and you toe pivots. Because you have a lot of momentum, a lot of speed. And that’s got to go somewhere. And if you don’t release that toe, man, that right side knee is gonna get, excuse me that right, and he’s gonna get beat up real real quick. So you release through through the just like a baseball swing, you pivot through. Just like bowling, you lift the back foot, right? It’s all those things, you want to release that the energy into the opposite leg to decelerate you. But that can also lead to other problems, which we’ll probably talk about soon. So if
CJ
I’m a golfer, am I you just gonna get better by playing golf and just working that that swing? Like, I’m imagining that why I suck at golf is because I just don’t play very much there enough. I create rotation to my right and left, I can type one type to do it all I could do underload. But as soon as I put a club in my hands, that’s lighter weight. And I don’t necessarily try that I’m not that guy is trying to just slam as hard as possible. I know. I said I tried to hit as hard as possible, but I tried to just get a really good whip motion. Yeah. Then I know my type ones. But I’m almost so focused on my type one right? Type one left, I’m losing the feel hitting the ball. So how to golfers typically train, is it just golf? Is there some kind of training program what exists right now,
Michael Hughes
cos a very golfers are a special breed, special breed. Because a you have to get good at the craft. Right? You have to golf, you have to swing a club. Now golfers will will literally hit 1000s of balls, or 1000 balls in a few days, if not in a day. Truly, that’s a lot. It’s a lot of swing,
CJ
I’ve hit 1000 in my life.
Michael Hughes
You know, I mean, I’m not saying that that’s that standard, right. But it’s certainly not foreign. It’s a lot of swings, that’s a lot of reps. You go back to I’m gonna use Tiger Woods because he’s such a well, no name. He was watching his dad’s going to he uh, he had had 1000s of 1000s of mental reps, even before he picked up a club. Because we can go into the psychology and the movement learning process of that. Because what you’re talking about is you have a long lever arm, like if you take your hands and try to punch something, you’re actually is gonna be really good. I mean really good. But now you put a two and a half, three and a half foot stick at the very end. With a club face, it’s no bigger than the than the than your top of your mug for your coffee there and try to hit a ball that’s even smaller. It’s pretty hard. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty hard. So it’s really about this accuracy and this and this feel. But the one thing that golfers really miss when they’re going into training and conditioning. I’m gonna hold that off real quick. What they really do well as they buy a lot of gear. They buy a lot of gear, trainers aides the amount of money a golfer spends because I’ve done it on cool gear is high, super high, just to aid them in their swing. And what coaches do very well a golf coach, Swing Coach. They’re very good tweakers I mean, some of the best because they understand that if you can’t get a good enough backswing, you could tow up on your right foot, if you’re right handed golfer like, oh, like we know that very well. Like of course you’re gonna get more rotation. But I think what they miss is the compromise that they’re giving to get something else. You’re gonna have less power Now through your pelvis, you know, they’ll change the way you’re like those who are xx xx like that’s it, they’ll they’ll really play with the SFT foot stances because they understand if your left foot in front of you, right? The ball is gonna go a different direction, right because you’ve changed the diagonal path of yours of your pelvis now, right so we get that very, very well. So you know how to you know, shape your shot now, just go are xx, xx, but you wanted to go where you want to want it to go. Right? Right, a slice a hook that that changes where it goes. So trainers are very good on on the training aids are really awesome to keep your your elbows tucked in tight, right or to keep your head still. Watch the movie tin cup. If you really want to get a good idea about golf and all the little knickknacks about it. That’s a great Kevin Costner super old, not super old, relative relatively old movie. I highly recommend it. What they don’t do a good job of is understanding the human body is the best tool and it’s cheap. It’s called your own human body. Like an amazing pro golfer can use literally 1900 style clubs and probably still beat me. Actually, I’m going to set it up probably will beat me take the worst equipment possible. Because their bodies so well tinned Well, golfers in the back in the 50s You know, they weren’t strong. They’re just dudes. Just normal people. Golf was the the leisure man sport. Now Dustin Johnson all these guys, you guys are Man, these guys are you guys are training. They’re working out. Woods made a popular to work out in golf. He didn’t do a very good job of it, because he started lifting weights. Lifting weights is good. But if you want to be a whip, I don’t know. I mean, you got to be strong. But there’s a limit to the strength, right? It’s really about efficiency through motion, right type one type type two spirals, diagonals, like all those details. I think it’s still being missed in the golf world. But it’s coming by me, it’s certainly coming. I’m very, I’ve been very impressed by the trainers coming into golf. And what there’s the movement trainers coming in into golf, they’re doing a really good job. They’re really applying our style thinking to golf.
CJ
So if if somebody is adjusting a typical golf coach is adjusting your shots so that it can be more comfortable for you or fit your body better. Are would you say that they’re they’re missing the point of what’s right in front of them, essentially, what they’re the body in front of them is showing them about their swing, where, let’s say somebody’s been playing for 10 years. So they’ve kind of developed a swing for a bit. And they’re pretty confident in their ability to swing, but they’re getting some like discomfort and a knee or they’re just, they’re pulling too soon. I don’t know the right term for this. But they’re something is slowly deteriorating from their shot. And so 10 years now in there, 4050 years old, let’s say. And then they go to a golf coach who’s says, Oh, well, this what you need to do to fix your shot, or let’s try these things to to fix your shot. And then the shot ends up becoming better. Are they feeding into that bailout? Or that dysfunction that’s been building up over time, that’s going to keep making them worse as a golfer, but will allow them to sustain a level of performance and play correctly? Or are they missing the point of essentially, instead of is trying to adjust their shot. So it feels better for them saying we need to work on your ability to load your glutes. So I’m not going to have you toe open an excellent rotate to allow more in your backswing. What we need to work on is more of your right hips ability to internally rotate so that you can access that position. Is there one that’s better than the other? So like, Okay, I towed out, and then my swing got better, and it feels more comfortable. And I hit further. But if I keep doing that five years down the road, is that gonna make me keep getting more and more limited internal rotation? And am I right hip just wants to stay an extra rotational time? Or do we need to? Do we need to address that is like is there a big issue between the two?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, to me, that was something when I was going through the tireless Performance Institute, back in the day, going through their their coursework, they really have a good understanding. They really do they have a well built system of progressing someone’s knowledge into like a do A, B, C. But it’s still very, it’s limited. It’s very limited, but it’s limited in the approach that it’s still very much forward and backwards training and conditioning. You know, they there’s a few things that it’s not getting into that much of a depth of detail. Like what you said, you’re lacking internal rotation. I don’t think most golf coaches would say that they’re saying you just can’t get into your backswing and that’s limited. How to fix it. I I don’t, I don’t, I don’t feel confident that many would say, you need to get more into rotation through your right hip. And here’s how you’re going to do it. They would say that’s for the trainer to figure out, well, the trainer would take the information, which they communicate, you know, through that through that process, or what they should do. But then if there’s knee pain, they will say, Oh, you gotta go see the doctor. So now you have three steps, removed three different appointments, let’s call it whatever, you know, time delayed. And so now you’re deleting on the medical team, to say you need to fix that knee. But they’re going to fix the knees the same way that most medical people fix the knee, which was more straight line type of thinking. So there’s kind of that disconnect, where we would we would look at it and be like, no, like, here’s a way to do that. Here’s a soft tissue you can need, here’s the drill that you can do it, here’s how it’s going to translate literally in your golf swing. And by the way, here’s a golf club, that see that feels better, and then give it back to the golf coach, the Swing Coach, say, how can you make it fit better? You know, like, I’ve trained a lot of golfers and I have to pause, hey, I’m not a Swing Coach. But I’m giving you access to the swing that you would want or could get now go to your golf coach, and have them crafted.
CJ
I think it’s a really important distinction that you just brought up there. Because we do have a lot of golfers that come in. And though I’m not an avid golfer, we can see limitations, we can see why somebody’s I can see why somebody’s knees in pain when they’re swinging or why they’ve got some tendinitis. Because when they go to swing, they’re almost hitting the emergency brake too soon, as opposed to getting to their full backswing, we’re coming from different angles, the Swing Coach is going to be looking at strictly the swing and the path of the motion and adjusting it to make it look like the most beautiful, graceful swing or as
Michael Hughes
efficient or powerful or shape the shot, which is an omelet, therefore, I’m not going to help you put more more side spin on your ball. Sorry, I’m just not that skilled at it. Yeah, you know, what was interesting, when I really started getting into golf as a professional movement practitioner, the K vest was a big, big thing. Maybe it still isn’t a big thing. But it’s basically this vest, that biomechanically digitally measures the change of rotation from your pelvis to your thoracic spine, or to your shoulder girdle. And the big thing is you want to get as as much separation as possible, though your pelvis in the backswing spins to the right. So as your shoulder goes at a different pace, a different rate, right. So it’s in sync rotation, but truly, it’s not going to fall out of sync, it’s just delayed sync. And so they wanted as much thoracic spine rotation apart from lower back, or for apart from pelvis. And the issue is solid as like, they will give you drills to do that. But they never gave you stretching, or soft tissue drills. To do that. They just said, essentially, try harder, bend more, spin more. And so what people were doing, because they didn’t really look at it from a sample of how you’re going to do it, they just said do it more your your looks your number, it’s only 22 degrees, you got to get to 45 degrees. So they try harder. And when they try harder without the proper steps on understanding how the body will actually do that. You get more lower back pain. Because what does it actually give it to you? Effort is not the issue. It’s its capability. It’s can your joints actually do that? So it’s very interesting. Least then I have to only speak to then. Because I’m not in the I’m not in the academy world as I am now. So things may have changed, just give my kind of due diligence to the to then. But that was a big issue coming up, that people just getting in more pain, just because that metric you give someone a metric. But to watch out,
CJ
your body will find a way to get there and it may not be for the better. Yeah,
Michael Hughes
your mind will definitely find a way to get there. Yeah.
CJ
So if it’s not about the rotation, it’s more about the awareness of how your body is creating this chain reaction is what it sounds like.
Michael Hughes
I mean, it is about the rotation, right? But it is but let’s not forget about the ankles. Let’s not forget about the few degrees the knees can can give us. Let’s not forget about the pelvis, the hip joints, the acid tablin. Let’s not forget about the shoulder, the glenohumeral joint. Let’s not forget about the wrists. I mean, the thoracic spine is a big player, but it’s not that big of a player and compared to everything I just said. Everything plays a part. Everything plays plays a part and if you have a great thoracic spine, but miserable hips, then you’re going to mess up your thoracic spine. Eventually it’s over. It’s going to overwork a lot of golfers out there. I don’t want to continue to pick on the guy who wore the red shirt on Sundays. But he tore his body up. best golfer ever didn’t finish his career, in my opinion, due to injury yeah due to injuries Yep, we have like a Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear. You know, the dude dude played for was the best still is the best golfer corner clubs because his longevity, he had more time to win more majors
CJ
and back pain from your swing, you’re in knee pain when you swing. And you know that golfing though it was fun while you’re doing it, you know, the next three weeks are gonna be miserable. Yeah. Why is that the case? If you can go play and feel great playing, but then you spend, we hear the story over and over again, until we get them out of this loop. What what is it that maybe there’s a few things that go into that. But if you’ve been playing golf for quite a bit in your whole life, let’s say you play on average couple times a month. And you’ve been doing that for decades. And now all of a sudden, it’s that last straw on the camel’s back, that puts you out, man, I play now once every six months, because I know I’m going to be out for three or four weeks in pain. And then it’s tough to get back into it. What was the cause of that? Well,
Michael Hughes
with golf, you’re looking at a repetitive load and explode. Consistent, you’re always loading to the right, you’re always unloading to the left for a right handed golfer. That’s tough. That’s very, that’s very demanding. You’re always you’re always trying to essentially active tension your right side, and then decelerate through the left side. Always, always, that’s a massive, asymmetrical pattern
CJ
matching, I mean, how many swings? Typically in hundreds of 1000s? Well, oh, and again and again. Well, 90 to 100, maybe, maybe if you’re better than that. So if
Michael Hughes
you’re an amateur golfer, if you get under 100. That’s not bad as an average, you know, like I said, it’s like if someone who plays once a month, under 100, that’s pretty darn darn good. Under 80. Okay, you’re playing certainly multiple times per month. And then you get the scratch golfer who poo, which is par, you know, says par 72. You’re playing often, you’re practicing often. So that means if not daily, I have a good buddy who literally after work goes to the driving range. six out of seven days, just swings the club, and he’s right handed, and he’s always swinging, he sits at a chair does work, and then goes Swing, swing the golf club. What does he do in between them? Good, good. Good question. How much is he and how much is he loading his left side and unloading his right side, which be a left hand golfer. What I love about the education that that we got is understanding that if you want to do something a long time, you must do the opposite of that pattern as well. If you want to sit for a long time, you better stand for a long time. Or at least unwind the sit because that hurts your body is so good at becoming good at one thing. It’s designed to do that, but it will make you itself up. So for me what I’ve done and what I’ve told a lot of my especially older golfers just start doing even actually even my youngest but golfers to start incorporating is if you’re right handed, go golf warm up right handed have a good good time. But have one left handed club in your bag not to play because it’s against the you know, you got only 14 clubs, you know, but whatever the case is and go to the driving range and hit 50 balls left handed the opposite or whatever the case is, because your base is going to unwind, you’re going to reverse the tension to that tissue. In fact, my warmup in golf part of it is literally swinging left handed. Because when you wind up in contract to your right, and then you unload your left, it’s free energy free stretch free momentum to your left side, the the mass momentum actually stretches out your left side. So if I swing left handed, and I wind up left, and I let all that built up kinetic energy turned into potential energy into my right side. I know Stretch, stretch out my right side. I’ve just now stretched out my right side. Give myself a better backswing or more range of motion backswing for my for my actual swing, and feels great.
CJ
Other strategies. So you don’t look like a I don’t know. Seemed like you look like a fool out on the on the course playing with your left side.
Michael Hughes
Well, what you don’t play with my left side I just my left side. Yeah, but I don’t hit a ball. I just
CJ
go here on the left side does this guy do and well, here’s the cool thing about
Michael Hughes
golf. The more kooky you look. If you got a decent score or hit the ball straight, they’re gonna start watching you. That’s honestly that’s the great thing about they will look for any, any little thing that makes sense. But you have to prove it though.
CJ
So what are the things what are the little tips and tricks you have for unwinding? So if you could swing just the opposite way,
Michael Hughes
a swing honestly a few reps easiest thing just swing the opposite way. Now you don’t want to spend as much time doing that because you’re spending a lot of time swinging it the opposite way, but at least for warm up, at least for a cool down, put like golf, that cooldown. You kidding me? No big deal. You just spent four hours out on that course, walking or riding most of it. But that’s a lot of swings. So yeah, it adds up, it adds up. So swing in the opposite way, really getting through balance. Like whenever I go to a golf course you want to feel the turf. putters, no, that’s very, very well, that’s the grass characteristics changes, putting entirely if you can make grass turf putting turf very fast, the ball rolls a long way. They call like putting on concrete just ball keeps on going. Or you can make it like a like a total slug or she’ll swamp you hit the ball as hard as possible doesn’t go anywhere. And the golf course can do that. Because that’s that’s what a golf course can do. It’s not like a basketball court where it’s standard no matter where you go. You know, so golf course is very, very tricky, very tricky. So you want to, you want to put on there putting practice green, because you want to feel what the course is like, Well, same thing with shoes, I want to feel what my feet are gonna feel like on that turf, it’s going to be it just rained into this water, water, the course was a bone dry, because it’s summertime in California, whatever the case is. So I wanted my balance and my ankles to be warmed up. So I go through 3d balanced reach, I stand on one foot, I drive my opposite foot forward, backwards, cross my body, right, open my body, left, spin, right and spin left, it’s literally all the motions of my swing.
CJ
Now mapping of your foot and ankle exactly that space. Yeah,
Michael Hughes
I’m letting it feel what it feels like to be there, one foot by itself. And then I’ll grab my club in both hands. Like I’m grabbing, like a bow staff in a sense. And I’ll literally go through a flexion extension, overhead lateral right overhead lateral left at chest height, spin right and spin left, just to get universal flow as I’m doing a single leg stance, because I want to feel what my ankle now feels like on that turf. With my upper body rotation in that same stance, it makes it more authentic. And then I just started doing this, I bring my rope, my RMT rope, my rope flow rope to the golf course. And I started I know, and that’s really weird. Especially because it’s like bright and orange. And I start doing dragon rolls. Because a dragon roll is not exactly a lot of golf swing, but it allows you to thoracic spine extend and then flex. When you’re behind it your extended and your front of it you’re more flexed. And it gives you that that pelvis is the driving rotation of drag and roll and allows you to spin through left and right. And I can go east west I can go west east, just like a follow through or backswing and backswing follow through.
CJ
What’s the benefit of obviously, you’re gonna be a little bit warmer, a little bit more aware. But what’s the real benefit of spending some time right before you go swing on some rotation or some extension some flexion, some thoracic spine movement, some single leg motions, because this could add up and be anywhere from what five to 10 minutes.
Michael Hughes
if not longer, if not an hour. I mean pro golfers warm up.
CJ
So let’s say somebody warms out how long does these motions and then goes and plays
Michael Hughes
are gonna go to the driving range. Okay, chipping range,
CJ
you’re gonna go play you’re gonna go swing for a bit. Yeah, you’re gonna swing for a bit. Yep. versus somebody who doesn’t spend more than five minutes. It’s kind of like get up like, okay, got some rotation swings. I’m just going to kind of play a little bit lighter. Maybe get a few of the, you know, go to the driving range before they go play a full game. Okay, my swing is feeling good. I’m ready to go. But they just do that for do all golfers TAKE THAT 30 minutes to an hour beforehand to do that. Or is that something it’s not standardly set as like a as a benefit?
Michael Hughes
Yeah. All professional golfers do they do that just like all professional teams go to the other at the arena the the field hours before the game? amateur golfers I mean, skilled amateur golfers? Yes, they will spend time at the driving range at least 30 minutes hitting balls because they want to understand what the flight is of that ball. In that weather at that course what their seven irons doing versus what their nine iron is doing. You know they’re slowly trying to bring back their their hybrid wood in the game. They got a brand new one, they don’t really understand the shaft flexibility. There’s so many details in a golf swing. It’s really fascinating. Because what you’re talking about is you’re you’re talking about a very small change, amplified over hundreds of yards, or even 100 yards. 100 yards is a very short shot. That’s, that’s one of the smallest clubs in your bag is 100 yards. That’s a football field. That’s a short shot. You know, so it’s very fascinating when you when you have a very small detail all compounded over long distance, it makes a big difference, like a 3%. Flight, an airplane. I’m going to be wrong on this one. But it would be fairly, right in a sense is that from California flying three degrees off center, or just straight line upper north, that can put you in Africa. By the time that you keep on right, it just keeps amplifying. So you don’t want to miss when you’re launching something to the moon. Because it’s a long way away, you better be spot on spot on. Right? So golf is very, very similar. So when you warm up, you’re really saying what is my body giving me today? What does my seven iron giving me today? That’s why those pins and Top Golf, those pins are certain distances. And those golfers know how far they are. My seven iron typically gives me I’m just going to have a fun number here typically gives me 180 yards. Gosh, I’m actually crushing to 190. Today, I’m actually going further than that pin that says 175. Okay, cool. So now you change the game, that when you’re 175, based on your own measurements, you’re you’re ready to go. So me when I go to golf, I’m so late. And I don’t play that enough. I just literally go to the practice, you know, the first tee and I’m doing that also, I’m waiting for my for my turn. I don’t like to do that. But I did it last
CJ
I imagined that’s that’s the story for most folks who go out and play golf. I mean, if you if you are in the pro sports from your time is dedicated to that your life actually, if you’re pretty good amateur, you’re spending quite a bit of time with it. So you’re probably going to be doing the practice beforehand and partying and driving and testing out the clubs and seeing how you’re doing. But for that, I think for most individuals. That’s just it’s more like your case, I show up and kind of get a couple of practice swings, and I’m good to go a couple dozen swings. I feel I feel set and ready. What does that do?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, which sometimes that’s a benefit. Because golf is sown, golf is you against you. There is no competitor. If you if you don’t win the golf match, because you didn’t beat yourself. No one beats you like golf soak faceting they’re trying to be quiet. Like in baseball, you heckle the pitcher, you heckle the batter, you’re trying to make noise, you’re trying to distract them. Golf, the 1000s of people watching you on the golf course are trying to be as quiet as possible, you get kicked out, you get kicked out for making noise. What kind of game is this. So it’s really fascinates you against you. And so if sometimes you get in your head, that you have this great swing, you get overconfidence, you swing harder, just change your physics, your geometry changed. So buddy, you know, top the ball didn’t get you know, whatever the case is for me, you know, you pick your head up too soon picking your head up only as thoracic spine extension, which takes you out of your swing, your club head lifts a half of an inch. You top the ball, ball goes 50 hours long the ground shit, literally just because you lifted your eyes. Like it’s all these like what we look at subtleties in movement. So these warm ups if someone doesn’t warm up, it’s kind of interesting because they have nothing to compare against. So they go off muscle memory to Ching, that’s what it is, right? We don’t believe in muscle memory. It’s neurological memory, but it’s still the same concept. Right? So that’s what I love about golf, is you want to just go into it. And not think not overdo it for me. You know, there’s a lot of golfers who literally do not have a memory recollection of hitting the ball. They just go blank. backswing to fall through is blank.
CJ
Meaning what it just does other swinging.
Michael Hughes
No, they’re just so in their own body. They don’t actually remember hitting the ball. The ball is already in the air in flight when they finally come back to consciousness. I mean, not full consciousness, right, you know, I’m saying like situational awareness that it’s just, it’s just repetition. It’s just repetition. There’s a lot of great golfing books out there that many people say like I do not actually know when to hit the ball. So I slipped my body, my body, my body do it. Just like any like diver, you know, are they really calculating every single inch of the rotational spin as they go into the water? It’s a feel thing. It’s feel right? It just they kind of just get it they’ve done it so many times. They’re preparing yourself mentally. So love about golf, there’s there’s the mental coach, the the psychology of a golfer is paramount. It’s paramount. So warming up is a good thing for those who are doing it a long time because you’re rigid or stiff. But mentally could be a good thing to not to warm up. meant I’m just saying this mentally because you’re not giving yourself those you’re not letting your mindset get messed up by the four times you shame Do it right off the bat. Because it just messes with you. It just messes with you.
CJ
So, golfers search you out, like how does it work? You as a golfer go and search out a Swing Coach, they go in search, search out a personal trainer? Do they search out like a? I’m sure they have different coaches for different things. But somebody comes to see you as a golfer, what are you going? What are you looking at? What are you looking to help them with? Or if there’s any case studies of people that you’ve worked with? What’s kind of been the consensus so for other trainers that are out there and going I have golfer coming in? I don’t know where to start. What what do you do?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, first of all, golf hasn’t gotten there yet. In a sense where like where it’s football working out is a big deal in football. Big deal. You must work out golf like most people aren’t looking for a trainer to solve their golf problems and they’re gonna go to a golf pro, which is a Swing Coach, that trainer you know, a golf swing trainer first. From there it’s a it’s a it’s a big degradation loss of those go into a fitness gym to work on golf. There’s a I’m in like golf. Can you help me with it? That’s typically what happens here. I like golf. Can you help me with my fitness and by the way, my golf swing? Versus like, I’m here for golf. I’ve only have that once? Well, I had a professional golfer, I am You are my fitness coach. Like oh, apart from the academy, most golfers they just swing. It’s a very it’s a very lone wolf. Sport, very lone, lone wolf sport. But I’ve had plenty of clients plenty saying I also golf. Can you help me out with that in my training? And the answer is always yes, the body always has more to give in the game of golf, always. So the biggest case study that I’ve I’ve really seen is that is that they’ll all say show me your swing. Because I want to see what their physics are doing. What’s their hip doing? How much pronation supination? Are they having better? Where are they’re just where are they making up for the lack of other movement patterns, right, just like what we see in anything else. And you you can really start on the ankles, hips and thoracic spine, they really know about the thoracic spine pretty well, hips fairly well, feet, they must have just say these club feet, they’re not really rotating through their feet to their foot. Because of golf shoes, a very rigid shoe. It’s a very rigid shoe. So now they’re just starting to come out with like with like, minimalist type golf shoes. In fact, I golf in my, in my, say my fiber, so in my vivos it’s a little slippery. But I love feeling the ground. So that’s just coming into play. But the biggest thing that we did is I gave someone back a lot more internal hip rotation on their hip, on the right hip, excuse me, and and allow them to get into a backswing that was just more free. But really what it was was it was line that pull the bow back. So now what happened was they had to adjust all their clubs. Because they would say that my my approach wedge goes 100 yards, when it goes 115 yards. My nine iron goes you know, 130 yards, well now goes 140 yards. So actually screwed up their game. But they knew it and they adjusted for it. So now it’s really it’s really interesting, like when you pick out a club that’s like, how accurate Can I can get, so you get a lot more length in your golf swing. Because you’re allowed to pull the bow back more. As long as you keep it accurate. It’s it’s pretty simple. That’s the biggest thing that we’ll see. And that’s not through strength training. I want to be that very clear. I do very little golf strength training in the traditional sense. Its range of motion training. Yes, they’re gonna learn to do some strength out of that. But it’s that kind of proximal acceleration. Distal deceleration kind of concept. Is that how do we really make your body more of a kitchen towel? Yeah. Have you ever tried to whip someone with a kitchen towel? Sure. Right. That’s a very standard thing to do in someone’s life. That’s what a golf swing is. So where’s the power? where’s the where’s Where’s, where’s the pain? What’s at the end of the towel. But where’s the where’s the power? It’s not in your wrist. Seeing your body. So it’s really that whole kind of concept is if you really want to spend some money and be a better golfer. Don’t buy the coolest clubs. Don’t buy the best balls. Save that because you lose a ball that’s five bucks for a nice golf ball $5 i There’s a lot of actually, I’m getting better. I don’t lose many, many balls anymore. But spend it on your coach spend on your movement and practitioner because you can win some money on the golf course.
CJ
What else do you see when you golfers coming in? So looking at range of motion training, so checking out their hips, checking out their feet, checking out, essentially their backswing and their follow through? What other things do you give them? Or help them come to terms with in their own practice? Like, hey, I need you to integrate or incorporate this into your practice to allow you to sustain this level swing. I mean, what’s the overall benefit, besides just gaining more distance in a swing?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, it’s really comes down to movement awareness. That’s the biggest gift, distance is what people want. Because that’s, that’s show, right? They want to hit the ball farther. But really, what it comes down to is movement awareness, they understand where their body is in a spherical space, right situational awareness when they’re because golf, you don’t always play on a flat ground. And in fact, oftentimes you don’t, it’s not flat, there is an undulation, there is a change. And golfers know how to compensate for that, by how they change their grip, or how they change their swing. But does the body know how to compensate for that, like, if your balls higher than your feet are, and you don’t change your swing, you’re gonna hit a lot of turf. And just vice versa, the ball is lower than your feet are, you don’t change your swing you’re gonna with but sometimes it’s a combination of those things. It’s it pitch, yaw, and roll, right just for the ground. So it’s really fast as I can I get more ankle ankle dorsiflexion. Can I on purpose pre supinate my foot to give me more stability, because I’m facing uphill, you know, those little situational awareness pieces, I think that’s the biggest gift. And I think you’d say the same thing. We give awareness, first and foremost. And then what they do with that, well, that’s that depends on on them. Because we’ve we’ve given them all these options, on how they can access three dimensional movement in their ankle, how they can access the two dominant planes of motions in their knee, how they can access that extra bit of internal rotational, or abduction in their right hip, and how that can leave their lower back out of it. When they go into a real strong, because they need to swing the ball just a bit harder to get that extra little bit of length because in between clubs, they can swing a little bit harder, and not freak out. It’s what it comes down to. With golf and training and conditioning is practice does not make perfect practice makes permanent. What are you making permanent? Well show me your practice. If your practice has gaps than your golf, then your swings gonna have gap then your games gonna have gaps. So it’s really coming in. It’s like I love it a lot of golfers because they really care they really care. And showing you the here’s a whole nother way to do with lift. Here’s a whole nother way to do that. That core work and actually involves motions that that Smell Taste look like a golf swing. It’s not a golf swing, right? We’re not want to teach them that I’ll let their Swing Coach do that. And like, Oh, I didn’t even know I can train my core in the rotational plane side planking with one foot off the ground. Focusing on just my my follow through foot. Like yeah, you can do that. As is those little things. It’s just they eat it up. I love training golfers they they are like, this is the coolest thing in the world. Versus someone who’s sport like, oh, that’s different. I’m not gonna do that.
CJ
Well, what do you love most about training golfers? I mean, you have a lot to say about it. You’re analyzing a lot of pieces and there’s a lot of things you can help with. What is it that you enjoy most about helping other golfers or coaching other golfers?
Michael Hughes
They don’t necessarily call themselves athletes. They’re just people who love the leisure sport, the older crowd right? The baby boomers, but I’m not really an athlete. That’s like golf is an athlete. So that’s what I love about the general stance is that you can really show them and bring out a lot about that athleticism. Because the one thing about golf you can smoke drink, be heavily overweight and still be good. While playing the game. What other sport can you do? What other sport can you literally do those three things or be those three three things and still play very well and beat vast majority people?
CJ
I don’t know of any physical thing maybe bowling? I
Michael Hughes
don’t know. I don’t know. You’re not right. Yeah, darts. Dodge probably get better at that. So that the athleticism is a paramount piece. And the second thing I love about golfers is they always open for change. Excuse me for something new. They’re there. They’re hunting. They’re hunting for something new. What’s that something new? Well, it could be something a swing aid, or it’s a different grip that helps them it’s a grip that’s on a club as an examiner I’m just giving you small things here. That helps him grip the club differently. A different ball. I mean all balls are different softness is are hard. Right, there’s a ball for females as ball for youth as a ball for professionals as ball for more spin ball for more distance ball for more, whatever. So they’re always looking to edge up who they want to rubber tee, or versus a plastic fee versus a wood tee.
CJ
There’s a lot of pieces that are involved in making your swing better. And yeah, in your experience, I guess more enjoyable or Yeah, more flashy.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, they’re even very superstitious. Like, I was wondering, backwards, when I put like these little, you know, I take my glove off when when I put versus keep it on. There’s so if you watch, you got to spend four hours on your Sunday, watching golfers you will notice a lot of idiosyncrasies that they do every time. And part of it’s a routine. Psychologically, it’s a routine, nothing changes every swing.
CJ
Yeah, I like that. I like that ritual aspect of of golf, it seems like people kind of have their, their way of doing things. And then those little tweaks may not be to your swing, it may not be to your club, but just that overall experience leading up to the to the game. And then postgame ritual, right cooldown stretching, or go grab a beer, you know, there’s this, everybody’s got the ritual,
Michael Hughes
right. And that’s what the cool thing about golf is that is that it’s the good players know how to bake it routine, but still have access to tweaks in a bad situation, I can make a really good shot out of a pre or post should ever pre worship just ran a tree, but they can still get close to the green, they would have made got it real close to the pin, but not that close to the green. You know, that’s those little things are crazy.
CJ
What’s What’s some of the most common dysfunctions that pop in I know we’ve talked about a lot about golf and what goes into making your performance that much better. And a lot of it does come down to your body, a lot of it does come down to the tools that you’re using. But you know, he’s been playing for years, like we’ve talked about, and what are the things that pop up and somebody who maybe doesn’t do the warm up? Or maybe he doesn’t do cool down or maybe doesn’t have a good flexibility body practice. With their with their sport, they maybe they are the person who drinks most a little bit overweight, does that do anything but golf? What are the dysfunctions that arise from that consistency?
Michael Hughes
Yeah, the the thoracic spine is probably the biggest one to kyphotic. To flexed to bent forward. Bad posture, you it’s really hard to get the thoracic spine to rotate when it’s in a flexed position. It just limits it, it’s probably the biggest one. And probably the next biggest one is not knowing how to sync or synchronize the whip effect. There are one piece, they’re very rigid, which makes them very, they make it very accurate, but not very far. You see as as older players, they’re very straight, very straight, straight, straight ball just doesn’t go as far because they’re losing that elastic nests in their body, which we all know does go away. But it doesn’t stay away. It’s it doesn’t go away. It’s harder to keep, but it’s still there. So I’d say that’s probably the two biggest chunks that I’ll the LLC, thruster spine, their pelvis, you have to rotate through your pelvis so they usually keep decent hip rotation.
CJ
So looking at thoracic spine, primarily
Michael Hughes
primarily and then just just literally have to do a to a compound movement and haven’t synced it together. So like today, we did a Kaiser wrote rotational swing, do they push off of their foot first, or they swing through the hands first? Right, that’s a big difference. So it’s really the same push off through your foot, then rotate through your thigh, then move through your pelvis, then through through your thoracic spine, then your arms are going to be moving along with you the entire time then then swinging the arms.
CJ
Just just the awareness because those things are already all moving together. But they can be moving at different speeds. Right one maybe along for the ride with another that’s moving too much right to too quick. Maybe one’s moving too slow, and creates all that relative motion somewhere in your spine that may be inhibiting your your power, maybe inhibiting your range of motion.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, knees go bad often, because you can’t the ankle doesn’t move to too much in the hip over moves. lower backs go out. Yeah.
CJ
If there is if there’s one thing that there’s never a one thing, but if there was one thing to improve somebody’s swing. What would that be? If there was one way to improve your swing? The best way
Michael Hughes
put a true stretch on the first tee box
CJ
That’s Wow, that’s magical. You have an opportunity to prime yourself for your swing in any way.
Michael Hughes
Yep. Which is, which is there in Adrian Michigan Country Club?
CJ
Okay, let’s see don’t have a true stretch. What is that? What is the stretch gives you
Michael Hughes
what I’m saying what that answer is that you have to give yourself the elastic NISS that is present in your body. But you got to, you got to break open the shell first. Right, you want that kind of gamy kind of feel. But you have to unlock the potential to do that. And a good old fashioned I don’t want to use word stretch, because people think stretching is like Oh, sit on the floor and do a hurdler, hurdler stretch, or, I’m talking about dynamic three dimensional chain by chain, reaction stretching, you know, and I really hard to show that on a podcast. But get your body primed for the movement that you’re going to be doing by unlocking fascial bonds, the muscle bonds that are stiff, that have been stiff driving to the golf course sitting in the chair, get yourself the ability to wake up muscle fibers that aren’t really awoken by typical movement, that a golf swing is all spiral, it’s literally spirals and diagonals. There is no straight lines. The only straight line is your club. Even that’s bending actually, there is no it’s no stretch, there is no it’s just not happening. So therefore stretch without straight lines. That’s probably going to confuse some people,
CJ
I think I’m getting a visual in my head of what that will look like how to put that into an integrated like a movement pattern. It’s, it’s like you said grab on your club, just like on both both hands, both palms down, and then start working like initial range rotations, medium range rotations, and end range rotations. Because you’re going to be using all those ranges when you’re playing right, when you’re putting you’re using an initial range of motion, rotation, and it’s a little bit more stability in your hips. Right, yeah, versus like, when you’re driving, you’re taking into a full range and just trying to set that ball down the other way down the fairway. Going into the green. And that’s your end range. So I think working those doing that at your chest, doing it diagonally, from hip to shoulder, hip to overhead, something that we involve in our core warmup every single day, every single warmup Yeah, so simple, but just framing it for a specific sport or specific motion.
Michael Hughes
And if all you know are traditional stretches, then do those. But if you’re doing like a hamstring stretch, bend to your right. Don’t just bend straight down, bend your right, bend your left, lean to your right, lean to your left. Even that’s significantly better than just straight down. Like it starts to start there. That’s how I would say start there.
CJ
I love it. I feel like there’s so much more to share about golf. We just kind of scratched the surface of the biomechanics of it and the all the little pieces, the little knickknacks. The the clubs, the lengths, the the gear, the shoes, the the vibe.
Michael Hughes
Oh, even the golf bags. Awesome.
CJ
You got to set the Yes, set your tone, man. Well, yeah,
Michael Hughes
so if I had any kind of leaving comments, you know, obviously I’m like closing it up you are but it’s really like you your body is the best tool, but it’s what we spend. That’s what you can’t buy at a golf store. As a better moving body. Golf coaches typically teach you how to work around your limitations. How you worked through them. How would you get rid of them?
CJ
Just saying she got to know your limitations to fix them.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, because golf is awesome. That’s a great, it’s a great sport. You can play literally well into your 90s if not beyond that. You get outside it’s fresh air. You’re walking miles. Hopefully, I should have writing in a cart. It’s a great game. It’s a great game. It’s a great pastime, youth can play with old old can play with youth and it’s just it’s such an awesome game. It just so damn complicated. You know, baseball and golf have a lot of rules. I think baseball has more rules, actually. It’s a lot of rules. So forget the rules. But if you can learn how to hit a ball straight, like the best thing about golf, you need one shot to go exactly where you want it to go. And you’re hooked for the next time.
CJ
That’s still looking for that hook. Michael it’s a we’re about out of time, but I’m sure we’ll be breaking down more biomechanics on golfing and swinging and other swinging sports soon and if any of you listeners have questions about how you can improve your golf game through biomechanics, and understanding the chain of how your foot and your ankle and your knees, your hip, your thoracic spine, your shoulders, your elbows and your wrists and your hands all work together to create one coherent rhythmic sound. Swing, reach out, reach out.
Michael Hughes
We love this stuff obviously, did a whole whole podcast on
CJ
it, maybe shoot a video tag tag us in it of you doing your type one rotation spine movements on the golf course, AKA your backswing. Until next time y’all enjoy, cheers.
Michael Hughes
Hey all. I hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode. And if you did, please share it with your fitness obsessed friends and peers who are also navigating this world of fitness and trying to succeed the trends and misinformation. As you guys can see, this podcast is basically a masterclass for trainers wanting to level up in their coaching skills, and their fitness business model. We launched this in 2020. Because you and your fitness tribe deserve to see an unfiltered look at all the aspects of what it takes to stand out as a next generation coach, and build a successful fitness business. So share it far and wide. And please, when you do do me a favor, take a screenshot of this screen and share it to your social media accounts and use the hashtag Gymnazo podcast that’s hashtag Gymnazo podcast that way we can see you and share your posts with our audience. And finally, when you’re ready to go to the next level as a coach, or in your business, and to reach more people, please go check out gymnazoedu.com. We have put together the best 90 Day coaching program on the market for trainers wanting to become a masterful practitioner and build a business that gives them the freedom and impact. So let us help you do just that. We have online training and one on one coaching to guide you through a full 90 Day certification. We even get you training our clients live because it’s always better to work out your kinks on someone else’s clients than yours. But we promise you this, your clients will be blown away by the transformation our program will help you make you’ll be masterful at a whole new level and part of an incredible community of coaches worldwide, taking their skills to the next level. So if you thought this episode had some fire to it, and inspired you to take action, wait until you see what we deliver on this program. So just go to gymnazoedu.com. And we’ll see you on the other side. Remember that turning your passion for fitness into transformation and sustainable business is critical to reaching the people and lives you were put on earth to help it matters and truly can make an impact in other people’s lives. So hope you do that. Keep sharing a passion and we’ll talk to you soon.
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