When golfers think about their swings, they tend to think about all the things they want to have, and the moves they wished they didn’t.
What often goes overlooked is a more simple, but more important, lesson: can you physically make the moves they’re trying to make?
Often, when a golfer spots a move they don’t like in their golf swing – the dreaded “early extension”, for instance – they don’t appreciate that the cause of that fault isn’t the move itself. Rather, that fault is an effect. The true cause is a lack of flexibility, which prevents them from being able to rotate (here are some good stretches to help with that, by the way).
Improving your body’s ability to move won’t automatically improve your golf swing, but it can help set the stage for a swing change. It’s true for pros, too, and something I explored with Max Homa’s golf swing in a recent film-study video, which you can watch here:
For Homa, things started to change in a big way when he linked up with Golf Digest No.1-ranked Teacher, Mark Blackburn.
Max Homa’s move, explained
When Blackburn ran a Titleist Performance Institute physical screen on Homa during their first lesson, Mark found that Homa had slightly limited shoulder flexibility, and struggled to lift his shoulders above his head when sitting against a wall.
It’s a test called the Lat Test, and one that a lot of golfers who sit at a desk all day struggle with.
Initially, Homa had worked hard on trying to lift his arms up on the backswing, which because of his slightly limited shoulder mobility, was hard for him to do.
In order to help him move his arms and shoulders up-and-down, Homa would tend to thrust his hips towards the ball, which would cost him consistency.
So, he started working hard on this with highly regarded tour fitness guru, Kolby Wayne. When it came to his golf swing, Homa worked on getting his arms up less, and more around. Now, Homa’s left arm runs through his right shoulder and his club is more in line with his arms. As Blackburn points out below:
That put Homa in a position where he could rotate powerfully through while remaining in posture – a more consistent move than rolling his wrists and thrusting his hips towards the ball.
This helps Homa take advantage of his powerful rotational muscles. Instead of trying to do something that didn’t feel natural (getting up and down), the pair focused on building his swing around something he could (moving around).
And the results speak for themselves…
Great work from one of the smartest teams in the game.
You can watch the full video right here:
