Golf Warm Up 101

5 minute read

Consistency… the unicorn that anyone who has ever picked up a golf club is forever chasing. An elusive trait for even the best players in the world, but we amateurs try to make this difficult game even more challenging in the pursuit of some semblance of consistency due to having no standardised consistent routine in the build up to a round of golf or practice session.

Go to watch a football team on consecutive weeks and you’ll spot the same pre game warm up. Go to a rugby match, it’s the same and that’s because our brains like consistent patterns and routines that help get us focused and feeling a sense of accomplishment that we’ve ticked that first box on the road to performing.

Life gets in the way, things come up which are going to derail even the most perfectly laid plans, but if on average you can carve out as little as 30 minutes each week to arrive before your tee time and run through the same routine, this could be the key to shooting more consistent scores.

So what will a consistent warm up actually do for you?

• Elevate your heart rate, which will get the blood moving around your body, which will in turn;
• Activate muscle tissue, getting it ready to perform explosive movements.
• Improve the range of motion at major joints (you need this to make a good turn).
• Focus the mind and relieve performance anxiety (hopefully).
• Finally, and potentially most importantly; it’s going to give you an indicator of how you’re hitting the ball that day and allow you the chance to make relevant adjustments.

Where to start

Well, hopefully because you read my previous article on golf course nutrition (CLICK HERE) you’re already off to a head start vs your playing partners. So a nutritious breakfast is your first port of call. Then, we need to start thinking about moving.

General Movement

Ignore the range balls for a second. We’re best off starting off by just moving the body. The top pro’s will head to the gym prior to playing for a good 45-60 minutes of mobility and movement work prior to hitting the range. Success leaves clues, so that gives us a good indicator that we should probably do at least a little bit of movement without a club.

At the start we’re looking to lubricate the major joints that have a key role in the golf swing - hips, spine and the shoulders.

The following routine will tick all of these boxes and then start getting you focused in on your round as we move on to using a club:

• Hip swings - forward and backwards then side to side - 10 reps of each

   

   

• 90-90 rotations - 5-10 reps each side

   

• Hip hinge thoracic rotations - 10 reps each side

   

• Band/alignment stick/driver dislocations - 10-15 reps

Now grab a wedge and without hitting a ball perform:

• Half kneeling overhead reach - 5-10 reps each side

   

• Half kneeling rotations - 5-10 reps each side

   

• Thor’s hammer wrist rotations - 10-15 reps each arm

   

• 10 wrist swings

   

• 10 half swings

   

• 10 full swings

We’re looking for continual movement through these, don’t stop in between each rep.

In total, the general movement section should take no more than 5-10 mins.

Technical Work

Now you are ready to move on to some technical work.

• 10 wedges - varying the distance each time

   

• 2-3 full shots with even or odd numbered club (i.e. PW, 8, 6, 4, 2)

   

• 10 drivers - 5 to build up the speed, 5 to pick a specific target

   

• 3-5 first tee shot club - see the shot you want to play on the first tee

Here’s a link to a video of this warm up (CLICK HERE)

If you don’t think you’ll have enough time once you get to the course to run through the entire warm up, at the very least run through the General Movement part at home, so that your joints are mobilised and your muscle tissue is feeling elastic, springy and explosive.

You do this every time you hit a golf ball and you should start seeing some more consistency with your game.

Conclusion

Golf is hard enough!

Don’t make this wonderful but agonisingly painful game even more painful by using the first 2 holes to warm up. That just makes finding any kind of consistency an almost impossibility.

Save either/both of those two videos and give these a go prior to your next range session or round of golf and you should hopefully notice a performance increase in the first few holes.

Keep doing these every time you play and what you should find is that your focus and clarity of thought improves week on week, as you’re finally giving the brain what it truly craves… consistency.

Should you have any questions on the above, then fire me over a message directly or reach out via Instagram @TourStrength.

This article was written by Ben Foulis.

The founder of Tour Strength, a sports science graduate who has accumulated more than 5000 hours of 1-2-1 personal training sessions working with golfers.

He is qualified with both TPI and is an accredited member of the UKSCA.