How effective is a pre-round warm-up?

How many of you out there, jump out of your car, throw your golf shoes on whilst sitting in your boot, grab your clubs and head straight to the first tee? You then proceed to spend the next 3 holes warming up and getting your swing into some sort of shape to allow you to play the rest of the round to your handicap?

You are not alone in doing this as the majority of amateur golfers, at all handicap levels, fail to warm-up appropriately before a competitive round of golf. Many of the reasons include insufficient time, worrying what playing partners/others may think, not knowing the correct way to warm-up and ultimately not understanding the effects and therefore importance of a specific pre-round warm-up.

Studies carried out on elite golfers by Nigel Tilley and Alison Macfarlane in 2012, highlighted that a specific warm-up that included full swing shots, dynamic stretching and functional resistance exercises that targeted the trunk, legs and shoulders has a significant improvement on maximum driving distance, smash factor (amount of energy transferred from the club head to the golf ball) and consistency of ball striking. Although not statistically significant, an improvement in maximum club head speed and driving accuracy was also observed after a specific warm-up was performed.

Based on this knowledge it would seem that we would most definitely be at an advantage if we were to arrive at the golf course an extra 30 minutes earlier so that we can engage in a warm up. This way we are allowing ourselves to prepare properly for our round and giving us a better opportunity of shooting a good score? If it’s not time that prevents you and just self-consciousness then why not try the warm up at home immediately before you head to the course and then hit some balls?

The key to a good warm-up however is that it needs to incorporate active and dynamic stretches; as performing sustained static stretches (such as standing quad stretch, calf stretch) causes immediate reductions in performance of a maximal golf drive.

To help you begin to include a warm-up into your pre-round routine, try this quick set of exercises prior to your next round. No equipment and limited space is required, so there is no excuse for you not to do it. Give it a go and see if it helps you improve your round performance and I would love to hear feedback from anyone that this does benefits.

These exercises aim to fire up your functional movement and motor patterns, preparing your body for the explosive, rotational forces required for golf. They aim to improve your performance of the golf swing, including speed, accuracy and distance; as well as potentially protect you from any injury.

Rachael Tibbs is a TPI Level 2 Physical Conditioning coach based at Oulton Hall Golf Academy, Leeds. For any information regarding this article or to arrange an initial physical screening session please contact Rachael on rachael@dynamic-golf.co.uk.