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Wednesday, August 30, 2000, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Golf
Golfers who exercise first have shot at better scores
by Craig Smith
Seattle Times staff reporter
The way fitness expert Neil Chasan views it, your body is the 15th club in your golf bag.
It's also a "club" where a minimum of 15 minutes of work a week can pay huge dividends.
To Chasan, the logic is irrefutable: The golf swing is "an extremely athletic movement," so it makes perfect sense to devote time to the muscles involved. The goals are increased strength and flexibility that result in more distance and lower scores.
"We've had players shoot in the mid-70s after shooting in the mid-90s for years," he said, sitting in the office of Sports Reaction Center, his fitness and rehab center in Bellevue. "The only thing they changed was their conditioning."
The folks making those kinds of quantum jumps in their scores spent more than his recommended minimum of five minutes three times a week on golf-related exercises.
"We've had good golfers such as 4-handicap players add 50 yards to their drives," Chasan said.
Which muscles play a big role in determining your golf success? Chasan likes to refer to laboratory research at the Centinela Hospital Biomechanics Lab in California that showed:
- The hips initiate the swing and "pull you through."
- The butt muscles are power generators.
- The rotator-cuff muscles in the shoulders are more active than the large shoulder muscles during the swing.
Other important muscles are the legs, because of their role in endurance on a golf course, and stomach muscles, because of their role in rotational movements.
Chasan and golf pros maintain that shoulder and hip rotation are the keys to power because the golf swing is a matter of "coiling" and then "uncoiling" and releasing energy.
He also advocates improving cardiovascular conditioning and says it can lower handicaps by improving stamina.
Good overall conditioning has a variety of payoffs:
- A well-conditioned player is more teachable because he or she is stronger and more flexible.
"All the teachers I've talked to have had experiences where they have been frustrated because a student physically can't do something such as achieve a proper shoulder turn that would make him or her a better golfer," Chasan said.
A fit player has a good shoulder turn, and it prevents the swing from becoming arm-dominant, a particular malady as a golfer gets older.
- Fitness delays aging. Chasan said aerobic fitness declines 10 percent a decade unless a person works to maintain it.
- Players in shape remain more alert throughout a round.
Chasan isn't surprised at all that Tiger Woods is having such a sensational year. He considers Woods the best-conditioned athlete on the PGA Tour.
"I'm surprised more players on the Tour don't take fitness more seriously," Chasan said. "I'm surprised they all aren't in outstanding condition, because the money to be made is so good."
In his book "Total Conditioning for Golfers," Chasan lists 18 recommended exercises. He advocates performing them in front of a mirror so that flaws in execution can be spotted.
The top three:
1. The twister, done with an 8- to 12-pound dumbbell: Grip dumbbell with both hands and hold it against your chest. Assume a golf address position. Keeping the weight against you, twist to the backswing position, then recoil to golf follow-through position. Allow your weight to shift just as during the golf swing. Start slowly to avoid injury, then speed up. Perform for 45 seconds.
2. Shoulder turn-takeaway: Grasp a light, 3- to 5-pound dumbell with both hands as if it were a golf club and assume a position as if addressing the ball. Then turn your shoulders and raise the arms to a full takeaway position. Pay attention to maintain the same spinal angle you have when swinging a golf club. Return to impact position. Reset and repeat. Exercise for 45 seconds.
3. Shoulder turn-follow-through: Using the same 3- to 5-pound dumbbell, move from impact position to the full follow-through position with your belt buckle facing down the imaginary fairway. Repeat for 45 seconds.
Chasan said the shoulder turn-takeaway and follow-through can help train the body in critical golf positions such as the setup, takeaway and finish should feel like. He maintains that it takes 5,000-12,000 repetitions to ingrain a change in a physical activity such as a golf swing. Doing many of those repetitions with weights accelerates the learning process, he said.
Chasan, 41, is a native of South Africa who emigrated to the United States in 1977 and received a degree in physical therapy at the University of Washington in 1982. He later earned a master's degree and now teaches part time at the UW in addition to operating a fitness-therapy studio in Bellevue. His 1996 video, "The Swing Reaction System," earned a four-star rating from Golf Magazine and he recently published "Total Conditioning for Golfers," available for $19.95 on his Web site, www.swingreaction.com.
Chasan is a 12-handicap golfer who doesn't spend much time playing the game because he and his wife have four young children and he coaches three soccer teams. He doesn't pretend to be a golf pro and has a business alliance with golf instructor Doug McDonald.
Chasan, a former gymnast, has specific advice on warming up before a round.
"The way a lot of people in Seattle warm up is they sit around the table in the clubhouse drinking coffee, then they are surprised when they double-bogey the first hole," he said.
He advocates a brisk walk to increase the heart rate, followed by rotational stretches to limber up. Then spend time on the practice range, beginning with short irons, and select your first-hole tee club while on the range.
"If you're slicing your driver on the range, decide on your 3-wood or 5-iron and hit the chosen club until you are comfortable," he said. "Finish off with some chipping and putting, and you should be ready to go."
Copyright © 2000 The Seattle Times Company
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