Golf Stretch 5 - Toe Touches (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Stretch 5 - Toe Touches (Video) - by Pete Styles

Often I hear a complaint from golfers when I’m trying to put them in the correct body posture to hit the golf ball. I hear the complaint that they get tight in the back of their hamstrings and the back of their legs start to ache so a lot of people adopt a posture to the golf ball where they slump in the knees and therefore they have to slump in the waist and the shoulders as well and here takes all pressure off the hamstrings. It's not correct, however. We want to be a little straighter in the legs pushing the bum out, keeping the spine a bit flatter. When we get into this position and start to stretch the hamstrings, that gets uncomfortable. I know that golfers would resort back to their old habits of doing this through comfort but again it's not the best performance.

So if you are struggling maintaining good posture because you find it quite tight at the back of your hamstrings, just try and do some gentle stretching exercises to loosen up the area and stretch that area before you go out and play golf. Classic hamstrings stretch is just a toe touch so we want to set up, keep the knees nice and straight back. We’re not going to bend the knees here. It's just locking the legs completely out. And then just slide the palms of your hands gently down your legs and just go as far down as you feel comfortable. Then when you get to that position, just hold it there for a little bit longer and try and squeeze down. We want to refrain from bouncing up and down. That really isn't going to do you any favors.

So get yourself in a nice position. Slide yourself down. Try and get down as low as you can until you can touch your toes and if you can get anywhere near touching your toes, you really shouldn’t have any particular issues in maintaining the good posture position. But if you're struggling with bad posture and when you've been putting yourself into good posture as I previously described, if that feels awkward and you reel tight in the back of the hamstrings, gently stretch the hamstrings out by reaching down to your toes and holding on there for a few seconds and then that will feel a lot better in your posture next time you try it.

 2012-09-19

Often I hear a complaint from golfers when I’m trying to put them in the correct body posture to hit the golf ball. I hear the complaint that they get tight in the back of their hamstrings and the back of their legs start to ache so a lot of people adopt a posture to the golf ball where they slump in the knees and therefore they have to slump in the waist and the shoulders as well and here takes all pressure off the hamstrings. It's not correct, however. We want to be a little straighter in the legs pushing the bum out, keeping the spine a bit flatter. When we get into this position and start to stretch the hamstrings, that gets uncomfortable. I know that golfers would resort back to their old habits of doing this through comfort but again it's not the best performance.

So if you are struggling maintaining good posture because you find it quite tight at the back of your hamstrings, just try and do some gentle stretching exercises to loosen up the area and stretch that area before you go out and play golf. Classic hamstrings stretch is just a toe touch so we want to set up, keep the knees nice and straight back. We’re not going to bend the knees here. It's just locking the legs completely out. And then just slide the palms of your hands gently down your legs and just go as far down as you feel comfortable. Then when you get to that position, just hold it there for a little bit longer and try and squeeze down. We want to refrain from bouncing up and down. That really isn't going to do you any favors.

So get yourself in a nice position. Slide yourself down. Try and get down as low as you can until you can touch your toes and if you can get anywhere near touching your toes, you really shouldn’t have any particular issues in maintaining the good posture position. But if you're struggling with bad posture and when you've been putting yourself into good posture as I previously described, if that feels awkward and you reel tight in the back of the hamstrings, gently stretch the hamstrings out by reaching down to your toes and holding on there for a few seconds and then that will feel a lot better in your posture next time you try it.