Golf Stretch 6 - Crucifix chest fix (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Stretch 6 - Crucifix chest fix (Video) - by Pete Styles

For a lot of golfers one of the most common problems they encounter in their swing is the casting or over-the-top movement which would lead to an out-in swing path and possibly a left-to-right ball flight. If you identify with that ball flight and your golf coach or watching these videos you've been trying to correct that to bring the golf club down on the inside, one of the things you might want to consider is the physical limitation, whether you can actually get the club into the right position. I’m talking about for the right-handed golfer from setting up this way round is swinging up to the top with the club. If you find it difficult to take your right arm back this way behind your shoulder and you feel very tight to cross pectoral muscle here and the club or the right arm always seems to come in front of you so you produce this sort of movement in your downswing, up and then over, one thing you might consider, whether physically you're able to get yourself into the right position, is a great exercise to check whether you've got the range of motion that you'll actually need. It's called the crucifix chest stretch.

You actually need to set up against the wall. So if I just back up against the wall here, I’m going to keep my feet about nine inches away from the wall this way and a normal shoulder width apart, a little bit of knee flex and just sit back against the wall so I drop my hips against the wall. An important thing now is to hollow out your back or to -- sorry, not hollow out your back, to press that hollow flat so all your back sits against the wall. So I sit here with my back pressed up against the wall, my chin down and the back of my head touching the wall so try get as much of your back touching the wall as possible. Then take your arms out in front of you and slowly pull them back and feel how far back you can get them without losing contact from your hips back of your neck. From this position take your hands and arms back and try and get them flat against the wall. If you can feel that your elbows and your hands are touching, just make sure your wrist is touching as well. This is quite a common thing that we see where the wrist comes away so we get this sort of arching in the wrist. We want to that to be touching against the wall as, the base of the spine touching against the wall and the chest all nice and flat. If you can hold that for a few seconds, that would be good.

If you're struggling with that exercise, it's well worth actually using that exercise just to try and push it back bit by bit to try and get that flatter. Then when you set yourself up to the golf ball next time and make your back swing, you should feel this arm a little bit more inclined to come behind you and less to cast over the top. So add the flexibility into your shoulders by trying the crucifix chest stretch and hopefully you'll find it easier to get the golf club down to the ball on the right path to improve your ball flight.

 2012-09-19

For a lot of golfers one of the most common problems they encounter in their swing is the casting or over-the-top movement which would lead to an out-in swing path and possibly a left-to-right ball flight. If you identify with that ball flight and your golf coach or watching these videos you've been trying to correct that to bring the golf club down on the inside, one of the things you might want to consider is the physical limitation, whether you can actually get the club into the right position. I’m talking about for the right-handed golfer from setting up this way round is swinging up to the top with the club. If you find it difficult to take your right arm back this way behind your shoulder and you feel very tight to cross pectoral muscle here and the club or the right arm always seems to come in front of you so you produce this sort of movement in your downswing, up and then over, one thing you might consider, whether physically you're able to get yourself into the right position, is a great exercise to check whether you've got the range of motion that you'll actually need. It's called the crucifix chest stretch.

You actually need to set up against the wall. So if I just back up against the wall here, I’m going to keep my feet about nine inches away from the wall this way and a normal shoulder width apart, a little bit of knee flex and just sit back against the wall so I drop my hips against the wall. An important thing now is to hollow out your back or to — sorry, not hollow out your back, to press that hollow flat so all your back sits against the wall. So I sit here with my back pressed up against the wall, my chin down and the back of my head touching the wall so try get as much of your back touching the wall as possible. Then take your arms out in front of you and slowly pull them back and feel how far back you can get them without losing contact from your hips back of your neck. From this position take your hands and arms back and try and get them flat against the wall. If you can feel that your elbows and your hands are touching, just make sure your wrist is touching as well. This is quite a common thing that we see where the wrist comes away so we get this sort of arching in the wrist. We want to that to be touching against the wall as, the base of the spine touching against the wall and the chest all nice and flat. If you can hold that for a few seconds, that would be good.

If you're struggling with that exercise, it's well worth actually using that exercise just to try and push it back bit by bit to try and get that flatter. Then when you set yourself up to the golf ball next time and make your back swing, you should feel this arm a little bit more inclined to come behind you and less to cast over the top. So add the flexibility into your shoulders by trying the crucifix chest stretch and hopefully you'll find it easier to get the golf club down to the ball on the right path to improve your ball flight.