Welcome

Welcome to this site, I hope you find the contents interesting and helpful. Most of the material is not mine however, the authors are researchers, scientists, doctors, surgeons, golf professionals, or sports physiotherapists who have either spoken to me personally, at conferences I attend, or read of later. One almost unobtainable text I use is "Feeling up to Par. Medicine from Tee to Green". A co-author - William Mallon, MD, an assistant consulting professor in orthopaedics and also a PGA tour professional from 1975 - 1979 provides most valuable information. The book is now out of print I believe however the information contained will be revealed in this web site. I hope if you see some information you researched that appropriate referencing is made, however over the years I am unsure as to who told me what, and where I read it. Some of the material has been gleaned from the (to date 4) "Proceedings of the world scientific congress of golf". This congress is held every 4 years and in its attempts to scientifically analyze the golfer. One of its previous editors, Alaster Cochran also co-wrote another "classic" text I use; "The search of the Perfect Swing" in 1968. This text uses the science of bio-mechanics to describe the golf swing, the way a golfer uses their body to generate the required centrifugal force to generate the required clubhead velocity to generate the required

"the golfing professional uses about 80% of muscle effort , whereas amateurs can use as much as 90% effort"

displacement of a ball in the required direction. It's easy to see why most scientists can't really play good golf - we spend too much time analyzing this and that to just "do it". A major problem, however, is when I see golfers just doing it, I see them place huge forces on their body joints & muscles, with not too much reward. I look in my scientific journals and find that the golfing professional uses about 80% of muscle effort , whereas amateurs can use as much as 90% effort, and even sometimes more with much less consistency, or even distance.

I should also point out the bleedingly obvious here for those who need to be told. The information contained within this web site is general, that is I cant see you, I can't test your muscular/joint abilities so if you decide to over exercise, to over stretch using my ideas, and ignoring the most important - NO GAIN WITH PAIN, then in Australian vernacular you're a bloody idiot, don't bother suing me; just remember if it hurts - stop doing it, don't do it again until you find out why it hurts. If you think muscles need strengthening for you to hit the ball further you may or may not be right, however if you think that by painfully exercising muscles you will hit the ball further you are totally wrong. PAIN CAUSES MUSCULAR INHIBITION, is what neurologists recognize, in plain English that means if it hurts the muscle, the muscle will not help you swing a golf club. And swing it we do - at speeds of 160 kph, for you Americans that's 100 mph, we require about 1.5 horsepower to swing just the clubhead at this rate, however not just the clubhead is moving - the golfers body and the shaft they are holding are also moving, total horsepower to move these is in the region of 4. We require about 1 kilo of muscle for one quarter horsepower - so total muscle mass required, about 16 kilo for most of us or about 35 pounds of (American) muscle. If you look at a human, one thing you notice - most muscle is in the lower half - your hips have more muscle than your shoulders, your thighs have more muscle than your arms. My point is don't bother exercising your arms if you want more power - learn to use the power from your larger muscles, your trunk rotators, your hip and thigh muscles are important also. After that perhaps you could exercise your arms to strike the ball out of that thick rough - or better still don't go there in the first place.

You can map your way around the site - picking out specific areas of interest, the advice is general -however if more is required you can mail me and I'll get back to you.

Good Golfing.

Michael is a trained physio working in Sydney and is a member at the Lakes Golf Club and Bonnie Doon.
Contact him at michael@golfphysio.com