golferscorner

                                        EFFECT

Shoulder restrictions lead to fat or thin shots and may increase the frequency of hooks or slices if you are attempting to compensate for the restriction. Often, the body compensates by increasing spinal rotation, which can lead to other injuries. Golfers with restricted shoulder movement may notice difficulty with:
                 * keeping their eye on the ball
                 * maintaining an optimal swing plane
                 * back swing
                 * follow through
                 * facing the target after follow through

Spinal restrictions are common. Often the body compensates for spinal restrictions with excessive rotation and shifting in the hips during both the back swing and the follow through, and with overuse of the shoulder. Golfers with restricted spine movement may notice difficulty with:
                 * maintaining an optimal swing plane
                 * maintaining an optimal swing axis
                 * back swing
                 * follow through
                 * connecting with the proper club face angle
                 * limited coil action

Hip restrictions lead to fat shots. Often the body compensates for the hip restriction by lifting up on the back swing, which then leads to chopping the ball. In addition hip restrictions lead to over rotation of the shoulder and spine. Golfers with restricted hip movement may notice loss of power and difficulty with:
                  * back swing
                  * follow through
                  * facing the target after follow through
                  * limited coil action

Hamstring restrictions often cause a reduction in spinal rotation and an over compensation with the arms. Golfers with restricted hamstrings may notice difficulty with:
                 * address posture (bending over further at the lower back)

CAUSE

SHOULDER RESTRICTIONS

SPINAL RESTRICTIONS

HIP RESTRICTIONS

HAMSTRING RESTRICTIONS

GOLFER'S CORNER

A good golf swing utilizes almost every part of your body. Muscle tightness, or shortened muscles, and poor joint mobility, restrict your range of motion and prevent your body from performing a proper golf swing. The perfect golf swing is elusive enough without these additional obstacles. Often a tightness or restriction in one area of the body causes over compensation in another. The result is a chain reaction; one injury forces the overuse of another part of the body and leads to additional injuries. Wrist and elbow injuries commonly are a result of poor rotation in another joint. In order to compensate for the loss of motion, wrists are overused in driving the ball and in decelerating the swing.

The good news is that Active Release Technique (ART) can release the adhesions between the muscles and other soft tissues, restoring muscle length and rotational capacity. You will once again be playing golf without pain, discomfort, and because your body is fuctioning correctly, with a little less frustration.

How it all works- Dr. Mirabella identifies muscle tightness, muscle imbalances, and joint restrictions using a combination of muscle balance tests and swing analysis. Once the problem areas are identified, Dr. Mirabella treats the area, or areas with Active Release Technique (ART). This breaks up the adhesions that are causing the problem. Afterward, Dr. Mirabella suggests stretches that will further lengthen the muscles, and exersizes to help strengthen the muscles to prevent the condition from occurring again. For more information about ART, please visit our "What is ART" page.

Once there are adhesions between the muscles and other soft tissue, stretching alone usually doesn't help. Trauma, injury, repetitive strain, tension and stress cause small tears in the soft tissues (muscles etc.). The body heals these small tears by laying down cross fibers. These cross fibers are scar tissue which causes muscles to adhere to other muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia. The adhesions prevent the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia from sliding over one another properly. This leads to tight, short, weak muscles. Scar tissue is stronger than regular soft tissue. Therefore when you stretch, you elongate the healthy tissues, but are unable to elongate the scar tissue. After ART is used to release the adhessions, stretching is once again effective.