Entry 24.18

Well, it’s that time of year again. The time of year where you all go home to relax, enjoy time with family and friends and prepare to come back to campus to tackle the spring semester. For me, the winter and summer breaks are much different times of year. They are times where I get to tackle time consuming projects that would take me away from being able to work with you during the semester. They are also times where I get the opportunity to get into the weeds and study. Not that I don’t study during the semester. This fall semester I spent the entire semester studying Homer Kelley’s The Golfing Machine. Yes, I took 4 months to go through one book that only has 245 pages. It only took me a few hours to read it. But to study, learn and come up with practical applications it took months. And I probably could’ve slowed down and taken even more time. My winter break study materials involve finishing up an instructor course I started in August, some DVDs to prepare for a seminar I’m taking at the PGA Show in January and a book called Old School vs. New School The application of data & technology into baseball. I know, some of you probably did a double take there asking why I’m reading a book about baseball. Well, it’s less about the fielding and base running tactics of baseball but more about the hitting and throwing aspects. Which are extremely applicable to golf. The golf swing and baseball swing are not as different as some would like you to believe, and the golf swing is just a throwing motion. Plus, I believe that if I only focus on golf instruction and coaching and don’t branch out to other sports, my coaching will become like the player who only ever practices hitting a fade. It eventually turns into a slice and isn’t as effective or efficient as it could be. That is the last thing I want for my teaching and coaching. I want it to be fresh, energetic, evolving, and adaptable. The book has given me my topic of study for the spring semester: Bernstein’s Principle. I haven’t done enough studying on it yet to be able to speak, well write, comfortably about it so I won’t. But know at some point, it’s coming.

Today we are going to cover one of the most important and poorly explained movements in the game and what I believe to be what we should focus on to make the movement efficient and safe. Many times, when I watch live lessons that other coaches teach on YouTube and this topic comes up, I cringe. They tell their client that they need to rotate their hips and then proceed to talk about rotating the pelvis. We hear it so often, but we don’t stop to ask the question. Is it hip rotation or pelvic rotation? They are two different things. The hip is “a projection of the pelvis and upper thigh bone on each side of the body in human beings” and the pelvis is “the large bony structure near the base of the spine to which the legs are attached in human beings”. Just using the dictionary definitions of the two, you can see they are different as one contains the other. Another common belief we see in golf instruction is “You need 60 degrees of internal hip rotation to have a powerful golf swing that won’t cause you lower back pain”. The final statement I want to explore is “you need to internally rotate into your trail leg so you can load the trail glute”. I am in no way blasting any coach that sees it differently than I do, I’m just going to explain how I see it differently and hopefully spark some thought in your mind. Now, I haven’t always seen it this way, so if this is different than a conversation that we have had in the past, please pay attention to understand my new views and why I consider them better than what I used to teach. I hope you see that I am constantly trying to become the best coach I can be and that involves constantly challenging my beliefs to see if they are true. That is an imperative to any coach’s journey. I promise it has happened to you. Maybe not in golf, but somewhere you held an idea that you held as truth, until someone caused you to challenge that belief, and you found a new truth. But let’s get back to the topic at hand.

First, be specific when you coach. If you are talking about the hips, then talk about the hips. If you are talking about the pelvis, speak about the pelvis. Don’t interchange two words with different meanings. You will only cause confusion for your players. Issue number one addressed.

Second, do we really need 60 degrees of internal hip rotation to have a powerful golf swing that doesn’t cause lower back pain? Where does this number of 60 degrees come from? Does 60 degrees actually help create more power? And does not having 60 degrees cause lower back pain? I can tell you that that is not what the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) teaches even though many coaches (even TPI Level 1 certified coaches) say they do (check out Instagram or YouTube). Those of you who have done a TPI Level 1 assessment with me will remember standing on one foot in the tape and turning both directions. The angle of the tape is 60 degrees. Now the test is really called the “Lower Quarter Rotation Test”, not the internal hip rotation test. We are looking at the entire lower body as a system and measuring the internal and external rotation of the hip AND tibial internal and external rotation AND eversion and inversion of the foot. We aren’t just looking at the hip. I typed “normal internal hip rotation” into Google and looked at the top ten results. ALL of them said somewhere between 35-45 degrees is “normal” with one saying 0-45 degrees is normal! So, when you don’t have the “required” 60 degrees and I give you a TPI routine to address it, we are working on all the parts of the system, not just the hip. So, no you don’t need 60 degrees of internal hip rotation. In fact, unless you are having issues with your lower quarter rotation (aka pain or discomfort in any of the joints involved), I make sure TPI isn’t giving you too much work on it. In most cases, I want the routine to help you maintain what you have, not make you looser, even if you have less than the 60 degrees. Why? Fantastic question. Because your body has created those changes to help you become more efficient.

Let me explain. Davis's law states that soft tissue will remodel itself and become stiffer along lines of stress. So, when we practice a movement repetitively, the soft tissue will evolve, adjust and align in the direction of the desired movement so that the tissue becomes stronger when dealing with the forces in that particular direction. Your body is helping you work less hard and become more explosive through smaller ranges and windows of movement. That is why for movement purposes, unless the disparity between the two sides of your body is large (more than 20% we can discuss why at another point in time) or you have pain, I don’t want to change your body composition. Your body has adapted to help you create more force, faster and by moving less! Why would I want to mess with that? This is why when I see an athlete trying to move in greater ranges (trying to turn more in the backswing), I ask the question “why”. It usually isn’t what you already have that is going to injure you. It is you trying to increase the ranges and “muscle it” because now the force isn’t being transferred through the system efficiently and inefficient movement usually creates suboptimal results and will create more potential for injury. This is where TPI Level 2 Fitness/Power comes into play. Now we are trying to help you create more force, but by keeping you in the same range of motion (which is what I want Level 1 routines to do for you in many cases. Keep you where you are. Again, unless you are having pain). And sometimes when we are having pain from changing our range of motion and return to our previous movement pattern, the pain goes away. This should tell you all you need to know!

So, to recap, be a lifelong learner and if something challenges mainstream thought or the way you think, don’t ignore it, learn more about it. It may just change your truth. Don’t just take somebody’s word and roll with it. They may have taken some really valuable information and misinterpreted it. Just because they are one of the most respected knowledgeable coaches in the business, doesn’t mean that their truth must be your truth. And just because you believe something to be true, don’t be afraid to challenge it and then change. I think being afraid to challenge and then change is more damaging to your reputation than sticking to your guns with your head in the sand. We’ve discussed internal hip rotation and how much is ‘normal’. Zero degrees can be the answer for some people! I think I glossed over it when I talked about how I use TPI routines but the real takeaway there is to have a purpose and a plan. Do things for a reason. Whether it's deciding how many shirts to stock in your shop or what changes you are going to make to a player’s body or motion. You don’t have to use hard data and numbers to help make these decisions. Sometimes it is just your ‘gut’ telling you to do it. Trust your instincts! They are extremely powerful and knowledgeable and can absolutely be the reason you decide to do something. Now hopefully you noticed I didn’t talk about point #3: you have to internally rotate the trail hip to load the trail glute. You are absolutely correct. I try to keep these entries to three pages or less. When I originally finished this entry, it was well over that number. So, I split the original into two pieces and will use the final topic as my next entry. It is a little more technical in nature and I think I have already given you enough to think about. If you want to do a little prep work, just take a look at some anatomy of the hip. I know it’s winter break and it sounds like I just gave you a homework assignment, but remember, be a lifelong learner! Learning something new every day actually causes your brain to release dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, which are hormones responsible for making you happy and feeling good. So, in reality, I’m just trying to help put a smile on your face, not giving you homework. Changes your perspective on learning just a little bit, doesn’t it?