I've been lucky enough to have published a book through St. Martin's Press -- "Fix Your Body, Fix Your Swing." Now, I have a DVD out -- "Golf Fitness 1" -- that some of you may have seen advertised on the Golf Channel. It's funny. I've gone about my business making golfers better at playing golf for years, but it wasn't until I entered the gigantic world of marketing that I noticed how many other folks are out there trying to make golfers better at playing golf. And they have plenty of ideas and concepts they want to sell you.
Here's what I've noticed. Many of them hide behind a lot of pseudo-science and try to catch your attention with come-ons like "Learn the Secrets to Longer Drives that the Professional Golf World Doesn't Want You to Know!"
Well, I'm in the professional golf world. As a biomechanics coach for PGA, LPGA, and Champions Tour players for over a dozen years, I can confidently say that there is no "secret." There is no locked-down room in the Pentagon devoted solely to information about alien invasions, presidential clones, and the "secret" to 30 more yards on your drive.
There are no "X-Files" concerning the golf swing. There is no conspiracy preventing you from making your body better able to swing a golf club. There are no secret operatives out there whose sole mission in life is to make sure that you don't stumble upon some magical exercise, pill, or incantation and accidentally become as good a golfer as Tiger, Phil, Keegan, or Rickie. Again, I'm in the professional golf world...and I WANT YOU TO PLAY BETTER! I want you to start playing the best golf of your life and have fun doing it!
Just like everything else -- relationships, wealth, happiness -- the secret is that there is no secret. You want to be successful at something? You need to be armed with the information and tools that it'll take to make you more successful and you have to be willing to put in some time and effort to become more successful.
There. I've said it. If I mysteriously "disappear," then you'll know I was wrong about conspiracies and secret operatives. I'm guessing, though, that I'll live to see another day.
To become a better golfer, you have to make your body better able to do the things that it needs to do in order to make you a better golfer. If your hips, chest, and shoulders are too tight, you won't be able to take the club through an optimal range to create enough clubhead speed at impact and give you enough braking time as you finish your follow-through. If your balance and coordination aren't strong enough, you won't be able to maintain perfect golf posture and spine angle throughout your swing -- or be able to maintain that perfect posture and spine angle for 18 holes.
If you train your body in a golf-specific way and with an understanding of what the sport of golf requires your body to do, you will become a better golfer. It's no "secret" -- it's just the common sense of the Golf Body.
Sorry if I've upset some of the conspiracy theorists out there. If it makes you feel any better, there are rumors that etchings found on the base of one of the Egyptian pyramids correctly predicted Adam Scott's victory this year at Augusta.
Just remember -- you didn't hear that from me.
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