Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Golf may put you at risk for a back injury
View Single Post
 
Old 05-06-2014, 09:27 PM
Dr Winston O Boogie jr's Avatar
Dr Winston O Boogie jr Dr Winston O Boogie jr is offline
Sage
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 7,940
Thanks: 1
Thanked 2,157 Times in 772 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages PL View Post
Thanks for adding some of your experience as a golf professional. However, I would like to add this: We're talking about elderly people in The Villages, some of whom may have various degrees of bone thinning. Some may have osteoporosis of the spine and not even be aware of it if they haven't been tested. 175 yards would be nothing for a pro golfer but it could be the straw that breaks the camels back for an elderly golfer who has undiagnosed bone thinning. I think it could even be possible to break a hip.
I don't know that if you could break a hip by swinging a golf club, but you certainly make some very valid points. Certainly the amount of effort to hit the ball a modest distance is huge for some people, especially as we get older. In my experience older and physically weaker players tend to play more within themselves and don;t over do it. Professional golfers, such as those playing on the PGA tour are trying to get as much as they can out of their swings and some swing harder than they should and put stresses that even their young in shape bodies may not accept.
I'm not saying that's what happened to Tiger, but he does seem to swing very hard ad winds up his upper body against his lower as much or more than anyone I've ever seen.
It's very difficult to say who will have back problems and who won't. I think that a lot of it is genetic. Some people play golf all of their lives and never have any problems. You would think that players that wind up their bodies and swing hard would be more susceptible, but then here comes Freddie Couples. Smooth swinging, easy does it Freddie has had a very bad back history and yet is still competitive in PGA Tour event past the age of fifty. The really strange thing about Freddie is that, in my professional opinion, his is not the type of swing that you would thing would cause back problems, but he has them.
Who know? My advice would be to simply play within yourself. Don't be trying to get those few extra yards. You're probably not going to get them anyway. Swing smooth and make solid contact. Don't try to play with the one plane swing that is so popular on tour right now. That's great for 23 year old kids who work out and stretch every day.
Bend from the hips, not the waist and don't bend over too far. Let your hips turn with your shoulders.
If you spend some time practicing putting, Stand up and start you routine after every putt. Standing in one position bent over putting ball after ball is one of the worst things for your back.
If you do all of these things and still end up with serious back problems, take lots of drugs.
__________________
The Beatlemaniacs of The Villages meet every Friday 10:00am at the O'Dell Recreation Center.

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." - Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, April 22, 1800.