| MGR: |
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Why is it that such a large percentage of golfers don't improve after going to golf schools? |
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| Roger: |
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Because traditional golf instruction only addresses the symptoms of the problems like swing mechanics, and not the true causes of the symptoms, like the physiological dysfunctions of people, or imbalanced muscles which are either too tight or too weak. |
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| MGR: |
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Explain. |
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| Roger: |
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The reality is that golf is one of the most physically demanding sports and requires flexibility and strength in the major muscle groups. The average person lacks the proper flexibility and strength to perform a fundamental golf swing. So when they go to take a traditional golf lesson, in many cases, they literally can't do it. The answer to fixing one's golf swing lies in getting their bodies more functional, and believe me, nearly everyone can improve their flexibility regardless of how old they are. Whether or not the majority of people are willing to get on a conditioning program is another story.
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| MGR: |
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Are you saying that golfers should go on flexibility and strength programs with their lessons? |
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| Roger: |
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Definitely, yes! Every single golfer that I have put on a custom-tailored conditioning program has radically improved their golf games faster and more effectively than the golfers who just took standard lessons. The good news/bad news situation is this: the good news is that more and more golfers, and golf instructors are realizing the importance of flexibility and conditioning, the bad news is that I've found that not one person in 50 understands what flexibility really is, or how to get it. That goes for golf pros too. I ask all of my students if they stretch and it's amazing how many say they do. But, when they show me their stretching routine, I nearly always see that they're wasting their time and not getting acceptable results. I also see different types of stretch bars and machines, and most of them are useless and sometimes dangerous! In fact, a recent U.H. study done before the Honolulu Marathon showed that runners who stretched before the race had a higher injury rate than the runners that didn't stretch. That's because most of them didn't stretch properly. Stretching properly and completely, is the answer.
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| MGR: |
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What types of stretching do you teach? |
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| Roger: |
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I never give any two people the same stretch routine because everybody is different and has different needs. However, I always try to get the person's body back to it's natural four-socket position. I do this by working all the muscle groups using specific Yoga stretches, and especially, Active Isolated Stretching (AIS). In AIS stretching, we isolate each muscle individually while contracting it's opposite muscle (Reciprocal Inhibition) and really focus on opening the hips. I see so many articles where somebody will say something like, 'Here's a great stretch for your shoulder turn," but the reality is that you should never do any spinal twists until the hips are loosened up, and the hips can't get loosened up until the legs are opened. You've got to work all the muscles into the entire system. Then, you do strengthening.
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| MGR: |
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What about strengthening? |
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| Roger: |
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You never want to strengthen a body that's out of alignment, or inflexible. The stretching must come first. We are strong believers in avoiding heavy weights until a person's body is very functional. We encourage people too use their own body weight, such as pushups, pull-ups, backbends, one armed bridges, and a lot of light dumbbells. We want all of the muscles to work together in the entire system. We're starting to see more and more pro sports teams back off of the heavy weight programs because they're doing their athletes more harm than good. In fact, the University of Nebraska just announced that they're eliminating the lower body weight machines for the football players. I wouldn't be surprised that some day, the weight room will go down in history as a major mistake.
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| MGR: |
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Along with a lot of professional golfers and athletes, you consulted with Jack Nicklaus earlier this year. What did you tell the Golden Bear?
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| Roger: |
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Johnny Jacobs brought Jack to me earlier this year at Hualalai during the Mastercard Senior Championship. Jack was hitting it poorly and several players were giving him lessons which were doing him no good. The reason the lessons weren't doing him any good was because his hips had gotten too tight due to a strengthening program which he had been on. The guys were telling him, "to load up his right side more," but the reality was that the more he tried to load up his right side, the more he unloaded it due to his hip condition. His hip muscles simply wouldn't accept the eccentric contraction that was being placed upon them. This is a typical example of why golf instruction didn't and wouldn't work on him until he loosened up his hip muscles. He agreed with me whole heartedly. The same is true for Tommy Kim, a college baseball player and the 1998 Hawaii State Long Driving Champion who has awesome power and potential. Tommy's taken a lot of lessons and I told him that the lessons had taken him as far as he could go. As a result of the thousands of baseballs pitched during his career, he has developed a severely impinged right hip and shoulder. This causes him to come over the top. I told him that he physically couldn't come down from the inside and that we could stand out here every day for the rest of the year, and he'd still be coming over it. He agreed, so we set out on a flexibility and conditioning program designed especially for this problem. We're now starting to see some startling results.
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| MGR: |
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Do you have any advice for the people who want to get on a "proper" conditioning program?
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| Roger: |
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Yes, make sure that you go to a person who understands kinetic change and the physiological workings of the body. Be wary of people who don't. Or, better yet, come see us.
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