Services » Physiotherapy Case Study - Simon

Background

Simon Crockett is a 39 year old Surrey County golfer. He had previously worked with Total Golf Analysis, who referred him for physio analysis to further assist in his development.

TGA had already identified the following points:

Simon's head sat a little to the left at setup.
In his backswing, Simon had insufficient loading into his right side, compromising his ability to lead out correctly in transition. This led us to question whether Simon had an inability to transfer weight correctly, if he was restricted ('too tight') at the hips/pelvis or if he lacked stability at the hips/pelvis to allow holding the weight transfer into his right side.

Assessment

We undertook a full musculoskeletal analysis, which identified the following areas we could work on to alter Simon's movement patterns and, therefore, his overall swing and to allow more efficient weight bearing into his right side.

Tighter hip flexors left and right - these were restricting hip/pelvic movement, including lack of rotation with the hips and could lead to other compensated movements such as a hip slide
Lack of stability with the gluteal muscles - these control pelvic rotation and stability and should take the loading away from the lower back
Decreased mid-back extension (thoracic mobility) - this could restrict improvement in the setup position, with decreased rotation around a more flexed posture
Increased tighter neck and upper should muscles - this could affect neck position and rotation in setup and swing
Some right-sided shoulder restriction into the back-swing - this could alter the smooth movement required and possibly lead to 'chicken winging'
Decreased right hip internal rotation - often found in right-handed golfers, this can affect weightbearing and weight transfer. The reason behind this - possibly compensation elsewhere - was investigated further
Old injury to the right ankle - this meant a loss of dorsi-flexion (knee bend), which could affect Simon when swinging on different/uneven surfaces with his foot placement.

Therapy

TGC tailored a programme of specific exercises for Simon aimed at stretching certain muscles, improving stability and working on drills with his golf coaches to develop a more efficient movement.

Manual therapy has included deep soft tissue release, deep needling releases, joint mobilisations and manipulations, together with advice on specific movements.

Exercises included:

'Body awareness' warm up - oriented mostly towards golf movement patterns
Stretching - both passive and dynamic, including rotation movements, covering pelvic and hip, lower back side flexors, anterior chest, lats, rectus femoris and posterior capsule for the right shoulder
Movement - squats, multi-directional lunges and single knee bends with rotation, again considering both linear and rotation movements
Stability - gults, lower limb and basic scapulo-humeral (shoulder girdle)

The next phase of work includes organisation of a strength and conditioning programme for Simon to be integrated with his overall golf aims and objectives.

Feedback

The musculoskeletal analysis took place in November 2007. Already by February 2008 Simon has noticed significant improvement, in terms of hitting the ball further, better movement and comments from colleagues and Simon's coach on how he is swinging more efficiently and hitting the ball well.