Alignment – The Key to Better Sports Performance
This is an article that I write monthly for my local magazine, the Chapel Hil News. Here is my August article…..
Alignment – The Key to Better Sports Performance
David Hansey
NASM Certified Sports Fitness Specialist
NASM Certified Personal Trainer
Do you enjoy watching professional sports? Have you ever noticed how EASY it looks for professionals? They are able to hit a golf ball so softly it seems and it flies 300+ yards. They are able to return a powerful serve in tennis with precision and placement. They are able to pitch at 80+ MPH inning after inning. How do they do that? How can you ever expect to do that?
You may never get to the level of professionals, but there is one thing that all professionals possess that you can work towards. And it is something that will improve your game and prevent you from getting hurt. Does it sound too good to be true? Well, you will have to work for it. It is something called perfect alignment.
Perfect alignment is what allows professional golfers to be so graceful. Their alignment is transferring the power from their legs through their torso to their arms to the club head. Professional golfers are not necessarily stronger than you. They are just conditioned to use alignment to ensure the maximum amount of force is transferred through their body. And that force transfer is not limited to golf. You see it in any sport that involves hitting, throwing, kicking, etc. So that would be almost all sports. Do you play soccer? That force transfer is how you get the power from your hip to your foot (without destroying your knee).
Do you have perfect alignment? Want to find out? Ideally a trainer would access your alignment but there are a few telltale ways you can check. First, have you have ever experienced tennis elbow, golf elbow, knee pain, lower back pain when golfing or any joint pain during or after sports? Then, it is almost guaranteed that your alignment is off. Still not sure? Stand with both feet on the floor facing forward. Bend at the knees into a simple squat. Do your knees turn out, turn in? Do you lift your heels, bend at your waist? Do your feet turn out or in? These are all signs of imperfect alignment.
Ok, now you are probably asking how you fix it. Easy, you focus your strength training and stretching routine on correcting the items that are affecting you. This means an individualized training program specific for you. So if your feet turn out and put pressure on your knee, you do stretches to lengthen the tight muscles that make you do that and you strengthen the weak muscles that support your knee that are allowing you to fall out of alignment.
Once you focus your strength and stretching program to correct your imbalances, you will see improvement in your game. You will also be preventing injuries from overuse and poor mechanics. I have seen golfers who find the “key” by improving their alignment and not only add 50+ yards to their drive, but improve their accuracy. And they end up leaving the golf course without the achy lower back and sore knees that they used to have.
