Despite his dedication to improving his game, Bryce has realised that his golf fitness and flexibility were holding him back, particularly when it comes to attaining certain positions in his swing due to a lack of mobility. Bryce turned to Elastic Golf to help increase his flexibility and move more freely.
Bryce is a talented amateur golfer based in Newcastle. He began playing golf at the age of 5 and has been passionate about the sport ever since.
He has had a number of notable accomplishments in his young career so far, including representing the Avondale GC Pennants Team for the past 6 years and finishing tied for 9th place at the 2018 Nick Faldo Asian Junior Final Series, where he qualified through winning the Australian series.
Despite his dedication to improving his game, Bryce has realised that his golf fitness and flexibility were holding him back, particularly when it comes to attaining certain positions in his swing due to a lack of mobility. Bryce turned to Elastic Golf to help increase his flexibility and move more freely. As a result Bryce has dropped his handicap from 1.5 to +1.3 and has seen an 8mph increase to his swing speed.
Bryce's flexibility was a major concern during his assessment. Like many young amateur golfers, he was focused on practising and hitting the gym to get stronger, with the goal of hitting the ball farther. He wasn’t incorporating stretching or mobility work into his golf training and fitness routine.
Significant tightness in Bryce’s hips was impacting his range of motion and causing difficulty in achieving key positions in his swing, including a proper impact. His internal rotation was particularly limited, measuring only 10 degrees in both hips.
Bryce also had a lot of tightness in his posterior chain, including his gluteals, hamstrings, and calves. This tightness made it difficult for him to touch his toes, only reaching around 2 cm above his ankles. His ability to squat properly was also impacted as he would frequently lose a neutral spine position due to the pull of his posterior chain muscles.
For Bryce, the first step in his training plan was to improve his overall mobility, with a focus on his hips. A personal mobility program was designed accompanied by specific warm up routines to use before practising and playing golf. Post round static stretching was introduced as a measure to aid in recovery.
Bryce’s mobility program was designed around his existing schedule and he used the Elastic Golf app’s scheduling functionality to accommodate any changes, ensuring he was able to complete every workout.
The approach paid off with Bryce noticing a marked improvement in his ability to squat deeper with greater control.
The next phase focused on building functional strength while preserving his enhanced mobility. We also worked on challenging his postural control and body awareness through various exercises. As a result, he began to exhibit better movement patterns and increased balance reactions.
The final phase of Bryce's training focused on increasing power in his golf swing. To achieve this, he combined the Foundation Strength and Power programs from the Elastic Golf member library to develop speed in his game. We also incorporated a bespoke mobility program around his active training days to ensure that his flexibility was not compromised during this phase of training.
Bryce made impressive progress in his physical fitness, which translated to serious improvements in his golf performance. The initial focus on improving mobility and flexibility compounded the results of further programs. His hip rotation has increased to 30 degrees and he is easily able to touch his toes. In his golf swing, the increased internal rotation in his hips allowed him to maintain a better impact position. This, combined with his improved ability to clear effectively through the ball onto his lead side, has significantly improved his ball striking and speeds.
Bryce has improved his positions leading down into the ball by improving his hip function. The left picture shows how his legs collapse and how his shoulders sit level at this point. With his improvements he is now stacking better on his lead side with improved leg position and more lag in his shoulders (right picture).
If you look at the two pictures below, you can see that Bryce is able to get through the ball much more efficiently stacking more onto his lead side (right picture). He has found that as his hips and lower back mobility have improved, he has been able to change the reverse C position with his coach (left picture).
“When I started with Elastic Golf, I had no idea how poorly conditioned I was. I quickly realised that fitness is not just about strength. It was amazing…when I started to unlock the flexibility in my body, better balance and postural control the improvements in my game followed. My club head speed has gone up and my consistency has improved.”
Bryce Pickin
Amateur Golfer, Elastic Golf Member
