Junior golf exercises are crucial to the progression of a junior golfer from a good beginning to a good, full career in the sport. As a golfer progresses from being an individual with one specific skill set to becoming a player with different capabilities and skill sets, there are important combinations of techniques that must be used to get those changes to happen. Developing these techniques and skills during your junior golf development stage is an important step a golfer must take. Here are 5 basic junior golf exercises junior golfers can perform regularly to keep improving their golf game, technique, balance, body coordination and biomechanics, as well as dealing with the constant changes that adolescence subjects their bodies too.
The first exercise is arm rotation with cable crossovers. Begin in a standing position with both hands at shoulder width apart. Then, rotate your arms from your sides to a slight angle to your left and right and slowly return them to your original position. Do not overdo it; make sure to gradually build up to 3 sets of twenty rotations per arm.
Next, junior golfers should focus on their shoulder width. To do this, stand with feet apart as though you will be going after a ball and grip the handle of your golf club with your non-dominant hand. From here, rotate your shoulder away from your body until your body forms a straight line between your eyes and the golf club. From here, rotate your shoulder back toward your body until your hands are lining up with your golf club.
One of the most overlooked pieces of junior golf exercises is the swing itself. Many young golfers focus so much on the actual mechanics of the swing that they completely forget about the strength behind the swing. Most junior golfers will start out using momentum and strength alone to create power and distance in their swings. Unfortunately, this will not produce long term results. Instead, the swing must be honed by building on solid fundamentals like the foundation of your backswing, downswing and follow through. This can be done through several easy drills that can be performed at home.
The first drill, you can begin by doing is a standing shoulder width drill. Begin by lining up the golf club with the heel of your left hand pointing towards your left shoulder. Have a strong grip on the golf club with your non-dominant hand. Next, use strong, but gentle resistance bands to create a starting strength level. Slowly increase the resistance as you develop more hip flexibility and generate more power in your golf swing.
Another great exercise that many junior golfers are unaware of is doing push-ups. Again, this drill must be done with very strong resistance bands to generate high strength. Begin with very small weights that will not be cumbersome, but gradually move toward light resistance bands as you become stronger.
Another set of junior golf exercises you can do is doing abdominal crunches. Begin by laying flat on your back with a medicine ball between your legs. Crunch the ball upward while keeping your legs together under your body. As your abdominal muscles contract, repeat a breathing pattern while lifting your ribs up toward your chest.
The final set of junior golf exercises you can do is a seated overhead triceps extension. Begin by laying flat on your back with a medicine ball between your legs. Slowly extend your arms above your head using only your triceps. Make sure to contract all of your triceps, hold for one second and slowly release.