The Similarities Between Golf And Striking/Throwing Sports

At TPI, we often talk about the importance of encouraging a multi-sport background in young golfers.  We believe this elevates their athletic potential and countless studies support our position.  Increasingly, many of the golfers we see at the top of leaderboards have a deep background in dynamic sports like baseball, basketball or hockey.  

There's always a bit of noise when looking at data related to childhood/high school sports played by professional athletes.  Did they play multiple sports because they were great athletes or were they great athletes because they played multiple sports?  Though early sampling will never be solely responsible for a golfer's success, we can demonstrate how the movement and athleticism developed in other sports transfers to golf.

We've had the opportunity to evaluate a number of All-Star caliber athletes from multiple sports in our 3D bay at our Oceanside HQ.  When you review the 3D data from throwing and striking sports, it's clear how the experience can benefit young golfers.  Here's Dr. Greg Rose:

Many young golfers will balance their passion for golf with other sports, but some will only be interested in golf.  While not ideal, their golf instructor should partner with a fitness professional to compensate. TPI instructor Milo Bryant touched on this, sharing what he does to develop athleticism in young, full-time golfers.  

We don't advocate multiple sports because we think kids need additional activities on their schedule, we do so because they benefit from additional athleticism.  In our Junior golf curriculum, we recommend incorporating throwing, striking and various ball sports so that the young athletes develop the ability to sequence efficiently and generate power by pushing against the ground.

 

Since the techincal demands of a golf swing are far greater than, say, hitting a baseball off of a tee or kicking a soccer ball, kids may be overwhelmed by the challenge and not commit max effort.  If you're trying to teach a young athlete to sequence aggressively, effort is key.  In this regard, throwing an object can be just as valuable as swinging a club.

Hopefully this video provides some context for why mixing in multple sports isn't a distraction, but a benefit.