Supplemental Stretches?

[Jim]

In lesson one, when I draw my right arm up, or when I turn with the 7 iron, I can see that I don’t have the range of motion to replicate the motion (I’m 72 years old) and turn as fully as the instructor or the exemplar students. Are there recommended supplemental stretches to allow me to increase this range of motion?

thanks.

[Tathata Staff]

Jim

Thank you for using the support forum to reach out. Here are a couple of things that might help that I’m going to recommend.

A) When you perform these movements, are you pushing back slightly into the glutes? Pushing back in the glutes can help to radically increase range of motion for Body Movements 4 and 5.

B) When you perform these movements, are you staying centered? Staying centered to the end of the movement can help to radically increase range of motion for Body Movement 4 and 5.

C) Range of motion can increase through repeated performance of stretching movement 16. When both knees fall over to your left, can the right shoulder blade stay on the ground? Can the head look to the right?Can the knees remain together and touching the ground? This will help increase flexibility to the top of the backswing for a RH player. Continuously pull softly on the top of the rib cage with your right hand while you push down and away with your left hand on both knees.

D) During the standing and twisting stretching movements, can the rib cage turn to 90 degrees? While performing these movements and making sure that both feet stay on the ground, begin to notice how much more your upper body is able to turn if the hips can turn slightly more. This motion should still be driven by the feet and the ground.

E) Finally, when you perform Body Movements 4 and 5, focus on using the rib cage to turn rather than the shoulders or club turning.

Jim, I hope these remedies help. Let us know if we can be of any further assistance. I can get you in touch with our in-house Movement Specialist for further stretching movements to help you increase this portion of your flexibility. Happy training!

[Jim]

Thank you for this generous and helpful response. You mentioned stretching exercise 16. Is there somewhere I can find that?

I will go through all of your points.

I’m new here (I’ve only finished day 3, but I’m loving it!

[Tathata Staff]

Jim

You will run into the Stretching Routine on day 5 of the program. Exercise 16 involves laying on your back, dropping your legs over to the side of your body and creating flexibility throughout the back and rib cage to turn.

One thing I forgot to mention to help you increase your turn as you train your body movements would be to drop your back foot slightly further back (effectively closing the stance in the feet) as you train and even as you play. This will help the rib cage to turn on the backswing and load energy. As long as the knees, hips and shoulders are still parallel to the target line as you setup, feel free to drop the back foot back as much as you need to help you with the turn of the rib cage and shoulders.

I hope this helps, happy training!

[Jim]

Thanks again for another helpful response. I’ve just completed day nine, and I am very happy with the entire program.

I am applying all of your suggestions in one way or another. I have started to do stretching exercise number 16 daily.