Anatomy of golf swing File

Exemplar
Anatomical Function During Golf swing
Students need to apply knowledge of anatomy to their partners golf swing.
Teacher exemplar for excellence.
The shoulder is a ball and socket joint. The bones that articulate are the
humerous, clavicle and scapula. The clavicle and scapula form a shallow
socket called the glenoid fossa and the head of the humerous forms the ball
of the joint. The joint is the most mobile joint of the body and is capable of
multiple types of movement, which I will be describe for the golf swing.
The backswing consists of the following movements;
i)
Abduction taking the arm up and away from the midline. The
deltoid and supraspinatus contract to cause this movement
ii)
External rotation allowing the swing to turn to the back lift
position. The infraspinatus and teres minor contract to cause this
movement.
iii)
Scapular retraction allows the arm to pull up and slightly back
towards the top of the swing position. Muscles contracting to
cause this movement are the trapezius and rhomboid major.
iv)
The final major movement is scapular elevation, which allows the
arm to pull right up to the top of swing position above the head.
There is also a small amount of shoulder extension occurring caused by the
latissimus dorsi and posterior middle deltoid.
The downward swing to the finish consists of the following movements and
muscle action
i)
Shoulder adduction bringing the arm back down towards the
midline of the body. Muscles contracting to cause this movement
are the latissimus dorsi and the pectoralis major.
ii)
Internal rotation occurs to bring the right arm through to the
impact position in line with the ball. Muscles contracting to cause
this movement are the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi.
iii)
Scapular protraction occurs to pull the shoulder forward and allow
the arm into a natural swinging position. Muscles contracting are
the seratus anterior and pectoralis minor.
iv)
v)
Scapular depression. The scapular must be relaxed to allow
forward movement of the arm to gain momentum and speed for
impact and follow through. The pectoralis minor and latissimus
dorsi contract to cause this movement.
There is a small amount of shoulder flexion in the follow through
caused by the pectoralis major and anterior middle deltoid.
NB
This is an anatomical breakdown of the swing.
For critical analysis you need to be able to apply relevant aspects to your
partners swing.
For example if your partner drops the club onto their shoulders at the top
of their swing what impact does this have on their swing in terms of
biomechanical principles and what muscle action needs to happen to correct
this and then state impact of improvement.
Example of critical analysis
At the top of Jordon’s swing there are faults that need correcting.
Too much weight transfers onto his back foot. The heel of his right foot lifts right
off the ground. At this point the weight should be distributed 60/40 on the back
foot. This moves his line of gravity too close to the outer margins of his base of
support meaning he is in an unbalanced position. In golf our swing should remain
within the posture position and occur over a stable base if we want to generate
maximum power at impact. Jordon’s hips have remained close to the posture
position but his trunk has translated too far towards his back foot. To correct this
Jordon needs to keep more weight on his front foot and rotate his hips and
shoulders within the posture position.
Other faults to analyse
Left shoulder drops shortening length of lever (Biomechanical principle and muscle
action)
Right arm needs to lift and extend further away from body. (Length of lever and
muscle action)