NEWS

Are you a fan of golfing? Brandon Conner, PT, DPT has recently been blogging for Tidewater Performance about the beloved sport. Visit tidewaterperform.com for more blog posts and information about how they can help you improve your game!

“My Dad Was Right. Leg Strength Is Key For Lowering Your Scores! The golf bug bit me hard at age 12. I had fallen in love with the game that year after breaking 80 for the first time in a local tournament. After much persuasion, my mom wrote a note for the bus driver to drop me off at the course every day after school. If there wasn’t enough light to squeeze in 18 holes, I’d practice until dark and walk home. My daily routine from that point on: school, golf, dinner, homework, repeat. I wanted to be the best I could be, so I asked my Dad – who is also the head pro at our local course – what is the single most important thing I can do to shoot lower scores? His answer: “strengthen your legs.” My reply: “but you swing the club with your arms, not your legs!” I rejected his advice immediately.

Fast-forward 12 years. My game had been in the gutter since high school and I’m playing the worst golf of my life. I’m in my final semester of Physical Therapy school, interning with Tidewater Physical Therapy at Gloucester Courthouse for 8 weeks, and I decide to give Tidewater Performance Center’s 6pm Total Body Conditioning class a shot. It was there that I performed my first ever dead lift. Two months and hundreds of sweat-drenched repetitions later, I discovered the truth behind my Dad’s advice. Not only was I making more consistent, solid contact with the ball, I was sinking more putts and hitting drives farther and straighter than ever before. I recorded my first hole-in-one on March 30, 2013 and carded my best career round in a tournament – a 4 under par 68 – in April of the same year. All of this while practicing and playing significantly less than I had ever played. As difficult as it can be to say sometimes, my Dad was right: Anyone can improve his or her game with specific lower body strength training, especially in combination with a better understanding of the movement principles that produce a fundamentally sound golf swing.”

Brandon Conner, PT, DPT practices at Tidewater Physical Therapy’s Gloucester Courthouse clinic.  Many of the physical therapists at Tidewater Physical Therapy Inc. hold Direct Access Certification through the Virginia Board of Physical Therapy.  Brandon holds Direct Access Certification and is available to evaluate and treat patients without a prescription from a physician.

Want more? Check out this post about the king of golf muscles!