Golf: 3 Easy Shoulder Mobility Drills

Whether it’s from bad posture, playing sports, working out, or general wear and tear everyone seems to have tight shoulders. As I have mentioned frequently in past posts, most people don’t do anything about their mobility flaws. It amazes me the amount of people I see walk up to the first tee box without stretching any part of their body and proceed to complain about all of their aches and pains. I am not suggesting stretching solves all, but it certainly can’t hurt and I'm tired of hearing about it!

The shoulders in specific are critical to the golf swing, they connect your body to the club essentially. Being a ball-in-socket joint they should be able to move in almost any direction, but that’s not the case for a lot of people.

TEST

Take a look at this video below. This test evaluates your shoulder flexion - only one aspect of shoulder mobility for the swing. 

Pass = thumbs touching wall with no compensation

Fail = elbows bend, head shoots forward, lower back arches, and/or shoulders elevate

Let me know how you do!

Now that you have an idea if you have stiff shoulders, let's go over how you can improve your range of motion.

There are countless exercises you can do, but I will highlight 3 of my favorites that help open the shoulders up from different angles.

Stability Ball Roll-Out

This is a fan favorite. Why? It feels amazing! For this stretch we are targeting the lats. They play a major role in internally rotating the shoulders, which can cause poor posture and limited shoulder flexion if they are too tight.

This can also be done using a chair or bed.

Perform this exercise 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps

Shoulder CARs

Here is a simple one that you can do right on the course. I have almost any person I work with do these because it hits the entire range of motion of the shoulder. It’s also measurable by how big of a circle you can make without compensating.

Perform this exercise 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps.

Golf Club Shoulder Figure 4

Here’s one you need to be careful with. Done incorrectly and you can be doing more harm than good. A lot of golfers struggle to get their hands high in the backswing. Other than poor mechanics, it could be caused from limited shoulder external rotation. 

TEST

Take a look at the video below. It shows how to test your shoulder external rotation.

Pass = Hand passes your ear without compensation

Fail = Hand does not get in line with ear, shoulder pushed forward, and/or loss of posture

Let me know how you do!

Now, here’s a great mobility drill to help improve this!

Perform this exercise 3-4 sets of 5-8 reps.

Effort and consistency will be key to seeing a true change in shoulder range of motion. I recommend doing these three exercises daily and definitely before you play. I guarantee after 3-4 weeks you will see a big difference!