How Can Custom Fit Shoe Orthotics Benefit Your Golf Game?
When you’re looking to regularly engage in an active lifestyle, it’s important to know how to keep your body in shape. Golfing is one of the most popular activities in the Southeast, which requires proper physical maintenance to help you stay in the game. Sometimes it’s not as simple as just going to the gym, but instead involves the kind of support you have for your feet. As a local provider of excellent chiropractic and physical therapy, Dr. Hrvol and the team at Coastal Integrative Health have the scoop on how a properly fitting shoe benefits both your health and game.
The Studies
There has been a great deal of research done on how to improve body biomechanics to increase performance on the golf course. As any golfer will tell you, the art of the swing starts in the feet and rolls through the hips. These elements affect how you play, and naturally, players have looked at ways to help improve performance. One study performed in 2000 even looked to determine if custom-fit, flexible orthotics in a golfer’s shoes could improve their game.
The lower extremities, such as legs and feet, form a closed kinetic chain with the spine when someone is in an upright posture. Whatever affects one of these areas will influence the function of the other. Thanks to research, we know that wearing custom-made, flexible orthotics in one’s shoes can increase your body’s self-awareness, leading to better performance. Orthotics can also improve balance, and decrease fatigue, both of which are useful when playing a full 18-holes of golf. This is important because you will get more fatigued as a round progresses, leading to inconsistent play.
The Results
The findings in this research lead to multiple conclusions. One is that with increased function of the foot, balance increases, and ball striking consistency will increase. With more consistent ball striking, a player will naturally have fewer mishits and therefore less wasted strokes. This could mean the difference between shooting a lower score and being stuck with a higher score. Another conclusion that was found was that by wearing custom-fit orthotics every day for six weeks, clubhead velocity for players increased by three to five mph. That’s a seven percent increase! A five-mph increase is roughly an additional 15 yards while driving off the tee. Fatigue was also decreased through nine holes of golf which means that your performance at the end of the round will more closely match the performance at the beginning of a round.
Custom-fit orthotics are one simple way that you can help to improve your golf game without having to change your swing. They simply slide into your golf shoes, making for a comfortable and seamless fit. Once you find the right ones for you, slide them in and you are all set for a great round on the links! If you feel like your footwear would use a closer inspection, then be sure to visit Coastal Integrative Health here in The Villages Town Center at Brunswick Forest.
