How I Stayed Injury-Free Playing Basketball and Part One of Our Golf Performance Series

In this edition, in 10 minutes or less, we will cover:

1) How I Stayed Injury-Free Playing 6 Years of Competitive Basketball: Conor shares his thoughts on how he avoided injuries during his playing days.

2) From Bogey to Birdie: Tee Off Without a Hitch with Our Golf Performance Series, Part One: Learn how to prepare for the upcoming golf season so you can make it your best one yet.

How I Stayed Injury-Free Playing 6 Years of Competitive Basketball

Growing up, basketball quickly became my passion. So much so, that during my freshman year of high school, I made it my goal to play in college. It was around this time that I also developed an interest in working out. I knew that if I wanted to become a better basketball player and play in college, I had to add muscle and improve my athleticism.

As time went on, I really devoted myself to my workouts. I rarely, if ever, missed one, and began enjoying the process of improvement. Looking back, I think I enjoyed the offseason more than the actual basketball season. I loved putting in the work and reaping the rewards when it came time to step on the court in November.

In high school, I played in a very competitive league that regularly sent players to the Division I level in college. I ended up playing at a Division II school and was a member of the team there for two years.

Throughout those 6 years of basketball, I was exposed to a high level of play. Every day, I competed against great players and athletes. And I didn’t suffer a single injury.

Of course, there was a bit of luck involved. But a big reason why I was able to avoid any injuries was due to my consistent preparation.

During my high school and college years, I followed structured programs that focused on my mobility, strength, and conditioning. As a result, I developed mobility where I needed it, a baseline level of strength, and conditioning that allowed me to stay on the court for the whole game if necessary.

While I didn’t exactly know it at the time, having those qualities made me much less susceptible to injury. My body didn’t need to compensate or overstress itself to make up for deficits in mobility, strength, or conditioning. Essentially, I put training first and basketball second. It paid off.

A few months ago, I read an article about Jannik Sinner, the #3 ranked men’s tennis player in the world, and winner of the 2024 Australian Open. The same lesson was reinforced (emphasis mine):

“This year, we made a lot of tough decisions to not play a couple of tournaments because it is very important for me to get a lot of gym work and strength and mobility to get better,” Sinner said. “I feel it on the court that the more the match goes on the more comfortable I feel.”

[Coach Darren] Cahill also sees the value in putting the training first and the tennis second.

“A couple of years ago, in a lot of matches, he was breaking down physically,” said Cahill, who is also an ESPN commentator. “He was a late developer, so he just needed to make sure that his body could deal with the rigors of playing at this level week in and week out.”

In my experience, and at the professional level, training and preparation come first, before the sport. With the seasons about to change, how have you been preparing your body to handle the rigors of your spring activities?

From Bogey to Birdie: Tee Off Without a Hitch with Our Golf Performance Series, Part One

A tremendous influx of golf training aids, clubs, and balls have been brought to the market during the last decade(s). Throughout that time, the one thing we learned is that you can’t fake your way to a new body. If your body is unable to move the way the golf or tennis swing requires, then you will never be able to make consistent, powerful swings. We call this having the “prerequisites” for movement.

The golf/tennis swing is an extremely complex skill that requires most of the joints in the body to move through a large percentage of their capacity. Few sports require the technical precision and power that the world’s best golfers display as they accelerate their clubs into the golf ball.

The classic assumption regurgitated by many who play is that you “drive for show and putt for dough.” While commonplace, it has been proven through Professor Mark Broadie’s analytics that the world’s best players strike the golf ball at a greater distance and with better accuracy than their peers who finish below them in the world rankings.

All professional golfers share the same equipment (golf balls, clubs, etc.) and many share the same swing coaches, so it can’t only be coaching and equipment behind the drastic change in ball speed and accuracy over the past couple of decades. So, the question that needs to be asked, is what separates the world’s elite from those that can’t break through on the big stage?

Players polled during last year’s World Golf Championships Match Play event, which included 64 of the top 66 ranked players, provided some insight. Of those polled, 89% utilized a physical therapist to help their bodies move and function better. Another alarming statistic is that 80% of ALL golfers experience at least one major injury during their golfing careers. More than 35 million people play golf, so that amounts to more than 28 million significant injuries, and many more minor aches and pains along the way. Much of these can be prevented with proper education and training.

One reason for the high injury rate is the forces created when driving the golf ball. Numerous studies have shown that 8-10 times a golfer’s bodyweight in compressive forces are directed to the spine during a normal swing. To put that in perspective, running produces only 3-4 times a runner’s bodyweight in compressive forces to the spine. The spine is one of the many body parts that repeatedly have to absorb absurd forces during a round of golf or practice session.

The inability to withstand such forces will lead to dangerous compensations, poor swing technique, and ultimately injury. Physical fitness incorporating strength, flexibility, mobility, and cardiovascular endurance promotes optimal performance on the golf course.

If it isn’t complicated enough, we must look at the demand on the body during practice sessions, which do not match the demands in an actual round of golf. During a practice session, a golfer may perform over a hundred swings in less than an hour. The explosiveness of the golf swing requires incredibly high levels of muscle activation, which requires large amounts of energy. Repeated golf swings with a depleted energy supply will result in decreased performance and increased likelihood of injury.

We MUST consider the demands of the practice session when designing a program and not just the actual performance during a round of golf. For example, when we swing a golf club, we require immediate anaerobic energy. However, walking a four (or five on the municipals) hour round depends on your aerobic system for energy production. These systems must be trained in completely different ways.

The goal of this mini-series, a deep dive into everything golf, is not just to give you dozens of exercises to train at random. We will help you understand the anatomy involved in the golf swing and how it can be used more effectively to give you real life help at staying pain-free and enjoying a round of golf with friends.

In the following installments, we will discuss the ‘Core Four’ joints that are most commonly injured and break down, with real-world examples, the building blocks that create a resilient golfer, including mobility, stability, balance, and power, so you can continue playing well into retirement age.

"THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE BETTER YOU CAN PREPARE."