Good golfers vs bad golfers: What differences do we see in their lower body muscle activation & swing duration?
Research reviewed: Electromyographic Analysis of the Lower Limb Muscles in Low- and High-Handicap Golfers
Golf is a very sensitive sport, the smallest of degree can be the difference between a good shot or a terrible shot - whether that’s the strike point on the ball or everything that comes before it in the swing or on the follow through. Those smallest of margins makes it the ultimate pain/pleasure sport (and you have no one else to blame but yourself!)
The cool part about golf - in terms of research - is that it’s been highly studied because it’s a relatively static sport which allows researchers to produce reliable data and quantify.
One of those research papers that stuck out to me was this one where the researchers compared the muscle activation -through electromyographic (EMG) measurement - and swing durations (how long the swing takes) between high handicap (hHC) and low handicap (lHC) golfers. For those who are unfamiliar, lower handicap means you are better.
Methodology
The study took 10 participants, all of whom were right-handed, with five being high handicap and five being low handicap - with handicap points based on data from the European Golf Association Handicap System (It wasn’t just honor code. We all know how inaccurate that can be when it comes to asking golfers about their handicap!).
The participants took eight shots of intermediate distance (between 100-150 meters, or roughly 109 to 164 yards)with a seven-iron club. Each participant used their own golf glove, club (all were graphite shafts with standard length) and shoes.
Following a five minute warm-up, each participant had electrodes placed for EMG measurements and were filmed during their swings.
Results
For swing duration overall (how long the full swing took), both lHC and hHC groups had the same duration in their swing BUT (and this is key) lHC golfers were quicker in all parts of the swing (back swing, acceleration phases, forward swing, early-follow through) except for the late-follow through (the last part of the swing).
This is most likely related to lHC golfers being quicker with their trunk movement which allows them to generate more velocity and more efficiently harness the stretch-shortening cycle of muscles and tendons.
Further, the late-follow through being longer for lHC golfers makes sense because swinging with a higher velocity means it takes longer to slow down in that late-follow through, deceleration phase.
For muscle activation, the two groups showed significant differences on the lower body muscles. The key differences were that the lHC golfers:
had a higher activation level in in their left lower limb (and remember, these are all righties so that’s their lead leg)
had maximum activation of the left quadriceps femoris (one of the four quadriceps muscles) during forward swing phase compared to hHC golfers who had it during the acceleration phase
had much stronger activation of the right gastrocnemius muscle (think right calf) during the forward swing
had lower levels of activity in both thighs and the right calf (gastrocnemius) during the early and late follow through phases)
Practical takeaways
This study has two practical takeaways for me:
One, it shows us which lower body muscles are being used and to what extent which then allows us to train them for those demands (leading to better performance while reducing injury). However, there are plenty of papers that show us that.
Secondly, and this was unique to this paper, it shows us key differences between high and low handicap golfers in terms of muscle activation and swing duration. Having that information gives us potential ways to address those differences.
For example, the fact that lHC golfers had lower levels of muscle activation in both the early and late follow through phases potentially shows how they’re able to relax and disengage better after making contact. I bet if you tracked their follow through and swing paths, it would be a lot more consistent than the hHC golfers because they’re allowing their swing to do the work and not yanking at the club after contact.
That’s just one potential takeaway and there are so many others which is why I really liked this paper.