The most common injury in golf is back pain, accounting for over 35% of all injuries sustained in the sport. These are the numbers for adult golfers. There have not been any studies on the frequency in junior golfers, but based on the fact that whenever I ask a large group of junior golfers to raise their hands if they have had back pain when playing golf and about 60-70% raise their hands, I am guessing the number might be higher in juniors.
The number of 10-14 year olds who seek out therapy for their back pain related to golf is both frightening and 100% preventable. Last month I wrote about the great strides that have been made in the world of Little League Baseball and the value that could be brought to Junior Golf by starting to take the overuse issues head-on; education is the first step.
Common Causes of Back Pain in Junior Golfers
Below are the two most common causes of back pain in juniors and how we fix them. (These are also very common causes in adults.)
Hypermobility
We see this very often, particularly in junior girls, who can put their feet behind their heads, bend their elbows and thumbs in crazy positions and have more movement in their golf swing than a circus contortionist. The tricky part with these juniors is that they sometimes report “feeling tight” and that they feel like they need to stretch. Some of them may even struggle to touch their toes!
The reason they feel tight or “can’t” touch their toes is because their nervous system is trying to exert some level of joint control by restricting their movement as much as possible. The problem, if you give these kids stretching, is that you exacerbate their problem…unfortunately, this happens frequently. The most common one is when a child is told to do hamstring stretching to fix their back pain.
The Fix: Stability work for the core, shoulders, and hips. Getting stronger is the key to fixing this type of back pain and preventing it from coming back. As these juniors become stronger, they maintain their flexibility (often gaining more active mobility because they can now stabilize) and are able to control it — making them much more efficient on the course and pain free.
Poor Hip, Core, and Shoulder Stability
This limitation is rampant among both developing boys and girls. Similar to the juniors who are hypermobile, their bodies will often attempt to restrict flexibility to increase control over movement. Unlike the hypermobile juniors, however, this can lead to actual tissue tightness and a significant loss of flexibility.
The Fix: First identify the flexibility limitations that have developed and address those. Simultaneously, work on improving the stability limitation that is present and causing the flexibility problem. The program for this junior will be very similar to that of the hypermobile junior, with the additional step of fixing the mobility limitation that is present.
Why Fixing These Issues Matters
These two core foundational issues lead to poor movement with a lot of compensation and eventually result in more acute issues of poor hip, spine, and shoulder rotation. These three areas of rotation are paramount for an effective, efficient, and safe golf swing.
If a junior is unable to complete rotation in these areas efficiently, they often resort to using the low back in order to “finish” the turn.
When you watch the golf swing, you will often see a hinge in the low back about 4-6 inches above their waist as they stand up out of posture, arching their back to get to the top of their backswing. As they come down through impact, they crunch down on the trail side, creating a reverse “C” that makes your own back ache just watching it.
It doesn’t take expert eyes to see that these positions in the golf swing are dangerous and performance-hurting. If we start looking at the physical elements at play in all juniors, we can reduce the frequency of these injuries that may plague kids even after they are done playing golf.
The Next Step: Screening and Prevention
Physical, golf-specific screenings are the first step to identifying these issues before they become problems. They should be sought after by every parent, coach, or instructor for their junior golfer.
If you do not know of a TPI-certified professional in your area who can perform a screen and give you an appropriate golf fitness program, please contact us so we can help you find one.
For more about our Physical Therapy services, please visit our Physical Therapy page.
