Low Back Pain and Golf Testing Procedure

Low Back Pain and Golf Testing Procedure

Each year FitGolf Performance Centers commit time and other resources to better understand the body and golf swing relationships.   In 2012 we have committed to study the physical causes of Back pain in relation to excessive body bend in golf. Excessive body bend is the torso and pelvis falling out of the PGA K-Vest standards. Creating angles that put excessive torque on the back causing pain.

 

Our hypothesis is that golfers with excessive pelvic and upper body side bend, bend and rotation will experience lower back pain during practice and play. Players with in half of the tour norms should not experience these pains.

 

This means the null-hypothesis is Side bend, bend and rotation of the pelvis and upper body will have no effect on lower back pain during practice or play of a golfer.

 

Procedure:

 

Subjects are greeted at reception in the FitGolf Performance Center.  They will be required to complete a Client Registration form fully and sign a standard liability release.  The subjects will be escorted to a clinical area to meet with the researcher.  During that meeting the researcher will ask the following questions of the subject:

1. Tell me about your golf?
2. What is your handicap or average score?
3. What are the challenges you face in golf?
4. What have you done to improve your golf?
5. How often do you play golf?
6. How often do you practice golf?
7. How much time do you spend when you practice golf?
8. Do you exercise regularly?
9. If so, what do you do?
10. What are your physical issues or challenges?
11. Do you have back pain?
12. When does your back hurt?
13. What makes your back hurt?
14. What is the pain like?
15. Where is your back pain?
16. What makes the pain better?

Other conversation about their golf is encouraged to get a better understanding of the golfer.

 

PLEASE DO NOT TELL THE SUBJECT WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR UNTIL AFTER THE TESTING as that could invalidate the results.

 

Then the researcher will explain the procedure to the subject.  The researcher will tell that subject that we are studying body and golf swing relationships. Say something like “We will be performing a 3D analysis of the angles in their body.”  Also we need to tell the subjects that we cannot go into the details of the research until after we have collected the data.  After we have done the data collection we will tell them exactly what we are looking at and why. We will also tell them how the findings of their testing is relevant to their golf issues.

 

Testing Procedure:

• Take client to testing/hitting bay
• Have them warm up by hitting a couple balls
• Use the warm up to ask about back pain
•  Use the Oswestry Low Back Pain Scale(Oswestry Low Back Pain Scale)
• Complete pain form make note of pain in relation to golf.
• Hook Client up to K-Vest and calibrate.
• Place three sensors on appropriate body places
• Shoulder Axis
• Pelvic Axis
• Hand
• Have client hit three balls they consider a 6 or higher on a scale of one to ten for their skill level and feel.
• Print using a pdf printer so you can email the results to us. We need the best of three test summaries. We will crunch the numbers here.  There is a free PDF maker.  Go to PDF995.com.  Download and install the first two files “PDF995 Driver” and “Free Converter”.
• Testing Parameters:  Golfers exceeding tour norm, of a pelvic side bend of more than 10 degrees at impact and upper body side bend of 34 degrees at impact, while also exhibiting pelvic bend of more than 9 degrees at impact and upper body bend of more than 42 degrees at impact, Pelvis turn of more than 50 degrees and upper body turn of more than 35 degrees at impact, will experience lower back pain between T6 and S1 during a full round of golf, which is quantified as a full 18 holes or practice session quantified as 50+ balls on a driving range.  Players may experience pain before the full 18/50+ balls is completed but will not qualify if pain is exhibited after this bench mark has been reached. Players that fall within the tour norms on more than half of the test should not experience back pain during practice or play.
• Take “best” one of the three print outs to explain research and posture faults like…
• “The Excessive side bend in your pelvis creates a pinching effect in your lower back during your swing that could cause the pain you feel.  These are other things I see in your golf swing that seem to be an issue but I would need to do more testing…”
• Or “You seem to have excessive side bend in your torso, you don’t experience back pain now but this could lead to it…”
• Or “You seem to have excessive side bend in your torso, you don’t experience back pain but some issues I see in your swing could result in (this form problem) but I can’t tell with just these tests…”.