Matt McKay (BS Kinesiology – Purdue University) is a Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Certified Golf Fitness Professional and CHEK Institute Golf Performance Specialist based at The PGA TOUR Golf Academy at The World Golf Village in St. Augustine, FL.

He joins #OntheMark to help you to better physical shape for better golf-swings and improved performance.

Matt addresses his 5 tenets for improving physical condition and well-being:

Gaining Self Awareness & Education Improving Posture & Pelvis Positions Improving Pelvis Control & Core Stability Improving Footwork and Balance, and Improving Athleticism by Moving – Walking, Throwing, Jumping, etc He also illustrates and describes (videos on YouTube) 3 Exercises that will lead to fulfillment of his 5 beliefs: Glute Activation and the Bridge pose Knee to Full Plank exercise, and Single Leg Balancing.

STREAMING: On the Mark is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

ABOUT ON THE MARK: Mark’s knowledge, insight and experience have made him a sought-after mind on the PGA and European tours. Through his career, he has taught and/or consulted to various Major Champions, PGA Tour winners and global Tour professionals such as: Larry Mize, Loren Roberts, Louis Oosthuizen, Patton Kizzire, Trevor Immelman, Charl Schwartzel, Scott Brown, Andrew Georgiou and Rourke can der Spuy. His golf teaching experience and anecdotal storytelling broadcasting style makes him a popular host for golf outings.

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I am thrilled folks to help you start the new year by getting in shape not just golf wise but physically and Matt McKay joining us he’s the guy to help you with that Matt thanks for reaching out man Welcome to our show how are you doing great today appreciate it Mark

Yeah um so I’m a golf biomechanics and fitness professional uh I’ve been in the industry for about eight years teaching first at country clubs uh and the fitness centers there then moved on to working for a chiropractor in a sports performance injury rehab clinic in Jacksonville uh so we were starting to

See many tour players come in and getting treatment and I was the head personal trainer on staff there um the chiropractor that I worked with was an advid golfer himself so he built a golf lab in the facility so under his wing um I was able to get kest level three

Certified so really started to dive into the biomechanic side of things and then it was great to have professionals and their coaches come in and learn a little bit more on the uh the Practical or the applicable side of things you know they teach you one thing in the books how to

Go about treatment how to make players feel better and move better um but to see that firsthand and to apply those principles really kind of got me into this passion uh in my industry I guess it begs the question because you know me as a recovering golf instructor coach um

Now broadcaster and you and biomechanics and fitness and overall sort of health and well-being I would say what was the Catalyst to move into that because I’m certain at one stage you played golf right so baseball was my main sport growing up um grew up in Indiana so

Winners were a big factor of that but at the end of baseball season I’d go on the golf course so my stepfather he played so he gave me a ping a set of ping i2s when I was I don’t know 13 or 14 so so when September hit when travel ball and

Summer Ball ended it would be go to the course and kind of just swing as hard as you can you know try to try to max out I remember had a big Bertha you know 360cc then and trying to Max that out um just you know playing games I was definitely

One who played a lot of sports growing up like I said baseball was my main sport that I focused on um but learning the mechanics and learning how to move my body had definitely influenced and been great for my golf game before we dive into getting all the viewers and

Listeners and if you’re listening on audio you can see this on YouTube just go and search Mark imman before we get into helping folks set themselves up for 24 and Beyond you said something that piqued my mind and that is you know a lot of parents of young golfers getting

Into golf obviously in sport I’m guessing with all your expertise and your athletic background that your recomendation to one or other parent coming to you would be like hey let’s build up athleticism before we get into golf specific stuff am I wrong or am I right with that observation 100 per correct um

You know the guys at TPI are definitely harping that quite a bit and a lot of golf coaches across the board are saying that um so yeah playing as many sports as you can multi-directional multi-functional Sports where you know you’re you’re rotating but you know high

To low low to high back hands in tennis kicking a soccer ball things of that nature is huge uh TPI they have the big break Theory which is the idea of you’re only as fast as you can slow down so for example like kicking a soccer ball I

Need to plant on my left leg to then deliver power with my right leg um and that’s what we see in the golf swing right we have to transfer onto our lead side first support prior to that rotation um so doing things on a non-dominant side swinging a Golf Club

Non-dominant Hitting back hands in tennis kicking with your non-dominant leg even throwing a ball um so with my junior EV vals I do a lot of those activities dominant and non-dominant side one just to see how their brains are able to operate and organize thoughts and then second just just to

Kind of test the waters see how athletic they are to start with and uh usually gets a couple good laughs out of it but at the end of the day it’s we’re always looking at performance and looking at ways to improve and to learn right yeah folks look I would highly Advocate this

I’m 53 and hanging on and if I try and brush my teeth with my incorrect my right hand I’m not very skilled whatsoever so learning from two sides is great okay here’s what we’re going to talk about people and Matt reached out to with me to me with this and and I was

Like yeah what a great way to start the season so Matt you’ve given me five talking points and I’m just going to throw them at you and then we can just dive in from there so the first one I feel like you’ve touched on already and that is gaining awareness and education

So why don’t you go ahead and elaborate there a little bit yeah so you know taking even stepping away from Sports um if we wanted to change in life we have to know where we’re standing right we have to know our starting spot so um usually when we’re trying to change

We’re doing it for the better right making a positive adaptation so understanding what you’re currently at um going through an golf body evaluation with someone like myself physical therapist you know someone who has that background is a great thought um but just starting to be more aware of how

You move and where you move um here at The Golf Academy I have a lot of students that come to me with minimal golf experience yeah and you know let’s let’s use the baseball player as an example um yes baseball players are going to rotate their hips and have

Great speed but the planes of their pelvis the side bend that occurs during both of those swings are completely different right you hit a baseball versus you swing a golf club so not only does the club or the stick move differently but our pelvis will move differently our feet will operate

Differently and interact with the ground in different manners now there is a lot that bridge over um which I think is why you see a lot of baseball players have success of say Club head speed good hands but also they can have a couple foul balls pun intended right so

Understanding yeah right understanding where you currently are and then understanding what is the ideal golf model of course there’s not one direct way to swing we all know that but at least understanding okay if I’m swinging in Model X I need to be more like why what are those uh attributes or

Characteristics to get me moving more like a golfer awesome I I want to say this because I’ve been that guy and I think I speak on behalf of all businessmen and folks women as well moving along then they’re like okay I’m devoting 24 to Wellness to getting in better shape

And then I’m going to go and see someone like Matt McKay and then you do these assessments on me and I’m like holy cow really I mean am I that bad kind of thing and it almost gets to a place where it can be like this negative

Feedback but I want you to help people to go look it’s just a starting point this is not an evaluation of really who you are or where you are in life it’s a starting point to kick off from there can you help please absolutely yeah well

Said there um just what I find a lot in movement we’re very we’re not far off from what we need to do right we have the basic idea whether we’ve seen someone do it we’ve watched a professional athlete a parent a brother whatever that may be do that motion um

But how can we really understand it to the next level right yeah um going through one of those evaluations yes it may feel a little you know degrading perhaps for some very sare I I would say information at the end of the day is positive right the more information we

Have on ourselves the better it can be for example if someone has a nagging back going and seeing a physician and getting an MRI or an x-ray and at least understanding okay is this a muscular issue or do I have a structural maybe disk issue yeah um yeah we don’t want to

Hear the dis issue for that example but understanding that then allows us to then program and to find a specialist or go through a certain uh you know fundamental program to build you back up versus doing what you used to do that maybe brought you into the scenario

Right I’m so glad you would use the word understanding because to me there’s a place also where we’re like all right we want to hit the ball longer right and I’m going to do go on these speed protocols or whatever and I get just for

Christmas here a few days ago I got a Speed Stick or I got a rip stick or one of these things you know that takes some doing too you can’t just get up there and start swinging at 120 if you don’t have that gear in place right absolutely

Absolutely um I’m privileged to be level three certified through super speed so going and going to their conference earlier this year and understanding how important they preach their warmup um and looking at their warm-up it’s all about warming up the joints warming up the the golf specific muscles throughout

The thoracic spine the legs the lower half for example um so again that kind of comes back to education right not just rushing in and doing something but let’s learn about it a little bit more beforehand um for all my students after I take them basically in our first

Lesson um I have a lot of illustrations I like to show so I like to show Anatomy as well so education on Anatomy now I know for some people that may be Jupiter right that may be Saturn but again it’s your body um I think that we all should

Have more Awareness on it you know we buy a new computer or a new iPhone and we can look up the owners manual right well our bodies didn’t really come with an owner manual if you went to school like myself and learned a little bit about Kinesiology and again anatomy and

You know it’s not like we have to learn every muscle and every bone in the body but at least those key ones um and I think a big factor of two is understanding how muscles want to work right so for example my core and we’ll

Get into this a bit later but my core a lot of us may think of washboard abs that’s the most superficial you know on the outside layer but golf yeah right in golf and primarily all sports it’s about our inner unit our transverse abdominus the planking muscle if you will that’s

Where we’re going to find True Performance and true stabilization so kind of again peeling layers back from the onion um I also always ask my students what time of what kind of learner are you are you a visual auditorial maybe kinesthetic combination right then when I ask that question and

If I get a complete answer I’m like okay we’re moving in the right direction sometimes I get a shrug of the shoulders and then that just gives me as a coach um puts me a little bit more keen to okay how can I how can I get this

Message to the student where they understand it right what’s going to make it stick and what’s going to make it last um another thing I think about is if I spend an hour with you during the week um that’s I believe it’s one divided by me doing homework right right

Right so it’s like a 0.1% chance 0.1% of that time influence so I try to use the analogy of you know I’m trying to drop a a PEB or a bead of water in a bucket and trying to have ripple effect so it’s lasting so you can

Remember it so you’re like okay there is an importance of me you know doing some glute prep before I get on the driving range or going through a correct warm-up if I’m at the gym or at home doing routines so try to make that lasting effect well I feel like that’s why the

Way you laid these out was so important and that first one where you use the terms awareness and education now look when we go for a lesson or a session with you or whatever the case might be there’s the education the cerebral of it but then the takeaway is the awareness

Like I’m always trying to be aware of my posture and that sort of segue is very professional by me to the second point which is improving posture and pelvis position Now quickly folks before I let Matt go if you’ve turned on social media at all over the last year you’ve

Probably heard the term early extension it’s like every golf instructor in the world now has cottoned onto this and every swing analysis I see includes the early extension observation which nine nine out of 10 golf is do to me um a lot of folks don’t understand this they don’t understand pelvis position they

Don’t understand posture not just during the swing but how they need to be prior to the golf swing also so off you go yeah so um one of my backgrounds or one of my certifications through the check Institute the four principles we look at is posture first then static stability

Yeah Dynamic stability and then finally your sports specific motions so posture first and foremost is going to be our top thing that we look at and why I bring that up is if someone has rounded shoulders in a standing position what do what do we think is going to happen when

They get into a more Dynamic golf posture um I think the main things for that are kind of societal Norms um we sit all day long right here in America when we go to kindergarten we’ve been taught to sit in chairs so naturally our hip flexors our hip joints are starting

To shorten typically when we sit down our hips are tilted forward because we want to sit upright right someone told us crack the whip on us you know sit up straight well we we straighten our spine but our pelvis doesn’t really change because we’re in the fixed position yeah

So that naturally is going to cause a little bit more of an inter or an anterior pelvic tilt where your belt buckles tilted forward yeah exactly correct so that kind of can throw off um how our body operates typically um if that happens it’s called Lower cross

Syndrome our lower back muscles and our quadriceps and hip flexors become overbearing or too strong per se and that causes our core muscles and our glute muscles to be underutilized or weak over time not to mention again I’m sitting on my glute so I’m not getting that nerve stimulation and blood flow um

Versus if I use my hands and I’m typing I’m using stuff it’s easy to again have that brain Body Connection to us um so understanding posture so if I’m in a standing position and my shoulders are rounded and my hips are tilted and then I try to bend over I’m probably gonna

Just amplify those dysfunctional patterns right yeah and then and then well I’m speaking to the expert but as a golf instructor I see the person just naturally athletically recovering and sort of counterbalancing from that and then they’re backing up and moving away from the golf ball and going backwards

And then their Buddy says well you’re not getting to your front foot I’m like well yeah you’re just trying to stay upright I mean this there’s you talk about your Pebble in the water thing there’s there are ramifications from for this oh absolutely and I think a big

Part of too posture that gets overlooked is our how we hold our Center of mass right that’s something that my brain always looks at when I see someone holding postures where’s their Center of mass is it truly centered or is it already leaning forward so when we start

Swinging a club and we’ve got centrifical Force coming into play again big terms that I don’t talk to my students directly about unless they’re high elite players but that’s naturally going to pull you forward going into that early extension as you mentioned yeah so again trying to peel back the

Layers and giving this education early on to then hopefully have some appreciation by the student of okay this is important for me to do my glute clenches and my glute priming PRI probably at home prior to going to the course but having that being part of my

Routine for a new year I want to camp on that Center of mass observation because look what you say there to me I was like wow that makes so much sense so help the viewer and the listener if this is we can make it this generic just even when

They’re standing up to understand okay where is my center of mass and then how does it move around can I’m sure you can do that yeah actually I’ve got a great drill I think this would be perfect seg for that so what I like to do with my

Students is get a club typically a three-wood or a hybrid something that you can feel the mass of the club um what I’ll do with that with students is place that on their stomach then have them hip hinge so if they hip hinge correctly and the hips draw back the

Club will stay on my core not only is that a cue for my core to stay active and just have some tone to it but then that allows me to sit back correctly if I were to lose that connection you can probably see that I go into S curve

Right way so I like this because the mass of the club we can sense you know we can do a little pendulum or Turn The Butter type motion and then I basically just tell my students get that club underneath and behind you and we can sit

Back with it one fault that I do see happen with that Mark would be if someone says or if I say get underneath you they can just lean forward with it but most likely they hch themselves because again mass is going forward so I like to use or represent our Center of

Mass with the golf club or the head of the club and trying to get that more underneath you and yes it’s going to be more posterior than just directly but big picture again arms can reach in front of me arms can reach behind me I’ve got a nice Pivot Point to move from

That position so going through that we can do that with you know full swing with driver but even grabbing a putter so some students come to me and say you know hey after 20 minutes of putting practice my back’s feeling it going through some techniques or methods like

That to try to mild out the lower back activation and getting our core and pelvis where it needs to be okay I need to do this for the audio listener too what what Matt was showing there people was awesome took took an old ping three-wood which kind of caught my

Attention and he held the grip handle against basically his sternum it was basically through the belly and then went between his legs so as he take stands into posture the club head is behind his heels basically under his buttocks and as he bends forward you can

See it go between his legs and Matt that is just a wonderful visual too you know for how a golfer should be you know rotating on a proper spine angle and and a good axis going back and coming down huh yeah yeah I I kind of picked up on

That from seeing other people do things but typically we’d see the golf club on your back right yes exactly so hold the golf club on your back but if I’m holding on my back I can still Arch my back and have that S curve but I don’t

Really have any feedback that I did so so I learned that if we can use our core engage our core it kind of combats the lower back from wanting to go into that tilt position um and then holding in front of you as well you’re just going to have more core

Activation because it’s touching your core and you can feel that work underneath what I expect because I’m sitting here in my chair and I’m sort of you know you talked about the pelvis and I’m raising the front side of my pelvis up I’m sure there’s a lot of that

Situation going on with that drill too because it’s so easy when we Bend into posture to get lazy and to get that S curve in the bottom of the back so I’m sure the pelvis is going to work absolutely and again I believe it’s a lot of our lower core are transverse ofd

Dominus I I like to think about two extension cords coming together I think Dave Phillips kind of brought that analogy through TPI but if I can almost brace my core and then sit into my pelvis I’m connected right there um they say that’s kind of the strongest

Position of the human body getting into that Flex position here in America with American football you know linan are really pushing and exploding from that position but if you look across the board even in rugby for example kicking um if we can have that braced core with

A little bit of spine flexion we can create a lot of power output through the lower half wow okay that was Point number two but it kind of Blends into Point number three some too and you said here improve pelvis control and core stability and then you did have an

Exercise um the glute activation on bridging that you wanted to talk about in this so when you’re going to move the camera with you which is cool and again for the audio listeners you can go and see on YouTube but I’ll do my best to describe so so have at it let’s let’s

Improve the uh core activation yeah so once we have awareness of where our pelvis is let’s control it a little bit more number one muscle group or let’s say the two muscle groups to help control the pelvis is going to be our gluteus maximus and then our lower core

Transverse abdominis okay so those are big names but basically your big glute muscles so what I like to have my my students do is let’s use these fingertips use our hands right we’ve got thousands of sensory receptors on these fingertips tips so you can do this at uh

Yourself Mark but sit on your hands with your palms facing up hold on and then CL your glutes all right can you tighten your glutes and can you feel them firm up right so just going through some basic activation um will allow you to understand okay how how well of a signal

Or how well of a connection do I have I like I want to stop you there Matt because folks you’ll see me if you’re watching I’m holding my ass okay left left hand right cheek and right hand and you’re right you activate the gluteus maximus and I can feel it underneath me

But I’ve seen situations where um this exercise has been done with the lay golfer the club golfer and they can’t because they’re such a disconnect and so I want you to help the people watching this to say oh I can’t feel the glute muscle activate and expand and contract

Whatever the term is help them understand that it’s okay but we can fix this absolutely um TPI calls it deer in the headlights because typically when a student does that they’re they’re just looking they’re they’re not really getting that signal so the the coach or practitioner can see okay some

Something’s happening or not happening um and that’s fine so how I like to describe it is basically there’s two ways for muscle activation I can mechanically move right so if I use my bicep as an example or I can mentally right so I’m not moving but my brain

Body Connection is able to send signal right so again our arms we use our arms throughout the day so it’s easy to kind of get that motion our glutes lower and on the posterior side of my body so my eyes my I’m not really as as aware on

Them as I should um so what I’ll have students do is lie on their back first just do some glute activation and then how how strong is that you know give me a number is it a two out of 10 is it a three out of 10 from there I’ll have

Them go into an actual glute bridge and then that number is typically twice as high as that that is so the mechanical version gets more activation behind it so let me go ahead and show that for you guys all right so come down the basic blute Bridge position

Knees about 90 degrees in the feet underneath us hands will be on the glutes and just going through some basic clenching I also like to have golfers clench their right glute and then their left glute um just to separate yeah solely if we think about the golf swing

We load our Trail side we have to pressure shift on lead side prior to the club dropping down right so wait wait wait wait a second Matt okay folks audio listeners Matt’s lying on his back with his legs basically in a 90 degree angle feet on the ground knees up in front of

Him so imagine he’s almost sort of trying to go into a crunch or a situp but you’ve just said to me you made something that CAU my attention you’re like all right in the back swing when we load up are you telling me or are you

Telling the listener to a lot of that rotation going back is stimulated by the activation of the right butt cheek the gluteus maximus yes yeah definitely um I listened to Terry Hashimoto with you so if he listens to this you’ll get mad that I didn’t say the left big toe or the lead

Big but it does transfer yes to the trail hip Trail glute um you know making sure that that foots loaded correctly and then loading a little bit more posteriorly in the foot so more heel based um more glute teal or more posterior muscle based in our hip so how

The feet and how the Body Works they do go hand in hand um so yeah we want to make sure that we get loaded in that back pocket not the front pocket I’m sitting here right now and I’m activating my right butt cheek folks and

You know what if I’m really aware of it to use Matt’s number one observation which was gaining awareness I’m like Heck if I do activate that right beus maximum I can almost feel because I’ve got my heels on the ground and I’m sitting on a chair I’m like wow I can actually feel

Pressure as I do that kind of move towards my trail heel oh man goodness Grace what a I I’ve you you’ve May helped me make a discovery here too awesome I’m ready to help I’m ready to help Mark okay that was all about me let’s get back to the viewer and The Listener

Let’s let’s see that bridge please so here we go feet on the ground again about 90 degrees three ways I like to cue this bridging hands on the glutes first and foremost and I’m going to heel press down to extend my hips up the hands are there firm that is right we

Want that awareness so each repetition I tell my students let’s get it one degree stronger right so if it’s a if it’s a 10 excuse me an eight out of 10 this next repetition let’s get an 8.2 out of 10 using a digal scale right so hopefully

That’ll just get more heel pressure to drive down more glutes to contract while we lift the second one I like to talk about would be hands just straight out kind of fingertips on the thigh because when we extend up we want to have our hips in good alignment with that

Sometimes when we only get it this high so we’re not fully activating or not opening up the front of the hips so glute bridging obviously strengthening the posterior side but we are getting a stretch on our anterior side something that a lot of us need right and then

Thirdly would be hands at the bottom of the ribs now I love this one because I’m trying to get my glutes higher than my hands so a little bit of a feel versus a real thought that that idea is if I get my glutes higher than my hands it’s

Going to naturally cause me to Target glutes and hamstrings especially my juniors they can come up really high right so it’s how high you can lift because that actually will stimulate some of our lower back paraspinal muscles um so let’s make sure we’re focusing on the correct muscles right

Hammering the glutes getting some hamstring activation if my hips are high I get a little lower core and then again I’m driving down through the heels this sounds to me um that this bridge those three Bridges you do and I love the variation of them um where the one was

Just a regular bridge with your hands under your bum the other one was with your fingertips basically on your thighs and as you raised up you basically try to line your thighs along with your forearms and then the final one was my mind slipping my slipping my mind now

But the variation to me almost seems like this may be more beneficial for most golfers to do in the locker room before they go and hit balls if they’re pressed for time and after Play Just Because this is kind of opening up the engine of the golf swing am I crazy with

That observation no I I might steal that line you just said the engine of the golf swing right there absolutely yeah how can we prepare ourselves to go play right yeah you know bage would be let’s go to the driving range and rake balls

And hit 30 and then I’m good to go right well that’s one way of looking at it you know uh I like to look at it let’s work within right let’s build up the body build the inner confidence build you know maybe break a little sweat not a

Ton but just a little sweat to feel athletic so hopefully when you get out to the first te you’re ready to go right no no nerves I’m an athlete ready to play a game how many of these Bridges and how often should people do them yeah

I like to do sets of eight maybe repetitions per uh per set two or three sets of that and usually we’re looking at maybe every other day um right now with it being wintertime if it’s strength season maybe we’re doing three days a week of that um but I I actually

Incorporate that part of my preg golf routine where I do maybe 10 20 Bridges um just again enough where I’m activating the muscles my brain’s controlling my foot pressure I’m working on my breathing all those aspects we look at for good athletes I’m seeing a place where me because it’s 24 and I

Have resolutions too um the I wake up in the morning and before I even get out of bed here’s me on my bed doing the glute bridges on the bed is this possible to start the day like that absolutely start the day now I would recommend doing it on a hard surface

Because have a little bit of give to it so you’re have that same push uh the tldr behind it’s your lower back will probably Arch if you’re doing it on a bed or cushion get down to the floor get on a yoga mat but that’s honestly how I

Start my day um I go through some breathing patterns I’m a big fan of whim Hoff and his breathing style uh so I will go through you know 100 breaths 100 glute clenches 10 Bridges a few other thoracic spine stuff and then uh you know that starts my day hey folks I

Didn’t te Matt up to say that that’s not a punt for promotion for anything but the podcast right before you was with Andy Matthews from neurop Peak neurop Peak Pro and I got one of those Intel bands man and let me tell you something I learned quickly enough that my

Breathing was nowhere even close to what it should be and golly it’s a it’s a it’s a lifechanger it’s it’s as simple as that and you said it’s part of your your morning routine to to go through your breathing regimen you know we take 21,000 breasts a day that’s that’s the

Number that’s been thrown at me through some of my certifications uh of course we’re not going to be conscious of a lot of that but that just goes to show with that much number or that much data if we want to look at it from that perspective

Let’s have some Focus you know let’s be conscious of how we breathe at least little pockets of the day um I know sir Nick always would talk about that when on course and in pressure situations but that goes across the board sitting in traffic things might get a little hectic

For you take a couple deep in right um learning these opportunities to challenge yourself whether it’s a sports uh environment or not will then prepare you for that sport environment whether it’s a club champ Championship or you don’t want to lose your kid for the first time or whatever that

Me uh yeah I’m a reminiscent of that one my daughter is beating me all right um part of something I focus on with her is your point number four which is improving footwork and balance and you know everyone will be like yeah my golf swings out of balanc and look if that’s

Happening you’re kind of scuttling your ship from the very start but they can work on this so sh us or tell us how please yeah um the number one stabilizer of the hip is the glute muscle so that’s why when we see elderly folks sometimes their hips start to set uh swing from

Side to side they’re not using those they’re not using their glutes as they used to or should so what I do for my students is I’ll get them standing use those hands again right let me drop this down just a tad bit basically stand with their hands

On their glutes we’re going to clench the glutes we’re going to shift over onto one leg leg can you still maintain that strong glute and then lift the opposite leg up majority time when the foot lifts the glute will fizzle out because something else will take over

Whether it’s the lower back whether it’s the quadricep or a pseudo wave stabilization some students will just lock out their knee and hold it up tall and just pray that they don’t fall right kind of go into position I call that pseudo stabilization it’s not true uh to

How we’re trying to perform right you would just lock your knee and then try to rotate on your left side or if you would or if you did that for a decade you may have to have knee surgery to some other uh very successful golfers on tour but mainly focusing on the glute

Clenching that glute that will give you the stabilization to your leg um and then from there can we do different Dynamic positions going back to what I stated earlier we look at static stability and then Dynamic stability so can I balance for 20 seconds we’ll just

Say that number um once I can do that can I start to rotate my hips and do a little bit of say a stor turn right you can have a golf club in front of you or hold on to the counter if you need maybe a fingertip or two on for balance

Purpose but then can you internally and externally rotate on that hip yeah so again both of those Dynamics are going to be glute driven or posterior muscle driven um and then how do you hold the foot is the pressure in the toes is it midfoot is it more heel based those are

The type of questions again building awareness and education my student I’ll ask them um like to your point earlier if I’m loading into my trail hip or Trail side it’s going to be a little bit more heel based I want to make sure we’re doing that when we’re holding

Balance at home yeah watching your the mirror brushing your teeth in the morning finding these opportunities to do that I think are huge and uh what I’ve actually implemented this fall Mark is when I go play I do that every te box I will St stand you know if we’re in a

Playing couple my playing partners are going say they hit I’ll stand on my right leg for maybe one of their shots switch on to my left that’s so cool so you’re telling me wait wait wait a second he so you’re telling me that well I guess balance is learned because when

We were Little Tots learning to walk we learned how to balance but we also then and I’ve had my trainer and my P physical uh my PT guy tell tell me he goes you Bas you’re not using your muscles to keep you upright you’re just basically using your spine right and so

So there’s no real Activation so you’re telling me basically with that cool little exercise where you’re on one leg and you just you know basically clench up that glute muscle and you get strong and you balance and you start to move around that golfers can learn proper

Balance again no matter how old or decrepid we are yes absolutely I teach new tricks to Old Dogs all the time Mark thanks well look I’ve learned something here I just like to think of it as applied knowledge right or an applied exercise right it’s one thing to look

And okay I see him doing an exercise let me copy it but you know what are the the nitty-gritty behind it what what actually makes that person look good um you know talking about professional athletes they move with Grace right they move with fluidity whether they’re on

The pitch whether they’re on the field or the court why is because their fundamentals are so set right A lot of these and have learned this at a young age through development and it’s second nature to them so I don’t see why anyone can’t have that same say Book of

Knowledge but maybe they just start later in life right I want you to do this because when you were standing up and away from us and you were demonstrating um I want you just to describe while you’re sitting there that balancing ex exercise to the audio listener because to me it’s almost a

GameChanger here for the new year and Beyond if you can like you say you stand when your playing competitors are hitting shots in that vein or when you’re brushing your teeth or whatever you’re doing but it’s this opportunity where you can continually wake up that glute muscle and balance better so

Please describe it yeah so um stand stand tall I would your hands on your glutes Flex both of them and let’s use our right glute as the example so then shift your weight slightly onto your right side keep both glutes firm but then when you take away your left foot

And that can be either du to a toe or completely off the ground can you maintain a firm right glute with that firm glue folks it’s gonna give right I’m sorry because with most people it’s likely to give right and the reason for that as usually the hips will tilt to

The side the hip will bump out to the side so we’re losing again hip stability part of it is going to be the but how I like to how I’ve seen it if both glutes Flex that kind of fixes our pelvic tilt gets us into a more neutral position

Which then triers our lower core to be there when we need it so then we shift over to one side and we already have our glue and our core working together those two extension cords tight together and then yeah how long can you hold it for

You know I’m a big fan of looking in the mirror watching yourself um making sure we’re not tilting One Way making sure I’m not you know again going into pseudo stabilization um over time we build that up whether it’s five seconds 10 seconds or 30 seconds right and I’m

Certain that folks who battle golfers with lower back pain this is likely to really help out am I right absolutely absolutely once the glutes and the hips become the main mover then that lower back can be more of the stabilizer or more of a stable joint as it was designed um and then

That works up and down the chain right so if our hips remain movers our lower backs more of a stabilizing joint our thoracic spine’s en able to rotate as it should um and if we go below the hips if our glutes are working our knees become

More of that stable joint our ankles get a little bit more mobile so we can allow rotation but then our feet are still stable locked into the ground Sensational okay final point of the five first one gaining awareness and education we we learning that all the time improving posture pelvis position

Number two and improving pelvis control and score core stability number three improve your footwork and balance was four um five improve your athleticism by moving walking throwing jumping basically all the above yeah yeah um I I see a lot of coach is talking about Juniors right now um how can we get our

Juniors moving better right um I think we should do that as adults as well I think we get stuck in our ways for multiple reasons one we may not have time two we may just be boring as we get older um but I think the main thing is

We we don’t want to fail as adults you know as children that’s that’s part of learning right standing up and falling over um life is a lesson so if we can go through through these and then persevere I think we’re stronger at the end of the

Day so you know playing catch with your son or your daughter you know kicking the ball in the field maybe going and playing some pickle ball that’s the new sport right but racket ball would have been you know that’s what I did growing up with my dad I’d go to the gym and

Just whack the ball around with him so starting to do things in multiples and again throwing things your non-dominant side swinging a club non-d dominantly throwing a frisbee these are all things that we do for long-term athletic development for youth golfers so again we’re the same creature we’re just later

On in life you know a couple chapters later in the book but we can still Implement and still refresh the program in this sense um I have I have a vision and I want to partner with you on this and all of our fans around the world and

The folks now who are going to go and follow Matt McCay I’m just imagining us old people just skipping down the passage on the way to get morning coffee because you know over Christmas we had a big family reunion and it was all the grandkids came there from like the the

The the the early 20s to the babies and just to watch them all play again they’re running around skipping jumping playing badminton and I was like wow that’s so refreshing and you could see just by doing that like running and skipping or jumping just brings with it

A sense of joy as well I I I want to see everyone in this on the mark Global tribe and Matt followers to skip in the morning to to coffeee what a great idea to sort of start the day with a smile huh absolutely and now that you’ve

Brought up skipping from my point that’s going to be some natural disassociation your pelvis is rotating one way while your shoulders are going the other you’re pressing the ground you’re getting good glute activation and and working those feet so absolutely skip to the first tea if you don’t mind it let’s

Do it all right this has been Sensational stuff it really has and it’s a great way for everybody to start the uh year so what I want to do now because you’ve shared the knowledge and your wisdom and your insights is just to you know better movement and better overall

Well-being now I want you to put on your coaching hat and give the marching orders give the motivational speech now to say get off your proverbial gluteus maximus and now go do this every day so give us yeah absolutely um time is now you know whether it’s turning over a new

Calendar whether we see January versus December or or you just are tired of being tired right getting some more motivation behind you um every day is a new day to do it yes it’s easier said than done but understanding how the Journey works right so if you can think

Back maybe finding a not so pleasant experience not performing well at a club Championship underperforming when a friend comes in town um or just trying to get rid of a nagging injury let’s let’s develop some awareness um finding a coach like myself if it’s more of a

Physical ailment where pain is is being present find yourself a physical therapist or a doctor an MD who can appropriately treat that and give you understanding to then work through a program um but light is always at the end of the tunnel we just have to

Sometimes put our one foot in front of the other and work towards it yeah go and skip to the end of the tunnel hey uh you please share with with the folks where they can find you Matt and then you also have little like three and four

Day Retreats that people can come down to St Augustine and work with you so talk about those please yeah so I’m here at PJ Tour golf Academy um so if you’re in the World Golf Village area or Jacksonville uh Northeast Florida come see us at the Academy um be a great way

Of educating yourself on maybe just not only golf lessons but on the golf body way I like to you know if someone’s slicing to the right they may not have Club face or club path awareness putting those two together oh I can understand the ball well if you you don’t have

Pelvis awareness and your lower back’s hurting every time well we can start to understand those things right um so we can go on to our website here World Golf village.com PJ Tour golf Academy or just type in PJ Tour golf academy.com I have my personal blog uh it’s on patreon so

Patreon.com molf Fitness I’ve started to write some blogs on things that we talked about here but more of a a deep dive especially for my students that I’m working with virtu um Can Comm can communicate that and then yeah coming down to St Augustine whether it’s doing a Golf Academy a

Three-day Golf Academy here where we’re including golf instruction or we can do something where it’s a little bit more stay and play um and enjoying St Augustine it’s a great City I don’t know if you’ve been Mark but we’re on we’re right on the water we’ve got the beach

We’ve got downtown bikes kayaks all the fun so a good way of still getting some RNR but also learning a good bit about your body double whammy yeah people I’m not on the Chamber of Commerce but I have considered moving to St Augustine I go down there often for PGA to alive and

Your guys facility is awesome the driving range is cool the golf courses around there are tremendous and it’s a good spot to go and visit so um just for the folks looking you up it’s McKay which is m cka y Matt thank you for your time you have been an inspiration to me

To start this New Year correctly so thank you absolutely Mark thanks for having me on um I’m looking forward to help people I think one of my goals is I’m or one of my one of the things I’m really good at is educating and getting that knowledge out um so the more I

Share I think the more we all benefit in life so yeah come on down and see me keep it up I appreciate you how’s

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