Beginners Yoga for Golf

Will yoga help me to hit the ball farther? This is a question I asked myself many times in my first few months of playing golf. No matter how hard I tried, I could not hit a drive longer than 200 yards. At the time I was coming over the top and had a huge slice which definitely did not help my distance. At one point I even tried to make my swing much longer in hopes of reaching the vaunted 300 yard mark. I can honestly say it wasn’t worth it because of the inconsistencies. That said, after taking up yoga I can say that my golf game has improved drastically.

As a manly man it can be very difficult to walk into a yoga class with 20 females and no males. Fortunately, I have no problems with this. In fact, I like this type of ratio. There is a reason I live in Chapel Hill. That is a story for another time. Even if you are not comfortable going to a yoga class there are plenty of YouTube yoga videos that can help you get started. I strongly suggest this one:

If you are willing to spend 20 minutes a day, three times a week you will find that your flexibility drastically improves. I started my yoga training at the beginning of 2014 and can honestly say it has made my golf game much better. I am not a long ball hitter as I am more concerned with staying in the fairway. I went from about a 15 handicap to a 10 in the last year. I also do not have a sore back from playing 27 or 36 holes of golf much in the way that I used to.

The most important thing to remember when playing golf is to have fun. Do not try to crush the ball every single time. If you have the flexibility to do a full shoulder turn and you can get the club to parallel at the top, more power to you. No pun intended. If you are like me and you aren’t the most flexible guy in the world there is nothing wrong with learning to hit the driver straight and 250 yards. I promise you that you can beat many golfers if you are in the fairway on 12 of 14 fairways. It will drive those long ball hitters crazy.

If you are looking for other yoga workouts for golf head on over to YouTube and do some searching around. I do not have the time to do 45 or 50 minute yoga workout sessions so I keep it to the 20 minute sessions. You should have absolutely no problem with these beginner poses. Take your time and remember that it can take a commitment to master even the most basic poses such as downward dog. Within a month or two I think you will notice that your golf game improves.