Why Our Feet Matters in Golf

Can you pick up a golf ball with your feet? Can you swing a golf club barefoot without pain?

Here are 3 reasons why these and other feet skills are important for golf:

1. Controlling our Foot Arches DECREASES PAIN RISK and allows for BETTER LEG MUSCLE RECRUITMENT

Picking up a golf ball with our feet requires the same muscles that help form our foot arch. That’s right, we can control our arches and our ability to form and hold arches decreases the risk of developing foot issues (like plantar fasciitis) and aligns our lower body so that our leg muscles can fire optimally. For example, if we have flat feet or a loss of arches, inhibition of the muscles up our leg can occur leading to potential loss of power during our swing. Good news is that in most cases, arches can be trained (albeit with a lot of practice) with exercises like picking up golf balls with your feet and other intrinsic foot muscle exercises!

2. Our Feet provides a lot of SENSORY INFORMATION FOR BALANCE

Movement done barefoot, like swinging a golf club, can help train our brain to use the vast amounts of sensory information (proprioception) our feet gives us to balance better. Think of it this way. Our feet are constantly relaying sensory information to our brain but because of our society wearing shoes at a young age, the information our brain typically gets is dulled much like when we try to feel something with our hands while wearing mittens. For most of us, our brains are simply not used to receiving these signals and using them in movement. So taking your shoes off and doing barefoot exercises allows your feet to send clearer signals to your brain and trains your brain to interpret and use these signals to balance better. Better balance allows for more efficient and effective golf swings, especially on those sloped lies!

3. Our Feet can be trained to push off the ground for more POWER IN THE GOLF SWING

If you take a look at the longest hitters in the PGA, you will notice they are often on their toes with their heels off the ground at ball impact. Why is that? Well, they are using their feet to generate high amounts ground reaction force (Newton’s 3rd Law of Physics) which then gets transferred through the body for a more powerful swing. You also see this happen in the swings of long drive champions. They’ve mastered the ability to control and use their feet as rigid levers to drive into the ground. So if you want more power in your swing (and who doesn’t!) training and exercise your feet can help you get there!

So these are some of the reasons to start training your feet. Now HOW do you actually do that? Go to PART 2 of this blog series for the exercises!

Manni Wong, Registered Physiotherapist (@ptmanni)
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