Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
PGA teaching professional James Martin asks ... in a world where we are technologically advanced, have our children suffered from not being able to be as active due to spending too much time in front of the television and computer?
I HAVE just arrived in Bahrain and whilst on the plane I read an article about how the crippling bone disease rickets is making a comeback. Children are in danger of having poor mobility, stability and bone disease due to the amount of time spent in front of technology.
If you were fortunate to see the Volvo Golf Champions tournament at the Royal Club or any other golf tournament recently, you will have seen that professional golfers these days are built like athletes - they are in the gym every day training to improve their mobility and stability.
I am amazed at how many junior golfers have rounded shoulders and are unable to touch their toes - this definitely plays a huge part in how the child swings the club and how far he or she can progress in the sport.
Perhaps as coaches and parents we should encourage children to create some primal movement patterns to improve posture, mobility, stability and strength in the much-needed areas, not only golf but for our lifestyles in general.
These movements can be very basic but will have a great effect on our children in years to come. Increasing core strength and increasing a child's pull strength would improve posture immensely whilst doing reaction games can improve their range of mobility.
Exercises such as the bear walk (walking on all fours) are great for mobility. Any exercise that involves pulling is great to help fight the rounding of the shoulders - pushing and pulling a golf cart would be ideal!
