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I recently received a member question regarding the internal obliques. While we know they are very important to the golf-swing, they can be difficult to "feel" and train on the practice tee. For these reasons, I will usually advocate for players and coaches to correct this pattern in the gym. But first, here are (2) simple checkpoints to determine whether or not your obliques are functioning properly; if you pay close attention to these moves, they should provide enough insight for you to create a solid plan of attack.
Playlists: Keys To Transition, Fix Your Early Extension
Tags: Fundamentals, Early Extension, Follow Through, Transition, Member Question, Advanced
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This content video is answering the member question, how do I check if my internal
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obliques are working in the Galsway?
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Now let me first by saying that this is not what most golfers need to think about, but we
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do have a fair number of golfers who are also coaches on the site and some coaches like
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to dive into the real details of anatomy.
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So I'm going to walk you through two different checkpoints that I would look at to see if
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a golfer is using their internal obliques, but that's a hard one to cue and just say,
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hey, golfer, use your internal obliques.
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Typically, if you were trying to make this change, you would want to do it in the gym first
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before you try to do it in the swing.
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So the obliques don't actually work in a hundred percent opposition.
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It's not quite like the bicep and tricep, where it's not like the right external
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obliques and the left internal obliques create the rotation.
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You actually get some of the rotation from both sides of the internal obliques and you
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also get some side bending and one of the big movements is the internal obliques, especially
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the lower fibers, is helpful for creating pelvic tilt or posterior tilting like this.
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So two of the checks that I'll look for are in transition.
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If you are rotating with the internal obliques active, you'll still have a little bit
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of a stretch where you'll see the lower back going to maybe just a slight amount of
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lordosis or anterior tilt.
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But then as they start to rotate through basically from right around delivery position,
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you'll see that the pelvis will start tucking under like so.
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It's a good sign that they're using their internal bleak as part of the engine in the
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downswing.
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If I shut off that internal bleak, it would look more like this and kind of disconnect it.
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So you'll see, there if I try to relax it, it's actually hard to do if you've trained
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it to be active.
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But if I try to relax it, you'll see there's more of a disconnect there compared to
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there when I went to turn in that second version, my rib cage went more with it and
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I could actually feel some of the activity down at my lower abs.
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The second place that I would look for is looking in the follow-through position.
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So basically if that internal obliques is one of the helpful movements for pelvic tilting,
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then getting into a good bracing position where my glutes are squeezed, I can feel that
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my lower abs are helping support my arms getting pulled out away from me.
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If I don't use my internal bleak through there, then I'll typically go more into the hip
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flexor and I'll get kind of into the quad more like this or I get more into the mid back
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and I'd use more of my erectors.
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So again, this is a really tricky one to just cue someone to improve, but it would look
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like that instead of that and it would look like that instead of a variety of different
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bracing strategies, but primarily going more into a little bit of a lead like slide or too
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much extension.
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So if you see either of these two signs and you have trouble with say an internal
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obliques test and there's a good chance that you're not using your internal obliques
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in the golf swing and that's something that you could prioritize in the gym in order
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to improve your ability to use your core during the downswing.
