How Golfers Lose Mobility - Free Preview of our Updated Online Fitness Level 2

The Right Tool for the Right Problem

Mobility is a cornerstone of efficient and powerful movement in the golf swing. Yet all too often, trainers and clinicians address limitations with generalized interventions - foam rolling, static stretching, mobility drills - without first asking a critical question: What is actually causing the mobility restriction?

The video above is an excerpt from our updated Fitness Level 2 online course. It's just 8 minutes of the 90 minute chapter dedicated to Mobility. One of the primary goals of the new course is not just to highlight our favorite exercise strategies, but our most-trusted diagnostics.

We believe that identifying the source of a mobility issue is essential to prescribing the most appropriate and effective corrective strategy.

A TPI Level 1 screen that uncovers limited thoracic rotation is a starting point - not a diagnosis. The next step is to determine what that limitation stems from.

Joint or Tissue? Why It Matters

When an athlete presents with limited range of motion caused by mechanical restrictions, the underlying cause often falls into one of two categories:

• Joint Based Restriction
• Soft Tissue Restriction

Each requires a distinct intervention. A capsular or joint mobility limitation won’t resolve with static stretching alone. Likewise, aggressive joint mobilizations won’t address an issue driven by myofascial restrictions.

The Power of Joint Distraction

One of the most effective tools in identifying and treating joint-based mobility issues is distraction - a technique that gently separates joint surfaces to improve capsular extensibility and reduce intra-articular pressure.

This strategy is heavily featured in our Fitness Level 2 course. TPI instructors Dan Hellman and Janet Alexander demonstrate over an hour of their favorite exercises to target both joint and fascia, including an L4 - L5 ELDOA that distracts often-irritated joints of the lumbar spine.

Although this is an advanced variation, Dan and Janet take the class through numerous regressions of the same exercise. Dr. Rose also demonstrated his favorite technique for hip distraction in a recent video on our YouTube channel.

Assessment Before Intervention

Rather than defaulting to a mobility drill for every movement deficit, fitness professionals who have studied our Fitness Level 2 online course will be trained to assess why the deficit exists in the first place.

By identifying the root cause, practitioners can target the appropriate structure with the right technique - and, more importantly, measure progress with confidence.

In golf performance training, mobility is not just about moving more - it's about moving better. That starts with asking the right questions, performing the right screens, and applying the right techniques. Tools like joint distraction give professionals both a lens to understand the problem and a method to solve it.

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For more information on our updated Fitness Level 2, visit the course page on our site.