Palmer’s goals weren’t over-the-top, mind you. Having won the 2008 Ginn sur Mer Classic, he had every right to tee it up in the winners-only event. But after going under the knife to have shoulder surgery, including partial rotator-cuff repair, less than a month after his November victory, the thought of having Palmer ready to play in a tournament that was six weeks away seemed unlikely.

Palmer was coming off one of the best seasons of his career, and the goal at that time was to get him healthy and conditioned for a season without pain. At least that was Van Biezen’s goal. Palmer, on the other hand, had other ideas.

He was determined to play in the season opener. After a couple weeks of coaxing, Van Biezen finally agreed to help Palmer rehab for the tournament and less than 48 hours after surgery, the two were doing Active Release Therapy. Within four weeks, Palmer had already moved to hitting a 3-wood with instructor Randy Smith.

The progress Palmer had made in a short period of time was a borderline miracle. With the hard work nearly done, both figured they were in the clear. But Palmer’s rehab hit a setback that Tuesday morning when, just days before the tournament, he called Van Biezen to give him some bad news.

“I remember him calling and saying, ‘We have a problem!’” Van Biezen said. “I asked what was wrong and he said, ‘I can’t move my arm. I pulled my arm out from under the covers last night, felt a ‘pop’ and now the entire arm has seized up.’”

Normally this is the point in the story where Palmer and Van Biezen head back home to Dallas to figure things out, but after conferring with the doctor who’d worked on Palmer’s shoulder, Van Biezen received the green light to proceed with rehab just 48 hours before the first round.

Working on the shoulder every three hours on Tuesday, Van Biezen had Palmer healthy enough to hit the range by Wednesday afternoon, and even go after the ball with a driver at 90 percent.

Incredibly, Palmer managed to play all four rounds of the tournament, while Van Biezen sat on pins and needles watching, hoping his client’s shoulder would hold up for not only the Mercedes Championship, but the rest of the season. Thankfully, it did.

“The week was insane É just absolutely insane,” Van Biezen said. “I still don’t know how we got to that point, but we did, and Ryan was able to play. At the end of the day that’s my goal, to get these guys as healthy as possible as fast as I can.”

Welcome to a typical, crazy week in the life of Dr. Troy Van Biezen, the head of ChiroSport Specialists of Dallas, and arguably the top sports chiropractor in the country.

While he may not be jet-setting to Hawaii with clients on a weekly basis, Van Biezen spends much of his time making critical chiropractic decisions on some of the world’s best athletes.

There’s a reason why Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton and PGA Tour winner Steve Stricker put their trust in Van Biezen’s hands. His knack for getting athletes healthy in a short amount of time is a big reason why he’s one of the most trusted, and respected, doctors in his profession.

“I learned quickly with professional athletes that you better fix them fast or they’re not coming back,” Van Biezen said. “So there’s a little bit of pressure there. But with my current system I have in place, I can usually get them feeling better soon after we start working together.”

Van Biezen understands the importance of keeping his clients healthy at all times, because there was a point in his life where he would have killed for the same kind of care.

Growing up in Canada, Van Biezen had aspirations of playing in the NHL, but a serious back injury in his late teens forced him to consider if he had a future in the sport. After being told by a family physician that he needed to have back surgery, he was nearly ready to give up hockey.

That’s when a close friend suggested he get a second opinion from a chiropractor.

“At that time I had never heard of a chiropractor,” Van Biezen said. “I decided to go see a well-known sports chiropractor who was actually working with the Calgary Flames at the time, and he told me that based on my injuries he could have me 100 percent in 6 to 8 weeks. I was floored.”

Working with a chiropractor allowed Van Biezen to play professionally overseas for four years before moving to Texas to pursue his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree from Parker College.

“After being told I needed back surgery and then finding out there was another option out there, I knew I wanted to be a chiropractor,” Van Biezen said. “I felt a calling to help others so they didn’t have to suffer like I did at one point in my life.”

Over the years, Van Biezen has helped hundreds of athletes, working as the Active Release Doctor for the Dallas Stars and other professional sports organizations. But along the way his business grew beyond the ice and field to the golf course, when, eight years ago, Van Biezen started working with local Dallas resident Harrison Frazar.

Dealing with a number of ailments at the time, Frazar was extremely impressed with the progress he and Van Biezen were making on his body in a short amount of time. He was so amazed, in fact, that he suggested Van Biezen consider joining the PGA Tour’s medical staff.

Despite thinking the offer was a joke at the time, Van Biezen received a call two months later from the Tour that began a whirlwind nine-year career as one of the top doctors on staff.

“It was certainly crazy at times,” Van Biezen said. “I was traveling to tournaments 20 weeks out of the year, and trying to balance my practice in Dallas at the same time. I’d normally get to the Tour’s medical trailer on Tuesday before a tournament started and be there until Sunday. Each day was usually 13-15 hours long, and I’d probably see up to 50 guys per day.”

At the time Van Biezen was starting his job on Tour, he was building a golf client base back in Dallas that included Tour players Brian Watts, Kris Cox, Justin Leonard and Frazar. But as soon as word got out that he was working wonders with a number of the big names in the Tour van, business started to boom.

The main reason Van Biezen was so in-demand was due in large part to the Active Release Techniques (A.R.T.) that allowed him to analyze a golfer’s body by looking at the muscles, instead of the joints, to get to the root cause of the pain in problem areas like the lower back, wrist and hip.

“Traditional chiropractic is where you learn the manipulation and how to adjust joints in the body,” Van Biezen said. “The biggest thing doctors are missing is what controls the movement of those joints: the muscles. If you have muscle tightness, imbalances come into play. If you have one muscle that’s tight and another that’s weak É well, I need to release the tightness in that one to pull your pelvis back into alignment. I could adjust you all day, but if I don’t treat the muscle dysfunction you’re never going to see results.”

The use of the A.R.T. method soon had Van Biezen working with a number of high-profile names, including current LPGA star Michelle Wie.

“I still remember the first time Michelle’s father, B.J., called me,” Van Biezen said. “I kept getting phone calls from a guy who claimed he was her father. I thought someone was jacking with me at the time. Finally I listened to another message and B.J. says, ‘Troy, I need to talk to you. Call me.’”

After Van Biezen realized the calls weren’t a joke, B.J. Wie had him on the next plane to Hawaii less than 48 hours later to help Michelle with hip and wrist issues.

Up until when Wie started at Stanford, Van Biezen was working with arguably the most talented junior player on a regular basis. While he was confident in his A.R.T. techniques, the doctor learned a memorable lesson with Wie at the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic that’s stuck with him ever since.

Complaining of hip pain prior to her anticipated start, Van Biezen worked on Wie before the round to give her full range of motion. But as he quickly realized after seeing her first couple of shots, there was a fine line between enough and too much range of motion.

“[Michelle] had so much range of motion that the first three tee shots were spraying everywhere because she had so much movement that her body was in complete shock,” Van Biezen said. “So I learned. Your body has to adapt to that new range of motion, so you have to be careful.

“I still remember Vijay [Singh] glancing over at me with this look like ‘I don’t know what the heck is going on, but something doesn’t seem right.’”

Aside from working with Wie, Van Biezen guesses he’s had 10,000 golfers Đ professional and recreational Đ on his table in the last 10 years. After starting the business working with hockey players, he’s quickly become the go-to-guy for golfers of every skill level.

As years passed and Van Biezen started to build a rapport with a number of players on Tour, he started to consider the possibility of leaving his job as part of the Tour’s medical staff. “I kept talking to some of the guys I worked with on a weekly basis during the Tour season, and they kept telling me they wanted me to work for them exclusively,” he said.

After giving it some thought, Van Biezen made the decision to start working exclusively with, among others, Stricker, Palmer, Ben Crane, Gary Woodland and Zach Johnson.

“It still means I’ll be out on the road a lot, but the nice thing is I’m able to dedicate more time to these particular guys and my young amateur players,” Van Biezen said. “That’s something that really makes me happy since they’re the group I really enjoy working with the most.”

Van Biezen’s stable of amateur golf clients is a who’s who list of rising stars. He currently works with two-time U.S. Junior Amateur champion Jordan Spieth (currently a freshman at the University of Texas), former No. 1-ranked junior Anthony Paolucci (USC), Cody Gribble (Texas) and Kramer Hickok (Texas).

The one thing that surprised Van Biezen the most when he started working with some of golf’s best amateur players was how uninformed they were about their bodies. As he said, the lack of knowledge was putting them at a great disadvantage and leaving them open to early injuries.

“You’d be surprised how many good, young players come in here and just shrug their shoulders when I ask how they’re feeling,” Van Biezen said. “North American players in general are fairly clueless when it comes to understanding how their bodies operate.”

Van Biezen noted that players from Europe and Australia have an idea of how to maintain their body for a lifetime in the sport by the time they turn 14 or 15.

That lack of knowledge forced Van Biezen into action over the last couple of years. He currently works with the Northern Texas PGA and hosts a yearly summit for junior golfers where he brings in current and former PGA Tour players to talk to kids about the importance of staying healthy and maintaining the body.

But Van Biezen’s programs have been making an impression on more than just junior golfers. Even some of the most respected golf instructors in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are coming to him for guidance.

“The great thing now is I’ll get a call from Tim Cusick or Cameron Doan, and they’ll tell me about a junior player they have that’s currently struggling with wrist pain or hip pain,” he said. “I have them come to my office, we get them checked out, and then build a program for them to make sure these issues don’t become permanent and force them to alter their swing.”

With the help of infrared cameras at his office, Van Biezen is changing the way golfers look at their swing. Currently dubbed “an MRI for your golf swing,” the infrared cameras are set up around a turf mat that allows Van Biezen to see how a golfer’s body works.

By getting an inside look at how the body twists and turns during the swing, Van Biezen can design a plan of attack to improve problem areas, like a tight hip, that could keep a golfer from reaching their full potential.

After years of perfecting the system, the cameras and the technology he has in place also allow him to get to the bottom of why golfers are experiencing pain in various parts of their body.

The system has been such a huge hit with his PGA Tour clients that TaylorMade started working with Van Biezen to design a performance institute Đ along the same lines at the Titleist Performance Institute Đ that utilizes the infrared cameras to not only improve the body but the swing as well.

It’s clear from everything that’s going on in Van Biezen’s life that he’s exactly where he hoped he’d be at this point in his career. But despite the notoriety he’s received, he said most A.R.T. doctors are still being overlooked for the work they do.

“A.R.T. guys are in the trenches working on athletes, getting them ready before NFL and NBA games, but we never get the credit,” he said. “You always see the orthopedic and the athletic trainer, but you never hear about or see the A.R.T. guy behind the scenes. But it is what it is.”

While most may be getting overlooked, Van Biezen is blazing a new path for A.R.T. doctors, making sure those at the top of the sports world realize there’s a new breed of chiropractor that’s making a big difference in the lives of athletes around the world.

“Even [PGA Tour commissioner] Tim Finchem had no idea what we were doing for the guys on Tour,” Van Biezen said. “If people at the top don’t know, you can be darn sure everyone else doesn’t have a clue. Will that change? I don’t know. But I hope it does.”

If anybody can make that change happen, it’s Dr. Troy Van Biezen.

Palmer and Allenby shared the lead coming into the final round and the American and Australian traded blows through Sunday’s play, Palmer eventually coming out on top on the 72nd green. Just short of the par-5′s putting surface in two, he over-hit his eagle chip. But, with the ball looking like it would run well past the hole, it careered into the pin and stopped just beside the cup. When Allenby failed to make his birdie chance, the title went to Palmer.

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Together, Dr. Van Biezen, Mayers and Motion Golf formed the country’s first Motion Sports Institute this past September with the goal of providing one facility where golfers can receive golf instruction, fitness training and pain and injury prevention and rehabilitation treatments. Thanks to Motion Golf’s 3D motion capture technology, Mayers’ team of instructors can provide immediate feedback and one-on-one swing tips.

Likewise, Dr. Van Biezen can use the motion analysis technology to evaluate each golfer’s swing for any potential injury-creating flaws. And professional trainers are on hand to help golfers develop the type of long-term fitness regimens that will translate to better scores on the course.

For Mayers, who also operates his Buck Mayers Golf Academy at Grey Rock Golf Club in South Austin, the application of Motion Golf’s technology for swing analysis is obvious, but it’s the added strength and flexibility improvements that golfers can achieve at the Motion Sports Institute, along with the benefits of having on-site chiropractic and rehab care, that might be equally as beneficial for golfers.

“More times than not,” Mayers says, “the golfer cannot change to a new movement pattern without addressing injuries, strength, flexibility, mobility and stability. With 3D imaging, we now can get to the objective root cause of all swing flaws very quickly and accurately by understanding how each golfer’s body moves.”

For further proof of the impact this cooperative use of technology among orthopedic surgeons, chiropractors, physical therapists, swing coaches and personal trainers will have on the game consider this: In the first few months after partnering, Mayers and Dr. Van Biezen have already screened more than 30 PGA Tour players in Dallas.

Motion Sports Institute
(972) 239-0010, chirosportspecialists.com

Last year, there were 25 million doctor visits for golf-related injuries. Not surprisingly, back pain was the most common reason. The position in which the golfer puts his spine when hitting a slice is a major technique fault that can create back pain.

When assessing an injured golfer, I focus on three parameters in this order:

1. Physical dysfunction
2. Technique
3. Equipment

There are many causes of back pain, but I won’t bore you with most. However, I will address one of the most common causes, which falls into the technique category. It’s called “the sway.”

Sway is any lateral movement of the lower body away from the target during the backswing. This forces the weight to the outside of back foot, resulting in improper weight shift during transition.

In order to turn into your right hip (for righthanded golfers), there are several physical parameters that must be developed. The most important is right hip internal rotation. If the body is not able to turn around the right hip due to joint or muscle restrictions, then lateral movement will occur.

Secondly, the ability to separate your upper body from your lower body allows you to make a shoulder turn without swaying. Limited spinal mobility is the main cause of this restriction.

Finally, the ability to laterally stabilize your right leg during the backswing is directly proportional to the strength and stability of your glute muscles. This muscle helps prevent the right hip from elevating and shifting laterally during the backswing.

A majority of golfers struggle with the sway, but most don’t know the sway is the beginning phase of the dreaded slice. In trying to correct the slice, most will try to influence the grip and address posture, which are both important. What often is forgotten is fixing the sway.

You’re probably asking by now, how does the sway create the slice and be a causative factor in causing back pain?

If you sway, there is no stable foundation to drive your weight off the right foot during transition into downswing. The golfer loses power and suffers a breakdown of the kinetic sequence. As the golfer sways, his head and upper body will tilt toward the target, creating a reverse spine angle. This will put a tremendous amount of undue stress on the left side of the spine.

The golfer will initiate the downswing with his arms creating an over-the-top move, causing an outside- to-inside swing path. This will put a clockwise spin on the ball, and a slice will occur. At follow through, another reverse spine angle occurs creating a “crunch factor” causing right low back pain.

As is evident, there is a direct correlation between the slice and back pain. So, the question is: how do I correct the slice and prevent back pain?

Most commonly it is a technique fault caused by body-swing disconnection, which are limitations and weaknesses in the body that have been described above. The top three target areas to address are:

Spinal Mobility (top photo): This exercise called “reach backs” and will help improve spinal flexibility. This will help the golfer initiate the downswing with the hips instead of arms/hands.

Hip Stability (middle photo): These X-walks will improve hip stability, which prevents the hips from moving away from target during the backswing.

Hip Mobility (bottom photo): This helps the golfer turn around the hip with the upper body.

I’m still shocked by the amount of time and money golfers spend on gimmicky training aids, clubs, balls, etc., to fix the slice. With all the new technology, the average score in America has not changed in 20 years.

I understand we live in a society where we all want a quick fix. But the old saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” holds true in golf.

As we have all witnessed, some of the best golfers in the world have worked to change their swing and have taken up to two years to see their results. We should not think any different. What is not seen is the dedicated training done behind the scenes, where the golfers work diligently on their bodies through treatment and training that will allow their bodies to get into positions that is needed for the swing change.

In summary, my recommendations are to seek out a medical golf professional that can assess you and provide a specific treatment/training program to prevent back pain and improve your body, so you and your golf instructor don’t become frustrated with a lack of progress.

Dr. Troy Van Biezen

Dr. Troy Van Biezen is one of the most recognized medical golf professionals in the country. He’s the PGA Tour Sports Medicine Team’s chiropractor and a Level 2 Titleist Performance Institute Medical Professional. He travels with the PGA Tour regularly, and regularly treats and trains local Tour pros such as Corey Pavin, Ryan Palmer, Colt Knost, Ben Crane, Matt Weibring, D.A. Weibring, Brian Watts, Paul Stankowski, Tommy Armour III and Harrison Frazar. He also works with well-respected golf instructors Randy Smith, Cameron Doan and Rod Cook. Dr. Van Biezen has been profiled in numerous articles including Golf World, Golfweek and pgatour.com. He resides in Dallas with his wife and two beautiful daughters.

Dr. Troy Van Biezen is featured on Top Docs of DFW.

By DON O’BRIEN
Herald-Whig Sports Editor

D.A. Weibring knew what he wanted to do during Thursday’s opening round at The Players Championship. It’s just that his body wouldn’t let him.

“Sometimes, the sick golfer can have a great round,” Weibring said Thursday afternoon hours after pulling out of The Players Championship with a back injury. “You have no expectations and you can just go play. But the injured golfer usually doesn’t do too well. Your brain is telling you, ‘Don’t do that. Don’t hurt yourself.’”

The Quincy native made it through six holes at TPC Sawgrass before being forced to withdraw from one of the PGA Tour’s most prestigious events.

Diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back in February, Weibring tried to fight through the pain to take full advantage of the special exemption afforded him by capturing last fall’s Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, his first major championship on the Champions Tour.

After arriving in Ponte Verde Beach, Fla., earlier this week, Weibring saw some signs that he might struggle.

“I played a practice round with Troy Matteson, who played with (Weibring’s son) Matt at Georgia Tech,” Weibring said. “He said it looked like I was having a hard time getting the club back and getting it through the ball.

“I kept hoping it would get better, but it just hasn’t.”

Dr. Troy Van Biezen, one of the PGA Tour’s top doctors, watched Weibring warm up on Thursday and noticed that Weibring was quick with his change of direction at the top of his swing. It was Van Biezen who worked on Weibring’s back last week in an effort to get him ready for the tournament.

Weibring made a triple-bogey seven on his first hole — the 10th — on Thursday. His tee shot hit off a cart path and landed in a bush. After a drop, his next shot hit a tree.

“I made a hell of a 7,” he said. “That was a signal that it was going to be a real good day.”

Weibring followed with five straight 5s — a double bogey, a par and three bogeys. He was 8-over through six holes when he told playing partners Bo  Van Pelt and Tim Petrovic that he was bowing out before they reached the 16th tee box.

“It’s embarrassing when you play poorly,” Weibring said. “But what hurts your pride is when you can’t play a shot you know you’re capable of playing. I was playing with two terrific guys. I think they felt bad for me, and I didn’t want to get in their way.”

Weibring cited a back injury as his official reason for withdrawing. He said he felt stiff after the round was over.

“The instinct was not to come here because I hadn’t been playing well,” Weibring said. “But I felt it was important to come because (the Champions Tour) has been given an exemption to compete here.

“It just came at the wrong time for me. I need to go home, take some time off and get to feeling better.”

Weibring has already withdrawn from next week’s Champions Tour event in Birmingham, Ala. He said there was a chance he might miss the Senior PGA Championship — the first major of the year on the Champions  Tour — the following week. He may also miss the Des Moines, Iowa, tour stop later next month. One of Weibring’s five Champions Tour wins came in Des Moines.

PGA Tour players, along with other serious athletes, seek out Active Release Technique (ART) to improve flexibility, quickly recover from injury and prevent compensations from occurring. ART is a patented, state-of-the-art, soft-tissue movement based manual therapy technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves.

Headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, shoulder pain, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, knee problems, golfers elbow and tennis elbow are a few of the many conditions that can be resolved quickly and permanently with ART. These conditions have one important thing in common: they are often a result of repetitive strain creating adhesions or scar tissue in the soft tissue.

Muscle tightness

The scar tissue that forms at the injury site is less elastic and more fibrotic then normal soft tissue, and it causes muscles to gradually lose their stretch component. Short, tight muscles will impair coordination, reduce power, play havoc with your golf swing and result in further injuries. This cycle repeats itself unless these restrictions are released.

Common swing faults

Swing faults occur due to physical restrictions in the body. Most common areas are found in the shoulder joint and hip joint.

When shoulder mobility is restricted, the common swing faults that occur are losing posture and getting too steep on backswing. The body tries to compensate with excessive spinal rotation. This can create a back injury because most people already lack flexibility in their spine.

In addition, golfers will notice that they have difficulties in: (1) Keeping their eyes on the ball; (2) Maintaining an optimal swing plane.

This results in poor outcomes, such as fat or thin shots, and it increases chances of hooking or slicing. Tightness in the hip joints is the most common area that golfers experience. Common swing faults that correlate with restrictions here are swaying, losing posture, early extension, hanging back and scooping. As is evident, losing mobility in the hips can create multiple problems in your golf swing.

The lack of hip mobility in the golf swing is also the No. 1 cause of low back pain due to compensations that occur in the spine. The low back will undergo a tremendous amount of rotational forces if the hips are not rotating properly.

Will stretching help?

Stretching will not break adhesions. Professional athletes who are constantly stretching find it difficult to release soft tissue adhesions. This is why so many professional and serious amateur athletes seek out ART to remove and release these adhesions. Soft tissue adhesions are several times stronger than normal tissue.

Often muscle fibers and muscle groups will literally adhere to each other, preventing the normal sliding necessary for full mobility. When stretching, the first tissue that elongates is not the adhered tissue, but the normal healthy tissue.

Apply ART to improving your swing

In order to effectively balance your muscles and remove joint restrictions we first must identify where your muscle imbalances occur. By utilizing a comprehensive golf functional assessment, we can identify the exact type, extent and location of muscle restrictions.

ART treatments are then utilized to remove and release these restrictions. ART will dramatically improve your joint mobility which will in turn improve your golf swing and prevent injury. Seek out an ART (www.activerelease.com) doctor in your area and see the results for yourself!

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He stated, "We have a problem!" I asked what was wrong, and he said, "I can’t move my arm. I pulled my arm out from my covers last night, when I felt a ‘pop’ in my shoulder, and now it has seized up."

Palmer five weeks prior had undergone shoulder surgery, which included partial rotator-cuff repair. Our game plan was to have Ryan play the Mercedes Championship on Jan. 8-11, which was five weeks from the date of his shoulder surgery. Ryan started his rehab in my office two days post-surgery under the guidance of orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Jim Walter.

Ryan met every deadline I set for him in the rehab process. We were on schedule; Ryan was practicing with his swing coach, Randy Smith, and played a couple rounds before we made the trip to Maui.

Well, this morning’s phone call spelled a major setback. It was two days before the tournament, and Ryan couldn’t move his arm without a sharp pain in the back of his shoulder. A call was made to Dr. Walter, who felt there was no retearing of the rotator cuff and told me he had full confidence in me that I would have Ryan playing in two days.

Ryan and I went for breakfast, and the mood was very solemn. We worked so hard to get ready for the Mercedes Championship, and now we had to deal with this unexpected situation. We were actually looking at flights back home to Dallas. We set up a game plan for the next two days. If he was able to play on Thursday it would be a bonus. If not, we were going home.

The following 48 hours were very structured; treatment was performed every two hours. Initially, treatment consisted of Active Release Therapy, Laser Therapy and hot/cold contrast therapy to reduce the inflammatory process and regain his range of motion. By the end of the day, I had Ryan in the pool doing resistant range of motion exercises.

The next morning, I was hesitant about how he would feel. He showed up at my room, with 80 percent range of motion, with less pain. That was encouraging! But would he be able to play four rounds in a row against the best players in the world?

We continued with the treatment plan. As the day progressed, he continued to improve. By Wednesday afternoon, he wanted to try hitting balls, so before we headed to the range, Kinesio Tape was applied to his shoulder to help stabilize it and to aid in retraining muscle function.

We arrived at the driving range to the amazement of players and media. Word had gotten around about his shoulder. Ryan started with wedges and progressively worked up to long irons. He kept saying, "It feels good." That made two of us.

Well, about an hour into testing the shoulder, he pulled out his driver. Yikes, I thought. He started with a 70-percent swing and progressed to 90 percent for a few balls. After that, I shut him down and started a cooldown process on his shoulder.

How would he feel tomorrow morning, for the first round of the tournament?

He felt better and was ready to play. We still weren’t sure if he could play four days in a row. Our goal was to play nine holes at a time.

Ryan finished his first round without any setbacks. He shot a 78, which obviously upset him. I mentioned to him, "You couldn’t move your shoulder two days ago." He smiled and said, "Yeah, you’re right." He’s such a competitor!

Each day he improved physically and on the course as well. He fired a final-round 66, the second-lowest score of the day. He finished 31st overall and pocketed $56,000. Ryan also was 18th in the field for driving distance—not bad considering what took place that week. Looking back, it was amazing how quickly he responded to treatment. To this day, we still talk about it in disbelief.

Ryan has fully recovered. He continues to train under my guidance and is working diligently to improve his game. He will play in the Byron Nelson and Colonial.

This story is one of many that happen every week inside the PGA Tour. TL

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You might be wondering, “How to do I get ready?” I’d have to answer with a question of my own. What have you done in the offseason to improve your game in 2009?

I don’t mean the new clubs, balls or a putter you bought. I’m concerned about your body. Physical limitations and weaknesses in the body can create swing faults, which can lead to potential injury.

PGA Tour players utilize the offseason to rest and recover, but they also use this time for “Detection and Correction” of body dysfunctions that have affected their swing or have caused injury. You can—and should—try to do the same.

The golf swing is an extremely highballistic, repetitive, one-sided movement that will create imbalances in the body. These imbalances can turn into dysfunctional movements and injury.

I work with several PGA Tour players, and I’d like to share with you some of what we worked on in my office during the offseason. Here are the five steps we used to get ready for the new season. You can use them to improve your game, too. By applying these steps, I guarantee you will hit the ball farther and play better golf. The smarter you work off the course, the better you will play on the course.

Step 1: Golf Assessment

Before you can correct errors, you have to find the error. It’s critical to get assessed before you start training. Once you know what your limitations or weaknesses are, you and your golf pro can set corrective exercises to address these dysfunctions. Get reassessed about every two or three months. See if you have obtained the set goals and make any necessary changes. I would recommend setting up an assessment with a professional who is certified in golf assessment and training.

Step 2: Flexibility/Mobility Program

Our flexibility program is centered on the mobility/stability pattern of human movements. This principle describes the efficient movement of each joint of the body in an alternating pattern of mobile joints and stable segments. If the pattern is altered, dysfunction occurs. It happens most in the hips, mid-back (thoracic spine) and ankle. Most of my programs entail a lot of Active Release Therapy, Chiropractic Manipulative Therapy, and active/passive stretching and mobility exercises to increase mobility in the hips, mid-back and ankle. My recommendation is to work with a professional to help design a flexibility program that will improve your swing and prevent injury.

Step 3: Stability Program

There may be no more important muscle in the golf swing than the glutes. This muscle group is critical in aiding the golfer to maintain lower body stability during the swing. Your training program should incorporate both the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius, as both are vital to maintaining lower core stability and helps blend the lower body movement into the upper body movement.

Step 4: Cardiovascular Program

Do you score better on the front nine than the back? Fatigue can be a factor. I want my pros have plenty of wind on the back nine, especially on Sunday. I’m not a proponent of running, however. I prefer golfers save their joints for longevity, so they can compete well into their 50s. Instead, I recommend elliptical, stair machine or bike. Sprint interval training (no longer than 20 minutes) can be useful, but avoid long, drawn-out distance running.

Step 5: Posture Program

Proper posture is essential for injury prevention. Without proper posture, a golfer can’t keep the club on its proper swing path, either. A solid, golf-specific training program should incorporate posture corrections. This will help protect the spine and maximize flexibility. Get into an address posture in front of a mirror and look at your posture. If you have excessive rounding of the upper back, that’s the dreaded “C-Posture.” No good. It’s the most common posture fault golfers have. This posture will severely limit spinal rotation, which will in turn limit your ability to create a good backswing turn. Tour pros work on their posture consistently in the gym and on the course.

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