In Depth Look at the Field of Golf-Biomechanics
Since 2013, I have been attending a premier golf training facility in Jupiter Florida, owned by professional golf training coach Joey Diovisalvi. Joey D Golf Performance Center, is an athletic training facility that involves a unique form of workout training that is built on the foundation of biomechanics, a set of exercise techniques that Coach Diovisalvi and his staff of specialized physical therapists use to help improve each of their client’s golf game. They will measure and analyze movements of their golf swing, and lines of stress created at joints. The foundation behind golf-bio-mechanics at Joey D is based on the principle guidelines of the 4 Pillars of Strength. I train with Coach Rob Paci, a former college basketball player at the University of Rhode Island. He is one of several other bio-mechanic instructors that help lead this top-level sports facility. Dave Donovan is the club-fitting specialist, offering a complete evaluation of your golf swing. At Joey D’s, employees pride themselves on offering superior customer service to their clients, in a way that is more professionally laid out than most standardized workout gyms. People come here if there is something specific that they want to work on, whether its golf or another sports-related activity.
Owner/coach Joey Diovisalvi, (Joey D) has specialized in golf biomechanics for over 2 decades and he is the architect of this special type of physical therapy that he installs in his personal training. More directly, the biomechanics of golf involves applying the specific mechanical guidelines to an individual golfer to match the structural form of that particular player which he or she can apply, when they play the game of golf. Coach Diovisalvi has trained and continues to train many PGA Tour golfers as well. Those players include Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, and many others, including helping train Vijay Singh as he completed the greatest individual season a player has had in PGA Tour history, back in 2004. This elaborate success has led Diovisalvi to making regular appearances on the Golf Channel.
Diovisalvi devised The 4 Pillars of Strength a proven formula that will not only improve the quality of your swing but reduce the risk of injury as well. These are the things to be mindful of when you go through the framework of this exercise structure
- Be aware of your core, and you will be able to control and stabilize your balance, allowing you to make a natural connection to the ground during your swing.
- Then comes power and velocity. Store maximum energy and release it efficiently through the impact of your swing.
- In turn, this will create a higher velocity towards the target area of your swing.
A lot of the bio-mechanic training involves balancing on rollers, utilizing resistance bands to stabilize balance with a focus on core strengthening and proper body control. My personal favorite though, is working with the therapy ball, holding it out straight in front of the body. Holding the arms straight, avoiding bending the elbow, the client takes the ball back in a simulated golf swing. This allows the golfer to be in the proper golf stance, in which case the ball acts like a club simulator. The rope sequence is crucial to implementing proper feet separation as you line up in correct form to take your golf shot.
The golf swing is a pattern of sequence, which is why remembering this pattern is important. These particular fundamentals are exemplified when Coach Dave Donovan breaks down your swing. Dave breaks down the statistical analysis that arises from measuring ball speed, to spin rate, as well as finding the appropriate launch angle and club pathway of the client’s swing. By knowing the exact speeds and distance measuring of the swing, Dave can make subtle adjustments to a client’s grip on their club and potentially alter the club head further in or out depending on the information he uncovers in his swing diagnosis of the specific golfer he’s currently evaluating.
You have to remain in the right stance in golf, and focus on following the pattern of sequence in the art of the swing. You can’t be looking all over the place in your golf swing, because golf is all about attention to detail. Just like basketball, the rope sequence builds muscle memory for the brain, which is especially important for golf, probably more important than in any other sport. The rope-sequence is also good for practicing proper feet separation while lining up correctly in front of the ball in your tee box, or wherever you are getting ready to swing your club on the golf course. The feet are of course being spread apart in a certain distance throughout the exercise, about the same distance apart as they should be for an effective golf stance. The instructors also use balance boards to work on the golfer’s core, maintaining muscles of stabilization in the key parts of the client’s golf body. Balance is especially important in golf, because in golf, nobody can have an effective swing while they are bent over, which happens when you lose your balance, and it’s important to keep your arms straight throughout your swing, and not bend them, which would deviate from the necessary form of the proper golf swing. Maintaining an appropriate stance with your feet is vital to a great swing as well. Often it’s about maintaining a wide stance with your feet far apart, which is why doing the balance board is a great thing for golfers to utilize in their training, because it works on maintaining proper feet separation for a golf stance, without giving in to the pull of deviating out of the stance, which is what the balance board tries to do to the golfer. The instructors often use make-shift poles to work on the golf twist, which is for the proper turning of the body during the golfer’s swing.
Coach Rob Paci, a former personal trainer at Jupiter Fitness, met me in 2002, when I started working out there as a young kid at that gym. Paci trained me there from 2006–2013 and at Joey D Performance Center from 2013–2017. I have balance issues with my core, which have affected me since birth. I’ve played golf, with my father for years, but my interest has trailed off from time to time, due to frustration with the game. So, coming to this gym has created a new-found enthusiasm for me to get back into playing golf and work on my game. The instructors here put a big focus on core strengthening, balancing, working on getting proper mobility in the transition of the golfer’s swing, and the act of holding the ball in a golf stance, and doing the club simulation. I also do core exercises, to increase upper body strength such as ball slamming, weight training, working on cables, and I use poles as makeshift canes, putting one step in front of the other, with a resistance band keeping my core in place, creating an effective walking motion. This all helps improve my motor skills.
Joey D Performance Center offers a great atmosphere for its clients. The gym has very friendly employees, who take the time to talk and evaluate each customer that walks through its door. They are very professional in their work and how they treat their clients. The gym is always extremely clean and inviting. It has lots of open space as it consists of three indoor driving ranges, a putting range, and video recorders in front of the ranges to help record the client’s golf swing. They do complete evaluations such as custom club fitting and measuring up every piece to the puzzle in doing what they can to improve everyone’s golf game. For more information on the exclusive one on one coaching and proven professional PGA Tour training regiments offered at this elite-level sports facility, visit the link to their website at the bottom of this page and you will see why Joey D is at the top of his game as golf bio-mechanics continues to be a fast-growing industry in our time today.