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How to Create Rotational Strength

Lumbar locked trunk rotation

Learning to rotate through the proper areas/joints is something we spend a good bit of time refining with our golfers.  Learning to access the core and stabilize lower body against upper body movement- and vise versa- is pretty important when it comes to functional strength (click here for an article on functional strength).

Below is an example of what a basic mini program for Rotational Strengthtrunk rotation drill

Above is the start position for lumbar locked thoracic rotation.

Lumbar locked trunk rotation

Trunk rotation from a short kneeling position

The first drill focuses on mobility of the trunk (thoracic spine) which tends to be sticky for most people. It’s called a lumbar locked trunk rotation. The idea is to work for more rotation from the thoracic spine and rob cage while protecting the lower back.



In the finished position, you should push through the down arm to create extension as well as rotation. Remember the spine likes to straighten out or extend and rotate.



Oblique loading drill

This is a core drill to promote rotation through the lower body and core


The next drill is called a mountain climber with cross body rotation.  This is great drill to teach proper loading and unloading of the obliques.


Push Up Position (elevated)

This is starting point for this drill



I like this as a rotational drill for training upper body and arm stability with core driven lower body rotation.




These are 2 of the drills expanded upon, if you watch the video above you will see a couple more that require lower body stability and upper body driven movement.  This is a very short and basic routine but is pretty effective on checking off a lot of boxes for a golfer’s common needs for creating rotational strength. Feel free to reach out for an evaluation or a session specific to you.


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Random Thoughts

A couple of weeks ago, I spent some time in San Fransisco working and attending a seminar and had some time to reflect on things. I must say I feel pretty fortunate to be able to have a career that challenges me to learn, grow and want better for myself to better serve my clients.

Scotty, Chuck Taylor, and Team Titleist

Scotty, Chuck Taylor, and Team Titleist

The fact of the matter is, I am a teacher, plain and simple. I teach movement. Part of being a teacher is being student. If I cannot, learn and grow and expand my base how will I ever effectively teach? Part of being a teacher is crafting my expertise and helping a lot of people. That means I bust my ass working with clients and use much of my free to time trying to learn more from others that I look up to.

I am a 35 year old guy, that owns a fitness business dealing with golfers and their ability to compete pain free and excel at what they do. I do not sell sessions or packages, instead I sell my knowledge. I hold a college degree, and multiple advanced certifications and many many hours of continuing education that probably costs more than my college degree didi at this point- and I am not stopping. I want my studio to be a hub for education, so I have hosted seminars and am working on my own classes and seminars as well. I have dedicated the last 15 years of my life to get me to where I am today- and I am still growing and changed and understand that the more I know, really the more I have to learn. I started a business with the mindset of helping my community better themselves through movement to enhance their lives and their sport.

It’s a very fun, rewarding profession and I feel fortunate to be able to do what I do in this day and age. I help people move better so they can feel better and live life to the best of their ability. I just happen to like the game of golf and really enjoy working with golfers because I find for the most part, they put in the effort to want to listen, learn and put into action what I am teaching them.

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Functional Strength

Turkish Get Ups
Turkish Get Ups

Roy Khoury working with a juniors group class teaching get-ups

How do I obtain Functional Strength?

Do you strength train? I hope so. Strength is needed when building power especially for the golf swing.  If you aren’t lifting to improve your Functional Strength you might be strong but you aren’t going to optimize what you got.

What do I mean by that?
Functional strength- to me- means a couple of things:

  • Can you maintain a good spine position through your lifts?

I call it working on your “spinal hygiene”. Strength, and energy transference are highly dependent on you keeping a good spine through your sub maximal lifts. If not you will get stronger but it will be through cheating.

  • Do you train strength through all planes of motion?

The human body can move forward/backward, side to side, and in rotation. If you are an athlete, managing your body in balance and strength through all these ranges of motion becomes important. Depending on your sport, some planes of motion can be more important than other but guess what functional strength takes this into consideration.

  • Is your body in balance with strength?

To check balance of strength, one assessments I might start with is from the Titleist Performance Institute (www.myTPI.com). This test looks at the athlete’s ability to demonstrate strength, speed and power for golf (and all rotary sports really). We have metrics that allow us (TPI Certified) to know if you are in balance with upper body, lower body and core strength and power.

If have any questions, or would like to schedule your appointment, feel free to reach out!

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TPI Level 1 Movement Screen

Golf Fitness Training

I really enjoy everything I have learned and will continue to learn from Titleist Performance Institute (www.mytpi.com). All the information they have been able to compile on the body-swing relationship has really helped me to communicate to my clients and their golf instructors about potential issues and more importantly about how the body can be improved to help with swing efficiency.  As a Level 3 Golf Fitness Instructor, I have been educated and taken the time to work with my fellow Southern California section PGA golf instructors  to create a team atmosphere for my clients and their body related needs, couple that with over 15 years of experience in the industry and in my area, I am confident that I can help you identify and improve your movement ability. Schedule yourself an appointment for your evaluation!

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How do you practice?

Talking Movement and Golf Fitness

Roy Khoury speaking to the Southern California section PGA

How do you practice? Did you know that how you practice can affect how you learn? What we do can either help gain/retain skills or hinder your progress altogether. With that being said, there are a couple of different ways we can practice to acquire or improve a skill and they are:

Blocked Practice- Blocked practice is doing the same thing over and over again such as going to the driving range and hitting multiple driver shots. Blocked practice is a great way to learn a new skill since it gives the brain and body a single skill to process, but will quickly lose its effectiveness if over used.

Randomized Practice- Random practice is basically prating how you would play. SO you can either use playing a few holes as random practice or even practice different distance or direction shots with the same club. Random practice is more like actually playing golf, and actually helps you build the ability to problem solve while working on your skill.

When you are new to a sport or movement its good to challenge the left brain in repetition, logical and objective goal setting. When you are proficient with your task, random practice helps challenge the right brain and its creativity, thought and performance. That being said, both types of practice are helpful for acquiring and improving your game, they just access different parts of the brain and challenge you in different ways, so its good to understand both and how both can help you. See how it works for you!

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Functional Movement Screen (FMS)

In Line Lunge Test (FMS)

Check out this quick little video on the Functional Movement Screen, also known as the FMS. I like to use the FMS as a first place, or a starting point for anyone that is about to start a new workout routine as it quickly provides me with a lot of information in a fairly safe environment.  It’s appropriate for pretty much anyone whether you are just getting back into fitness, or coming back from a previous injury. Here’s a little bit about what I like about the test:

  1. It’s relatively safe as a starting point for a first session
  2. It provides a lot of valuable information for me to begin creating a program for a new client
  3. It’s valid and repeatable so we can retest and compare
  4. It gives me snapshot idea of how well you as a client can coordinate
  5. It gives me a snapshot idea of how well you as a client can comprehend instruction
  6. It’s a self limiting test meaning if you can’t do it, you generally will limit yourself and stop

Check out the video below to see what the test looks like, and let me know if you have any questions!

Contact us for your evaluation and lets see how well you move!