When the Swing Isn't the First Problem with Shaun Diachkoff

So speaking of your engineering background, how does that influence the way that you assess and train golfers?

Yeah.

So when, when people come to me, the, the first thing is I wanna have a conversation with them.

I'm gonna build them out an individualized program.

I wanna make sure that they're the ... they're gonna be a good fit for working with me.

Like they're gonna follow instruction, they're gonna do it, um, not just be led blindly into doing stuff, but like have a belief that fitness is a way that they're gonna transform their, transform their game.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, so that's the first point of call.

Then we'll, you know, go through the normal assessments of, you know, maybe, uh, a ...

We'll do a T-guy screening definitely.

Uh, we might do a movement assessment and look at how they squat, hinge, push, pull, just do basic movement patterns and give them some coaching.

And then we'll also look at, if we need to, any fitness things like the fitness level two tests or the power, um, tests for golfers, like vertical leap and med ball throws and this type of thing.

Um, and there's other tools and stuff that I can use, uh, from an online perspective in order to do that with people remotely, rather than having to be there in person and, you know, using a, a tape measure to measure their vertical leap and that type of thing.

Um, but essentially the, the system that I run through, 'cause I'm talking lots of systems, but, um, I call it the DRIVE system.

Um, and each letter obviously stands for something different.

So as we go through the process, uh, the D, um, the first step is the diagnosis.

So we need to figure out what the heck is going on and what's causing these problems so that we can actually fix it.

So that's the D.

The R is to restore range of motion, so whatever areas are tight in their body, we need to restore it back to something that's gonna be, uh, transferable to the golf swing.

So for example, 45 degrees of thoracic rotation, as a minimum 60 degrees of hip rotation, uh, the shoulder that actually rotates externally to reach a full back swing.

Um, so we need to restore range to those areas.

Uh, the next, the I, is to integrate load into it.

So we wanna strengthen those ranges of motion with some external resistance, whether that's bands, throwing balls, um, lifting weights, lifting dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, whatever it is.

Um, but we're just integrating, uh, that mobility through strength and, and movement.

Uh, the V, uh, we're adding velocity 'cause the golf swing doesn't just happen slowly.