Why these 2 quick tests can reveal a lot about your golf swing

We hear teachers talk a lot about different moves in the golf swing, and how they can help golfers hit better shots. But those are only helpful if the golfer on the other end can actually do those moves. What are your physical capabilities? Where are you limitations? And how do those affect the way you swing the golf club?

GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jon Tattersall has a few tests that can help both of those questions.

The first is quite simple: Can you touch your toes? This will reveal your lower body flexibility. If you fail this test, you’ll getting into an athletic setup position and maintaining that hip hinge as you swing — resulting in dreaded early extension.

The second test Tattersall recommends tests your ankle mobility. Get into a lunge position, and shift your body forward. Measure how far you can shift your knee forward. It’s an indication of overall ankle mobility, and the more of it you have, the better you’ll be to leverage the ground to generate power.

If you’ve failed both of these tests, don’t worry, Tattersall says. The exercise itself is the test, so the more of them you do, the sooner you’ll get a passing grade.

Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Director of Service Journalism at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University and in 2017 was named News Media Alliance’s “Rising Star.” His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.