Will swimming hurt golf swing?

[bts]

And the reason.

Thanks for the attention.

[GPStyles]

Hogan said that swimming wasn't good for golf but I've never found that myself.

Perhaps the fitness experts can answer this one.

[alex_chung]

I wouldn't have thought so from a fitness perspective but I may be wrong. They used to say that weight training was bad for golf and look at the players nowadays?
So could be a fish wives tale.
Alex

[dcg1952]

If anything, swimming should HELP your golf swing. It utilizes and strengthens your rotator cuff muscles in your shoulders as well as strengthening your triceps muscles. Add to that the spinal mobility (especially if you do alternate breathing---one length breathing to the left, next length breathing to the right). Overall your conditioning of many muscles improves and it is a great aerobic activity. Don't be afraid of the water--jump right in!

[KAPLOWD]

I did alot of swimming this winter. Seems like I'm hitting the ball as good as ever. In fact looking forward to a nice dip in the Atlantic.

[david sandridge]

Not only is swimming good but pool strectching in arthritic pool and hanging in lake in life vest to let everything come back to equilibrium and better balance really helps.

[GPStyles]

well said David, for relaxing and chilling out, the pool is hard to beat

[bts]

Thanks for the response.

The reason I asked is that one of my students, who is a habitual long-distance swimmer, seems to have difficulty in "memorizing" the swing pattern ("Swinging" basically) learned from the lesson. He was usually fine at the end of the lesson, but fell right back to his old right-side dominant "Hacking" at the beginning of the next one (I believe he went to swim, despite he said no or less often), like a brand-new beginner. I was wondering if his intensive swimming activity (on top of the lack of regularly-scheduled lessons) keeps neutralizing what he learned from the lesson, as well as his old one?

My personal experience couple years ago also suggests a "yes". But my pattern back then relied heavily on timing and coordination, like lateral pivot slide and snapping release, and needed a lot of practice. I believe I'm less affected by (or even can benifit from) the same activity by adapting a rotational pivoting and Automatic Release, which is much less asymmetrical and timing-dependent (need to check on this, though).

So I suspect swimming, which is a symmetrical body activity and can theoretically neutralize an asymmetrical one, may either be benifical or detrimental to a golf swing, depending on the pattern applied or the stage of learning.

It would be interesting, anyway, to conduct a research on that topic, or even other sports.

[bioengine]

Swiming uses a pulling motion, researchers say that swimming is isometric movement patterns. Golf is power explosive.
I can see how Hogan believe swimming isn't good for golf which has merit in what he says.
Although your student if it was a timing and rythm issue swimming could have some effect to how the student is firing theri muscles in the golf swing.
If it's right lateral bending and they are getting hyper extension and hyper flexion it's more of a movement patterns issue. this could be due to poor lower body mechanics, not bein able to create ground forces or creating lower body stablity.
Another possiblity is your student doesn't know how to turn their body around the axis of their spine.
There could be tons of factors to your students issues.
By the sounds it's more a movement pattern issue than swimming being the cause. Your student need to learn general movement patterns in general.

[BurleyGolf]

Tiger swims the most, runs a little and lifts a little. I have heard T-Dub talk about thats why his shoulders are wide and he can eat anything he wants. Look at Phleps he has wide shoulders and eats like a horse...