As many people get older, their ability to participate in sports decreases. Luckily, there are a few sports that, despite having more limitations on your body, can still be enjoyable with a few minor adjustments. Golf is one of these sports.
If you love playing golf but are worried about still being able to play in the years before you move into an assisted living facility, here are three tips for continuing to enjoy golfing as you get older.
Find Ways To Stay Flexible And Limber
While golf doesn’t require the amount of physical exertion that other sports do, you still need to have a certain amount of flexibility in order to play golf well and not feel like your body is completely wrecked afterward. Knowing this, it’s good to find ways that you can stay flexible and limber in the days leading up to when you plan to play.
Some of the best ways to do this for older people include things like practicing yoga and pilates. With both of these kinds of stretching and exercise, you can slowly but surely build up your muscle strength while also stretching out your joints and ligaments to keep things from getting too stiff and tight. This way, when you go to take a swing, you’ll have the range of motion you need to hit the ball effectively.
Do The Right Training Exercises
Because you may not have the strength that you once did to whack the ball down the fairway, you might need to start making some changes to the way that you play in order to make yourself effective once again. To do this, you may need to start doing some training exercises to help with your swing.
Depending on where you feel yourself struggling with your game the most now that you’re getting older, you can find exercises that can help you either strengthen those parts of your game or compensate in other ways. For example, if you need more impact when hitting the ball, you can practice hitting a wall with your hand to see where you might need to make corrections to the way you’re moving.
Focus More On Your Short Game
For some people, regardless of how much training you do, you simply won’t have the strength that you did when you were younger. So rather than beating yourself up about this, try to focus on another part of your game that can help you continue to do well overall.
If there are areas of your short game where you can improve, spend your time focused on this. Then, when you make it to the green, you can sink your putt in just one stroke.
If you want to keep golfing even though you’re getting older now, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you see where positive changes can be made.
