‘Golfer’s Elbow’ is a strange term because it doesn’t just happen in golfers! Neither does ‘Tennis elbow’ just happen in tennis players. Both can happen in both sports and can be very common, but very treatable.
Golfer’s elbow is pain on the inside of the elbow, and is pain coming from the tendons that grip and rotate the fingers, wrist and forearm. Obviously with golf, this happens a lot, but the main cause of it occurring is when the grip muscles are not strong enough to cope with the forces or volume of golf.
Testing your grip strength is a great way to find out whether you’re strong enough! New data on tour shows the lead grip strength for touring golfers is 60-70kg whereas the trail grip strength is 50-60kg. I would say the average I see in amateurs in their lead hand is 30-40kg, so a lot more grip work to be worked on!
Easy wins to prevent ‘Golfer’s Elbow’:
- Avoid flicking the club with your wrists
- Avoid ‘chicken-winging’ in your swing
- Start working on your grip strength
