Golf
Welcome and thanks for visiting...
JJ Rivet Interview Part 2
SportsEdTV Golf is committed to bringing athletes, coaches, and parents pro-level Golf education videos for FREE. All levels, anywhere, anytime. Check out our full instructional library and sign up to join our Golf community.
SportsEdTV: You are tuned into SportsEdTV, I'm your Golf Director, Roberto Borgatti, joined today by J.J. Rivet, who is one of the great minds in the game of golf, one of the great practitioners, a pioneering bio mechanist who has worked with world number one, Justin Rose, David Leadbetter, and, of course, with students of mine who he's helped along the way.
JJ: Such a pleasure to see you again. Hello to everybody worldwide. It is always great to explore what helps to improve your performance in golf with you. Golf has been considered an activity of sport, which is very complicated. But in the end, you know, it's like every other sport. And so we are following concepts and fundamentals of biomechanics that can be applied to any kind of sports.
SportsEdTV: Can you give me a couple of exercises that you really love that can help our players out there?
Exercise 1:
JJ: More than 90 percent of our players, whatever the level, are affected by fatigue. When your body is under fatigue, your tendency is to move frontwards. When you move frontwards, the problem is that all your kinematic muscle chains from the back are maintained all day, this posture. So, they get very tired, they start to be restricted and they lose their flexibility. They start to be lazy. They are not engaging—the abs, the quads etc.
JJ: The Noodle Training Drill : You use a little foam from your swimming pool and you try to stay for six seconds without touching the front of your toe and the back of your heel.
SportsEdTV: So you're balancing?
JJ: Yes balance, it will help you to engage automatically and to work on the muscle memory from all this muscle to be rebalanced and to be trained again. And after a few weeks, you will be more balanced, you will be more open, and that will have a big impact on the golf swing. That's one of the first exercises, that is quite important for almost everybody.
Exercise 2:
JJ: You stand up, you close your eyes, you put your toe up and you feel if you are not going backwards. If you feel that you are going backwards, this means that your tibialis anterior, your quads aren't engaging.
JJ: Something we like to work on for the 'release' is just to work with the softball, just in front of the wall and be able to throw it, and having it back on the hands. So that's something very important because a lot of people lose the way to throw ball.
SportsEdTV: So are you're focused on rotating the forearms? What exactly are you trying to do?
JJ: It's just the movement of the backswing. But you will memorize the angle of the wrist. It automatically creates this angle to bring the right position at the top of the backswing. And be able to prepare to maintain the lag on the downswing.
Bonus Exercise:
JJ: I have an exercise that's good to understand what the quality of the pinch of your right hand should be. You will need to take the club on the shaft by the club head and try to accelerate maximum, to make the movement, the maximum you can.
JJ: And you will be able to see that the position of your right hand, it is totally different from the one when you have two hands on the club. And that's the key— if you look at Patrick Reed, and all these top players, the way they have a trigger. So, this exercise is very simple, and it helps to create a good grip.
SportsEdTV: JJ, I want to thank you so much for your generous advice, ideas, insights into the golf swing and the training for our SportsEdTV, audience. We're so thrilled to have you as a contributor and member of our SportsEdTV team.
JJ: Great pleasure to be with you. And so it has been a great talk and see you quite soon.
Part 3 is coming soon, follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you don't miss it!
Jean-Jacques Rivet
Head of Biomechanics & Sport Performance
European Tour Performance Institute
