Sports and athletics have become more popular than ever. More and more people are trying out and wanting to play on teams, but what gives someone their edge? Physical Fitness is one very important, if not the most important factor giving an athlete the title of being an ‘athlete’. Physical Fitness allows an athlete to develop strength, flexibility, balance, range of motion and endurance. Your body needs strength to stabilize itself and to provide you with power. Flexibility is important to help prevent injury from occurring, while allowing your body to work through a greater range of motion. Balance is required for stability of the body with the ground, think about it, your feet are the only point of contact that your body has with the ground. You need balance in order to be able to use the strength, power and flexibility that your body has.

A good range of motion at the joints is important because during each sport requires different body joints to their end range of motion – lack of range of motion at joints will increase stress on other body parts which puts them at a risk for injury. Endurance… Why endurance? Endurance is important because as your body gets tired performance levels decrease.

THE PRE-INJURY /FITNESS SCREEN

The Pre-Injury / Fitness Screening is a screening tool used by health care professionals. The screen consists of about 12 simple movements / exercises that an individual performs, and takes about 20 – 30 minutes to complete.

During the screen we look to see :
1) Whether or not you have pain with any movements
2) The quality of the movements

The screen looks to identify :
1) Strength in various muscle groups
2) Balance
3) Range of motion at various joints
4) Muscular Flexibility

The pre-injury / fitness screening is a great technique for athletes or ‘fitness junkies’ to understand how their body works and if they are putting themselves at a risk of injury. Most if not all athletes that I have come across hate to be told that they should stop playing because of injury. This is a great way to try to prevent yourself from being told
“stop playing, or you’re going to hurt yourself”. Having physical limitations is not the end of the world. There are ways to over come them, with simple exercises or seeking the advice of a professional.

Developing physical fitness is beneficial for an athlete to perform better and to play for a longer time with reducing the risk of injury.

Phera Jai, AT.C
Certified Golf Fitness Instructor – Titleist Performance Institute
Certified Junior Golf Coach
ACE Certified (ALINE)
Certified K-Vest Instruction – K-Motion Interactive
DORN Method Practitioner
Certified in Kinesiology Taping