Tyrolean Niki Hosp, golfer and ex-ski racer, knows this from her time as a competitive athlete. She gives tips for Golf Alpin.
Golf is a one-sided sport. No, no, don't worry. This is not going to be a reckoning. Golf is one-sided in terms of the direction of movement. It can be quite hard on muscles and joints. In fact, the golf swing is one of the most complex movements in the sport. It uses up to 130 of a total of 434 muscles across the entire body. Therefore, nothing really works without a proper warm-up beforehand. The muscles don't like it, and strains and cramps can be the result. And then your own golf game suffers as well. Nevertheless, there are always golfers - regardless of the course - who hit the ball with the driver for all it's worth as soon as they get out of the car. A former competitive golfer like Nicole "Niki" Hosp can't understand such a thing. "My body was my capital during my time as a professional athlete. I have therefore developed a very special feeling for the muscular system. You should definitely not neglect warming up," says the 34-year-old Tyrolean.
Hosp comes from Bichlbach in the district of Reutte/Tyrol. She competed in her first FIS races as a 15-year-old. Her record in the World Cup reads impressively: 287 starts, twelve victories, 57 podium finishes and 134 top 10 places. In addition, she has two Olympic silver medals and one bronze medal, as well as nine medals at World Championships, including three golds. Hosp initially specialized in slalom and giant slalom in the World Cup, but from 2006 competed in all disciplines and also won the overall World Cup at the first attempt in the 2006/2007 season. In June 2015, the Tyrolean ended her career. In the meantime, she works in winter, among other things, as a TV expert for ORF television - and she plays golf successfully. Nicole Hosp has even recently become president of the Golfclub Tiroler Zugspitze in Ehrwald, a Golf-Alpin partner club just a few kilometers from her home in Bichlbach.
Already on the slopes, she placed great emphasis on the warm-up program and the concentration phase before the races. "I always put on my skis four or five runners ahead of me and then once again gathered strength and needed rest. It's no different on the golf course today," she says. At tournaments, for example, the 34-year-old recommends that you should be on the course at least an hour before teeing off so as not to get unnecessarily hectic. "That only harms your own game," says Hosp.
And these are the warm-up tips of the former ski star from Tyrol:
- Nicole Hosp explains: "It doesn't really make sense to just stretch before golf. Before the round, you should make dynamic movements to prepare joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles for the coming load, which is, after all, very specific in the golf swing. From top to bottom." For example, with loose shoulder circles. First with bent arms forward and backward, then staggered as in the crawl.
- Another exercise from Houp's warm-up is the upper body rotation. In other words, you stand upright and hip-width apart, hold a golf club firmly at both ends with both hands, and stretch your arms out in front of you. Then the upper body is rotated alternately to the left and right.
- The lower and upper arms also want to be well prepared. This works with the following exercise: Hosp holds the club in the middle, stretches her arm forward and then rotates the club by turning the forearm in both directions for a few seconds. After that, the arm is switched.
The amateur golfer and ex-ski racer takes ten to 15 minutes for her personal warm-up program.
Photos: Max Steinbauer, Stephan Schöttl
