Lenny Redlich - Eric Kaplan’s first student 2000- Parkinson’s Testimonial

Leonard Redlich recalling the first time we met, around 20 years ago, when he was a member of Turnberry Isle in Miami...

It was at Turnberry Isle I noticed Leonard hitting balls having issues with tremors and balance, things I recognized considering my father had Parkinson’s.

We developed a friendship, playing golf together several times a week, on top of my own observations of watching my father struggle with the disease, we were able to figure things out that helped Leonard reduce the tremors, play golf with better balance, and prevent him from swaying/falling.

1. Weight Distribution:
Leonard had issues falling forward during the downswing, he would show up on the golf course with knee/elbow pads often. In watching my father's gate at home, whenever he would lean forward he would have a shuffle step and routinely fall. He had a PT that instructed him to shift his weight back before he walked forward. In noticing this, we applied the same idea with Leonard, which helped him keep his balance.

2. Tremors:
A common symptom of Parkinson's disease is a resting tremor which can be inhibited during movement. (I first took notice of this when my father would reach to shake someone's hand, and his tremor would stop). It was also apparent to me that when my father sat at the dinner table, and slouched his tremors were much more apparent, and would subside when my mother instructed us to sit up straight and get our shoulders back (like most). In watching Leonard setup to drive, in the moments right before he 'pulled the trigger' the tremor would become so violent he would hit the ball off the tee. It was interesting to see how much of the tremors were reduced when I gave him the same prompt to get the shoulders back.

3. Swaying/Falling:
I had several coaches try to get me to early set my wrists (which is difficult for someone with Parkinson's as the fine motor skills are difficult). I also had coaches tell me to swing with the big muscles (dog wags the tail reference) - which Leonard could do. I had learned from my local pro the idea of getting my back to the target, while getting my left shoulder over my knee. In applying this with Leonard (especially with his tendency of having a narrow stance width) would cause him to fall. I had another instructor, Manny Zerman, who was the amateur at the 1992 Masters. He would have me drag the handle by leading with the right shoulder pulling towards my target). In applying this idea with Leonard, we noticed his ability to both make a bigger turn, as well as a much more centralized rotation aiding balance.

My passion to teach Parkinson's patients the game of golf, stemmed from my observations.

My father's symptoms, as compared to Lenny, were far worse considering they were diagnosed almost the same time. The difference was Lenny was much more active than my father. I felt like it was the game of golf that kept Lenny well. I later realized that exercise and repetitive motor patterns are extremely therapeutic for those with Parkinson's in the way that it rebuilds brain cells in the hippocampus, and that exercise can mitigate the Hippocampal Atrophy. Exercise across many studies has been shown to help both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease including bradykinesia - or slowness of movement, and balance; while also increase dopamine release - as many studies suggest.

Everything that has happened since then, whether it be working with Bernhard Langer, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Rory McIlroy - started with these initial discoveries, with my father, and with Leonard.

I am thankful for Dr. Bill Cooney and Dr. Richard Berger of The Mayo Clinic, to have shared the time, years ago in helping me put to words the principles I had observed. To Dr. Sandra Doman, for the deeper understandings of spine, hip, and knee biomechanics.