Golf is an athletic endeavour with serious physical demands.
At this time of the year, it is important to address a big factor in bettering your performance – your BODY!
Swinging your driver once maximally requires 90% voluntary contraction of your muscles. That equates to a weight you can only lift four times before you fatigue. Now think about how many times you swing a golf club at full throttle during the course of play. There is no denying that you have to be fit to play this sport to your fullest potential.
Questions I get asked quite frequently include: How do I get started on a fitness program for golf? What exercises should I be doing? Is stretching important?
It can be confusing; to help, I have categorized a golf-specific training program into four areas, based on my 30 years of experience via education, professional development and personal application.
FLEXIBILITY/MOBILITY
Improving your flexibility may be the single most important factor for maintaining joint health and achieving optimal swing mechanics. My first recommendation: a head-to-toe assessment of your range of motion, i.e. flexibility.
We have come a long way in golf-specific fitness over the last decade; today Titleist Performance Institute (mytpi.com) leads the way. They are very well known for training golf professionals, fitness trainers and medical practitioners to work together to provide high-level fitness programming for golfers. I would recommend that you find a TPI Golf Fitness professional to work with in your local area.
With a program designed from assessment results, i.e. TPI Body Screen, only those stretches necessary to restore optimal function are given. You need not spend a lot of time on areas of the body that do not need it. Quite often, people who perform generalized stretching programs do not see results and eventually quit. If you receive proper instruction and use the correct technique, you should start to notice results within days.
BALANCE/STABILITY
There are two terms that golfers should become familiar with:
- Static Postural Stability: The optimal alignment of your body while you are at rest, as in the Set-Up Position.
- Dynamic Postural Stability. The alignment of the body and the working relationship of your joints when you are moving or swinging the golf club.
During your next visit to the driving range, take a look at some folks; it will only take a few moments to notice exaggerated spinal curves, hunched backs or forward head carriages.
Improved postural alignment and stability is the first step to improved execution of dynamic stability. We are talking about static balance transferring to dynamic balance. To achieve consistent ball striking, a golfer requires excellence in both static and dynamic postural stability. To coin a phrase from legendary strength coach Charles Poliquin, “You cannot fire a cannon from a canoe.”
If you don’t do anything else, but simply devote time to improving your static postural stability, it would be a huge step in improving your game and handicap. By the way, yoga is a fabulous activity to do exactly that!
STRENGTH
Golf asks for a significant amount of twisting (rotating), bending (the set-up position), squatting (marking your ball) and lunging (walking fairways/hills), so your strength-training program must address this.
Be aware of exercises performed on the machines in the gym, where you sit and push/pull a weight over the same path repeatedly. This has zero carry-over to the game of golf.
Find a trainer who utilizes your own body weight and/or free weights, exercise balls, balance boards, medicine balls, etc. and stay away from those machines.
POWER
After completing the flexibility, stability, strength phases of your program, it is recommended that you finish with the power phase as you approach the start of the season.
The term power is used to describe force generation respective of time. A person who can lift 200 lbs. over his or her head is strong; an Olympic lifter who can lift 200 lbs. overhead in one second has both strength and power.
Power training will improve your dynamic strength, however to do so effectively you require the foundation training of the previous phases. Skipping over flexibility, stability and strength phases and going straight to power is a recipe for disaster!
Golf demands the coordination of multi-dimensional movement. So, a sure way to start your road to success for “Golf – 2017” is by improving your physical fitness during the upcoming off-season (November – February).
For those of you that want the private, i.e. one-on-one approach, get an TPI Body Screen this autumn of where you currently stand. From there, elicit the guidance of a TPI Golf Fitness Professional and follow their golf-specific training formula, which will combine the areas of: balance, flexibility, strength and power. Your program will be a progression of the training areas over the winter months, leading you right into optimal, sport-specific fitness for your pre-season (March-April 2017). I have experienced this myself and not only gained 15 yards but stayed healthy and physically strong throughout the competitive season. As a performance coach, I have been integrating this as part of a holistic annual/seasonal training program for all of my competitive golfers.
For those of you that are more motivated by being part of a social network, joining a YOGA class is your answer. I started my journey with yoga in 1997 in Rishikesh, India and I have never looked back. I love heading out to my regular yoga classes to meet up with my gal pals and yoga buddies; their presence is definitely a motivating factor to “stay the course”. I also offer Yoga for Golfers, as I am a trained Yoga Teacher (250hr) and have been doing so since 2004. I would recommend a regular practice of yoga (3 x per week) to not only elicit benefits in the areas flexibility, stability and strength, but also train the body-mind connection of present moment awareness. Golf demands physical prowess indeed, but it also requires the ability to focus, one shot at a time.
