YOUR INTRODUCTION TO GOLF FITNESS
Golf fitness is becoming more and more popular with the everyday golfer and of course it started with the pros. Actually, I should say “pro” (singular) as it was really one player in particular. We have all seen the pictures of Rory Mcillroy deadlifting and looking shredded, yet it wasn’t him. No. The shift towards golf fitness began with a young man who was about to change the whole face of golf: Tiger Woods.
That isn’t to say that golfers weren’t training for golf before him. They were, it just wasn’t spoken about.
It was the fact that Tiger was so powerful that got people talking about his regime. Players wanted to know his routine. People wanted to do what he did to be able to do what he could do.
Golf fitness is about training your body to be mobile, flexible, strong and powerful in the right areas to create an efficient golf swing. From an evolutionary standpoint our bodies weren’t designed for the purpose of swinging a golf club. Therefore, in my opinion, it is absolutely necessary that we train in order to develop strength in the right areas, mobility in the right areas and most importantly the (highly sought after) ability to generate power from the right areas. Everybody I have ever played golf with has wanted to be able to crush that ball off the tee and out drive their playing partners.
The best description I’ve heard was from Mike Carroll; an Irish strength and conditioning coach based in the US. He describes the 5 pillars of strength and condition for golf as:
1. Motor control – The ability to complete the desired movement. This means not having the physicality required to carry out a movement but being unable to do so because you lack the co-ordination.
2. Mobility and flexibility - Mobility and flexibility are terms often used interchangeably but they are not the same thing. Mobility deals with the ability to actively go through a certain range of motion (ROM) in a particular movement. It usually blends flexibility, stability, and strength. Flexibility on the other hand can be passive or active and may just show how much ROM is available at a particular joint, or how much stretch a particular muscle group can tolerate.
3. Stability and balance – Along with mobility and flexibility we also require stability and balance. Both skills have to be there as foundation to create power. “You can’t fire a cannon from a canoe.” Mobility and stability have to be the foundation to allow you play the game injury free.
4. Strength - Strength is the most misunderstood and under-appreciated physical quality for golfers in my opinion. The main reason for this by far are Tiger Wood’s injury woes, misinformation spread by golf media, and the common dogma that strength training is dangerous. It is extremely frustrating when people with no qualification or expertise in an area spread their mis/uniformed opinion to millions of people. This has made convincing the golfing (and general) public about the benefits of getting stronger a harder task, in spite of all the high-quality scientific literature we have readily available to us.
5. Power – Power and strength are usually closely related. If an athlete cannot produce high levels of force in the first place (strength), it is highly unlikely that they can produce high levels of force quickly (Power). Strength is equivalent to the top speed of a race car, and power the rate at which it can accelerate 0-60 mph. Just like you don’t see race cars with 100mph top speeds having fast 0-60mph times, you don’t often see players with low strength levels, have high rates of force development.
Golf fitness is about creating a powerful and efficient golf swing. As golfers I believe that we have to focus on the efficient part first driven by motor control, mobility and stability. As the coach it is my job to focus on mobility and stability before then moving onto strength and then power. There is no point being able to crush the 320+ yards but being at risk of injury or playing with pain. If we can create mobility and stability, we are giving ourselves the best chance of playing the game injury free.
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