OFF SEASON… WHEN & HOW TO PLAN
Off-season programs are prevalent in many sports today; football, rugby, american football, cycling and now, more and more so, in golf too. We have all seen what Bryson Dechambeau has achieved through his off-season with the addition of a lot of new muscle mass and some now argue that this has led to the game of golf changing. You could also look at Phil Mackeson’s body transformation (achieved in his late 40’s) and see that he used his off-season to change his body; although in his case he lost a hell of a lot of weight because he realised that to play at his best for longer he had to be healthier and leaner. He was also getting arthritis (bad news for golf) and he used his diet to manage this. So professional golfers use their off season to help drive the changes they want to see in their bodies to optimize their performance.
When it comes to amateur golfers and their approaches to the offseason there tends to be three archetypes.
Number one we will call “the fair-weather golfer”. This golfer loves to play when the weather is good (to bearable). They don’t own a set of waterproofs and when autumn and winter come around their clubs end up in the garage only to be brought out when the weather get warmer and drier.
Number two: “The no-matter-what golfer”. This is the golfer you see fighting with their umbrella in the wind and the rain. They can be seen chasing their umbrella across the fairway because they had to put it down to take their shot and the winds of hell claimed it as tribute. During the offseason (autumn and winter) this golfer will continue to play. If they do go to the range it is to get their golf fix and rather than going with a plan they just batter ball after ball.
Number three: The “long game” golfer. This golfer takes a bit of time off at the end of the season to rest and recover. They look at what worked well and what didn’t. They make a plan to address what they need to improve upon; what they need to do to get their body ready and better for the season ahead. When they go to the range or the gym it is with positive intent not just to “hit balls”.
Why develop an off-season program?
What is the reason you play golf? For me – at the root of it is the fact that hitting a golf ball to the best that I can is a lot of fun. If you played golf like a kid, it would still be awesome, probably regardless of how well you played. Kids can enjoy just hitting the ball to “see what happens”. As a junior golfer my friends and I used to challenge ourselves to play holes with sand wedges or play a round with just few clubs. On the practice range (our course was near an airport) we would see who could get closest to hitting a helicopter (dangerous I know but it was never going to happen). As we got older this progressed to seeing who could get closest to clearing the range and hitting it into the abandoned cottage (I hope it was abandoned). However, this is not what the competitive sport of golf is all about. There is a score element to it which creates an expectation about what should be achieved. When you play golf as a sport you want to be able to strike the ball to achieve the best shot you can for your most competitive game.
Making sure you have an offseason program is to help you prepare so that when the weather is better and the nights are longer and its golf season again and you turn up to play that your swing, body and mind are in the best condition they can be to help you strike that ball pure. I am not going to tell you what you need to do to work on your swing or mind as that is not my remit but I can show you how to schedule this along with what you can do to get your body - the engine and vehicle powering and facilitating your golf swing - into the best shape it can be in to swing that club.
How to develop an off-season program?
You start by setting SMART goals. SMART goals are:
1) Specific:
The goal has to be specific so have a target to work towards hitting. Non-specific would be like saying “I want to be rich”. More specifically you could say “I want to have 10 million in the bank by the time I am 40”. The former is too vague to rally behind. The latter; now that’s a target. For golf instead of saying “I want to become more powerful” you could say “I want to increase my clubhead and ball speed”. Going one step further than that you could say “I want to increase my clubhead speed from X to Y” etc.
2) Measurable:
Again, for golf if you are looking at you clubhead and ball speed and you don’t know the numbers then you have nothing to measure your progress against. Find out where you are at currently and what you would like to get to. Making your goal measurable lets you track progress and assess what’s working/what’s not.
3) Attainable:
No amount of specificity and measurability is going to get you there if you set something requiring a miracle. Giving yourself a goal of wanting to turn tour pro next year when you currently play off 25 is setting yourself up to fail. Make sure the goal is realistic and achievable. For some goals to be achievable you simply need to consider giving yourself a longer time frame in which to work towards it.
4) Relevant:
Making sure your goal aligns with your values and long-term objectives.
5) Time–based:
Have you set an unrealistic timeframe like increasing swing speed within two weeks by 10 mph? If it is, you aren’t going to get anywhere nor will you feel motivated. Make sure you end date is realistic but also ambitious.
Once the goal has been set you can then come up with a strategy to work towards achieving it.
For example, here are my SMART off-season goals for training in the gym;
1) Specific:
To increase my club head speed by 6mph.
2) Measurable:
My current driver club head speed 114mph, therefore I am targeting a driver club head speed of 120mph.
3) Attainable:
Yes, I am giving myself 12 weeks to do this. It constitutes just over a 5% increase and that’s a reasonable timeframe in which to achieve this.
4) Relevant:
Yes, it aligns with my goals for improving my game and it has the carryover I require to bring these about. I believe in this goal.
5) Time–based:
12 weeks is definitely enough time to develop this.
Once you have a SMART goal you have what you need to develop a plan to get you there: A schedule for yourself and a set of actions. This specifies how many times a week you are going to train as well as practice and play along with what that training involves. Given my SMART goal I have committed to training in the gym four days a week along with three range sessions plus one game of golf. Of course, what’s needed will vary from person to person: We all have different availabilities, commitments, preferences and goals. You may find that you prefer not to commit as much as that and that is ok.
You also may prefer not to spend so much time in a gym environment. With online training options training can be flexible and enjoyable wherever you are. Only you can decide how much time you are willing to consistently commit to YOUR goal and whatever it is there is something that can be achieved in that time.
Two clients of mine have seen their clubhead speed increase just over lockdown using only bodyweight and resistance band training. One does their workout in a circuit style and has seen his clubhead speed increase by 3 mph over the lockdown period and the other 2mph by training in a more traditional style. Both commit 3 workouts per week and 30 minutes per session as one had loads of university work on and the other balances looking after two young children with working from home. They both commit to a plan that fits within their lifestyle. Don’t create a barrier to achieving your own goals by saying “I don’t have time”. A lot can be done working within any time frame. If you are planning this yourself, along with training frequency and training session duration, you will have to determine what the best training intensity (i.e. how hard it is) will be for you. The beauty of working with a coach is that this can be worked out together; drawing on the coaches extensive experience in balancing these training variables to ensure progression. It is easy to overestimate or underestimate the right balance for training so having someone else to bounce ideas off and tell you if that is too much or too little can only be a good thing.
Rather than working with something that never changes (or only varies in a linear way) it can be smart to “periodise” your training. This means varying the training variables in such a way to keep moving effectively towards long term goals by passing through a sequence of shorter-term cycles. I typically have my clients training in 4-week blocks setting mini goals along the way to keep demonstrating the progress coming from the training. Setting the mini targets along the way helps keep you motivated, and it provides a valuable tool for making sure that the actions you’re taking, the time you’re investing is working. Sometimes big goals too far on the horizon can be daunting, cause struggles with maintaining focus and even cause anxiety in some people. The sense of accomplishment from hitting the mini targets on the wat to the big target is great for boosting confidence and keeping you motivated.
When is the best time to do an off-season program?
It seems like an obvious question but you can time it wrong. Firstly, you have to know when your preseason is going to start. By pre-season I mean the time where your time in the gym will start to decrease slightly and your time on the range or course will start to increase. Until you get to the start of the season.
Secondly, I believe your offseason should start after a rest period. I would say your rest period should involve about 1-2 weeks of stepping back from the sport. You don’t have to go full cold turkey but you may need some time to allow your body to recover. Recover “Andy what are you on about?”
Here is a fact for you, “During the swing, the average male recruits about 30 pounds of muscle and uses nearly every joint in the body to produce 2,000 pounds of force in less than 0.2 seconds.” http://www.golfwrx.com/208557/the-5-pillars-of-golf-fitness/)
WOW. Imagine doing that 80-100 time during a round. Multiply that by 3-4 times a week over 5-6months. Eventually your body is going to start to feel it, so taking a little bit of a step back from the sport is no bad thing. It will also be a good break for the brain: Golf is a highly skilled sport and all that skill is a lot of work for the brain. The pros do it. A lot of the time after a win you may see a pro take a week or two off to decompress (although in their case it could also be because they have to recover from celebrating pretty hard too).
I recommend to clients as mentioned above 1-2 weeks stepping back from the gym and golf after the last competition of the season or the last comp they want to play in. Rest doesn’t necessarily mean having to stop entirely but if they are going to exercise I would recommend that it is something light, or something social e.g. swimming or cycling. If they’re the type of golfer who just hate the thought of staying out of the gym I would strip back their weights and make them focus a little more on form and mobility. For golf I would say to take the intensity down and play 1 round a week and if practicing focus on putting and chipping. That way you are still getting your golf and gym fix.
So we’ve got the recovery at the beginning of the offseason to factor in and then the tapering into the pre-season to consider at the end: These sandwich the off-season we can plan in between.
A typical structure could be:
· A 1-2 week rest block after your last competition,
· A 12-week offseason block
· Another rest week
· An 8-12-week pre-season block
· Then into the in-season training for around 2-3 weeks before your first competition because you don’t want to be going into it without momentum.
When it comes to training split, the closer you get to in-season the less time you spend in the gym and the more time you spend on the course.
For more information or any questions please don’t hesitate to get in contact.
Andy