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WHY IS FITNESS IMPORTANT FOR GOLFERS?

WHY IS FITNESS IMPORTANT FOR GOLFERS?

Whenever I step outside of the bubble of this great online community or the gyms I work out of this is probably the first reaction and most common question I get. Obviously there is lots of great research and data to explain why but research is pretty boring and people often fail to see the relevance to the real world or to their golf game in particular. This is where a good analogy comes in handy to help cut through the noise and fake news you get so much of on the internet

ALIGNMENT FIRST!

ALIGNMENT FIRST!

Almost all golfers are aware of the importance of posture in the golf swing. Unfortunately, this oftentimes stops at the golf posture - they don’t consider that the postures they adopt throughout the rest of their lives are without doubt going to affect that golf posture and their golf swing characteristics. Further, my experience is that even those who do consider this are caught up in the same myths regards posture as the rest of the general public and have next to no clue

MAKE YOURSELF LOOK GOOD

MAKE YOURSELF LOOK GOOD

The rule of 'make yourself look good' is something I came up with after doing some research into improv in an effort to improve my coaching and communication skills. It is particularly important for those designing their own programs as the biggest failings I usually see with self-directed programs are exercise selection issues - doing what you like to do or are good at rather than what you need to do or rushing into high force output or high co-ordination exercises the indiv

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU'RE GETTING BETTER AT GOLF?

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU'RE GETTING BETTER AT GOLF?

Golf can be infuriating at the best of times. However, a golfer making steady progress is a happy golfer. If you reading this blog you’re likely a pretty committed golfer who is working on their fitness, swing technique and probably anything else you can think of to improve. This leads us to a critical question – How do you know that you’re getting better at golf? In my opinion as an S&C coach, we often lose sight of that fact that you golfers are above all else looking to im

4 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR IN-SEASON TRAINING

4 SIMPLE STRATEGIES FOR IN-SEASON TRAINING

The weather has finally broken, you can get back on the golf course and the season has started in earnest - as much as you love it, your life just got even busier! You need to find time to get in the practice and play as well as balance work and family commitments. One of the things that typically gets left behind then is your strength training. Alternatively as we head into golf season many will deliberately stop training, believing they have done that work over winter and i

6 MUST HAVES IN YOUR GOLF FITNESS PROGRAM

6 MUST HAVES IN YOUR GOLF FITNESS PROGRAM

You’ve been convinced - after all, all the top guys are at it. You head to the gym with the intention of working on your fitness to improve your game, you sign-up, pay your membership fee, and head to the changing room. Quickly you change and stuff your clothes into a locker, eager to get out onto the gym floor. Once out there it hit’s you - "what am I actually going to do here?" Looking around and thinking back to your PE days you know you need to warm-up, increase blood flo

FILLING BUCKETS TO IMPROVE GOLF FITNESS

FILLING BUCKETS TO IMPROVE GOLF FITNESS

In the first part of this 'improving golf fitness' series I explained why golfers are left spinning there wheels, doing programs that leave them seeing little to no carryover to the golf course, due to not training properly for the needs of the sport. Based on the needs analysis from the previous article we know we need to focus, not on endurance, but on strength, speed, co-ordination and flexibility to improve for golf performance. However, this information alone isn't enoug

UNDERSTANDING ENERGY SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE GOLF FITNESS

UNDERSTANDING ENERGY SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE GOLF FITNESS

I’m lucky to have a small but dedicated following on social media, email, this site, etc (thank you!) and this affords me the ability to get out there, so to speak, and talk to golfers about their workouts and how they can make them more effective quite a bit. As a result of this, admittedly unscientific research, I believe there is often times a fundamental miss understanding of the physical qualities needed to play golf. Self directed programs typically result in the athlet

WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED: UTILISING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED: UTILISING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Following on from my last post on building habits to get you towards your goals I wanted to address the concept of Key Performance Indicators (or KPI’s for short). KPI’s are how you know if the new habits you instilled are having the desired effect and getting you towards your goals. As the old adage goes “what gets measured gets improved", and KPI’s are the things you are tracking to measure progress. How do I know what my KPI’s are or what should I be tracking? If Rory were

YOU NEED NEW HABITS - NOT NEW GOALS

YOU NEED NEW HABITS - NOT NEW GOALS

If you’re anything like most people you probably set a few goals for the new year and if you’re anything like most people (statistically at least) you’re probably already struggling to stick to them. However, the problem doesn’t lie with your lack of motivation or willpower, it lies with those goals. You see, when it comes down to the battle in your head between future you - who wants to lose weight or get better at golf - and present you - who wants to sit on the sofa watchi

GOLFERS ARE NOT FRAGILE!

GOLFERS ARE NOT FRAGILE!

This article originates from a twitter interaction I had with Nick from StrongerGolf and Alex Ehlert (@GolfingAthlete1). The conversation started with a tweet by Nick stating: I couldn’t agree more with that statement! Too many times have I heard coaches, trainers, PTs, etc saying something along the lines of ‘you can’t squat until you have x amount of hip mobility or you can’t deadlift until you can touch your toes.' To be blunt this is false. There are many variations of al

FIXING YOUR S-POSTURE

FIXING YOUR S-POSTURE

I recently came across this great video from Tony Morgan and Golf Science Lab explaining what s-posture is the impact it can have on the golf swing: The video also covers drills to help the golfer get out of s-posture at set-up and here is where I wanted to add my two cents for what it is worth. S-posture is not just for the golf swing That extended lumbar spine and anteriorly tilted pelvis position, golfers refer to as s-posture, is actually a really common postural dysfunct

HOW SPECIFIC DOES YOUR TRAINING NEED TO BE?

HOW SPECIFIC DOES YOUR TRAINING NEED TO BE?

Specificity is one of the most important principles of strength training. It states that training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training in order to produce a training effect that positively impacts upon performance. As such, in a desire to train sport-specific, golfers have often taken the route of taking a cable/ band or hopping on a stability ball and mimicking the golf swing. However, these strategies leave too many other fact

6 RULES OF TRAINING FOR INJURY PREVENTION

WHY YOUR CARDIO WORKOUT SUCKS

WHY YOUR CARDIO WORKOUT SUCKS

Most golfers attempt to be far too specific in their strength training and far too general in their energy systems training. This is probably the biggest mistake I see. I’m a big believer that strength is the most general physical quality, getting strong in general movement patterns will carryover to all other movements. A rule of thumb developed by Mike Boyle that I like is that 80% of your strength training will be the same regardless of sport. I’ve covered the why and how

3 EXERCISES TO MASTER BEFORE YOU START SPEED & POWER TRAINING

3 EXERCISES TO MASTER BEFORE YOU START SPEED & POWER TRAINING

In my professional capacity as a strength coach, and as a golfer myself, I’ve never meet a golfer who doesn’t want to hit it further! Hitting it further ultimately means generating more clubhead speed. With this in mind, we as golfers, hit the gym and train for speed with great exercises like rotational med-ball throws and lateral jumps, makes sense right? Indeed, research has shown consistently that when vertical jump and med-ball chest throw increase clubhead speed increase

WHY STRENGTH IS THE MISSING INGREDIENT TO LONGER DRIVES

WHY STRENGTH IS THE MISSING INGREDIENT TO LONGER DRIVES

There is no denying that distance matters. Indeed, of the top 10 players in the world right now 8 are in the top 35 of driving distance on the PGA tour and of the two that aren’t one is Henrik Stenson who basically hits a 3 wood off every tee these days. Similarly, research has an increase in driving distance of 17metres will reduce your score over a round by 2.5 shots - maybe not listening to my childhood coach when he would spout that old adage ‘drive for show, putt for do

THE ULTIMATE PRE-ROUND WORKOUT

THE ULTIMATE PRE-ROUND WORKOUT

My in-season programming follows two major rules: 1. Keep intensity fairly high whilst reducing volume in order to maintain strength. 2. Train for power in the 24-48 hours prior to a competitive round to ensure optimal power output and performance. More detail on the rational and practicalities of the first point can be found in my previous article on in-season training. From here on out, this article will focus on the second point. I will state up front that what is deta

MANAGING THE IN-SEASON GOLFER

MANAGING THE IN-SEASON GOLFER

During the competitive season, a golfer pretty much has one primary goal: To win tournaments - and maybe if you’re an amateur to cut your handicap (but one should take care of the other; if you’re reducing your handicap you’re probably winning tournaments, and vice versa) Sounds simple, right? However, think about how much planning, preparation and work goes into that one simple goal. First and foremost, you have the technical and tactical work that the swing coach administer

3 QUICK & EASY FIXES FOR A BETTER ROW

3 QUICK & EASY FIXES FOR A BETTER ROW

The dumbbell row is a key exercise for any athlete to master. The horizontal pull a.k.a row is a fundamental movement pattern everybody should be able to do for a start, the lats are also a key muscle for generating power in the golf swing as they are responsible for shoulder adduction (i.e. the movement of the arms in the downswing), whilst scapular retraction (the major scapular movement promoted by rows) is beneficial for rotational mechanics. More rows will balance out yo

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