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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

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

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

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

GOLFERS, STRENGTH TRAINING & INJURY PREVENTION: WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS

GOLFERS, STRENGTH TRAINING & INJURY PREVENTION: WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS

Whether or not the increased training loads of elite golfers are causing injury is a hotly debated topic at the moment. The argument usually goes something like this: [Insert name of recently injured tour pro here] trains in the gym and lifts weights and that same player got injured so training and lifting weights causes golfers to get injured. At first glance it seems logical and is pretty persuasive considering the names cited are often some of the most high profile players

RESEARCH REVIEW: MOVEMENT SCREENS DON'T GIVE US ALL THE ANSWERS

RESEARCH REVIEW: MOVEMENT SCREENS DON'T GIVE US ALL THE ANSWERS

If you want to reduce those niggling injuries, improve your athletic performance or golf swing - you need a movement screen right? The fitness industry, and the golf industry, would certainly seem to say yes. However, the fitness industry is often guilty of grabbing hold of the latest thing out there and turning it into the pancea of all ills. Screenings are often being used as a means of diagnosis of injury risk or a testing protocol to predict performance, but does the res

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

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

5 ALTERNATIVES TO INEFFECTIVE UNSTABLE SURFACE TRAINING

5 ALTERNATIVES TO INEFFECTIVE UNSTABLE SURFACE TRAINING

Google golf fitness and images like those to the right are a commonplace find, in fact for many standing on a bosu ball, wobble board, etc whilst completing movements that mimic the golf swing in the name of balance has become the expected notion of golf fitness. Unfortunately, this love affair with unstable surface training is preventing many from achieving their goals and improving their performance on the golf course. Whilst there can be a time and a place for unstable sur

TOUR WORTHY RECOVERY PROTOCOL

TOUR WORTHY RECOVERY PROTOCOL

Recovery is an oft-overlooked part of training. You spend a lot more time outside the gym than you do in it, so it stands to reason that what you do outside the gym will have a large bearing on your progress. The same goes for playing your best golf - want to be able to practice your skills day in day out, spend time improving your physical abilities, and still perform your best come tournament day? You’re going to need to be taking steps to manage fatigue and recover well to

5 STRENGTH MOVES TO INCREASE MOBILITY

5 STRENGTH MOVES TO INCREASE MOBILITY

Increasing mobility is one of the most common goals of a golf fitness program. Indeed we know golfers need a decent amount of mobility in all joints, in order to be able to effectively and efficiently swing the club. We also know that asymmetries in mobility can lead to injury. However, mobility or corrective exercise often leads to 'tests' with a pass-fail score and ‘fixing’ someone’s screen often results in a very limited program with an isolationist approach that doesn’t r

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