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Golf and Fitness are two terms that can finally go hand in hand,
thanks to one Tiger Woods and his famous mystery workout routine, and
the other professional and amateur players who have followed his lead.
Once an activity perhaps identified more with pot bellies, motorized
carts and cups of beer on the course than physical strength and a good
physique, there is now no question that golf has
entered the world of a
full fledged sport that requires physical training to perform at its
best. Golfers on the professional tours look like athletes now, with
more and more toned athletic bodies being seen on TV crushing the ball
down the longest, most difficult courses in the world. Spending some
time in the gym has been shown that it can make as big a difference in a
golfer's score as time on the range or putting green. The game itself
has changed, and the way
players approach it has changed, as well.
As a personal
trainer and avid golfer, the relationship between fitness and golf
is a natural one to maintain, but it wasn't that way when I started
playing the game as a junior.
I first picked up
clubs when I was about 5, then started playing seriously by about
the seventh grade. By seriously I mean it had become the obsession that
many golfers feel when they realize they would rather be golfing than
just about anything else. A group of friends and I played regularly, and
by high school, we were not only on our golf team together, we were some
of the best players in our entire small town.
I was never able to hit the ball as far as my friends on the team, and
one thing they told me over and over was that I should lift weights and
get stronger, which at the time they did because they also played on the
basketball team in the winter. As a skinny cross country runner at the
time, I saw no need nor had any interest in lifting, as the weight room
intimidated me in high school. I look back almost 30 years later as a
much stronger, longer and better player than I was then (because I lift
weights!) and wonder what might have been had I listened to them.
What my friends on the golf team did in the high school weight room in
the early 80's was primitive to the workout science and programs that
are available to golfers now, but they were definitely on to something.
One way to look at it was that before it became popular, they were
athletes who happened to play golf, and it showed in the length they had
off the tee. This athletic approach can be applied to any golfer's game
in the present day and immediately improve their ability to play better.
With some examination, it is easy to see why.
The golf swing itself is actually an incredibly complex movement that
combines virtually every muscle in the body into one coordinated action.
The requirements of balance, coordination, flexibility, stability,
strength and power all come into play in just one swing. Over the course
of a practice session or round, endurance becomes a factor as well.
Having some physical fitness in all of these areas can make for a much
more effective swing. It is a bit ironic that golf itself does not
require you to be in shape to play (unlike running a 10 k race, for
example, which needs a level of fitness to even be attempted), nor will
it really get you in shape by playing regularly (unless you walk rather
than ride a cart). Yet working out overall dramatically increases the
ability to perform the golf swing itself. So many players look to the
next big expensive driver to add yardage off the tee. Well, what it they
could hit it harder by being in better shape, and straighter, too?
Getting into the specifics of golf fitness, flexibility is paramount in
the modern golf swing. The ability to turn the body through the trunk
away from the ball, storing potential energy on the backswing, while
maintaining an anchored, solid stance through the legs and hips, is what
has been shown to generate the most power. Tiger Woods has a tremendous
shoulder turn on his backswing which sets him up to uncoil with great
speed through the ball on the downswing.
A person taking golf lessons and attempting to emulate Tiger's shoulder
turn typically doesn't even have a body physically capable of doing that
motion effectively! They may be taking lessons, yet are prevented from
practicing the motion that they are learning by a lack of flexibility
and fitness in the muscles of the trunk and back. Only by improving
their fitness in these areas through proper training can they then
expect to perform the proper motion.
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