Planning for golfing success
It wasn’t to be for Europe in this year’s Ryder Cup but with a hostile home crowd and the USA desperate for a win after 3 consecutive defeats; it was always going to be a tough task. The golf was world class across the 3 days with a fantastic display of skill, strength, flare and determination.
As I watched singles Sunday of the Ryder Cup last night I was planning and writing my golfers’ winter programmes for the coming months. Now the playing season is pretty much over, it’s time to focus on hard work in the gym and on the practice ground; to make both the physical and technical changes that are going to bring the improvements to our games next season.
It’s a time to reflect on the season gone and focus on where we need to improve to achieve what we want to on the golfers. For amateurs and club players the winter months are a great window of opportunity to work on physical weaknesses and strengthen the body in preparation for greater speed and power in the golf swing; as well as building up fitness levels for competition.
Strength and conditioning has become more popular than not now within professional golf, especially amongst the greatest players of the game. This weekend at Hazeltine was evidence of that with a fabulous show of athleticism by the likes of Thomas Pieters, Dustin Johnson, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Henrik Stenson. They all work hard in the gym and this is visible on the course by the distances they hit it and their abilities to perform at a consistently high level through the 5 rounds in 3 days.
The increasing amount of time spent in the gym by professional golfers does come under scrutiny on occasion but by those who I don’t suppose fully understand the importance of strength; and its implications on golf performance. Strength is the foundation of speed and power both of which are fundamental to golf performance; without strength these attributes can never be achieved.
A 2011 research article published in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine highlights this and the positive relationship between muscle strength, skill (handicap/score) and swing performance.
With such research backing the correlation between strength and golf performance, we should seriously consider the potential gains that are to be made in the gym over the 5 months off season.
