I just returned from a girls high school golf invitational, and let me tell you… they bring it these days! My coaches and I were pleased that all of our clients excelled and were on the winning team, and that one of our girls hit two drives well over 300 yards. You should see it, the competition is fierce.
So what does that mean for your son or daughter that has shown an interest and potential talent in the sport? What can you do, as a parent, to give your junior golfer the best chances of taking their game to whatever level they desire… college, the PGA or LPGA?
There is actually a lot you can do for your junior golfer, but it may look very different than you might think.
Golf power exercises are the hands-down favorites here at Renegade Golf Fitness. Our golfers have a great time smashing, swinging, throwing and hammering all sorts of different implements.
Today I’d like to share a video demonstration of a few ways to use a Medicine Ball and a wall, that is guaranteed to increase your power and distance with all of your clubs.
Click on the Golf Power Exercises Video below to get started:
Note # 1: These are golf power exercises, and should not be utilized by any golf fitness trainee who hasn’t properly progressed through the cycles of Flexibility, Mobility & Stability, and Strength. It’s imperative that everyone respect this training protocol and sequential progression. If you let your excitement get the best of you and venture into the Power phase without a solid foundation, you’ll likely get injured and/or see only modest results.
If you have ANY questions about if you’re ready for these golf power exercises, what size ball to order, or want to share your favorite exercises, be sure to hit me up in the comments section below.
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Some folks might say that all of our Renegade Golf Fitness coaches are “obsessed” with posture. And we never seem to let up… when you are working out, standing, sitting, we just pick, pick, pick.
I would choose to say we are obsessed, indeed, but with peak performance and injury prevention. We’ve seen it hundreds of times over the past 15 years in our facility, men and women with poor general postural integrity ALSO have a crappy golf posture. This can often be seen at address, and becomes even more obvious when they swing and lose their spine angles.
We don’t touch swing mechanics (that’s for the swing coaches), but we have yet to meet a instructor that believes that early extension, swaying and sliding are good traits in a repeatable swing.
The most common issue with golf posture that we see is when the shoulders and upper back round forward, the arms rotate inwards, and the head migrates out in front of the body. This is called a Thoracic Kyphosis, and Upper Crossed Syndrome.
It’s simply IMPOSSIBLE to reach your true potential with this type of golf posture.
Here at Renegade Golf Fitness, we’ve had great off-season junior golf workouts and training cycles with a bunch of dedicated and talented juniors. Across the board, they’ve excelled at all levels of performance attributes, including postural and structural integrity, stability, range of motion… and then the really FUN STUFF – getting stronger and producing maximum power (who doesn’t like throwing and smashing things… and not getting in trouble for it).
Reports from the juniors themselves, parents and swing coaches all validate that they see and feel a dramatic impact from the work logged during the off-season.
Now that April has arrived, they’ve set their tournament schedules and are off to concur the AJGA and other top events. The added practice and tournaments, not to mention academics, eat up a tremendous amount of time.
So, how important is it to continue your child’s junior golf workoutsduring the competitive season?
The short answer: Very important, but with specific changes in loading parameters and frequency, as needed on an individual basis.
Today I’d like to share a short review of an excellent book titled The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle.
This easy-to-read, cutting-edge manifesto on the current research regarding HOW top performers develop what appears to be other-worldly skills, gives all of us “average” golfers valuable insights into maximizing our own golf practice and performance.
For a long time, the debate was always nature vs. nurture. And if you happen to swim in the shallow end of the gene pool (like yours-truly), then there was always a perceived (moderate) ceiling on how much skill you could achieve, no matter how much you practiced.
While it’s obvious that some golfers are more naturally gifted, The Talent Code explores the conditions and types of golf practice that seem to play an even greater role in becoming an expert or mastering a given skill set.
Today I am pleased to share with you a guest blog post from David McKenzie. David is a sharp guy, and just as much of a golf-nut as you Renegades. He ‘s created a website that brings together dozens of golf mental game coaches, where you can access a tremendous amount of valuable information, tips and tools… for FREE. You can find the link at the end of his post. I highly recommend checking it out.
[Enter David]
“I never learned anything from a match that I won” – Bobby Jones
Golfers tend to be very committed, focused and compliant with practice, fitness, and anything else that will improve their performance. This is one of the reasons I love to work within this golf-specific fitness niche.
The “shadow side” for many of your personalities can be a Obsessive-Compulsive attitude towards golf (and other endeavors), that can actualize as a “More is Always Better” approach.
This mindset can be detrimental to your game, both in terms of practice and your golf workouts.
I’ve yet to meet a swing coach who extols the value in practicing until you are completely exhausted, regardless of form. The last thing you want to do is develop less-than-optimal motor engrams for your golf swing.
The same concept applies to your golf workouts – more is NOT always better, and can actually work against you and your goal of peak performance.
Minimum Effective Dose (MED)
The term Minimum Effective Dose (MED) refers to the idea of only doing the amount of work (in regards to strength training) that will trigger the desired results. What you want to trigger with your golf workouts is an adaptation response in your muscles and in your motor engrams for efficient movement patterns.
Keep in mind that when you are using resistance training in your golf workouts, you’re actually doing damage to your muscle tissues. This is on purpose, of course, in order to force the adaptation response i.e. getting stronger, in preparation for the next anticipated workout.
This system works beautifully, IF you respect the MED principle.
One of my golfers said the other day “Success in life is about a little push and a lot of pull”.
I told him that I thought life was like a box of chocolates.
When it comes to designing the best golf strength training program for yourself… it turns out we’re both right.
Huh?
Let me explain. In terms of the box of chocolates analogy; if you take a workout from a golf magazine and perform it for 4-6 weeks, you might see improvement. On the other hand, you might actually get stronger in the muscles that are already tight and shortened, and end up creating more imbalances in your body. These imbalances can actually hurt your game and likely cause injury.
In other words, think of fitness advice in the golf magazines like a box of chocolates.
You have a great round of golf planned for a weekend morning, and wouldn’t you know it… you wake up with a stiff neck.
Damn, that puts a crimp in your morning, your mood and definitely your golf swing.
Now that scenario presents a clear, albeit extreme, example of how lack of mobility in your neck can limit your ability to rotate your torso, and consequently have a devastating affect on your ability to generate power.
That sucks, eh?
But I’m here to tell you that even without the really tight and painful neck of “sleeping wrong” the night before, the more subtle lack of mobility in your cervical spine (that has become “normal” to you) is absolutely leaching away the power of your golf swing little by little, day in and day out.
Fact: A less-than-stellar night’s sleep will have a negative impact on your golf performance… and usually a lot more than you might think.
And if you’re like most of the golfers I work with, you’re sleep deprived most of the time. Keep in mind, that I am referring to quality sleep. So you may be in bed for 8 hours, but still be deprived of the benefits that quality sleep provides.
Here are just a few of the ways that you and your golf performance are at risk when you don’t log quality “ZZZZ Time”:
1) Decreases your fine motor skills and neuromuscular pathways – really a downer, as your consistent golf swing is dependent on these functions.
2) Promotes inflamation i.e. that nagging wrist, elbow, shoulder or low back pain that won’t go away.
3) Weakens your immune system – playing with a cold or the flu… really takes the fun out of it, eh?
4) Negatively impacts your problem solving skills i.e. between clubs with an uphill lie and a left to right breeze…
5) Makes you fat. Although a couple of world’s best golfers are overweight, I wouldn’t recommend this as a strategy for optimal health or peak golf performance.
If the above information might make you bolt awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, not to worry, because a good friend of mine (and an incredible coach) is going to tell you several things you can do to prevent this from happening.
Fact: A less-than-stellar night’s sleep will have a negative impact on your golf performance… and usually a lot more than you might think.