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 workouts during the competitive season?
The short answer: Very important, but with specific changes in loading parameters and frequency, as needed on an individual basis.
For a slightly longer (and excellent) answer, I’ll turn it over to Jim Herrick from the International Youth Conditioning Association. The IYCA is the premier international authority with respect to athletic development and youth participant-based conditioning. Our team looks to their team for a large portion of both the scientific and practical application of cutting-edge programming for performance and overall health of our future generations.
We highly recommend you check out their website HERE.
Enter Jim Herrick…
Why We Do In-Season Training For High School Athletes
By Jim Herrick
High school athletes who are in-season must budget their time extremely well. For most competitive athletes these days the time and energy commitment needed to succeed in their chosen sport is as intense as it has ever been. Add to that (hopefully) an equally strong focus on academics, and you have a generation of kids that couldn’t get much busier when their season rolls around.
Often times, our athletes quickly assume they will not have the time to train even for a single hour each week once they start practices. They probably do this because they remember what it feels like to be worn down and exhausted during the peak times of their last season, and can’t even fathom taking on a workout on top of their team commitments.
But just like anything else, we can always find an hour in our lives to devote to something that we know is important to us. And if you are a coach or a serious athlete who wants to succeed, you should know that in-season training has a pretty strong list of reasons why it can give you or your team a big competitive advantage.
It will lower your risk of injury. Let’s first understand that no workout routine, no matter how cutting edge and well thought out, will make you bulletproof from sports injuries. But by doing regular soft tissue work (foam rolling, etc) for mobility and doing low volume, high-intensity stability training it is likelier that the contact injuries you do sustain will be less severe, or in the case of muscle strains may be avoided entirely.
You will have MORE, not less energy. Foam rolling also increases blood flow to overworked muscles, allowing for quicker recovery from exhausting practices and games. Workouts that emphasize lighter but explosive power movements will keep your nervous system more alert and energized than they would be otherwise. The combined result is that you will feel fresher during the toughest parts of your schedule.
It will have a slight but noticeable impact on your conditioning.
Gravity is always trying to pull you down. When standing or running in poor postural positions you are allowing gravity to exert more downward pressure on your upper body, creating extra work through your midsection to have to keep from falling face down on the ground. Since you would want to conserve as much energy as possible during intense competition, training for stability in your core and shoulder regions will enhance posture and reduce the amount of wasted energy that invisibly wears athletes down. Thus, an athlete training in-season will have a greater capacity to play hard deeper into games.
You will maintain a greater percentage of the gains you made in the off-season. This is the most obvious benefit, because by continuing on a work out routine during the season all those hard-earned gains you made previously will not fade away as quickly.
It is important to understand that your training will be much less intense during the season, so you will not be able to push hard enough to improve or even keep 100% of what you built. However, if you can maintain 75% of your physical gains through playoff time, as opposed to 20%, you will play much better during the games that matter most.
It strengthens your resolve. The more proactive an athlete is in their own success, the more likely it is they will sacrifice to achieve a goal.
Taken on an individual level, the simple act of prioritizing a workout in-season sends a powerful subconscious message that you are willing to go above and beyond to achieve excellence. And imagine the impact of an entire team that willingly works on their development during the season while their competition gets more worn down with each passing week.
For the organized high school athlete who is balancing sports and academics during their season, finding a way to devote one hour each week to improving their explosiveness, strength, conditioning, resolve, and energy levels is a clear win for them. At a time when everyone is looking for competitive advantages to separate themselves from the competition, a well thought out in-season workout routine can have one of the biggest impacts on your individual or team success as anything else you could do.
I hope you found this article and post informative, and that it answered some potential questions about in-season junior golf workouts. Of course, this also applies to adult and senior golfers as well. As usual, if you have ANY questions, please post in the comment section below. We’re here to guide you in any way we can.
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