Golf Conditioning – the latest thing

Ben Spires - Tuesday, 2 September, 2003

Golfers of the World want to be the best they can – they want to reach their full potential - and its the perfect game for anyone, tall or short, thin or ‘well built’, old or young, to have fun or compete …only we all want better shots. ‘So what’s the answer’ I hear you say. Do you buy the latest clubs? Do you have more lessons? Or do you practice more? All of these certainly will help but, and it s a big ‘but’, a person plays the game not the club. If we are not conditioned to play the game, how can we expect to play a fantastic game?

Don’t be put off by the world ‘condition’ – I am not talking about hours down the gym pumping iron or cycling miles. What I am going to look at is that with the game being such a technical one, it requires a little more though than that. Hitting a tiny ball into a hole hundreds of yards away, a hole which isn’t much bigger than the ball itself, is a huge challenge in itself, but once we have mastered the basics, can we keep playing match winning shots?

The answer is unfortunately not as, especially later in the game when we begin to get tired, our shots can become quite wild. Golfers need to accept that (even before Tiger) we play an athletic game, actually a highly athletic one.

By ‘athletic’, each person will make a number of movements to complete their swing. The movements will be easier, work to an individuals full range, be done faster, all this when the body is in balance. To achieve this, we need to condition ourselves to play.

Conditioning is a programme based on restoring balance within the body using functional exercise with sports specific movement patterns. Its not programmes in a gym and you do not have to go to a Health Club to see the benefits. Conditioning allows for what you as a person can do. Its not something general for everyone.

The key word is ‘balance’. What this means is the body working in harmony and not fighting against itself to produce the next shot. To start with, we address the golfers posture, be it static or dynamic. Both play huge parts in the game of golf. Chances are if your posture is poor, generally then posture addressing a golf ball will be a thousand times worse.

Without your skeleton functioning as it should, the muscles around it struggle to compensate and this leads to undue stress on your body which in the long run will only lead to injury.

When we have the body functioning as Nature intended, we can hopefully minimise injuries which stem from Golfers suffering inadequate rotation to be able to play the game. Secondly we can progress to a range of exercises designed to increase all over strength and power, and this will be taking advantage or all the improvements of a ‘new body’ you have already developed.

These new found tools can only lead to better and more consistent golf, taking you to a new level that was probably out of reach.

If you fancy doing what the Pros now have as part of their weekly routines, taking you golf to a new level, then try a golf conditioning programme. Without trying it, you could always wonder how good you could have been. Its a great back up to all those lessons and time spent practising.

We start with an assessment and then go on to look at programmes, each one tailored to each individual.

For more information, please call Ben Spires or 01386 861 479 or mobile 07810 896142

Bookmark with: