Physical Preparation for Golf
Golf Physical Preparation with Rehab Train Perform
Golf Physical Preparation has always been a passion at RTP. Golf is a very technically orientated game, traditionally looked at as a skill based game, however, the modern game has a strong emphasis on athletic ability with strong correlations between driving distance and world ranking and financial earnings.
Golf is a sport for life, the option for your 10 year old to play with their 80 year old grandparent is a rarity in most sports and physical training can enhance both ages enjoyment and performance.
The Golf Performance Network (GPN) was started by Dr Dan Coughlan, Dr Jack Wells and strength and conditioning coach Simon Brearley who all work with elite golfers in supporting the European Tour Performance Institute (ETPI) in various consultancy roles. They produced the GPN to provide excellent knowledge and guidance to professionals working in the golf industry. I have completed GPNs Physical Preparation certification of which only 10 have completed worldwide. This is unlike the Titleist Performance Institute in which every participant that turns up goes home with the certification.
A key area I took away from my GPN learning is the Probability of Performance Impact Pyramid they devised (shown below). It demonstrates the most likely impact a Strength and Conditioning Coach can have on a golfer’s performance is their availability to play a long successful season and their readiness and durability to tolerate the workloads of a long competitive season. Players movement has been broken up into ‘minimising stress’ impacted by increased bone density, increased strength in large ranges of motion, ‘clubhead speed’ improved by increasing ground reaction forces and top end speed with consistency of strike the least likely to impact through strength and conditioning alone. This is to be considered by golfers when choosing which coach to work with and for coaches to have the biggest change to performance.
‘Ed has helped me gain flexibility and speed while maintaining strength levels. We mix up the lifts in our sessions to keep things interesting as well as regular performance testing. I’m looking forward to continuing working with Ed during my 2021 season to put my body in the best place to compete.’
Sam De’Ath - Pro Golfer - Europro Tour
Playing golf professionally is a very taxing life to have, when and what to practise, when and what to train, extended travel, financial costs vs tournament earnings are all just a few problems players encounter throughout a season. Having a strength and conditioning coach
in your team helps to periodize your training schedule aiming for the maximum adaptations with minimum fatigue accumulation ‘how to get the best bang for your buck’. In the past it's been a common misconception that working hard in the gym will have a negative effect on golf performance and will cause injury. This has now been shown to not be true but quite the opposite. Golfer’s shouldn’t be treated like glass objects wrapped up in cotton wool and training just as hard and smart as other major sport athletes.
I started working with Ed last October to gain strength, speed and power for the upcoming golf season, with a goal set of increasing my driver clubhead speed by 4 mph. I enjoy our sessions as Ed keeps them simple with a clear purpose of what we want to achieve. When we started I weighed 68 kg with a 104mph driver clubhead speed, now 9 months later I weigh 75kg with a driver clubhead speed of 112mph. Ed has really helped me improve my golf as well as my overall fitness as I feel stronger and healthier than ever. I highly recommend having sessions with Ed.
Bobby Wheeler - Elite Amateur Golfer - Tournament Golf College
Highly accurate performance testing is not available at most gyms and even rarer for individual trainers to have access to the needed equipment despite it providing objective clarity highlighting progress for all athletes. This is no different for golfers, a question many people ask me is ‘do I need to train strength or power?’ This question is answered by completing quick, easy and non-fatiguing tests using Forcedecks dual force plates. A countermovement jump teamed with an isometric mid-thigh pull gives the athlete a dynamic strength index score between 0 and 1, scores ≤0.6 indicate a need for a power focus, 0.6-0.8 indicate a concurrent training method and ≧0.8 indicates a maximal strength focus is needed. These tests are a big part of the RTP golf testing battery.
Golf is a sport played all over the world with golfers playing at all levels experiencing extensive travel throughout the season for competition or training camps. The need to continue training when travelling is imperative to making physical adaptations; this is why RTP offers a remote training service. A consultation starts the process, ideally face to face, to cover goal setting, injury and training history, lifting techniques, competition schedule and performance testing, a programme is built and sent to the golfer via a shared google sheets file. This allows the athlete and coach to simultaneously make changes and give feedback on the go. Training sessions are organised and manipulated during competition weeks to minimise fatigue and soreness but to still gain physical adaptation.
‘Since working with Ed I've seen huge strength gains. Bringing that to life, I've made no changes to my golf game other than training with Ed and my handicap has dropped 3 shots. Driver is longer for sure, but it’s also the consistency and strength from all my other shots. I now understand why golfers hit the gym hard’
Ed Tregaruth - Club Golfer
The benefits of training for golf are enormous not only for longer, more consistent shots but for general health benefits too. As part of a golf strength and conditioning plan we can gain or lose body mass, increase bone density, reduce pain, improve mobility and enhance cardiorespiratory function. If you’re the weekend club golfer that enjoys playing better golf but enjoys the social side of the game even more this is as much for you as it is for the professional tour player.
