Base Training Phase 1

After an athlete’s summer you should always start with Base Training Phase 1. The first six weeks is time dedicated taking care of the flexibility, balance, stability and core issues they may have.

Starting with the basics, even if the athlete has trained for many years, is important – compare it to building a foundation for your future house or a pyramid (see my creative drawing!). All the future work you do is based on how well you have done your foundations and that needs to be solid as a rock!

Circuit training of 15 repetitions is common format and your program should include lots of flexibility and stability exercises! During this time take care of the technical issues of their swing and do basic training on the short game and putting, so if you’re an athlete and you haven’t already, go and book session with your golf coach and go to work!

Base Training Phase 2

Base Training Phase 2 [that usually starts ideally before January time] involves more strength work (and core) and repetitions go down. ‘How many is ideal?’ I hear you ask – this obviously depends on various things; their training (and injury) history and what the athlete’s goals are. You should concentrate on a few areas and get them super strong! With your golf training switch your focus more towards short game and their creating different shots.

Pre-Season

Pre-season (March-April time) is all about developing further your strength and slowly getting into the power training. Training from the previous Phases should be so solid that power exercises that involve lots of medicine ball throws, should be relatively easy to perform and the athlete should feel pretty fresh after their workouts. Their golf training should be all about getting better at scoring so lot’s of playing and loads more short game!

Mid-Season

During the golf season the athlete will probably tend to play a lot, so this training phase mainly involves maintaining the strength and power that they build over the winter months, getting those low scores onto the scoreboard and winning tournaments!!!

Good luck with planning your athlete’s next season and if you need help with it we are happy to help!

Riikka

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.

Think about it for a moment and it starts to make sense! We are so worried about the take away, the top of the backswing, not to mention downswing…

…So the follow through is often the last thing to worry about and often “just happens”!

But it all makes perfect sense: if you have any balance, flexibility, posture, core stability or strength issues while swinging a golf club  – you will end up compensating and often these patterns show loud and clear at your follow through.

Losing balance, funky-looking and often massive efforts from wrist, elbows or legs to force the club back into plane are the most common telltale signs.

Your facial expressions after the shot will also be worth a thousand words on how repetitive your swing is and how comfortable your body feels doing it. Have you ever smiled while hitting a shot or even at your follow through? It’s well worth trying, if it doesn’t work for you try something else – a “cool” or “neutral face”, as long as you don’t repetitively grind your teeth and look miserable!

Also next time you watch golf (ether live or on TV), pay attention how professional golfers look after they have hit the ball or a putt and it will tell you a lot about what is going on in his/her mind.

Your feet are amazing feel transmitters to your brain – they provide your body the essential information concerning where your body is in space.

Swinging with bare feet often gives you whole new sensation of balance and in fact you are able to feel more what’s going on within your body! When I played on Ladies European Tour I had a habit to do a monthly check up with my swing basics (aiming, ball positioning, etc.) and I often started the day swinging without golf shoes, as this gave me so much information on my weight distribution before the swing as well as the weight transfer during the golf swing. It only takes few minutes so it’s well worth a try!

You can improve the body’s ability to send sensory feedback by very simple trick of massaging the feet with tennis ball. Start standing and placing a tennis ball under your foot. Apply firm pressure (but not agony!) to the ball and try covering all areas of your foot for at least 2 minutes.

Massaging your foot also relaxes your Myofaschial Superficial Back line and therefore helps your overall flexibility.

Have fun swinging barefoot!

This article originally featured in International Golf Pro News. Visit the IGPN Page to find out more and subscribe for free.