JEFF'S BLOG

If you watch golf in person or on TV, you can’t help but notice that the best golfers in the world look quite different than the golfers from previous decades. Today’s golfers are strong, fit, and look like superb athletes. Although there’s nothing wrong with looking fit, competitive golfers are generally after something different. They understand that if they move well, are strong, and can swing fast, they’ll play better golf. Today’s game at every level is dominated by the fastest golfers.

It’s not just the pro game that’s changed. Junior golfers today play a much different game than their predecessors did just a few years ago. Now younger players are bombing the ball farther than ever. The challenge for these long hitters is to train their bodies to be able to withstand the rigors of year-round training, practice, and competition.

I’ve seen first-hand what happens when committed juniors with speed ignore or de-emphasize work in the gym. In the last month, we had two high school students test positive for stress fractures and one high school student just return from a stress fracture. In all three cases, the required break from golf is six months without certainty that the fracture will completely heal. Also, in all three cases, the injuries were likely caused by poor physical conditioning.

Now that I’ve piqued your interest as to the importance of fitness for developing juniors, let me describe it’s benefits and the best way to get started.

Benefits of Physical Training

1. Preventing injuries – Mastering the golf swing requires a high volume of repetition and with each swing, the body has to rotate, bend, and tilt at high speeds. It’s no wonder there are so many injuries – even though it’s a non-contact sport. A well-designed fitness program will attack limitations and weaknesses that can lead to injury.
2. Moving better – Athletes that move well have an easier time developing coordination and skill and have to compensate less for unwanted movements. In my experience, when golfers are sufficiently mobile, stable, and strong, they find it easier to adapt to changes they are making in their golf swing.
3. Getting faster – Powerful swings require strength and speed and both strength and speed can be trained in the gym. We have seen significant increases in club speed from our golfers who are training in the gym.
   

Tips for Getting Started

1. Find a golf fitness facility that has a history of training competitive golfers. These days, it seems there’s a gym on every corner but most of these gyms don’t have extensive experience working with rotational athletes and the unique needs of golfers.
2. Start your training with a physical screen or evaluation. All of our golfers get screened quarterly so that we can properly asses their strengths and weaknesses. Without an evaluation, we’d be flying blind when it comes to putting together a workout program.
3. Tie your physical training to your technical training. When developing a fitness program, an experienced fitness professional will create a program that considers the technical changes that a golfer is attempting to make. Often these changes can be reinforced or even accelerated with the right work in the gym.

 
If you need more convincing as to the value of fitness for today’s competitive golfer, here’s what Tyler Duncan, recent first-time winner of the RSM Classic, said in his interview after the round. When asked how he got his game good enough to win on the PGA Tour, Tyler attributed his success to the “stuff I’ve been doing has paid off.” The follow-up question asked him to clarify and Tyler said, “Training harder in the gym.” Join Tyler and the majority of pros, college players, and competitive juniors by getting started with and sticking to a comprehensive golf fitness program.

“Fire you caddie!” This is something I’ve said to my competitive juniors while on the golf course during a playing lesson. It’s usually met with a puzzled look because they’re never sure what I mean. I’ll follow up my original statement by asking them to identify their caddie, knowing full well that they won’t be able to do it. I’ll finally come clean and point out to them that for all intents and purposes, they are their own caddie. This realization will drive home the point I was trying to make in the first place – that young golfers often say and do things that they wouldn’t tolerate if someone else – a caddie for example – were doing or saying the same things.
What a Good Caddie Would Do
Anyone that’s been around the game understands how important a caddie can be and how many things that a good caddie can do to help his or her player perform well. Here’s a list of what would be expected from a caddie:

• Preview a course in advance of a tournament to become familiar with the setup, the speed of the greens, the texture of the bunkers, the locations of the hazards, and the strategy required to play the course well.
• Prepare and ensure that a player’s golf bag has everything that might be required including tees, balls, gloves, towel, bad weather gear, water, food, sunscreen, first aid items, etc.
• Keep clubs clean.
• Study and mark down pin locations assuming a pin sheets was given out.
• Help with shot selection by identifying and calculating temperature, wind, lie, hazards, yardages, etc.
• Look for clues and trends that could help with in-round adjustments.
• Provide important reminders, stay positive, and encourage players before, during, and after shots.
• Remain calm even in stressful situations.

What Junior Golfers Do
In contrast, I’ve seen countless examples of junior golfers who say and do exactly the opposite and think nothing of it. Here are some actual examples I’ve witnessed on the course in junior golf tournaments:

• Played an important tournament with no course knowledge because they hadn’t played a practice round.
• Forgot to check their golf bag before the tournament for essential items and then showed up on the first tee without tees or water.
• Never pulled out the pin sheet during the entire round.
• On multiple occasions, either forget to calculate or didn’t bother to calculate the wind direction or wind speed when choosing a club.
• Was too upset to notice that they had missed the green short and to the right on each of the first three holes and never considered making an adjustment.
• Screamed out loud “you never make these putts” after they missed a short putt for par.
• Displayed their frustration by teeing off first on every hole even though they didn’t have the lowest score on the previous hole.

Actions and behaviors like these are all too common for competitive junior golfers and make no sense for any golfer that cares about his or her score. It’s plainly obvious and I’m sure we can all agree that if any of us had a caddie that acted poorly or said the things that younger golfers say to themselves, we’d fire them at the first opportunity or refuse to use them in the future.
In golf, there are many things beyond our control, but our actions, words, and internal dialogue are well within our control. As long as a junior golfers carry their own bags, it only makes sense that they learn how to be the best caddie possible…one that is truly helpful.