It is the start of September and the golf season is coming to an end. It is the time for review and to evaluate how the season went. A lot of golfers have already thought to 2014 and what they need to do to improve their games for next season. The intelligent and motivated golfers have already put plans in place and have put the wheels in motion to start their off season training in all aspects of their game.
It is a refreshing change to see a lot of the top golfers in UK and Ireland already in to see me and get assessed and plan their winter programme of golf specific strength and conditioning. More often than not these athletes will be celebrating success next season. Modern day golfers are beginning to realise that they can not give their competitors any advantage anymore. The margins of success are that small.
In years gone by a lot of golfers would start some physical training after christmas which in my opinion is a poor move. In a perfect world i like to plan their yearly training cycle starting in September. Believe it or not this is the easiest month of physical training but probably the toughest mentally. I call this period anatomical adaptation. It is preparing the body to train. During this period we would work on normalising overactive and tight areas of the body so in a months time there will be no limitations or restrictions which could cause a injury when we really start to train. It also gives the body some time to get over any niggling injuries it may have had over the long hard season. It can be mentally tough to have the discipline to stick to this plan and understand that sometimes less is actually more. But the best athletes in the world are very tough mentally.
Providing Anatomical Adaptation goes well then we can start getting into some strength training which i try and do right up until the Christmas holidays. After Christmas we then go into power and speed.
So you can see the huge advantage a golfer has by starting his training programme now. He has four months of proper, well structured training. Proper periodisation and recovery periods. Starting after Christmas just leaves you so far behind.
But the smart golfer knows this. Thats why they have started or are about to start their winter training programme.
