Robbie Cannon’s success in making the Irish golf team and recent victory in the South Ireland Championship has been shedding light on a very sensitive subject lately: physical conditioning for golf.

The days of just ‘playing’ golf are long gone as a new breed of athletes are now emerging, leaving any that aren’t catching on in their wake.

I asked Robbie what his take on his recent success was:

‘My physical fitness and strength has improved my ball striking and in the final, after 3 days of 36 holes I felt I could easily go on and play another 18, I think it is a huge advantage to have over the field, not only physically but mentally’

You can see his abs from here :-)

Seriously though, the confidence you feel KNOWING that fatigue will not be a limiting factor on your golf performance is a huge advantage, thats not counting the improvements that the increase in strength and power will have on your swing.

Most golfers who are asked what they are improving their ‘conditioning’ for respond with the following vague answer:

‘Because Tiger Woods does it’

Serious golfers everywhere are hitting the gyms to improve their golf game with better physical conditioning. There is a lot of confusion as to what training needs to be done as there are a lot of different forms of ‘physical conditioning’. This raises the question; What capacities need to be trained to raise your golf game and how do we do it?

Alot of the attention has been on suppleness and stretching lately. Static stretching can lengthen the muscle and actually reduce force output and this is obviously counterproductive.

Mobility is the key to an accurate uninterrupted swing. Being able to take the body through its new range of motion with speed and accuracy requires adequate mobility, not hours of hamstring and chest stretches which is what you tend to find uninformed golfers doing.

‘The body only functions at a level as strong as its weakest link’

If one area of your body is weak, then your performance on the golf course will be limited. For instance, tightness/malfunction in the glutes on either side will effect the coordination of the swing and the upper body will follow through before the lower body. Essentially all the power is coming from upper body momentum and not from the ground where it should be. That means shorter drives and interrupted swings.

‘Core strength’ is the buzz word these days. Increasing your core strength is great but in reality you can have the strongest ‘core’ in the world but it has to be functional and reactive. Core activation and core reaction time is where the emphasis needs to be placed.

Again, I am not a golfer but I know that most golfers just plain enjoy hitting golf balls so they may end up hitting as many as 200 balls during one practice period. The theory being that if the player hits a lot of balls then he will become better because of the amount of repititions he performs.

This simply isn’t the case and quality should be emphasised at all time not quantity. You dont need to build endurance in your swing you need repeatability accuracy  and power. Alot of trainees and trainers alike will emphasise aerobic exercise and endurance type work. For a golfer this is completely counterproductive and time wasting. Training your fast twitch fibres is essential,  A successful golfer needs to work on his total body power and strength. Sounds a bit meat headed but it is the truth.

A recent study concluded that the longer an athlete can drive the ball and their total body strength is the second highest indicator of their performance. Another study concluded that an 8-week strength and mobility training program increased conditioning and golf performance in adults. Among the improvements were:

* 56% improvement in muscle strength
* 24% increase in hip and shoulder mobility
* 4.1-lb. increase in lean weight
* 3.0-lb. decrease in fat weight
* 5% increase in club head speed

Individualize your program. You will not make progress on someone else’s exercise program. There may be corrective exercises needed, mobility issues and soft tissue work that needs to be done before you even step in side a weights room. Keep that in mind.

A random fitness programme doesnt cut it. Crunches and bicep curls will do nothing for your golf performance. You are an athlete and you need to start acting like one. Strength training has changed the nature of golf. It is no longer just a game of skill and finesse, but also of strength.

Thanks for reading

Bryan Kavanagh BSc. CSCS

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