Golfers of all abilities are always looking for ways to improve their games. Over the last twenty years, many have turned to improved fitness as one way to help lower their scores.
Thus, the golf fitness industry was born.
Similar to the golf training aid industry, the world of golf fitness is filled with gadgets and exercises that will have absolutely no impact on your long term performance on the golf course.
Photo by Scott Cook from Golf.com
The primary issue with “golf fitness” is that it attempts to mix fitness training with golf practice, when the two activities should be completely separate.
For example, many golf fitness exercises in the gym try to mimic the golf swing in whole or in part.
To the less experienced golf athlete, this seems like a good idea.
The reality, however, is that these types of golf fitness exercises are a complete waste of time.
Why?
Because they don’t make you strong, and they do little to improve golf performance.
The Two Factor Approach
The two factor approach for sports performance has been written about in great detail by Mark Rippetoe of Starting Strength.
This model is completely relevant to golf as well.
Rippetoe states:
“There are two components to the effective preparation for improved performance in the vast majority of athletic events – a “performance” being defined as a specific point in time when an athletic event will occur and for which an athlete prepares to demonstrate the best effort possible under the scrutiny of judges or against direct competition. Regardless of whether the sport is endurance-based, like certain field positions in soccer, strength-based, as in Olympic weightlifting, or a combination of the two, like Rugby Union, whether the sport involves non-repetitive motor pathways, like downhill skiing, or repetitive motor pathways, like powerlifting, two separate forms of preparation are require for winning performances: Training and Practice.
Training is the process of accumulating a specific physiological adaptation or adaptations necessary for improved performance in an athletic event.
These physiological adaptations are not dependent on any specific movement pattern or patterns – in fact, they are general adaptations across the entire body, and are totally non-specific to any particular neuromuscular pattern or pathway. And they are best developed using the movement patterns that most effectively apply the stress – not the ones that look the most like the sport in which the adaptation will be used.
In other words, you don’t squat in your lineman stance; you squat in your squat stance, because it’s better for squatting heavier weights, and then you play lineman in your lineman stance because it’s better for lineman-ing. All you have to do is remember where you are.
For a few sports, primarily the distance events, endurance training is the main concern. But for all sports, strength training is of benefit at some level. Strength is the ability to produce muscular force against an external resistance, and is the basis for the body’s interaction with the environment. Every sport depends on an interaction between the athlete and his external environment, be it the ground, the water, an opponent, or various physical objects used in the competition – balls, racquets, bats, javelins, shot, or barbells.”
Practice is the repetitive execution of movements that depend on accuracy and precision under the conditions in which they will be displayed during the performance.
The effectiveness of practice is dependent on the athlete’s ability to accumulate experience with the movement patterns to be displayed in the performance, in order to embed the motor pathways that generate these movement patterns.
The ability to execute movement patterns with accuracy and precision is skill. The development of skill is the purpose of practice. Together with training, these two quite separate preparatory mechanisms are used by athletes to improve their performances.”
In a sport like golf, where the movement patterns are repeated often, they can be practiced effectively well in advance of the performance.
The Two Factor Approach To Golf Training
In the world of golf, potential is often measured by how far a golfer can hit a golf ball.
Over time, the game has been dominated by golfers who could hit the ball further than most, but who also have great short game skills.
At the end of 2021, 3 of the top 10 players in the world were also among the top 10 in driving distance in 2021… Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson.
Most of the other top ten ranked players are longer than the average tour player off the tee.
To hit longer tee shots, you must hit the ball harder. In order to hit the ball harder, you need to increase your swing speed to transmit more force from the club to the ball.
Force is applied to the club by the whole body, and the golf swing is a full body movement.
While golf swings differ in appearance among the best golfers in the world, they all swing the club with the same basic kinematic sequence.
The entire body, from the feet to the hands, is involved in this kinematic sequence.
With that in mind, if we strengthen the entire body, we should be able to produce more force during the golf swing by generating more swing speed.
Also, since we are stronger, it requires less effort to hit the ball further. Therefore, by swinging the club with more control and with less than maximal effort, we can hit more accurate shots.
The best way to increase total body strength is to perform exercises that have the greatest potential to allow you to progressively move heavier weight.
For hands to feet type movement patterns, the single best exercise to improve the entire kinetic chain is the deadlift.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto
For most people, it’s not hard to increase their deadlift from zero pounds to 150 pounds. I say 150 pounds, because there is literally a 100 year old woman in Florida who can deadlift 165 pounds, and she didn’t start training until she was 91 years old.
For most men, a 300 pound deadlift is not remarkable at all. For most women, 100 pounds is not remarkable.
Therefore, if you start at a zero pound deadlift and go up to 150 pounds or 300 pounds or more, you’ve increased your total strength considerably. And, it is attainable for most people within six months or less.
The golf swing is a rotational movement pattern that uses the kinetic chain in much smaller ways than the deadlift.
Unfortunately, what we often see in the golf fitness routines is the use of exercises that mimic the golf swing.
While you may get a little stronger by doing these exercises, they can’t be heavily loaded with weight. Therefore, your total body strength is not going to increase much. As a result, you won’t increase your potential to hit the ball further much at all.
The other common types of exercises employed in these golf fitness gyms involve the use of balance balls and bosu balls, where you are supposedly improving your balance and core strength.
These are also a waste of time, since you don’t play golf on a surface that is constantly moving.
All you are doing is training your body to swing a golf club on an unstable surface, on one leg, or both, and that doesn’t necessarily translate to better balance on the golf course. It certainly doesn’t translate to much greater strength either.
Now, if you can deadlift 300 pounds without falling over and if you can squat 200 pounds without falling over, guess what?
Not only are you much stronger, you also have good balance.
I can tell you with certainty that Bryson DeChambeau did not gain 40 pounds of muscle and become the longest hitter on the PGA Tour by doing dumbbell bench presses on a balance ball.
Golf Practice
By now it should be clear that the first factor in the two factor model of golf performance involves traditional strength training.
I would also add in flexibility training and conditioning as well.
A stronger, more flexible and conditioned body will provide you with greater potential to develop each of these skill sets.
Increased strength gives you the potential to hit the ball further with every club.
Increased flexibility will give you the potential to make improvements to your golf swing that your body may not allow otherwise.
Improved conditioning will give you greater ability to spend more time working on your game.
The second factor is golf practice.
Golf practice and golf fitness training should be completely separate activities.
Put your time in the gym to improve your strength, conditioning and flexibility. Then work on your game.
Golf practice involves developing the ability to hit accurate shots with every club in your bag from a variety of distances.
This may mean making improvements to your golf swing, or simply improving your rhythm and timing.
You’ll also need to spend considerable time improving your short game and putting skills.
Development of these skills will take time, and for most people, it is impossible to devote enough attention to each of these areas every day.
Therefore, you need to prioritize one part of your game for each practice session, since of course you also need time to devote to playing rounds of golf.
The Bottom Line
Without proper training and practice, every golfer over 40 will see their abilities diminish.
That’s just a fact of life.
In years past, we saw most golfers hit their peak performance in their mid-30s.
In 2021, we saw Phil Mickelson set a new record for oldest player to win a major, and at age 64, Bernhard Langer won another Charles Schwab Cup on the Champions Tour. At age 86, Gary Player still plays actively.
Improved strength and fitness will give you the ability to continue to enjoy this great game well into your 80s and beyond.
The Two Factor Approach is the best approach to playing great golf into your later years.
I’ve put together some training that covers both factors. Learn more here.
