Junior Golf Fitness II

Sean Randall

In last months article on Junior Golf Fitness we discussed how to start young golfers in a fitness program. We explored coordination drills that teach kids how to move by skipping, jumping and throwing, all of which are crucial to developing athleticism. But what else can we do to develop these young athletes?  

Dr. Greg Rose, Co-Founder of the Titleist Performance institute uses the analogy of “building a house” to help explain how to develop a junior athlete. 

The “Clearing and Excavating” or first phase of the building process would be considered the development of the nervous system, motor skills and coordination.  

The second step is building the Foundation. The foundation of a championship golf swing starts with the musculoskeletal system. For the body to work together, or be coordinated, it must have proper mobility and stability. Mobility is defined by Dr. Rose as the combination of joint range of motion and muscular flexibility. As juniors grow, their muscles lengthen and joint restriction and muscular tightness can develop. It is important to include Dynamic flexibility and joint training through a full range of motion. Stability can be enhanced through the combination of balance, strength, and muscular endurance training. Body weight exercises – such as Swiss Ball Push-ups, Walking Lunges, and Windmills – are superior in developing mobility and stability. 

  Step Three, or building the Walls, is probably the most important stage of developing any athlete. It is the functional stage of training. The stages in which we discover how fast can our junior athlete run, how high and far can they jump, how far can they throw and how fast can they swing the golf club. These all relate to explosive power. You can incorporate many activities to increase power, such as throwing medicine balls, sprinting, and vertical jumping. These can be done with very little or no weight and will all help to increase explosiveness in your junior athlete.  

The last Step in our building process is the Roof. Now that your junior golfer has developed coordination, mobility, stability, and power, the focus should turn to the development of a coordinated skill. Fine motor control skills and golf swing motions should now become a part of the training program. Example exercises are weight shift drills, torso turns, lightweight club swings and ball striking.

All ages and levels of golfers may follow these steps. The only difference is that golfers at different ages will be at different stages of building the house, but the one thing that will not change for any age group is keeping it FUN! All workout programs and exercises should be designed to keep the FUN in hard work. 

Swiss Ball Push Ups 

Start by rolling out face down on a Swiss ball, until the ball is under your thighs. Keeping your core stable, with a neutral pelvic posture, start to perform push-ups. To make this harder, try walking out farther on the ball. 

Windmills 

Standing tall with your feet shoulder width apart and your arms out to your sides, begin to rotate your arms and trunk back and forth. Keep your arms elevated and let your whole body rotate. After a short warm up, try to stabilize your lower body and bend from the waist like a good golf posture. Continue to just rotate your upper body around your lower body like a windmill. 

Split Stance Rotational Medicine Ball Throw 

Standing next to a wall, get into a split (lunge) stance with your body facing parallel to the wall. From here, get into a good golf posture and begin to throw the ball against the wall. Make sure you maintain your spine angle and try to rotate your shoulders back and forth. Repeat for the appropriate number of sets and reps. 

Light Weight Club Swings 

Swing Light Weight Golf Club (we like the Tour Tempo SpeedBall Trainer by John Novosel Sr., see www.elitegolfnfitness.com for more information on our partnership with Tour Tempo and our Performance, Tempo and Power Clinics), trying to generate as much clubhead speed as possible, while paying attention to proper biomechanics. 

Junior Golf Fitness

Janine Young

School is Out for Summer! I can remember the walk home on the last day of school like it was yesterday. Papers flying throughout the air, no longer needed or wanted, the excitement of all the “free” time on my hands. Anticipating the fun I would be having with my friends all summer long — the marathon Wiffle ball games in our backyard, street hockey in the middle of the street, running away as fast as I could from my brother and his friends, swimming and holding on (for dear life) to the humongous Tire Tube Mr. Paigler would use to make 15-foot waves in their above-ground pool. Now that takes some serious core strength and balance.
Like today, our moms and dads did not get much rest between chauffeuring us to tennis, golf, soccer, hockey and baseball practices and games, but when we were not at all those organized activities, we were training our athleticism without even knowing it, and it was fun! And on rainy days we even had breakout, Pinball and Pong for our eye-hand coordination?! I must admit the WII is superior in technology, but we did not spend all day inside playing back then! Those were the DAYS!
But aren’t we in the Tiger Woods era? Shouldn’t we be starting our kids in golf-specific training, sending them down to David Leadbetter for the year if we want them to be the next Tiger, Annika, or even get a college golf scholarship?

The answer is a definite no!

Sean Randall, Elite Golf and Fitness’ junior golf training specialist, is fresh from his trip to the Titleist Performance Institute and his Level 2 Golf Fitness Professional Certification. During his training he was immersed in cutting-edge research and programming for junior golfers and athletes. Sean reports all the research points away from specialization and toward training athleticism!
There are a multitude of reasons why we should encourage our youth to play a variety of sports. Brian Grasso, the founder and CEO of the International Youth Conditioning Association, and regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on athletic development training, explains that allowing children to develop a variety of motor skills and coordination through movement stimulus (www.mytpi.com) will ensure future athletic success and help to prevent injury. The difficulty and specificity of drills (FUNdamentals) prescribed should be a function of the child’s age and ability. Coordination drills are best introduced to the pre-adolescent athlete, as speed, strength, height and body mass change appreciably during adolescence. It is far better to emphasize already known movements rather than teach new ones.

According to Al Vermeil, TPI Advisory Board member, better known as strength and conditioning coach to the World Champion Chicago Bulls (and to us in KC, Dick’s brother) there is a window of opportunity to develop skill, strength and explosive power between the ages of 7 and 17. This is the age at which the most significant changes are made in physical and skill development. If this window of opportunity is mismanaged or missed it can limit optimum performance and long-term results for the athlete. Specialization at too early a stage can limit development as a result of overuse injuries, burnout and incomplete motor skill patterning.
At Elite Golf and Fitness we believe in the principles of making training fun for kids, diversified in activity, coordination and skill, developing athleticism prior to specialization and incorporating this into the development of our programs.

Following are a few great activities to include in your child’s summer “training.”

Soccer Ball Overhead Throw – helps to develop posture, balance, thoracic extension and explosive upper body and core power. Holding a soccer ball (do not use a weighted ball for junior training), stand with your feet hip-width apart, lift the ball over and behind your head with both arms extending through the spine. Throw/release the ball forward with both arms as far as you can. Chase ball down and repeat 10 to 15 times.
Football Throw – helps to develop balance, posture, weight shift, rotation and throwing skills. With left foot forward in a staggered stance, grip football with fingers of the right hand resting on the laces, set right arm back and extend forward, shifting body weight forward as the ball is released.

Tee Ball/Tennis Ball swing – helps to develop
balance, posture, weight shift, wrist release (tennis), eye-hand coordination and swinging skills. With feet shoulder-width apart and the bat/racquet set away from the target, shift your weight toward
the target and make a full forward swing around
a stable posted left side (right-handed swing). Try
to maintain a good stable core throughout the
exercise.

Jump Turn, Jump Shoot – helps to develop
balance, weight shift, explosive lower body power, hand-eye coordination, oblique and core strength and mobility. Start by facing sideways to the basket, jump and rotate to the left (also work the right) when you turn completely around try and shoot the ball into the basket.

If you are interested in our NEW Junior Sport
Fitness Training Classes or Golf Training programs please contact Sean at 913.636.0896. Or check us out at www.elitegolfnfitness.com.

Pre-Game Warm Ups

Janine Young

With the completion of the 2008 Masters, I am proud to announce the Official Start of the Golf Season in Kansas City. Now that we have gotten through the worst winter in the recent past, the Final Four and the Masters, all our concentration can be turned to GOLF, and not just watching it indoors. Maybe our weather will cooperate and we can actually get outdoors and PLAY!

The importance of a pre-game warm-up routine cannot be overemphasized, particularly if you have not been so diligent about your golf training in the off-season, and if the temperatures stay on the chilly side as you head to the first tee this time of year.

Muscles that are cold have the “snap” that a cold rubber band would have if you tried to fire one as far as you could . . . it will not travel nearly as far when it is cold as it will if you heat it by rubbing it between your hands. Our muscles work the same way. If we can heat or warm them up, we will be able to move better, prevent injury and have more fire power.

There is, however, a HUGE difference between warming up and improving range of motion or flexibility. Warming up before your round of golf is good, but training to improve one’s flexibility isn’t something to tackle on the first tee. It should be done with very individual, specific exercises during your daily training program, writes Michael Boyle in his “Functional Training for Sports.”

Here are some warm-up guidelines before you play.

DO NOT swing heavy clubs or multiple clubs. Studies done with professional baseball players found that increasing the weight of the ball in throwing or the bat in swinging more than 20 percent will change the muscle pattern and increase risk of injury, according to Dr. Coop DeRenne, Sport Science, University of Hawaii. This will also condition your body to react slower. If you have an average swing speed of 100 mph, after swinging the weighted device you will swing a bit slower. This is probably not the result you desire from your golf warm-up.

DO NOT bounce or hold any stretch for more than a few seconds. Doing so will, in fact, decrease the body’s ability to respond, and therefore “fire,” for a short period of time following this activity.

Dynamic stretching is a far better technique for warming up.

This type of stretching uses controlled speed of movement, momentum and active muscular effort to bring about a stretch. More recent scientific studies seem to suggest that dynamic stretches before competition are preferred to static stretches. This may be particularly true for sports requiring power, such as golf.

Here are a few dynamic stretching exercises to help get you ready for the first tee:

Walking Knee to Chest. This drill will help you find a better spinal position by increasing more range of motion in the pelvis. Start the drill by taking a small step forward with your left foot. While doing so, raise your right knee toward the chest and take hold of that knee with both hands. Gently bring that knee towards your rib cage while maintaining balance on your left foot. Hold for a count of three seconds, trying to maintain the knee as close to the rib cage as possible. Repeat the procedure with the other knee in the same controlled fashion.

Arm Circles. This is a great warm up exercise for the shoulders and it helps develop better stability in the rotator cuffs. Standing tall with your arms extended out to your sides (but not behind you), start making small circles forward with your thumbs pointing up. Perform five small circles forward and five backward. Next, switch your hands to palms facing down and repeat the same circles.  Then, switch your hands to thumbs pointing down and do the same circles again.  Finally, repeat all three positions and circles again, but this time increase the size of the circles. This is one cycle. You can perform up to three cycles!

Step Overs. This exercise improves overall hip flexibility and lengthens the hamstrings. Step forward with your left leg and lift your right leg off the ground. Now slowly hinge forward from your left hip, trying to keep your spine and right hip stable and straight. Go down as far as comfortable and then return to the standing position. Repeat on other side.

Figure 4 Walk. A great exercise to open up your hip joints and increase flexibility in your hips. Standing on your right leg, grab your left ankle and try to lift your foot up to your waist. Give a little pull up and return your left foot down to the ground. Repeat on the other side. This may be modified by supporting yourself against a wall to help with balance.

Helicopter Lunges. This exercise helps create a better separation of the torso and the lower body and improves overall balance. Holding your arms out by your side with elbows locked, step into a good lunge (front knee 90-degree angle over the front ankle and torso upright). From here, rotate your upper body back and forth for 15 seconds, keeping your head facing forward. Make sure your weight stays centered over your front foot; don’t let your weight shift to the outside of your foot. Step into the next lunge and repeat on the other side.

Make sure to warm up prior to any golf related activity, even practicing your putting. It is not uncommon to hear stories about how Joe Golfer’s back went out on the first hole when he bent over to pick up his ball from the cup or, worse yet, when he bent over to get his clubs out of the car. Preparing your body for the game will not only keep you healthy on the links – but it will most definitely improve your game.

Preparing for a New Season

Janine Young

Well it’s almost here . . . golf season in Kansas City. After what seems to have been the longest winter ever, everyone is anxious to get back out on the golf course. You might be ready, but is your body? How did your off-season golf training go?

Lucky for you, it is not too late to make some great progress before the golf season is back in full swing.
Whether you have been working out or not, pre-season golf training should either transition your training program from high intensity strength and agility training to starting and incorporating golf specific movement, mobility and endurance training. We identify this type of golf specific training as positional training. The basics for this type of training are:

1. Position—Learn how to establish proper positioning of the body first before any other type of training
2. Movement—After you learn proper positioning then we move into the specific movement that we are training for
3. Resistance—Add resistance to your movement and proper positioning
4. Speed—Add speed to all of the above

If we are to add golf specific training to any program we have to be sure that we can do so with good form.

Here are a few things to work on to encourage a solid foundation from which to develop a strong golf training program and help to get you ready for the upcoming golf season.

Cats and Dogs

Cats and Dogs is the best exercise to increase your range of motion for your spine. This will allow you to get into a better set up position and help prevent spine problems in the golf swing.

Start in the quadruped position (all fours) with your thighs and arms perpendicular to the floor. Without bending your elbows, lift your head and try to lower your spine as far as possible, creating the dog position. Now, lower your head and lift your spine as far as possible, creating the cat position. Repeat this back and forth for the prescribed amount of time.

Gentle Ab rolls

This exercise helps build flexibility between the upper and lower body, creating the all important separation, or X-factor.
Start by lying flat on your back with your knees bent to 90 degrees and your calves and feet resting on a Swiss Ball. Hold your arms out to your sides for good support and slowly rotate the ball to one side. Go as far as you can without losing contact with the ground under your shoulder blades and hands. Repeat to the other side.

X Walks

This exercise helps strengthen your glute medius and stabilizes your hips. It’s also good for preventing swaying and sliding.
Grab your FMT and separate the handles to get as much exposed tubing as possible. Step on the tubing with both feet and criss-cross the handles. Now, pull your shoulder blades back and stand tall. From here, try to make big side steps in each direction.

T’s, Y’s, L’s and W’s

This exercise strengthens all the muscles between your shoulder blades and helps improve shoulder stability in the golf swing.
Lie face down on a Swiss Ball with your legs spread apart for support and your lower rib cage on top of the ball. With your thumbs pointed to the ceiling and your arms extended, lift your arms up and down, squeezing your shoulder blades together as you lift. This is called the T. Next, lift your arms up and down in front of you, trying to make the letter Y. Then, with your elbows bent to 90 degrees, lift your elbows to the sky and then externally rotate your arms at the top to make the L. Make sure you squeeze your shoulder blades together throughout all these movements. Finally, start with your arms out in front and lift and externally rotate your arms into the W position. 

Horizontal Chops Wide Base

This exercise helps build better stability in your lower body, while developing more flexibility between your upper and lower body.
Attach one end of your FMT to the middle hinge of a door and sit on top of a Swiss Ball, holding the free handle of the FMT with both hands. Widen your base of support by spreading your feet apart past your hips and then try to rotate your trunk and arms back and forth, holding the FMT for resistance. The Swiss Ball is going to force you to stabilize your lower body as you perform this exercise. Repeat in both directions.

As Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Certified Golf Fitness Instructors, the Elite Golf and Fitness Staff is trained to implement the protocols that the PGA Touring Professionals use to identify their strengths and weaknesses to design and create their individual golf performance training programs.

In order to achieve maximum success, we would encourage you to go through our Complete assessment process – the Eagle, including a 2D and 3D video swing analysis, exclusive to the TPI and the Elite Golf and Fitness Process.

Have any questions? Please give us a call at 913.226.7092 or send us a email at contactus@elitegolfnfitness.com.
We look forward to helping you achieve all your Golf Fitness Goals!
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 www.elitegolfnfitness.com
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