Pet Peeve:

Golf Digest is the bible for golf information, instruction and well; everything golf. As a golf fitness specialist, I always get excited when I see Golf Digest featuring golf fitness tips or articles on players’ work out regimes. This August, I heard the familiar sound of the latest Golf Digest being slid through my mail slot by my happy neighborhood postal worker. As I unfolded the magazine to see who made this month’s cover I was shocked and excited to see that it was a special “Athletes Issue.” The front page promising to get me long and strong through better balance! This should be the greatest issue to ever grace my doorstep if not for one thing; a picture of my number one, golf fitness pet peeve: Golfers standing or kneeling on a stability ball while swinging a golf club – AAAAaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Look up 10 golf fitness websites and I guarantee you that ½ of them will have a picture of this somewhere.

Know What You Are Training:

I have been in the fitness industry for 13 years and I have seen everything. Every exercise, every piece of equipment, every diet, every body shape, every fad, every strength and conditioning journal, every fitness magazine and every infomercial promising a 6 pack stomach in 3 minutes.

The more complex my research and experience has become over the years, my training philosophy has become more simplified. It sounds weird but when I first entered the industry I used to come up with the coolest, most complex exercises that always turned heads in the gym. I would try to incorporate as many different pieces of apparatus as humanly possible in each exercise. Now, 13 years later, my training method requires less equipment, less gadgets and uses more body weight, multi-jointed and multidirectional movement patterns. Another difference between the trainer I was in the past and the coach you see today is results. With athletic performance training, I believe that less is more. When I meet new clients I always tell them that I can teach them the coolest exercises they have ever seen, injure them and have them take 6 weeks off to recover or we can do it the right way and maximize their potential.

Whenever I see a picture of someone swinging a golf club while kneeling on a stability ball or hitting driver while standing on a wobble board I want to run home, throw “Pumping Iron” into my Betamax and return to the simpler times of training. You have to know what you are training. If you want to improve your balance, train for balance; if you want to increase power, train power. Don’t train for power on an unstable surface. If you know anything about my philosophy on creating explosive rotational power you would know that the golf swing starts from the ground up. When you start the downswing you send an impulse into the ground by pushing down and forward with your trail foot and back and down with your lead foot. If you did this while standing on an exercise ball, like Dustin Johnson on the cover of Golf Digest, you will end up on your keester! You see trick shot artists do it all the time in their golf circus acts but I assure you; if Chuck “The Hitman” Hiter qualified for a PGA tour event, he would definitely use his legs to hit the ball. Having your students practice golf on unstable surfaces promotes improper sequencing, messes up muscle recruitment patterning and timing.

Below I have broken down the concepts of balance training and power training for you. After you finish this article, you can decide when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use these two key components of golf performance training.

Balance Training

The body has 3 centers of balance: Vision, the vestibular system, and proprioception. As strength coaches we are qualified to play around with only one of these elements; unless of course you also carry an optometrist license or you are an ear nose and throat doctor in your spare time. Proprioception, or the feel mechanism of balance, is the strength coach’s domain. Airex pads, Bosu balls, wobble boards and stability balls are all great tools for enhancing your clients’ ability to balance. The problem comes when we try to combine unstable surfaces in our power training.

Balance can be trained statically or dynamically. Static balance training is the foundation of balance but dynamic balance is needed to perform the various movements required in sport. Dynamic balance training involves the body reacting to an external impulse, change of direction or movement pattern, that alters the relationship between the body’s center of gravity (COG) and it’s center of mass (COM). The only time I will load a dynamic balance exercise is if it increases the perturbation, challenges the body to realign COM and COG or if the sport that we are training for requires a weighted implement.

Yes, it is harder to squat on a stability ball than squatting on ground. But if you are squatting to increase strength and power, get off the ball. If you are squatting on a ball to increase the athlete’s proprioception then do so. Always look at the risk reward when performing exercises on unstable surfaces. I used to jump on stability balls when I was younger. I also fell twice performing the stunt and both times injured myself and had to sit out of training sessions for 2 weeks. Risk vs. reward!

Power Training

Power training is all about putting force into the ground and having the equal and opposite force affect the body in a powerful manner. Power lifters train either barefoot or in wooden soled shoes to make sure that every ounce of energy they produce with their body gets transferred into the ground. If you are wearing traditional running shoes, the soft cushioning in the shoe squishes as the lifter starts the lift. This squishing or compression of the shoe reduces power and changes the recruitment pattern and timing of the muscles firing. Now take this same philosophy and replace the shoe with an unstable training device. You get my point.

I used to use Bosu balls when they first came out because it increased my exercise repertoire. My clients felt like they were able to jump higher and bound more powerfully while using this device. I added it to almost every exercise I could think of. Here is a picture of me 10 years ago at my Bosu prime. Sad!

Jason Glass Circa:way too long ago!

When my clients went back to the golf course, football field or hit the ice they quickly realized that their power output had diminished. A few clients, I am sad to say, pulled their groins or had other injuries associated with improper muscle recruitment patterning.

Now we come to the present time. My gym’s number one piece of equipment is space. My clients do powerlifting, kettlebell training and plyometrics to increase power. The same clients use Airex pads, stability balls and yes I still have a few Bosu balls hanging around for their balance training. But like water is to oil, these two elements do not mix.

Back to the Athletes Issue

I mustered up the courage to push past the cover of the Golf Digest September 2011 “Athletes Issue” and I was pleasantly surprised. There was Dustin Johnson performing a single leg squat, one of my all time favorite exercises, and I smiled.

Another couple of page turns and Gray Cook is offering up a Golf Combine which broke down physical characteristics needed for golf and a few exercises to enhance performance. Finally a really cool look at Jim Furyk’s swing using a skinless avatar to show how his muscles move throughout the swing. All in the universe is realigned. I love Golf Digest!

Coach Glass