Every golfer wants to play better golf! The desire to lower one’s handicap is present from the tour professional down to the recreational golfer. For most golfers getting better means getting new clubs, taking a lesson, and playing more golf. And while those are all necessary components to getting better at golf and seem like a perfectly logical approach, it is the very reason most golfers rarely reach their potential.
Why Is That?
The reason for this is simply that the average amateur golfer is just not physically capable of performing the required body movements that are involved in a mechanically correct golf swing.
I think most amateur golfers would love to swing the club (regardless of style) like any professional on tour, but in order to do that they need to move like a professional golfer, and to do that they are going to need some fitness training.
“Like so many others, I took regular golf lessons but resisted the notion that I was out of shape. I have been working with Brett for 3 years and I now understand what I believe to be true for virtually every golfer over 50, namely that we are physically unable to produce the swing that our pros are teaching us.” _Mark C., NYC
“If you’re taking lessons and practicing and not seeing improvement – then your body is the limiting factor. Your movement patterns (how you swing the club) are developed around physical limitations. Remove the limitations and you can create better movement patterns, giving you the potential to play golf better.”_Brett Cohen
18 Strong
In episode 200 of the 18 Strong Podcast my colleague Jeff Pelizzaro asked his 58-year-old client of ten years, Dr. Andy Frost – 11-time Club Champion, Bellerive CC, what he thought of other golfers that are not putting time into fitness. Here’s his response:
“The golf swing is based on how your body can perform. And it’s impossible to make a proper golf swing and keep your club on plane if for example if you don’t have the flexibility in your hips and shoulders and the strength in your core to make the club do what it needs to do.” “So many golfers get a lesson, they get on videotape, they see themselves make a move that they don’t like the look of and they say, ‘well I need to that like the pro that they show next to them’. But the only way that they’re really going to be able to do that is if they can get their body into the kind of shape to do that. ” _Dr. Andy Frost
Assess_Then Address
If you want to get better at golf and use fitness to improve your game – where should you begin?
“I think everyone needs to begin with an assessment and be honest with themselves that there are certain things you can and cannot do and that will filter down into your golf swing.” _ says Randy Myers_ author of a new book, “Fit For Golf, Fit For Life”
So the first thing we need to do is assess how your body moves. How is your flexibility and mobility, how’s your balance, can you disassociate your upper body from your lower body? These are essential physical requirements to play powerful, consistent, and pain-free golf. These are the qualities that are measured in the TPI Level 1 Screen.
In the TPI Level 2 Screen, we are measuring how powerful you are, and where your power is coming from. We also look to see if you need to be stronger or if are you strong enough. As well as your level of cardiovascular fitness.
Don’t just think of the screens as a pass or fail, but rather a starting point from which we begin and can measure progress.
Brett’s Bottom Line:
To Be a Good Golfer You Need:
