Better Golf With Fitness

Welcome to "Better Golf with Fitness"

            

 

The Better Golf with Fitness Blog is dedicated to educating golfers about golf-specific fitness. We will try to teach golfers how to play better golf by getting in "golf shape."

If you live the Metro NY area and would like to get some training in, check out my studio in White Plains, NY- Five Iron Fitness

Thanks for visiting the Better Golf with Fitness Blog. 

Mobility and Stability- The Foundation at Five Iron

At Five Iron Fitness,  working on Mobility and Stability is at the foundation of everything we do.  Our programming model is based off of Strength Coach Michael Boyle's "Joint by Joint Approach to Training".  Once we have a good foundation of Mobility and Stability, we can build Strength and Power on top of it.

Dave Phillips and Lance Gill, from TPI, do a great job explaining this approach and why it's important in this video.

Workout Compilation Video of LPGA player Nannette Hill

Here is a video we just shot at Five Iron Fitness of some of the things LPGA player Nannette Hill has been doing this off-season after having surgery on both elbows.

 

Expansion at Five Iron Fitness

Since I haven't updated this blog in a while on what Five Iron Fitness is looking like these days, I figured this was a good time since I am in the middle of an expansion.  I am adding another 950 sq. ft. for some physical therapy, massage and chiropractic services, as well as adding a break room and a bigger office.  Everything should be complete sometime in the next few weeks and I am hoping to add the new services as soon as possible.

 Warm Up Area 

 

 Strength and Power Room

 

Med Ball Wall

 

 Group Fitness Room

 

Hitting Bay

 

Putting Green

 

 Expansion- PT Area 

 Massage Room buildout

 

 Massage Room

New office door is to the right

 

I will be doing a full video tour soon so you can get a better idea of how the facility is laid out.

Putting- How Are Your Visualization Skills?

I have been putting a lot on the Five Iron putting green and I feel like my stroke has improved a lot.  We play a form of "Golf Billiards" (the pic is from a 9-ball game we were playing) to make it fun and to make sure that there is a little pressure trying to make each putt.

My alignment has improved a lot and one thing I usually do is use a line on the ball to make sure my stroke is on the money.  This might be the wrong approach for me.   I came acrosss this interesting video form Dave Phillips and Greg Rose discussing visualization skills and an easy test to see how yours are.

 

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus- Janet Alexander on Working with Women

There are plenty of differences between men and women, and when it comes to training women, it's really important to understand what is happening in their bodies every month.   Although I have seen Janet Alexander lecture on the topic, I forgot how important being aware of hormonal changes can be. 

Janet is an incredibly bright woman who walks the walk when it comes to training and teaching.   She trains hard and trains often and she is one of the most passionate leaders in the fitness field. 

Check out this great video of the segment on The Golf Fitness Academy that she appeared on with one of the players she trains, Nicole Smith. 

Dave Phillips on Rory McIlroy- US Open Slow Motion Swing

I know this is a few months old but I keep showing it to so many Five Iron Fitness clients that I wanted to make sure I had it on the blog.

I love the lateral "bump" before he starts to rotate. We work on this a lot at Five Iron first in the True Stretch cage, then with some baseball swings and finally with the club.

Five Iron Fitness working with Nannette Hill, LPGA

At Five Iron Fitness, we were pretty excited this winter to be working with LPGA player Nannette Hill. 

Nannette is a local girl from Pelham Manor, New York, who grew up playing Pelham Country Club and learning from PGA pro Mike Diffley.  She attended and played golf at Wake Forest University and she stayed down south after graduating. Nannette just finished her rookie season on the Duramed FUTURES Tour (now the LPGA Futures Tour) and on the LPGA and she is heading into her second year on the Tour.

She had an amazing learning experience in her rookie year that included a win at the Hammond City Classic!  Judging from her attitude and work ethic, that is only the beginning of what I think is going to be a very successful career.

Training

Nannette came to me right before Christmas with the intention of getting in shape for the 2011 season while continuing to work on the elbow injuries that she rehabbed successfully in the fall.   Because she went back down south on Feb 6, it gave us  seven weeks together to really try to get her 1) More Mobile, 2) More Stable, 3) Stronger, 4) More Powerful and 5) More Energy.  (now you know why I call it Five Iron Fitness- 5 things...get it?)

I periodized it like this:

Weeks- 1-4- General Physical Preparation Phase- Working 6 days a week, we focused on Mobility and Stability in the first 10 days.  After that, we started to add Strength and Energy System Development (ESD) work to really get her in the best possible shape in the shortest amount of time.  This time was very demanding with sessions lasting up to 2 hours.  Every session included plenty of foam rolling, stick massage and stretching to help aid in the recovery process, and it was important that she got proper sleep.  During the week, we had one Active Rest session that included extra foam roller and stick, passive stretching, dynamic flexibility and light ESD for 15 minutes, followed by even more passive stretching.
Basically, the week looked like this:

Mon- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion, Strength Circuits with Interval Training, Passive Stretching

Tues- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion, ESD

Weds- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion, Strength Circuits with Interval Training, Passive Stretching

Thurs- Tissue Quality, Passive Stretching, Dynamic Warm Up, Light ESD, Passive Stretching, 

Fri- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion, Strength Circuits with Interval Training, Passive Stretching

Sat- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion, ESD, Passive Stretching

Sun- OFF

In week 4, Nannette took a vacation down to the Caribbean, so I gave her some light workouts to do.  I considered it a de-load week.

Weeks 5-7

Week 5 started our Strength and Power Phase and will lasted until she left on Feb. 6.   During this time, I introduced Lower Body Plyometrics (1 Linear Day, 1 Lateral Day) and Med Ball Throws for Upper Body Power (3x a week).

I took out the intervals within the Strength Training circuits and added some basic golf pattern drills.  Getting closer to the season, I felt they would be more important, and I also felt we did some great ESD work in Phase 1.   At this point, I feel pretty confident that she is in pretty amazing shape.

This is what the week has looked like in the Strength and Power phase:

Mon- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion,  Low Body Plyos, Med Ball Throws, Strength Circuits with Golf Patterns Drills, Passive Stretching

Tues- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion, ESD, Passive Stretching

Weds- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion,  Med Ball Throws, Strength Circuits with Golf Patterns Drills, Passive Stretching

Thurs- Tissue Quality, Passive Stretching, Dynamic Warm Up, Light ESD, Passive Stretching

Fri- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion,  Low Body Plyos, Med Ball Throws, Strength Circuits with Golf Patterns Drills, Passive Stretching

Sat- Tissue Quality, Mobility/Stability/Floor Core/Activation, Vertical Core, Locomotion, ESD, Passive Stretching

Sun- OFF

Now that she is back down south, she will be focusing a lot more on her golf game.  Because she plays a lot more earlier in the week, she will train less, focusing more on corrective exercise and mobility work.

As the week goes on, and she plays a little less golf, she will add more intense workouts. 

Here is a fun video of some of the things we did.  I will be adding more as the season goes on.

Make sure you check out NannetteHill.com, follow her on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

 

Feel Better, Play Better

I just watched "Feel Better, Play Better" from Jason Glass.  Jason does a great job making the program really easy to use, without too much equipment.  Check out the preview below and order at MyTPI.com.

Updated Golf Room

OK, so this is pretty much the finished portion of the expanded area at Five Iron Fitness.  

 

Posture Stick Drill

Here is a great drill from Scarsdale Golf Club PGA Teaching Professional Paul Kenney to help you get in the right address position.