Instruction
The Big Three
FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE, FASTER
RECOVERY, AND BETTER RESULTS
By Sebastian Brown
A
s each generation comes along, so do more distractions.
Cell phones, computers, video games, television, and
social media all interfering with a good night’s sleep.
Foods becoming more and more processed and convenient.
Marketed as “energy boosting” (which usually means sugar by
the way), and clever plays on words such as “all natural” (which
is not a regulated term) and “no sugar added” which certainly
does not mean it’s low in sugar.
The caffeine content of popular energy drinks seems to be
increasing every year. Now a new craze of super-energy drinks
are in every single gas station in the country, containing 3 times
the amount of a cup of coffee which young teenagers are drinking
like water.
With such overwhelming exposure and marketing to these things,
it’s no wonder the newest young generation is chronically sleep
deprived, dehydrated, addicted to sugar, and abusing caffeine.
It’s no wonder we are seeing our young golfers grabbing candy,
chocolate, and high sugar drinks as a means to fuel their bodies
for tournament play. But as the old saying goes “you don’t know
what you don’t know”.
They may not know that being even mildly dehydrated has been
shown to severely decrease performance. That getting less than 8
12
GolfPlus Junior March-April 2020
hours sleep on a regular basis puts the body in a constant state of
stress. And that eating high sugar snacks puts your blood sugar
levels on a rollercoaster ride all day.
So as the quality of golf coaching, mental training, and fi tness all
get better and better, these big three are getting worse – sabotaging
the hard work of the player, and the coaches.
The truth is that no matter how hard you work in the gym, on your
golf game, or the mental game – your body simply cannot make
any desired physiological adaptations (supercompensation phase
in above graph) when these three factors are not optimized.