WNiF Magazine - Winter 2015 Edition | Page 34

Correspondence Cloud Solution Reports Member Management Front Desk CONDITIONING FOR GOLF Classes By Matt Sorensen PART 1 Retail, POS Support Team Bookings Integration Over 800 use Clubware! health clubs now Make Clubware your Facility Management Software choice. · · · · · Member Management Class Management Comprehensive Reporting SMS, Email and Mail Management Retail Management · · · · Front Desk Administration Cloud Solution Local Support Team Access Control Integration For more information about Clubware contact: Australia New Zealand P 1800 114 777 E [email protected] W www.clubware.com.au P +64 9 487 2036 E [email protected] W www.clubware.co.nz A s far as I’m aware every golfer wants to play better golf. The desire to be better is common from the professional touring on the PGA circuit to the amateur to the beginner. The most common methods used to achieve this is a combination of professional lessons and more practice. Although this seems logical, its also the very reason many golfers end up injured and rarely get to their potential. Why? Because few golfers associate the need for improved physical conditioning with their desire to be better golfers. Golf is generally seen as a game of technical skill rather than an athletic event, needing less physical exertion than most other sports like rugby. Unfortunately, this misconception regularly results in injury and/or performance plateaus. Simply put, golf is a highly athletic event! To put this in perspective, consider that the head of the club can travel at over 160km per WHAT’S NEW IN FITNESS - WINTER 2015 hour, which is an effort comparable to pitching a baseball or bowling a cricket ball like Brett Lee! Amateur golfers achieve approximately 90 per cent of their peak muscle activity when driving a golf ball. This is the same lifting intensity as picking up a weight that can only be lifted four times before total fatigue. Yet, golfers fail to consider that they strike the ball 30 to 40 times per game with that same intensity. Of course, there are many books aimed at those who seek to improve their physical conditioning. Unfortunately, most are based on body building principles, where the main goal is larger muscle growth. Unlike golf, success in body building is not dependent upon precise timing, control, accuracy or skill. When, for example, a golfer uses machine-based training programs, sedation of the nervous system’s ability to organise and synchronise complex multi-joint movements is inevitable. The result is the complete opposite of what the golfer needs to improve function. Golfers must consider themselves athletes and train using programs designed to improve integration of the whole body. 35