Southern California's No. 1 Golf Source
SITE
SEARCH
GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
Real Golf
|
||||
 Cycling about three times a week was one way the author got in solid shape for his tournament. (Photo: Stockbyte/John Foxx/Getty Images) When I took the invitation to play in a tournament in Michigan this summer, I knew I’d have to make some changes in my life and the way I approached golf or risk embarrassing myself in front of 350 golfers. I sat down with some friends who happen to be PGA professionals and we laid out a game plan that would hopefully get me where I wanted to be. I know my limitations. My handicap was once a 1, but now gamblers would send a limo for me and my 8. I wasn’t going to be able to practice every day or adopt an organic diet, but we identified swing fundamentals, fitness and nutrition, equipment, and preparation as my mission components. Swing fundamentals I was playing badly about once a month, never practicing and I had fallen into some bad habits. PGA professional Dale Abraham at Beaumont’s East Valley Golf Club pointed out that my long days in front of a computer had led to bad posture. My shoulders slouched forward, my spine was curved and my butt was tucked under my hips. I was like a human “C” trying to hit the ball. We worked on getting into the proper golf posture: butt out, bent at the waist, straight spine, arms hanging freely and rotating. We tinkered with my takeaway and shortened my swing, but it was amazing how much proper posture allowed me to swing the club more athletically into the right position. In the end, I drastically cut down on the wildness of my offline shots while picking up consistency and length. Fitness and nutrition We set up a program of stretching, cardio and light weightlifting to ease the pressure on my inactive body. Using nothing more than a 6-inch foam roller and a heavy resistance band, Abraham and I created a 20-minute routine that I did nearly every day. I’d start by taking the foam roller and laying on top of it with my spine matching the roller for about 30-60 seconds. This dropped my shoulders back and got my spine into the proper posture position. Then came hamstring stretches using the resistance band around my feet. Lying on my back, I’d lift a leg, take a breath and then stretch it farther on the next breath. I’d spend a couple minutes on each leg until I felt the burn. From the same position, I’d lift my knees with my legs out and do rotational stretches. I’d do 15 repetitions slowly in each direction, and finish with three sets of leg lifts to the point of exhaustion. I also did strength exercises, like sets of push-ups and different exercises using the resistance band. We did some cardio, too. I don’t run unless I’m being chased, so I started riding a bike. I’d go 3-5 miles about three times a week, taking about half an hour each time. On days where I couldn’t ride the bike I did jumping jacks: 100 in the morning and 100 in the evening. Eating has always been my weakness. It probably started in college with three daily trips to Taco Bell. For people constantly on the go (like me), fast food is an easy alternative to eating smart. But it wasn’t feasible for me to entirely cut out fast food. I went to the websites of places I enjoyed and found items that had the fewest amounts of calories and fat. I made sure I ate three meals a day, never eating after 7 p.m., and stopped eating as soon as I felt full. I also deleted Diet Coke, and, since I don’t like to drink water, I added Crystal Light to my water bottle and drank two liters of it each day. When I started this process in January, I stepped on the scale and my 6-foot frame weighed in at 184 pounds. The day I left for Michigan, the scale said I weighed 172 and my wife said I looked “pretty good.” I made some positive strides. Next month, I’ll get into the final impact that the equipment evaluations and mental preparations had on my game improvement experiment. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
