cfinn

Individuals can experience failed attempts to participate in organized sports when too much emphasis is placed on competition and not enough attention on developing proper athleticism (appropriate movement skills). If you have limited movement skills, you stop participating.  This leads to decreased interest in physical activity and a failure to develop physical literacy (proper training to improve athleticism) in a sequential and progressive manner. Because of this, it is important that your first experience in physical activity be a positive one. The Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model describes what children, youth, and adults need to be doing at the right time to develop in sport or activity. Both kids and adults will get active, stay active, and reach the greatest peaks of sport performance when following this model. Long term commitment to physical literacy and sport skill development is vital to optimize athletic potential. This commitment requires [...]

by Chris Finn, MSPT, CSCS, TPIMP - Founder, Par4Success   I had the recent honor of speaking to a large group of junior golfers and their parents down in Pinehurst and one of the topics we discussed was the all-important question of "what is the point of a tournament?" I was very pleasantly surprised at the answers I received from those in attendance as they ranged from having fun to learning how to compete and everything in between.  The #1 goal of playing in a competitive tournament is to learn.  If you are playing competitively, your goal needs to be to assess your game in the competitive environment and take away something from the experience that propels your game forward. Unfortunately, many kids and parents are so concerned with winning that if they don't win or shoot a higher score than expected the totally miss out on [...]

This article is part of a guest series to the RecruitPKB "Complete Golfer" program by Chris Finn, MSPT, CSCS, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina. 1. I'm not a football player, I don’t need to weight train? The golf swing is a fast, explosive, and powerful motion. Power is an application of force. You need to have force to be able to apply it. Force is developed by gaining strength. In fact, the stronger and more powerful you are, the less work each swing requires, the longer you can play and continue to hit the ball with as much power on the 18th as on the 1st.The best gains in distance we have seen have come from players who increase strength in big athletic golf movement patterns such as squats, deadlifts, and clean variations. Becoming a fast, explosive athlete should be a priority for any junior [...]

This article is part of a guest series to the RecruitPKB "Complete Golfer" program by Chris Finn, MSPT, CSCS, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina. Why is offseason training important? For any athlete, off season training is vital to improving year after year.  This is prime time to make strength, speed and performance changes.   If you need to build muscle, speed, power or improve flexibility, the off season is the time to make that a priority.  For Golf there really is not a true "off season". The best time to make serious gains will be in the winter, when you are still playing, but can afford to make training a priority. Who should do offseason training? Everyone.  The priorities will be different but every golfer, to some degree, should train during the offseason.  For younger players this could be as simple as general athletic development and [...]

This article is part of guest series to the RecruitPKB "Complete Golfer" program by Chris Finn, MSPT, CSCS, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina.  --- The most common injury in golf is back pain, accounting for over 35% of all injuries sustained in the sport.  These are the numbers for adult golfers.  There have not been any studies on the frequency in junior golfers, but based on the fact that whenever I ask a large group of junior golfers to raise their hands if they have had back pain when playing golf and about 60-70% raise their hands, I am guessing the number might be higher in juniors. The number of 10-14 year olds who seek out therapy for their back pain related to golf is both frightening and 100% preventable.  Last month I wrote about the great strides that have been made in the world [...]

This article is part of guest series to the RecruitPKB "Complete Golfer" program by Chris Finn, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina. --- Has anyone seen Michelle Wie or Rory Mcilroy move their hips in their swing lately? Tough to see unless you slow down the video because they are so fast. As a reference point, the average PGA tour player rotates their hips at most about 500 degrees per second. Rory’s speed is around 740 degrees per second. Power in an efficient golf swing such as with Michelle or Rory starts from the ground and works it way up through your hips, core and out through the hands into the club eventually resulting in faster ball speed. There is also an efficient weight shift from the trail leg to the lead leg through rotational movement and some lateral shift which comes from using the ground [...]