Physical Performance Articles

The secret to successful long term development, improvement, and health in the game of golf is understanding that you only have a finite number of hours to work on your game to get better.  You have to prioritize what is important holistically as a golfer and make the time for those elements. Lessons, practice, equipment education, and fitness are all critical parts of the formula for golfers.  Unfortunately, the fact that when the golfer’s body breaks down they can’t swing doesn’t cross the mind of a golfer or their parents until it happens. For the junior golfer, finding time to train their bodies so they stay healthy, continue to develop for long term success and maintain their performance levels during heavy in season play is one of the hardest things we see juniors and their parents face. During the school year, it is equally as tough with [...]

I have been getting a lot of questions, particularly from collegiate golfers, asking about the benefits of running during the in season. This has always and will continue to be one of the biggest shocks to me.  The short of it is this: a lot of running in season is perhaps the most counter intuitive training that a golfer can do on multiple levels. Asking for Injuries The first reason this is just senseless is that it unnecessarily increases the chances of injury for the players.  Most injuries in golf happen because of repetitive use, so why would we want to add more repetitive use into the equation? When we look at athlete load and risk for injury, the most likely place for it to occur is when there is a spike or drop in the overall load the athlete has on their body.  This can be [...]

If you’ve been playing the game for long, you’ve probably been told that strength training for golfers will get you bulky, restrict your mobility and can even get you hurt so that you can’t play the game.  But how true is this argument? This is a contested topic on many media platforms and even among coaches and golfers themselves. The curious part of this is that the people having the discussions are usually doing so with little to no good information to draw their conclusions from. If you don’t want the sports science information regarding this topic, please stop reading. If you would like to be informed, enjoy the next 5 minutes! I don’t disagree with those who say that strength training is a one of the worst things to do for your golf game. It will bulk you up, it can cause your mobility to be [...]

The driving range is the biggest barrier to a golfer's success.  Period.  It is a place where quantity is king, and quality is the court jester.  Repeating swing after swing in a blocked practice format actually breeds repetitive injuries and ends careers.  Minimal carry over onto the course from the range is what keeps handicaps and frustrations high, while contributing to the high number of injuries that we see on a regular basis. The sad thing is that most golfers think that taking lessons, beating balls on the range and playing in tournaments is the simple three ingredient formula to elite level success. From a mindset standpoint, it is easy to see how this happens.  If you want to get better at golf, hit more golf balls, right? Wrong! This is where we need to have the discussion about quality vs quantity and how important time management [...]

By Physical Performance Consultant Chris Finn of Par4Success Introduction Many have probably heard the saying, “You have to train fast to be fast.” In the world of sports performance, however, very little is that cut and dry. In the past month, my athletes have been training very slowly, particularly in the lowering phase of their lifts, known as the eccentric phase. I am currently training golfers, athletes whose sport requires short burst of explosive effort. Why would we be moving slowly then? While commonly overlooked, focusing on the eccentric phase of movement can return great results for athletic performance for strength and power athletes. In this post, I will discuss the what the research says about eccentric overload and eccentric focused training as well as different means of overloading the eccentric phase of movement.  First, lets talk about the tri-phasic nature of movement. Nearly every movement in [...]

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 [...]