Off Season Training Programs For Golfers
The off season is a great time to put in the work to improve your playing potential for the next season and there’s many ways to do this off the course which will improve your potential to play better golf.
Even if you live somewhere which doesn’t have an off season it is still a great idea to structure your year into different stages or phases and place an emphasis on making improvements in different areas of your game.
This allows you to spend time developing the areas of your game and body which can be put to the side when competing or playing as much golf as possible is your main focus.
In this post I have aimed to keep the advice at a higher level so you gain an understanding of the concepts and steps required when putting together a training program for a period of time like the off season. I know this will leave you with many questions so I will have a short response to many of the questions I have received in the past on this topic at the bottom of this article.
1. What Is The Need For An Off Season?
Golf is a sport which is heavily one side dominant, meaning that we spend the whole time swinging the club in one direction which can cause significant imbalances or overuse injuries in the body.
Over a short amount of time the effects may not be present but given enough time and volume if left unchecked this can cause a significant increase in your risk of injury.
An off season training program serves as a way to restore balance back to the body, rebuild areas which have lost strength or muscle during the season and repair and niggling injuries which may have come up during the season.
2.Discussing The Phases Of An Off Season Training Program
Firstly, it is important to know when you will start your off season and for how long it will go for plus any specific areas you’d like to address but more on those things in a little bit.
For ease of explaining the phases of an off season training program I like to use the example of a 12 week off season which makes it easy to break into 3 x 4 week phases. This is just a general breakdown and allows equal focus on all areas and something which, if you had the results from an assessment, could tailor to spend more time on the things which require the most improvement for you.
During the first phase you are looking to rehab, rebuild and balance the body. In the first phase you use unilateral exercises (training each side of the body independent of each other) and perform sets and reps of a hypertrophy range. This being anywhere from 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 12 reps per exercise or per side. Carrying out exercises in this range will also help you build lean muscle which will assist you in moving into phase 2 and 3 of your off season program.
During the second phase you are looking to build strength utilizing the extra muscle you have built during the first phase. You do this by moving to bilateral exercises and reducing the repetitions per set to somewhere in the range of 3 to 6 reps per set. This allows you to increase the weight you are lifting for each exercise which will allow you to build strength. As well as building strength, lifting heavier weights also increases the amount of motor units required to perform each rep which has been shown to recruit the amount of type 2 or fast twitch fibers within the body and will help with phase 3 which is your speed and power development phase.
The third phase is where all the hard work from Phase 1 and 2 come together to help you increase your speed and power production. Phase 3 contains elements of overspeed and overload training.
Overspeed training being the use of plyometric type exercises and the use of training aids such as speed sticks or the Rypstick. The intent with these exercises is to perform a low number of reps and to try to move as quickly as possible with each repetition.
Overload training is the use of compound movements like the squat, deadlift and bench press. You use these exercises because they allow you to move a heavy weight through a large range of motion and form the second part of the speed and power production formula by promoting the production of type 2 muscle fibers which increases your ability to produce power.
3.Starting With Assessments
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” - Abraham Lincoln
I love this quote and think it is super applicable in this situation as for me it refers to performing some simple assessments on your body to learn where you are currently and then setting goals for your desired outcome.
The beauty of it is these days you can go as basic as you like and just carry out a movement screening OR you can carry out Power and Fitness assessments and really get into the weeds with where you’re at. This just comes down to budget and the amount of time you’d like to put towards it.
Assessments aren't just mere numbers or data, the information they provide can help you create a road map to ensure that every drop of sweat in the off season will help move you closer to your goals on and off the course.
For the best assessment results you would seek out the guidance of a qualified fitness professional or golf coach who on top of performing the assessments can also share their wealth of knowledge with you during the process linking how certain limitations in your mobility lead to different shot shapes, misses and patterns. This method will cost the most money but will save you lots of time in the process because you can leverage your coaches experience by asking questions along the way.
For a cheaper alternative you can perform the assessments on yourself using tools like the mobility self-assessments I have in the Fairway Performance training app, Which show you step by step how to perform the assessments and what to do with the results once you have them. This can be a great start point if you're looking to keep your costs low this off season.
4.Key Considerations Before Diving In
Depending on what level you have gone to or not gone to in the screening/assessment stage you may or may not be armed with some very helpful information which will dictate a lot of things for you.
For example certain weaknesses, areas of limited mobility and injured areas can be triaged in your program and will determine how long each phase may go for and shed light on what sort of exercises will be required.
To explain this I will use 2 examples of clients with different needs both given the same 12 week time block for their off season:
The first is someone who has limited mobility in the hips, some weakness in the legs and upper body and as a result lacks power in their swing. So if you remember back to the 3 Phases I discussed earlier this person may spend more time in phase 1 and 2 to build some balance, strength and muscle back into the body and and only a limited time in phase 3 working on speed. So the split in terms of phases might be 6 weeks in phase 1, 4 weeks in phase 2 and 2 weeks in phase 3.
The second person has adequate mobility in most areas of the body but some tightness in the hips and thoracic, decent overall strength in the lower and upper body and lacks power in their swing. In this instance because they have decent strength and mobility levels the time in phase 1 and 2 can be shorter and because of this more time can be put into phase 3 and building power. The split of time in each phase for this example may be 4 weeks in each phase so time can be spent rebuilding some muscle and strength and also a good amount of time working on turning that added strength and muscle into a faster more powerful golf swing.
5.Putting An Off Season Plan Into Practice
Now that you understand the basics of structuring the phases of an off season program, the sets and reps required for each phase, the importance of assessments and how that information can be used to determine what your program looks like it’s time to discuss how this can fit in with practice and playing some golf if tie and weather permits.
We all have only a limited amount of time and energy to fit everything in so in order to work out the best use of your time it’s important to sit down with a pen and paper and commit to the amount of time you want to spend on each element and create a schedule. How many gym sessions will you do per week, how many practice sessions will you do and will you play 9 or 18 holes at any stage each week?
Once these variables are sorted you can go about executing on this plan. Routine is the key to consistency and consistency is the key to progress in the short and long term.
Ideally your perfectly scheduled week can be repeated each and every week. Knowing exactly what you are doing and when you are doing it each week will help with adherence because you will just find yourself setting everything up around it so you can make it happen.
Of course things will come up that force you to change your schedule from time to time but having your schedule will help to keep you on track.
The goal is to repeat productive day after productive day and stack them on top of each other over and over. This helps with when you inevitably miss a session due to some unforeseen things because routine kicks in and you will be back on track as quickly as possible.
Now because I know this article may leave you with some questions I have done my best to compile a few of the more common ones I’ve had from clients over the years. If you have one which isn’t answered here feel free to either email me: Shaun@fairwayperformance.com OR send me a Direct Message on Instagram: @shaun.diachkoff and I will reply! I reply to every single Direct Message I get!
1) Can I Do Speed Training & Strength Training The Same Day?
This would be one of the more common questions I get from those who are trying to be efficient with their time in the gym. The short answer is yes you can do both in the same day it just comes down to what order you should do them in.
In this scenario the main consideration is the Interference effect. This is because with strength/hypertrophy training and speed/power training we need to exert a certain stimulus on the body in order for the body to create beneficial adaptations.
If you’re to do both on the same day the speed training (overspeed) should be done first because the body needs to move quickly and exert maximal forces in order to reach the desired stimulus. If carried out after a strength or hypertrophy session the effects wouldn’t be as great as there would be some carryover of fatigue which would result in a less beneficial speed session.
Then you might ask, would the strength or hypertrophy session suffer because of the speed work? In short NO because the amount of fatigue from a speed session is minimal and will have very limited if any effects on muscle hypertrophy or strength.
A way I like to fit speed work in is by doing it either before a practice/range session or round or before a workout. A quick warm up, straight into the required work with the Rypstick and then do the work I am there to do.
2) When Should I Do My Practice?
Practice to me is similar to speed training and is best done when feeling fresh and not fatigued from a training session if possible. Trying to practice when fatigued from a strength/hypertrophy training session is not ideal if you can avoid it.
Like I mentioned in the previous point, organising your speed session and practice sessions together can work nicely. If you’re going to do this I’d suggest a good warm up, some light practice then once warmed up do your speed work and finish with a little more practice.
So for me I like to keep training and practice on separate days or if I come across a day where I need to fit everything in then my order of preference would be to do the speed work first, then practice, then my strength session as completing everything in this order will have minimal interference with the others.
3) How Do I Know If My Plan Is Working?
The answer to this is tracking. If you know what your metrics were at the start it will be easy to see improvements along the way. Some metrics might be objective and some subjective.
Speed: Rypstick have a great app you can download for free which will track this or if you’re old fashioned you can also use a spreadsheet or notes in your phone.
Strength: Track the weight you lift and or how many reps you can do at that weight. The key here is to ensure you meet the same movement standard each time so you can safely say you’re doing more than you have previously. The main reason I see people stagnate in their lifting is they stick to the same weight and set/rep structure and never increase one or the other. You can make strength progress by increasing in reps with the same weight, or by keeping the reps the same and increasing weight.
Muscle Mass/Fat Loss: Taking measurements is the best approach here. You can be very basic and use a tape measure yourself or a set of scales at home. Or if you want to invest a small amount of money you could get the most accurate measure of this which is called a Dexa scan. Essentially it measures your entire body and will break down muscle mass, fat mass and other tissue/bone to give you the most accurate reading possible. The Dexa scan is what is used to measure people when performing studies on body composition.
General Health and Fitness: Wearable technology like WHOOP or Garmin heart rate monitors can help by measuring resting heart rate, respiratory rate and HRV. Alternatively you could have a check up with your doctor and potentially get bloods done and they can check all of the basic metrics for you.
Mobility: If you took the time to get a screening at the start of your off season you can do another at the halfway point or end point of your program. Alternatively, taking a video of yourself performing some exercises in week 1 of your program and then a few weeks in will show you whether the work you’re doing is starting to show. Your squats might be deeper, you’re able to touch your toes or you can press a bar straight up over your head instead of slightly out in front. Taking the time to notice these changes is very motivating and will let you know you’re on the right path.
Injuries: Do you still have that niggling injury, has pain subsided, does the area feel stronger, have you completely forgotten about the injury? If things have gotten worse then you may need to adjust things slightly but if you’ve moved on it is obvious the plan is working.
Your Golf Game: This is something you and your swing coach/golf coach can work on. In my opinion you want to be selecting key metrics to track during your rounds or practice and ensure you're moving the needle forwards in these.
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