Fitness training is an important issue for golfers, because core, hip and shoulder stability as well as balance and coordination work make the difference in this highly competitive sport. When you plan your golf season, a continuous golf fitness training should be a part of your weekly schedule to prevent injuries and enhance your athletic performance. Train your physical abilities and put them all together repeatedly. Consistency in your game derives from an optimum level of your physical abilities in each stage of your golf season – and from avoiding injuries through an healthy lifestyle.
Adopt your fitness program to the different stages of your golf season, to times of heavier and lighter play. Depending on the time you spent on the golf court you will vary the physiologic focus of your fitness training. The following example is given for a recreational golfer, who plays about 2 times a month in the off-season (winter), one time per week in the pre-season (spring) in the in-season (summer) two or more times per week and post-season (autumn) about one time per week.
| Off-season Focus: get strong & flexible This will improve your ability to produce greater force throughout a greater range of motion with a good technique and reduces the risk of injury. Build now the basis for your pre-season training. | Pre-season Focus: get ready for your game Improve your game with improvement of your flexibility, power, balance and cardio-respiratory conditioning Power: Train your muscles to contract in an explosive manner to increase club head speed and driving distance and to prevent injuries – functional training means training adopted to the demands of your sport. If your body is used to do explosive movements similar to your performance on the course you decrease the chance of injury Balance: Train your body & mind to keep a optimum posture throughout the movement; this ability can be trained and will positively influence your game, because any change of the relation of club-face to the ball influences heavily the accuracy of your game – train with and without club, dynamically and statically, to train intrinsic muscles and core stability to harmonize your swing Cardio-respiratory conditioning: increase your cardio-respiratory capacity (crc) to be able to keep your concentration and your physical fine tuning over a maximum amount of time. A lack of crc weakens your body and mind and finally your game of golf; at the critical point of the game you will lose the ability to perform in best quality |
| In-season Focus: golf game, flexibility, coordination & core stability Your fitness training becomes secondary, golf practice is the priority. But keep on working on the main elements for movement quality. Your core stability is eminent for the performance of your athletic skills, and the better your coordination works, meaning that you control your body parts and extremities in a most effective way for the desired movement, the better and consistent your golf swing will be. Your core is the centre of your body and the centre of all movements from which the movements of your extremities emanate from. The more firm this centre is the more you will be able to recall a high movement quality of your golf swing | Post-season Focus: rest and recovery Recovery does not mean doing nothing – keep up your hard-earned abilities with less intensity and your next season will be even better! |
Jens Baltrusch has been working worldwide in areas of personal training, sport workshops, multi media production, online marketing and article writing.
At the moment, Jens works as entrepreneur in Zurich, Switzerland. 
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Personal Trainer, Sport Manager and Author
