Filling out questions, forms and assessments is all about getting data and your mind right.
We’re basically trying to find out what most golfers suffer from (Or at least think they suffer with) in their body.
Most often they feel their body feels tight or,
feels weak or,
it feels painful, and they either know it’s affecting their golf or they just don’t realise how much it’s affecting their golf.
The point is as you start to get older, if you don’t start focusing on how you improve your body then the body slowly gets worse, as every year passes.
Add in the amount of force that’s being put on it for a golf swing, and it can be accelerated.
Then, add in those awkward positions from sitting at work and this starts to hinder how you hit a golf ball, some people travel, four or five hours per day in a car and you know this affects their golf.
Any of this tightness can lead to weakness, which can lead to tiredness which ends up coming down to a lack of motivation.
At this point the body’s now the furthest thing from being powerful or feeling powerful and being able to have a powerful golf swing.
Shifting this problem to their mindset, they now lack the confidence and have to fake confidence with bravado (or they have to start making excuses before they play) and their Golf suffers anyway because the mind is already set up for failure.
This belief that the body feels tired, weak, or painful stops them from moving forward in a lot of ways.
People get caught up in this story of pain, or tightness or weakness the body actually makes that TRUE.
If you ain’t got range of motion in a certain area,
You’re not going to ever get into that position, because your brain is trying to protect it.
This is why when someone hurts their knee, they may limp after the pain goes away.
They’ve built the movement pattern into the body which has now become the new normal…
This can happen in the mind as well.
People have patterns, habits, behaviors and beliefs that stop them from moving forward.
And that’s why, above all we need to get clear on where they are, right now, what are the Figures, the data today…
If a golfer feels weak is it because of pain now or past pain…
Full treatment days at golf courses we would see golfers who look like they suffer from a huge lack of flexibility but with simple assessment we see that have a lot of the range of motion, and it was just their own brain, putting the block on because they think they don’t have it.. (It seems crazy but it’s actually quite clever)
Then we would work through certain simple movements and the range of motion, the flexibility was there all along and with daily correctives they get to keep that new movement and use it to generate more power in the golf swing.
I did a clubhouse talk the other week and a pro asked me “what do you define as golf fitness” and to me it very simple.
It is anything you do to your body that makes it better.
It doesn’t have to be a specific exercise (we use everything through the powerful fairway 4 framework ) it’s just something that makes you better, play better, think clearer, act better, behave better, wherever makes you ultimately better.
That could be simple breathing exercises or it could be your getting under a heavy squat rack.
Again, that’s why we always go back to the fairway four part of figures (Fairway 4 is Figures, Focus, Fitness, Function) where are you now, what is your data telling us,
what is your range of motion,
what does your TPI screen say,
how much power do you feel you have, compared to the power you used to have and then from there, we can build something out.
So, in my opinion, the best thing anyone can do is try and find out where they are now…
What does your range of motion tell you about where you are trying to go and what could get worse if you do nothing?
Inside the FREE Unbreakable golfers app, go to The screen and assessment section and just work through it and see where you’re stuck and how this links to where you could be stuck on the golf course.
Because when you link the two together, it gives you the leverage on yourself to move forward and not give up.
So what I suggest you do if you don’t know where your body is screen yourself. (Self assessment should be mastered)
If you think you’ve got an issue with your body and wonder how it’s affecting your golf and your mind on the golf course try and get some measurable data,
because with that measurable data, you’ll be much clearer on the way to move forward.
There’s more than enough free information in this app for you to walk through that.
If you want it, it’s here.
John Seton