Instruction
A Transitional Mistake: Are you still training like it’s the off-season?
Both off-season and in-season training share equal importance when it comes to building and maintaining swing speed, power, efficiency, recovery and consistent performance. There is a distinct difference, however, between how you should be training for both seasons.
Off-season training focuses on fundamental weaknesses within your body. For instance, poor hamstring strength will affect power transfer from the beginning to the end of your swing. Addressing this issue in the off-season allows two things to happen:
- Improved strength
- More efficient movement
Once golf season begins, golfers should enter the transitional phase. If you don’t change your training protocol, you are putting yourself at risk for overtraining. How does that affect your game? Let’s just say the correlation is an increased likelihood of chronic injury. The end result is you could end up like Tiger.
Whether you live in a cold or warm climate, golf seasons are invariably different. Some of us have the opportunity to play year round. In this case, it takes some planning to create a training protocol that staves off overtraining. Regardless, you must define your off-season.
During that time, you train specifically to improve your weaknesses. Being honest with yourself is crucial. Ask yourself, “What really needs improvement?” Then a strength coach can build you an 8-to-12 week program to improve your weak points.
After 12 weeks, it is absolutely imperative that you transition. You determine that transition based on the frequency and intensity of the golf you are playing. Do you play 3 or 6 days per week? Are you a competitive or recreational player? All of these aspects are important in determining your plan of attack.
You ultimately want to avoid losing all the work that you put into the off-season. Inevitably, you will lose some strength, power, etc. This loss correlates to the fact that you have likely decreased your strength training sessions by one or two per week. Maybe you trained 5 days a week with a focus on speed and power development. Fortunately, strength and power losses decrease at a significantly slower rate than cardiovascular losses. If you’re a walker, then this really doesn’t apply much to you since you continue to maintain a high level of cardiovascular endurance.
The only way that you can avoid losing strength, power, speed or agility is to train these energy systems at least twice a week. That can be difficult for the 5-to-7 day a week golfer, but it is necessary. Otherwise, you will begin to see a rapid decline in those aspects of your fitness. However, even at two sessions per week, you must watch for signs of overtraining. These can be poor sleep patterns, poor aspects of your mental game, decreased appetite, immediate decreases in strength and mood changes.
Fatigue is the largest factor. It not only affects your training, but it also affects the mental aspects of the game. Poor shot decisions, mishits and frustration are common issues with fatigue. You can avoid becoming fatigued in the gym by doing three things:
- Decreasing intensity by 20 percent
- Decreasing the frequency of your training
- Decreasing the overall duration of your workout
Remember, you don’t need to change your entire routine. I’m simply saying that it will be in your best interest to decrease the load (weight) and increase the amount of repetitions. Maybe you were doing 225 pound back squats for 4-to-6 repetitions. What you’ll want to do is decreased the weight by 20 percent and add 4-to-6 reps. This will prevent the decline in strength significantly.
If you train each movement within a 4-to-6 set range, you’ll also want to drop that to three sets. That insures you won’t overreach and will recover more efficiently because there will be a lessened lactic acid build up. See, lactic acid is a byproduct of “work.” It’s what creates muscle soreness and prolongs time between training sessions.
As I mentioned earlier, you’ll also want to decrease the amount of times you train per week. If you train at a five-session protocol, you’ll need to address how you can efficiently train sport specific groups in two sessions. It may seem difficult, but it’s rather simple. Training Monday and Friday gives your body ample time to repair tissue, so you can basically train all of the golf specific muscle groups (i.e. core, legs, and back) in both sessions without much risk of overtraining.
Additionally, you’ll need to decrease your session duration. Finding a way to train efficiently combines 3 sets with 8-to-12 reps at 30-seconds to 1-minute rest intervals that total no more than 7-to-8 movements.
This protocol in a well-trained individual can be completed in about 30 minutes. You want your sessions to be no longer than 45 minutes.
Again, this all has to do with efficiency, fatigue control and the limiting of lactic acid build up. By transitioning your training correctly, you effectively decrease the risk of overtraining and injury. You also can maintain a level balance of the strength and power that you built during the off-season.
You have to be strict with yourself. Watch out for signs of overtraining and continue to have fun with it. Aside from practice, training is the only way to maintain a competitive edge.
Feel free to contact with me any questions or if you’d like me to build a program for your in-season or off-season training at chris@assistperformance.com
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
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Patrick
Jun 29, 2014 at 5:21 am
I’m going to try and help you out Jack. You can really only peak twice per season./ year. If you are truly a fine golfer you’ll know that your peaking for your state/provincial championships and maybe a season ending tour type championship. You cannot humanly possible play 100% at your peak all the time.
My background is professional squash and training NHL players.
Off season we train players at very high loads and maybe up to 12 reps. Every player is different. During the season the teams take over their regimens. During the season most players are in the gym to warm up or cool off after the game. Everything is monitored expertly by the teams. Every players ice time is monitored precisely as is there injury history.
I’m a 6 handicap so not a great golfer but I play about 15 tournaments per season. The worst thing I can so is overtrain because this affects my central nervous system. Some will call it getting “stale” or overtraining.
This author has very good information. If you are anywhere near an elite athlete you will appreciate this viewpoint.
Pingback: A Transitional Mistake: Are you still training like it’s the off-season? | Spacetimeandi.com
Momo
Jun 27, 2014 at 5:38 pm
what is you play all year?
Momo
Jun 27, 2014 at 5:38 pm
what if
Chris
Jun 27, 2014 at 6:53 pm
Start training using the on-season training whenever you can. As soon as winter hits start working out to build strength and power. Your game might have to be sacrificed for a few months. However if you can sacrifice your game for a few months, your golfing ability may get better for the next few years if you maintain your gains properly.
Chris Costa
Jun 27, 2014 at 10:58 pm
Momo,
There should still be a “season” period. Just like the seasons of the year. Use the seasons accordingly to the way in which you’d like to tailor your golf season. Train as if you have a season. At some point, you have to taper to avoid overtraining or you have to find the right program that can be sustainable for the entire year without sacrificing gains (near impossible, even in the minimal sense).
Jack
Jun 28, 2014 at 9:22 am
Which apparently you have no answer for… Not sure which part of that you think is past or present but timeline doesn’t change the explosive nature of the sport, nor the energy pathways used within it. It is comical to think dropping volume and intensity is going to keep your strength where it needs to be. Have fun making people weaker with that! (and more sore, as it goes)
Chris Costa
Jun 28, 2014 at 9:32 am
Jack,
Do you always insult those whom disagree with your opinion? I kindly ask you to give me the same respect thats been given to you.
Jack
Jun 28, 2014 at 9:44 am
Of course, but dodging a question doesn’t seem like you have too much confidence in your own opinion? You have no answer for what I proposed?
Chris Costa
Jun 28, 2014 at 10:09 am
We all make choices, Jack….
Jack
Jun 28, 2014 at 10:13 am
We do, and you choosing not to respond to valid points, doesn’t look like a good choice.
Chris Costa
Jun 28, 2014 at 10:16 am
Yet challenging someone, just for the sake of continuing to argue is? Please take your banter elsewhere and leave the comments for those that don’t think they know it all.
Jack
Jun 28, 2014 at 10:19 am
Absolutely not, I just wanted your opinion on what I suggested…
Patrick
Jun 29, 2014 at 5:35 am
Jack I don’t know what your background is but, in performance sports like golf, no one can be expected to be at 100% power and strength all the time. It’s not humanly possible. Your body has to recover especially after a hard muscle tearing workout. This type of training during a golf season where your fine motor movements are critical (putting, chipping, even precisely working an iron or driver) and compromised if your large prime movers are preventing the smaller less flexible muscles from doing their job.
Most of us are golfers not long drivers. If I can driver the ball consistently in the fairway without injury and I recover after two or three hard rounds, I know I’m fit.
My background besides having represented my country is that of an exercise physiologist. The author writes good sound valuable information. Please respect his article.
Jack
Jul 3, 2014 at 4:15 pm
Patrick, while I do respect that the author has taken time to write this article using good grammar and punctuation, I also have to respect the fact that it is in large part, completely wrong. Talking about taxing workouts with “muscle tearing” qualities in season is a valid point, in the sense of it should in fact be limited in season when trying to maintain strength/power etc. However, the article talks in a contradictory fashion when speaking about rep ranges, of which these have very little whatsoever in training for power/strength (which, incidentally only needs to be trained once a week not “at least twice”), which if I am not mistaken is the point of the article and “in-season training”.
I am not really sure what point you are actually making with regard to do with golf specific training, but playing golf itself isn’t very taxing on the nervous system and that needs to be trained to maintain strength and power. Also, not sure what point you were making about 12 reps and high loads for an ice hockey player? Relevance? Also the relevance of “making it through two or three rounds” without injury I don’t think is defining fitness for golf in any way shape or form.
Jack
Jun 27, 2014 at 3:28 pm
Chris,
I am interested to hear how you think adding more reps and backing off intensity is going to elicit a lessened lactate training response? The rep ranges you have suggested would actually INCREASE lactate build up and diminish strength a lot quicker than a lower total volume and higher intensity
Chris Costa
Jun 27, 2014 at 3:49 pm
Hi Jack,
Majority of lactate accumulation comes from highly intense movements. Off-season training assist in raising the threshold, as well as decreasing accumulation.
If you drop intensity minimally (20%), decrease the duration of your workout (less time) that means you are cramming more movements into a shorter duration. Therefore, overall intensity wouldn’t drop off significantly.
Hopefully, someone trained effectively in the off-season to allow LA and O2 to do their part in the energy systems.
Thanks for your comment, Jack.
Jack
Jun 27, 2014 at 4:57 pm
My question is this, why wouldn’t you look to increase absolute intensity (rather than relative intensity) and lower total volume? This would be far more effective in maintaining power and strength from a motor recruitment perspective and a hormonal response (with regard to testosterone). Lactate and oxidative pathways are really irrelevant in a sport whereby a the movement takes less than a second with ample recovery time.
Jack
Jack
Jun 27, 2014 at 4:58 pm
*whereby the
Chris Costa
Jun 28, 2014 at 8:24 am
We are clearly on different wavelengths here. That’s ok though. You’re speaking on past. I’m referencing the present. Thank you for your opinion.
Nick Randall
Jul 6, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Jack has a really valid point here, it’s the policy of the Golf Australia S&C coaches (of which I am one) to reduce VOLUME (reps and sets) and not INTENSITY (bar speed and load) during tournament weeks in order to minimise the fatigue and soreness of the players. This is common practice across many sports, not just golf.
Chris Costa
Jul 7, 2014 at 7:34 am
Hi Nick,
While I appreciate your viewpoint, simply reducing volume and not intensity is not an optimal protocol. In fact during tournament weeks, loads should be considerable lighter (as mentioned in the article). In season is about MAINTENANCE or maintaining the gains/benefits that you achieved during the off-season. If your basic premise is to keep the 1RM load, but decrease frequency, then you what will happen to your maximal strength?
However, it’s unfair for all of us to assume that “their way” is the ultimate best way. No one athlete is alike, so different stimuli need to be addressed.
Chris Costa
Jun 27, 2014 at 2:47 pm
Hi R,
That could benefit you, but not necessarily from a performance factor.
R
Jun 27, 2014 at 11:46 am
I’m just training like I need to lose weight.
Hieronymus
Jul 1, 2014 at 1:49 pm
P90X.
Chris Costa
Jul 1, 2014 at 6:21 pm
Sure, but it wont guarantee game improvement.