Plane Performance

Hello again, long time no blog for me.  I have found that too much time can be spent on posting blogs, so instead I have joined facebook, myspace, and next up will be twitter so that you can follow every step of my day.  I know that you can hardly contain your excitement, and I appreciate that.  Now back to business, things are going great at Plane Performance and I have some exciting new programs coming this fall.  I have been researching several golf-fitness topics in an attempt to find the most effective ways to train your body for golf improvement.

Many trainers and other medical professionals these days are claiming to be golf fitness experts.  Much of this comes from widely known screening methods that have linked body dysfunction to specific golf swing faults.  For example, they might claim that having tight hip rotator muscles would limit your ability to fire the hips, post correctly in the backswing, or finish with good rotation around your lead side during the golf swing. Potentially forcing a  sway or slide of the hips or another type of swing fault.  It sounds impressive, right??

Since I have been doing golf screens over the past 4 years, I have been able to collect my own data and also observe tendencies in how these functional movement screens actually relate to golf swing dysfunction.  I have performed Titleist Golf Specific Fitness screens on more than 300 golfers over this time and I can truly say that I have learned greatly.  I have found key tests that do correlate to golf swing dysfunction and have helped many golfers to understand the reasons why they could never quite correct those recurring faults.  The problem with all of this knowledge is the even greater understanding that no clear consensus exists on how to correct these faults in the golf swing by correcting the faults found in the golf movement screen.  The disconnect occurs because trainers and other so called experts are really only helping clients to perform better by “teaching to the test” so to speak.

So here’s the lowdown, go to the expert and get your diagnosis, perform the exercises and get better at taking the tests.  Truth be told, the only thing you are improving is your ability to perform the functional golf movement screen, not to hit the golf ball better as the pamphlet proclaimed.  This is the sole reason why as a professional, I am constantly looking for ways to actually integrate these physical improvements into the golf swing, not just fixing the screen.  If I cannot do this, then I am just another functional trainer.  By the way, what is a one arm push-up with feet elevated on a BOSU ball “functional” for?  If you answered, its functional for improving a “one arm push-up on a BOSU ball”, you might be enlightened.

Alright, lets clear this up.  I am not a “hater”, I just want people to understand that true golf performance is much more than correcting the poor movement patterns.  Most will not discuss this part because they have not really taken the time and effort to work with golf teaching professionals and experts on the golf swing to learn ways to “integrate” physical attributes into golf swing improvements.  This is truly the missing link with most trainers and experts.  I am proud to say that I have spent hundreds of hours shadowing Top 100 golf swing teachers as well as many local pros.  In this time, I have designed and learned specific drills that are blends of swing drills and physical drills which truly help to integrate and synchronize movement for golf performance.  You will not find these drills on youtube or even on TPI.  The reason for this is that it would be irresponsible for me to post specific, special drills for generic purposes.  Only my clients will benefit from these drills and they can attest to the specific golf swing improvements made by adding these drills to there daily regimen.  This fall, I will be starting new programs that will truly help golfers to get better at golf, not at functional screening tests.  I am ready to do this because of the years of research and study that I have performed and will continue to perform.  So if you are really interested in getting better at golf, meet with me this Fall to begin your real golf fitness and performance training.  In the meantime, keep working on perfecting those functional screen corrective exercises, because we now know what they are actually “functional” for.  Thanks for reading, see you soon

In Health,

Scott Shepard MSPT CSCS

Just a note on competition and the skills needed to succeed in sports and life.  At age 32, not exactly an expert on anything, in fact I strive to never be called an expert at anything except for being an expert in telling myself the truth and following my purpose in life.  The reason for this is that achieving expert status usually means that you are done and cannot progress any further in that area.  I cannot work in that static environment, I need change and need room to grow, I need to believe that there is always more.  With that being said I do know this, being competitive is extremely important in sports.  Competitors are people who know what they want and have a vision of materializing their goals. 

In my field athletes are always comparing themselves to each other in terms of their relative strength, flexibility, speed, etc.  I get the question, “How many times can he do that or how much can she lift on this exercise?” on a daily basis.  Rarely, does anyone ask me about others “competitiveness”.  When I take a look at my clients competitive spirit in the gym, I have found a direct correlation to their on course success levels.  Competitors in the gym are always more difficult to work with, they ask lots of questions and really try to challenge you daily.  They are not afraid of this conflict, they simply use it to shape their opinions and grow stronger.  They do this because the truly care about winning and achieving their goals and they know that the answers to their problems are usually found within, they just need some external resources to help bring light to the issues and create solutions.  On the other side, there are many athletes that just want to hear your opinion and then they will follow your instructions by doing no more or no less than required.  Sometimes they seem disinterested in the workout, maybe they believe this facet of their golf game will not be greatly effected by working out or maybe they just do not really care about improving, so why bother even formulating an opinion.  Either way, they probably think that if they fail to ask questions and then never succeed, then at least they can blame others.  It is my opinion that those who desire to formulate an opinion are the “competitors” and will always have more control over there destiny in life and sports.  The most successful people I know do not allow me to just direct them anyway I desire without some discussion as to the rationale.  Although they may not get me to change my course of action, that was never the point, they just desire to understand and that is the essence of having control. 

John Wooden, the great basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins and winner of many NCAA championships said, ”At the end of the game only you know who has won or has lost the competition” That statement is all about getting people to be real, and to tell themselves the truth.  No matter what the score, you know if you won or lost because you know if you lived up to or fell short of your goals.  Winners and competitors are never afraid of losing, only afraid of not being able to learn from the losses and that is why over time they will always rise again to success.  They are fearless, not because of any birth right, but because of an overwhelming desire to achieve their purpose.  Cultivating an overwhelming desire to achieve my purpose is definitely a daily goal of mine and one worthy of becoming an expert.  In Health, Scott   

Just a quick note to congratulate Coach Christa Teno for receiving an award for her accomplishments as the Head Womens Golf Coach at Seminole Community College.  Coach Teno was awarded the SouthEast Coach of the Year by the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Membership. 

Coach Teno has really started the program on the right path by recruiting a great squad and making the most of relationships in the community.  I am proud to have provided my services to the team by developing a golf specific fitness program that the team is using to get stronger for the upcoming season.  The team has performed well and finished the last season in 4th place nationally.  Coach Teno has done a great job for the team and is well deserving, especially with the limited resources that are provided on a community college level.  Again, congrats to Coach Teno and the SCC Womens Golf Team!!

Hope everyone is doing well and seing forward progress in their golf performance and overall health.  As I continue to read and research various health and fitness topics, I have come across an interesting and sometimes dangerous trend.  Basically there are a lot of trainers out there that seem to believe that they can propel their career and status as an expert by essentially trashing older training techniques and advocating new, improved functional exercise methods.  Many are actually going as far as claiming that old techniques are dangerous and are contributing to injuries in their clients.  Of course at the same time they are claiming that new techniques are the answer and that these methods are safer. 

Ok scott, so whats the big deal??  Well, the big deal is that most of these claims are unfounded and not based on any real research.  They are simply just e-pinions, which is the information ages version of an opinion.  Let face it, these days everyone is an expert on something and most of this has been created by blogs like this one which give someone a format to express opinions on whatever they want and then claim their expertise in that area.  This is problem when we express our views as fact without ever fully researching the topic. 

So heres an example, I found an article called, “How not to Train” on a popular training website that was discussing core stabilization training and dynamic warm-up exercises for sports performance.  While I agree with many things stated in the article, I disagree with the overall reasoning.  Basically this trainer would breakdown an exercise and explain why this movement is not good for warm-up and potentially dangerous for the body.  My problem is that he based his decision on excluding this exercise on limited research, sometimes stating that he used to do these exercises until he read this ”one article criticizing the movement” and then he immediately eliminated the exercise from his programs.  Thus making him an expert not because of what he does as a trainer, but solely because of what he does not do.  Interesting…

Ok, heres my newsflash to all who train by elimination.  First, lets make sure we are removing things based on real, consistent and valid science.  Not just one article or opinion that says this movement is bad for us.  I realize that many trainers have never analyzed real research reports and do not understand how to critically analyze these studies.  I recommend that you make sure to read the section on “limitations to the study” to help determine if we really need to accept everything being said.  Secondly,  lets remember that we are sports trainers.  Sports by their nature are not exactly good for the body, in fact they are often very harmful in terms of the movements that are required.  If we simply look at the movements in the golf swing we will see that based on these trainers recommendations, this would sport would need immediate elimination.  In fact, maybe we should all just get our bubbles out and get back inside.  Yeah, thats the answer.

So what is the answer?  In my e-pinion, trainers need to prepare their clients bodies for sport.  This requires an analysis of the movements needed for this sport and then a program that will prepare the body for these movements in a safe, progressive manner.  So if we can gradually warm up the body for these movements, then maybe we will be ready by the time we take that first high velocity swing.  If we avoid all potentially stressful movements, then why warm-up at all.  In fact save your money on a trainer, sports coach and a gym membership and just avoid any potentially stressful movements.  Wrong!! 

In summary, lets train for all the necessary movements in a safe manner with gradual progression of load on affected tissues and joints.  It’s really that simple.  If you are really worried about placing stress on your body, you probably should not be participating in sports anyways.  Well thats it, you know what they say about e-pinions, “they are like blogs, everyone has one!!”

Quick post and congrats to client Seon Hwa Lee for winning another LPGA event this past weekend at the     P & G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship.  Seon won the tournament by hitting her approach on the last hole to about 3 feet and making the birdie putt.  Once again she has shown her ability to manage the golf course perfectly and play well under intense pressure.  I will discuss one of the keys to her doing this so well in my next post.  This win places her 5th on the LPGA money list for 2008 and pushes her over $3 million in career earnings in only 3 years.  I am very proud of her, not only for winning, but for the way she truly never gave up in these events.  This is a perfect example of the saying that if you keep working on the right things, eventually good things will happen.  Good things are happening, that is for sure.  Congrats Seon!!   

I would like to discuss golf related injuries in light of the stories this past week about Tiger Woods and his left knee problems.  I enjoyed the fact that Tiger did not focus on the injury in his post-round interviews and try to use it as a play to further sensationalize his US Open win.  Let’s face it, the large majority of golfers are currently or have previously dealt with injuries that affected their ability to play the game.  Many players like Fred Couples and Davis Love III have been limited by back problems for most of their careers.  As Tiger said, sports are not usually good to the body.  Plus, I think he would have played this one in a bubble if he had to, its Torrey Pines and he rarely loses there. 

In Golf, we see major stress placed on the wrist, shoulders, neck/back, and other areas.  This stress occurs during prolonged practice as well as during each individual swing due to the nature of the positions the body is placed in and the forces that the body must absorb during the movements.  So what can we do to avoid injuries?  Well, if I had that answer, this would be a pay-site, not free.  I could easily tell you that if you warm-up, stretch, and exercise appropriately you will avoid injuries, but that would be misleading trainer talk.  None of these alone have been scientifically proven to avoid injuries.  Obviously I find all of this important as a part of a program that reduces injury potential and improves sports performance, but avoidance of injury includes much more than we currently know. 

While I believe that total avoidance is impossible, I think that most injuries occur because of three main reasons.  I call it, “Too Much, Too Fast, and Too Soon.”  In “Too Much” we see the athlete attempting to perfect their swing with endless hours of practice which inevitably leads to overuse injuries such as tendinitis, as well as muscle imbalances and postural dysfunction.  In “Too Fast” we see the athlete attempting a movement or skill that they cannot correctly perform due to limitations in strength, mobility, or simply technical understanding.  This is the classic mismatch between physical and technical skill and often leads to injury from trauma when attempting to swing out of your shoes or perform a difficult shot that is technically challenging.  Finally, in “Too Soon” we see the athlete attempting to return to the sport after an injury that has not fully recovered.  In this case the athlete delays the healing or causes re-injury due to playing the sport when their body is not fully ready to perform all of the movements required.  This was obviously the case this past weekend with Tiger because no one should be playing with that much pain.  But I hear you, he won didn’t he?  Yes he did win this time and I fully inderstand why he could not miss playing this open at Torrey Pines, but seriously are the stakes ever that high for the rest of us.  Probably not the case and so we are better off listening to our body and returning only when fully prepared.

So if we can follow the guidelines of proper warm-up and conditioning for golf as well as asking the three questions, “Is it Too Much, Too Fast, or Too Soon?” then I believe we are doing all we can to lower our risk of injury or re-injury and maximize our chance of playing the sport for many years to come.  So thats my magical injury prevention secret, and if that doesn’t work, I know a good physical therapist that can help you. 

In Health, Scott 

Just a note on client Cameron Barrett who just traveled to East Lothian, Scotland to play in the first ever US Kids European Golf Championship.  The event was for boys and girls under age 14 and over 500 kids were invited from 35 countries.  Cameron played in the 9 year old group and finished 19th place with a final round of 75 including a remarkable drive that reached the green on the 17th hole, a downhill par-4 of 265 yards.  Conditions were less than perfect with temperatures dropping to 48 degrees and winds up of 30-40 mph.  Not exactly kilt wearing weather.  The trip included a visit to the Old Course at St. Andrews where some of the photos were taken.  I think Cameron is the first person to ever perform golf-specific exercises on the famous Swilken bridge at the Old Course.  By the way, any exercises actually performed on the golf course are considered to be deemed golf-specific by nature of the location performed according to golf fitness bylaws, example push-up on practice tee is golf-specific.  Seriously, check out the form though, it’s no wonder he is bombing drives.  Congrats again to Cameron and I look forward to a bright future for him!    

Just a quick note and congratulations to Seon Hwa Lee for winning the LPGA’s Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika. Seon won in a playoff against LPGA Hall of Famer Karrie Webb. Seon was brilliant on the final day posting a 5-under par 67, which was the best score of the day. This is a great win against one of the best fields all season.

Seon and I have been working together for the last three years and I am extremely proud to be part of her team, along with her swing coach Mike Bender and Caddie John Wilkes. If you have never heard of Seon, she was the 2006 LPGA Rookie of the Year and is now a three time winner on the LPGA. She finished in the top ten on the LPGA money list last year and is currently 4th on the money list for the 2008 season after this victory. Seon is a great all around player and continues to improve technically and physically each year. She is an extremely hard worker on the range and in the gym. At her level she must practice golf all day and then workout for up to two hours everyday as well. I am very proud of her accomplishments and the way she carries herself as a professional.

This win also automatically qualifies Seon for the season ending ADT Championship at Trump International in West Palm Beach. That means she has a chance at the one million dollar winners purse for this event! This is definitely one of the most exciting events in sports and I recommend attending it if possible, I have been with Seon at the ADT for the last two years and this year we hope to make it to the final 8 players on Sunday for a chance at winning.

Again, congrats to Seon Hwa Lee, a true champion!!

These days if you listen to all the “experts” advice on the way to live you will struggle to make it through your day without complete exhaustion. And then after all this, I want you to exercise for golf and read my blog. The number one rule for for me is to be realistic about our commitment to exercise. If you are busy with family, work, school, golf practice, and other commitments then you need to be as specific as possible with your program. “ROI” means return on investment and I tell my clients that I always want them to perform exercises that have high ROI specifically for them and their weaknesses. So speaking generally as an example, the male golfers I work with would have high ROI if they spent time daily working on hip and torso mobility to improve their ability to consistently get in good positions during the swing. This is why the movement screen that I perform is so important. You have to know what your weaknesses are and the attack those areas on a consistent basis for optimal results.

One of my biggest problems is that I sometimes enjoy building exercise programs too much and I have to remind myself that I have to keep it simple. So I want to recommend some methods that allow you to simplify your workout program and save time. First, compound exercises are always most efficient. These are exercises that hit more than one body movement at a time, for example performing a deep squat or lunge and then pressing dumbbells overhead (squat to press) at the top of the move. If you perform these exercises you can work upper and lower body simultaneously and save time. Second, always work on full range of motion exercises. The more range that you can move through, the better because now you are strengthening and stretching at the same time. This is the reason why I like bands and cable column exercises versus sit-down machines that limit motion capability. Lastly, use your own bodyweight as much as possible. Bodyweight exercises are great because all the equipment you need is you. You can work on stability and mobility by performing exercises such as deep squats, multiple plane lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, and various planks. So anyone who says they have no time is wrong, you can perform this combo including 12 deep squats, 12 front/back lunges, 12 side lunges, 12 push-ups, 12 pull-ups, three 12 second planks with varying points of contact, and three 12 second hold bridges in about five minutes total time. Do this 3-4 times throughout your day and you will see improvements in overall strength and flexibility with minimal time commitments.

So in conclusion, lets redefine traditional exercise recommendations from “experts” that have us feeling the need to spend hours in the gym which is not realistic for most of us. By the way, this is also why your gym membership is probably not worth the cost. I workout at home with equipment such as dumbbells, bands, swiss ball, medicine ball, and a few other fun options such as a TRX, which is a bodyweight training device (fitnessanywhere.com) and an xiser (xiser.com) for cardio/conditioning. So be realistic about your commitment level and get a program that is efficient and specific to your body. Hogan said about the golf swing, “The secret is in the dirt”, I will say that the secret to health and fitness “is inside you”. Alright, no more reading, It’s Go Time!

In Health, Scott

In light of the recent explosion of golf specific fitness, I would like to comment on my personal beliefs on training golfers. Golf, like all sports, requires a certain amount of physical skill to allow for optimum performance. Golf, unlike many sports, can be played and enjoyed for a lifetime. With that being stated, I feel that training golfers is similar to training other sports in the sense that your workouts need to focus on increasing muscular flexibility/joint mobility, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, core stability, balance, and explosive power capability. However, golf training is unique in the sense that we have to focus more on long term health than we do on short term gains. Let’s face it, football players can play into their late 30’s/early 40’s only if they are lucky or cheating. Obviously, the physical contact of the sport is the main factor for this body breakdown, however many of the explosive training methods add to this deterioration.

Recently, top athletic training centers have recognized this and are now focusing on spending more time working on recovery methods and mobilization exercises that actually allow the body to heal after intense workouts and prolonged sports practice. I believe strongly in this recovery training and I make sure that all of my clients are incorporating these methods into their program. I use these exercises to improve recovery from hours of practice and play that result in consistent patterns of muscular imbalance in the body. Whether you play golf or work in a factory, your body does not respond well to prolonged stressful positions and this is why my workouts are designed to correct these imbalances first and foremost. Only after we correct these imbalances can we progress the program to challenge the athlete appropriately. I like the quote thats states, “would you rather train for an apparent change or a lasting change”. Only by addressing the imbalances and stressors present in the body can we truly allow for lasting change to occur.

Remember this when your trainer is putting you through the latest and greatest “golf specific” exercises, because if the program does not take proper recovery into account then you will eventually breakdown. Obviously we are all breaking down slowly as we read this post, but in golf, those who breakdown last get to play the most. Isn’t that the goal anyways, to play and enjoy this game, Good Luck, Scott. Don’t try this one!