I have a feeling there may be a lot of golfers out there. And I suspect just a few of them (read: most) are interested in improving theirs swing. And another small subset (read: large) are addicted to everything to do with golf. And that these people may just be interested to get a complete assessment of their swing, of the way they move without a golf club in their hand, and of the correlation between the limitations in the way they move and the problems they are having with their swing. And hopefully they will also be keen to do the few corrective exercises that will help them to improve their movement and their swing. I would think that those who don’t play as much as they want to because their back gets sore from a round of golf would be particularly keen on this.

I recently did a Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) assessment on a golfer friend of mine down in Massachusetts who gets up at 430 am every day to fit 9 holes in before work. Despite that incredible dedication to this game (addict?), he has struggled with low back pain of late, and his game has also been suffering somewhat. Take a look at what we found out from his assessment:
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Just back from the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Golf Fitness Instructor certification course, and since I’m a geek, I just had to try the swing assessment even though I’m still travelling. As part of the course, I have the results of my rotational movement assessment using the TPI screen; why not review some video of my swing and compare? As luck would have it, the cottage that I’m at actually has a set of golf clubs in the basement. I’m sure the owner won’t mind me taking an iron out onto the lawn. (Only one divot!)

The TPI assessment includes 11 tests and takes about 10 minutes. For non-golfers, I will integrate some of these tests into my current assessment that includes the Functional Movement Screen. For golfers, I will stick with the TPI screen combined with the swing 2 dimensional video assessment. Read more…

When I ask someone if they work out, a common response I hear is “Yes, I run three times a week”, or “yes, I play hockey twice a week and go skiing on weekends”, or “I play ultimate four times a week”. The list of options that people provide after the “yes” is endless, but more often than not, it does not include actual working out.

Participating in sports is good for you on so many levels: physically, socially, intellectually, and even emotionally. But can playing sports be deemed working out? Can you play sports to get in shape?

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For more ideas about training for skiing, check out the interview I did for the Ultraskier.com podcast.

Raise your hand if this sounds like you:

You book a great week-long ski vacation somewhere out west. Maybe Heavenly? Lake Louise? Whistler? You can’t stop thinking about knee deep powder, and 3,000+ vertical feet, and runs that take half an hour to ski down. Then you start thinking about that, and you remember the last ski vacation you took:

• Your legs were tired by lunchtime on the first day;
• You woke up on day 2 and they felt like cement pillars but you pushed through.
• Day 3 was more of the same, and Read more…