Olympic athletes training vs Golfers

I have thought for a while that golfers are seriously behind the athletes in terms of training, monitoring/managing themselves and general quality of their work.

If you take the olympic athlete they train and have measures on everything they do, this allows them to set targets/train towards these and monitor/learn from their training. They also tend to train harder/smarter and be a lot more exact with everything e.g they know exactly what they eat/drink and when they do it, they know exactly what they do!!

Not many golfers approach the game like this in all the areas. I made the decision this winter to take this approach as much as I can. It will require time to incorporate and reach the top level but I am convinced it is the way the game will end up, and also that it is the way to achieve my goals.

A good week despite our wonderful English weather!!

Well the winter is definitely here, this week ice cold winds and rain made outdoor practice very testing, that said I did brave the storm on 2 of the days and got some great practice done! (even if my balls did dissapear in a pond on the chipping green!!)

Luckily though all was not lost as I have recently joined Clays golf centre in Wrexham. This is a fantastice facility especially for this time of year. The facilities on offer include a great driving range with ‘good’ golf balls, a superb wedge play area with 3 target greens, a chipping/short game area and best of all and indoor putting green where you can practice putts up to 40ft without the wind and rain!

Also this week saw me catch up with my coach Mark Pearson and De Vere Oulton Hall, it was good to see progress is being made in the areas we targeted and we’re looking to push on and keep up the good work!

Overall I have continued to put in the hours this week and can see improvements coming in my game already, I look forward to another good week of work!

EGU Training Woodhall Spa

This week saw the England ‘A’ Squad meet up again at Woodhall Spa for 4 days training. This is the final session before the squad gets trimmed to 12 players who then go on for further training at Arcos Gardens in Spain in the new year + performance camps at various tournaments next season French Amateur etc…

The 4 days saw us meet up with all the coaches/physio/psychologist/physiologist/manager to discuss how things were going and continue work. Despite having my own ‘team’ the additional info and help are of great benefit.

There were all sorts of comps set up and as usual it was a good week!

I have performed well at all the training camps so hopefully I should be in the final 12  and maybe the 6 man team who compete at Costa Ballena in the New Year.

 

15th November

More of the same this week for me as I continue with ‘Red’ training, this means focusing hard on technical changes/working hard in the gym. To give you an idea this is what a typical day is for me at the moment, I haven’t included specifically what drills but those at the club will have seen me doing them!

6AM Up and mobility exercises

8AM Short game technique practice/drills (chips/pitchs/lobs/bunker)

9 30 AM Wedge Play technique (30-80Y)

10 30 AM Long Game technique and drills

12 Noon Lunch

12 30 PM Putting Technique and drills

1 30 PM Pre Shot Routine practice for Long game, wedge play, short game and putting

3 00 PM Gym either Cardio/Strength work + mobility exercises again

4 30 PM Home and Indoor putting technique work

5 30 PM Mental exercises/review of day

Aswell as this I try and have a few days where I get out on the course to play and do more ‘performance’ based drills, that said my priority this time of year is to work on the technique changes so they are ready for the coming season.

Tonight I am up at Woodhall Spa for England training with the squad till Thursday, should be good and will report back to you next week!

End of week 8th Nov

As mentioned this week began well for me with the EGU A squad performance camp at RLGC, after that nothing too exciting to report, loft and lies checked (if you don’t do it regularly you should!) and some fresh grips for the clubs (thank you Conor at golf pride!). Then it was the usual practice which at the moment is focusing on technique changes. I am also looking at joining Clays a very good setup to practice in the winter and tried out the great facilities the other day (a stunning wedge play area and indoor putting green are the best bits!) Today saw the week finish for me by playing at RLGC in the winter league, the play is of a very good standard with 34 players off 6 or less playing a matchplay format. I feel this is a good way for me to stay comepetitive through the winter, not a great start though 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss (to a complete bandit!) Looking forward to a full week of practice starting tomorrow!

England Performance Comp at RLGC

I made a short trip down the road to Royal Liverpool Golf Club for the latest England ‘A’ Squad camp. With the Brabazon Trophy played there next year it was a good chance for everyone to get to know the course (although I think I knew it quite well already!).

The main event was an 18 hole strokeplay competition round, with strong 3-4 club winds it was going to present a tough test! The winner would recieve a trip to play in the Finnish Amateur next season.

For me it was good prepartion for the Brabazon in that I had a trial run of dealing with the high expectations and pressure that comes with being a strong favourite! After a shaky start +3 through 3 I then played the remaining holes in -2 for a very good score of +1 73 in the testing conditions.

When all the results were in I finished tied for 1st but won on a countback and now look forward to Finland next year!

Training week

The serious work of winter training is now fully in motion! This week saw me have a good session with my coach Mark Pearson to get the ball rolling, there are a few changes technically that I am looking to make between now and christmas which I feel will improve my game to the next level. Fitness wise I have started back up in the gym with this week featuring on cardio and mobility exercises before bringing in some strength work in the next week. This week also saw me on the course at Oulton Hall playing in a pro am with Danny Belch, my coach and Danny’s manager Andy Lloyd. We played well but didn’t finish among the prizes.

Next week sees me in an England training camp at Royal Liverpool! Not to far to travel for a change!

A squad training camp

The England ‘A’ Squad met up at Woodhall Spa this week for 3 days of training. Personally I have never been a great fan of these sessions but I have to say that these 3 days were fun, very beneficial and absolutely brilliant! All of the guys and coaching team are great and there is a fantastic atmopshere to the sessions, the coaching is very individual and there were also some challenges making for a good competitive element! All areas from hydration and fitness to technique to performance games were covered with some fantastic coaches and I think we all left Woodhall fired up and ready to grind hard!

Winter Training

After a good bit of time assessing my game with use of stats and discussions with my coaches I have now got a good plan in place for the winter period. Goals have been set for next season and the periods between now and the start of the season, these are set high but there is not doubt that with a bit of ‘Rocky’ inspired training and focus that my game can improve and challenge for these targets next year. Looking forward to putting in the work and elevating my game to the next level! It is my aim to update each week if possible to keep you in the know and share some thoughts!

Looking Back

The season is now at a close and the real hard work now begins! After spending a lot of time pouring over my stats for the season and thinking about what can be better I have produced my ‘improvement plan’ for the winter the finishing touches will be added to this when I meet up with my coaches in the next week and then I can kill myself in the gym and on the range for the next few months!

Coming into this season I had high hopes and a great chance of making all of the England Boys teams. After some decent finishes I missed out on the 1st of these teams before I put in a couple more good finishes but again fell a place shy of the team, at times my game struggled but I still kept up a very good matchplay record for the county and after winning the northern counties boys I looked good for making the Home Ints team, the following week I suffered with the draw and even a good 2nd round couldn’t stop me missing the cut by one, I had hoped that my performance the year before coupled with a good matchplay record and win the week before would see me included but yet again I was left out the side. This kind of summed up the frustrating year I was having where despite not playing bad I struggled to score and produce the high results I was looking for. Probably one of my best performances of the year came in the British Boys 2nd round against Open silver medalist Italian Matteo Mannaserro round a tough course I produced some stunning shots (as did he!) but came just short to lose by 1 hole. (If a match summed up the season!!)

Despite this I believe there are plenty of positives from the year and I have gained a lot of valuable experience which will help me in the long term. I had a very good win and performance at Ganton, a pretty good defence of my title at Fairhaven, was unbeaten for my county at both boys and men’s level, set a course record at my club Royal Liverpool and won every time I played there! Results aside I feel I’ve improved in many areas of my game and gained some great experience along the way, I am dissapointed at being left out of some of the England sides but at the end of the day I can’t control what selectors think!! Thankfully my goals do not revolve around selections and my target is the European tour where If you play well you get on it!!!  I look forward to the hard work this winter which will pull me a few steps closer to that goal.