Muscular Endurance for a Strong Finish

January 5, 2008

Ever reached the 18th tee needing a par or better to break your all-time record? Ever made bogey, double bogey, or worse? Some golfers will instantly start blaming their golf swing. Others will insist that they are world-renowned choke artists. And certainly, either could be partly to blame. But how many times have you heard a golfer say, “I’m just not in good enough shape?”

Muscular endurance is defined as the ability of your muscles to perform repetitions of low to medium resistance over a long period of time. Let’s figure out how many times you repeat the motion of swinging the golf club during a single day at the golf course.

Say you hit a small bucket of balls before your round. That’s 45 swings minimum before you’ve ever stepped foot on the golf course. You are a pretty decent golfer, so you manage to shoot a score of 85. Let’s say, out of those 85 shots, about 45 of them were full swings. And let’s pretend that you take one practice swing as part of your pre-shot routine.

So during a single round, you’ve made 135 repetitions of the golf swing. And that’s assuming no practice swings on the driving range, only one practice swing before each shot, and no practice swings while waiting for the group ahead of you.

So by the time you’ve gotten to the 18th tee, you’ve made over 100 swings already. Your arms and hands have moved entire weight and length of the club over 100 times, your legs have supported over 100 torque-driven rotations around your spine, and your spine…well, your spine has bent over for atleast twice as many shots, not to mention carrying the full weight of a golf bag or being a shock absorber for those wonderfully smooth golf cart rides.

Normally, I would say that there are no shortcuts in the game of golf. I would probably say that if you want to improve your stamina, you need to work out, hit balls, stretch, and work out some more.

But in this case, I am making an exception. Because there is a shortcut, and it is one that will significantly help your stamina throughout your round. In addition, it’s something that I see a lot of golfers doing, and it’s really, really easy. Simply take less practice swings.

Written by John at 6:39 pm. Fitness