I hope my previous posts may have been inspirational, motivational or increased your know-how about the fundamental golf routine, the warming up.
During workshops, educational training sessions for professional teachers and my one on one coaching there’s one question I always receive:
“Coach, how long should I be warming up for?”
Well, it depends!
Below are the elements that make up a WU protocol:
length
volume
intensity
type of exercises
The individual factors that need to be taken into consideration are:
Time of day and jetlag
Outdoor temperature
Previous and current injuries
Current lifestyle
Level of fitness and handicap (this also includes movement capacity of course, which is something that I regularly test through TPI screening as a coach within my long term athletic programs, since changes over time happen as the body adapts, grows, and ages and goes through the cycles of competitive golf seasons.
Current and desired mental-emotional state
Now, that level of detail, optimisation and personalisation is a pre-requisite at the highest levels of professional and amateur golf.
It’s what I love helping my experienced golfers with. Building onto a strong foundation and leveraging their competitive edge while tripling their fulfilment on and off the course as they level up their performance.
But don’t be discouraged.
What matters is that you start !!
What matters is that you begin with a dynamic warming up, like the one instructed in my Fundamental Routines, which, btw, has been practiced by thousands of golfers!
Lastly, I wish for you to avoid these common roadblocks:
Thinking that if you don’t have an extensive fancy-looking WU routine, it doesn’t really matter, or that there’s no point in doing a simple-minimalistic yet super effective version anyway.
Expecting too much, too soon: I strongly believe that my dynamic WU will make you experience your swing and first holes in a completely new way. However, recreational golfers often think that if we are on top of our game, then we are going to see drastic changes that last. That’s not how it works. It requires consistency.
Failing to regularly reflect on your routine. Check in with your golf performance trainer or coach.
Force feeding your buddies, lol ;) They may be resistant to WU because you may be asking them to abandon an idea or value that they strongly hold to be true. As their friend, the best thing you can do is set an example yourself (they’ll notice it whether they tell you or not!) AND forward them to a place where they have access and receive education, inspiration or insights, such as a teacher or coach or my Fundamental Routines.
For athletes, I hope you take this to heart:
if the coach doesn’t set time for you to go through a full warm up (which can be something very common in team settings),
Just remember that it’s still possible and okay to warm up.
It is in fact your responsibility.
What you can do to take things in your own hands is showing up earlier.
Just do whatever you need to do to be ready to swing with 100% intent.
You desire your swing to be and feel explosive, effortless and powerful right?
Then warm up for it.
Get it done.
Just a few years back, not even the best players in Europe had a consistent WU routine and were lacking the understanding of what preparation works best for their performance.
An effective WU routine differs per athlete depending on many individual factors like I shared above.
One of those factors is how a golfer mentally feels (and wants to feel) pre-game.
Ask yourself:
do I need to be calmed down or ramped up before tournaments?
That answer actually tells you the level of CNS potentiating work/volume to incorporate into the WU.
Within your pre tournament preparation, be mentally and physically prepared for when things might not be going as planned.
Plan for the best scenario.
Also plan for the worst scenarios.
The latter can come from uncontrollable outside factors but also from your body-mind.
In depth quality preparation breeds confidence.
Of course you can always ask for help.
I’m confident that your golf performance coach will automatically tailor your routine so that it matches your unique movement capabilities/requires & goals while also educating you about it.
Train anywhere without any equipment with my online training plans.
Keep Strong!
Liesbeth Pauwels
Ps. I'm so excited to kick off a transformational high performance journey with 3 new amazing golfers in April! The next opportunity to have me and my programming as a part of your success strategy for the new season will be in May. There's an open international application with no strings attached which you can fill out here if you want transformation and performance.