Several members of our staff recently attended a Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) level-one certification conference in Orlando, Florida. TPI has made a significant impact on fitness through their presence on The Golf Channel. I speak from ignorance on their course content, but not on their approach. They perform extensive muscle testing to detect leaks in golf's movement chain and then address the leaks by strengthening and stretching where needed. No one can argue with that approach. It makes sense. Many golfers can't reach ideal swing positions because of movement leaks, leaving their pros a lousy deck of cards. So, all is fine in the kingdom.
It's the strength solution that aches. Stretching suggestions and methods are cookie-cutter; any of them can get you from A to B. Not so with the strength component. Need to strengthen a hamstring muscle or the back of the arm? Do it. Isolate the muscle, strengthen it to its max and stick it back in the movement. Nautilus inventor, Arthur Jones addressed the issue years ago:
1. Identify the muscles you need in your sport.
2. Strengthen them the best way you can, independent of how they're to be used.
3. Plug your new strength into action in the only way possible, by practice of the sport itself.
Simple, logical, typically brilliant and physiologically sound from both perspectives - strength and skill training. According to TPI, however, a muscle must be strengthened as part of a chain because that's how the body works during the golf swing. Nothing isolated, nothing performed with your feet off the ground and other assorted bunk - to set things on the right path. Right? And then spread the opinion with the power to distribute, to influence - TV. Stir people up. Excite trainers with another tool. (I was associated with a successful golf program in Jupiter, Florida. Our opinion reaped $180,000 in three months without TV. Sure, I'm jealous.)
Bottom line: Muscles can't reach their strength potential if worked in a chain or compound movement - unless they are the weak link in that chain - the same problem with most barbell exercises. The large muscles of the torso and legs could not reach their strength potential because there was no way to work them directly or with a resistance that challenged their full range of motion. Impossible, until Jones created the thinking-man's barbell, a device now rejected because golfer's legs don't reach the floor - a sin. Call me old-fashioned, but I can't see rubber tubing providing anywhere near the resistance needed for large muscle groups. Or a weighted ball replacing the barbell. But it has. Body weight is somehow enough, as it was 2,000 years ago. No golfer will reach his or her potential until they reach their strength potential. You can swim to Hawaii or take a jet. Most are swimming, and gladly; and coaches happily paddling the boat. Hell, they're employed.
To add insult to injury, the leading programs always sneak in the ultimate training technique for athletes, plyometrics. TPI is no exception. Once you begin performing plyometric activities, you know you're ready. Ready to climb to the top. I won't waste the paper on either plyometrics or functional training.
The TPI approach is commercially attractive, rewarding. Mine is not. When the swimming program looks like the wrestling, football and golf programs, heads turn - the other way. Everyone wants to feel special regardless of what they do. Doing something has become the "thing." The means has become the end.
I speak from ignorance on TPI course content, and plan to remain that way. But I won't be silent on their approach. Most athletes are getting a result, not the best result, a result. Arthur would call it "a cryin' shame."
It's the strength solution that aches. Stretching suggestions and methods are cookie-cutter; any of them can get you from A to B. Not so with the strength component. Need to strengthen a hamstring muscle or the back of the arm? Do it. Isolate the muscle, strengthen it to its max and stick it back in the movement. Nautilus inventor, Arthur Jones addressed the issue years ago:
1. Identify the muscles you need in your sport.
2. Strengthen them the best way you can, independent of how they're to be used.
3. Plug your new strength into action in the only way possible, by practice of the sport itself.
Simple, logical, typically brilliant and physiologically sound from both perspectives - strength and skill training. According to TPI, however, a muscle must be strengthened as part of a chain because that's how the body works during the golf swing. Nothing isolated, nothing performed with your feet off the ground and other assorted bunk - to set things on the right path. Right? And then spread the opinion with the power to distribute, to influence - TV. Stir people up. Excite trainers with another tool. (I was associated with a successful golf program in Jupiter, Florida. Our opinion reaped $180,000 in three months without TV. Sure, I'm jealous.)
Bottom line: Muscles can't reach their strength potential if worked in a chain or compound movement - unless they are the weak link in that chain - the same problem with most barbell exercises. The large muscles of the torso and legs could not reach their strength potential because there was no way to work them directly or with a resistance that challenged their full range of motion. Impossible, until Jones created the thinking-man's barbell, a device now rejected because golfer's legs don't reach the floor - a sin. Call me old-fashioned, but I can't see rubber tubing providing anywhere near the resistance needed for large muscle groups. Or a weighted ball replacing the barbell. But it has. Body weight is somehow enough, as it was 2,000 years ago. No golfer will reach his or her potential until they reach their strength potential. You can swim to Hawaii or take a jet. Most are swimming, and gladly; and coaches happily paddling the boat. Hell, they're employed.
To add insult to injury, the leading programs always sneak in the ultimate training technique for athletes, plyometrics. TPI is no exception. Once you begin performing plyometric activities, you know you're ready. Ready to climb to the top. I won't waste the paper on either plyometrics or functional training.
The TPI approach is commercially attractive, rewarding. Mine is not. When the swimming program looks like the wrestling, football and golf programs, heads turn - the other way. Everyone wants to feel special regardless of what they do. Doing something has become the "thing." The means has become the end.
I speak from ignorance on TPI course content, and plan to remain that way. But I won't be silent on their approach. Most athletes are getting a result, not the best result, a result. Arthur would call it "a cryin' shame."
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