Strong Golfers, Not

I played golf the other day with a young man who hits the ball 300 yards plus. At 150 pounds, he gets the job done with a swing that is more efficient than mine. According to his instructor, Florida-based Jim McLean, James Fields generates his power by driving his legs and, of course, through the timing of that drive.

Jack Nicklaus would agree. I trained Mr. Nicklaus a handful of times . . . long enough to understand where he was coming from. Jack is convinced that power in golf comes from the ground up. One look at his legs would make anyone a believer.

Legs and leg drive are key.

So, what do we see. Last week, The Golf Channel aired a segment "Lessons with the Pros" with PGA professional Pat Perez, hardly a household name. During the program, his trainer presented a glimse into a philosophy that has taken the PGA Tour by storm: Core training, rotational movements and flexibility. What about legs? Furthermore, the application of this philosophy revealed nothing but bad form in everything shown - fast, explosive movements. Despite the fact that the stupidity of performing fast movements during exercise has been proven beyond a doubt, the practice has inundated every facet of sports. Golf is no exception.

Trainers who do work legs to help golf clients almost always select compound movements on the basis of their "functionality." More garbage. Compound movements fail to strengthen any muscle in the chain to a maximum degree. How can a leg function to its maximum if its front thigh muscle is not as strong as it could be? Or its hamstring is not as strong as it could be? Or its calf muscle? Or glute? Instead of using compound movements as the prime exercise, they should be used ONLY to complete a sequence of exercises that FIRST involves an isolated exercise for one of the major muscle groups mentioned. For example, a leg press that follows a leg extension would be more effective at stimulating change than a million lunges. A leg curl immediately followed by a heavy squat is superior to what functional trainers advocate.

Isolated, direct exercise for the major muscles of the legs is a MUST for an athlete to reach his or her strength potential. Not an opinion. A MUST. Check out the research. Use logic. But don't listen to the slew of idiots pushing what's trendy in the field of exercise. All the pros jumped in when they heard that Tiger Woods was "lifting weights." They all jumped in when they saw most of their peers performing "functional" training. And the trainers jumped in when they saw an easy buck.

The dumb leading the blind.

Good luck, Mr. Perez. Your only consolation: "You're not alone." And good luck to all "functional" training advocates who will NEVER reach their strength nor athletic potential. Nautilus inventor, Arthur Jones, summed it up more than 30 years ago when he said, "A stronger athlete is a better athlete." Most professionals on the PGA Tour are not doing a good job at getting strong. And they can thank their trainers.