Instant Replay, I Said
A day on TOUR can be long for a player: morning warm up and practice round followed by more practice at the range, in the bunker, and on the putting green. Meetings with agents, media, problems with clubs, problems with the hotel, dinners etc.etc.etc. Add to this mix the time needed for fitness and/or injury treatment and suddenly the whole day is gone nearly as quickly as it began. Where did the time go?
The last thing any one needs is a waste of valuable time whether you’re a professional golfer or a professional business person. In the world of fitness training here enters the important training protocol of ‘Specific Adaptations to Implied Demands’ or SAID principle. Simply put, the SAID principle holds that your body will adapt specifically to whatever demands you place upon it. Let’s say you’d like better balance. Then the most important work for you are balance activities. Or maybe strength and speed of movement are your priorities. Here again components of your program need to specifically reflect these wishes. The theory holds the closer your training resembles your sport the more directly it will enhance it.
The common thread to all possible fitness training regimens is time: all components require time for training. Great, the one thing we all seem to be short of these days…time. So for the most efficient training or the biggest bang for time unit spent, an exercise plan that is organized and planned takes less time and is more effective at achieving one’s goals.
Generally, fitness components are trained separately from a sport’s skill components. Enhanced fitness aspects are then added to the skilled maneuver on the range or the course. For instance, a specific treadmill protocol is used in the fitness setting to improve endurance and breathing recovery on the course. The power gains made with a medicine ball routine done in the gym are translated to a more powerful swing on the range as the player skillfully learns to use the new strength. These are results of SAID. One of the bigger efforts in low back rehabilitation is to re-establish the normal timing between small muscles near the spine with body movements. Using the SAID principle in rehab situations becomes even more important as it speeds the return of skilled movement patterns. A new tool has been especially helpful here as it can deliver, in a controlled environment, all the necessary forces to stimulate a specific response. to training.
Dave Stockton Sr. is shown here demonstrating an accelerated swing exercise with the INSTANT REPLAY Torso Belt and tubing system. (BackSystems 1-800-538-4811) Specific applications allow the tubing to assist the clearing of the lead hip as Dave swings through to a firm left side. Any excessive sliding at impact will show itself as a loss of balance initially with the system. In fact, any loss of control of the body’s center of gravity will be felt immediately as the system accelerates the torso through the swing. Simply reversing the system allows for resisted swing training. So here is an activity that uses the swing pattern (high specificity) yet has easily controlled resistance to apply just the right demand upon healing tissue or motor learning.
However, when swinging poorly, some TOUR players tend to get their hips through too fast. If this is the case, the REPLAY is attached to the shoulder girdle (not shown) instead of the hips and accelerates or resists the upper body. As an adjunct to spinal rehabilitation, both methods are used effectively on TOUR hand in hand with the SAID principle