Entry 25.36

It’s that time of year again. We’ve been braving the last few months waiting for it to arrive. Pumpkin spice is back at Dunkin’s! O wait. That’s definitely not it. I can’t stand pumpkin spice in coffee. Coffee is supposed to be enjoyed black. Do you know why cream and sugar in coffee became a thing? When coffee first became popular, in the late 1500s and early 1600s, the only way to ship things long distances was by ship (and hence the term “to ship” something). Well produce doesn’t do great over long distances. And that’s technically what coffee beans are. Produce really doesn’t do well when exposed to sea water. And dry coffee beans are no exception. I don’t even want to entertain the idea of drinking a cup of coffee brewed after the beans were soaked in sea water. Moving on. So, if they didn’t ship dry coffee beans? How did they ship coffee? They would brew the coffee first, put it in wooden barrels, and then send it to Europe, the colonies, or other locations around the globe. Good coffee today doesn’t taste good after being brewed for very long so after months in the belly of a merchant ship traveling across the ocean, I’m sure it tasted just as bad as pumpkin spice coffee. I kid. Probably was more tolerable than pumpkin spice coffee. Sorry. I had to. Anyway, to make the coffee palatable, people would add cream and sugar. Voila! History lesson complete. Ok, so if pumpkin spice is not what we’ve been waiting for then it has to be football. I was really excited for professional football (not a college football fanatic) until about six seconds into the season. Watching the level of disrespect Jalen Carter had for Dak Prescott was a massive disappointment. Granted the next morning on ESPN I saw Dak spit in his direction first which only led to disappoint me even more. So, Jalon may have been baited by Dak. Who cares? His response was terrible. I don’t care how strong and deep your rivalry runs. Well, football wasn’t what we’ve all been waiting for anyway. Ok, it wasn’t what I was waiting for. What I was waiting for was the new students in the PGM program to start to show their “thing”. Every class has its own “thing”. The current seven-month interns definitely had one. As the president of the Methodist University Golf Association eloquently put it this week in our first meeting of the year “I’m not sure that Downback will ever see that much play again.” Now it wasn’t the entire class. But if asked, I’m sure just about everyone would agree that class loves to play golf. And they were a pretty tight-knit group. At least that is the dynamic that I saw. Granted it was a group of seven or eight that gave that class their identity. Individually each student in the class has their unique interests in the game but collectively they will be known for playing the game. A lot. So, with a new class, I was interested in what they were bringing to the table.

Granted we are a whopping three weeks into the semester. Their tale is far from being written. But already, a theme has emerged. I was a bit shocked honestly. Typically, once my lesson books opens for the semester it’s all about the golf swing. But this class surprised me. In a good way. No. In a great way! I’m still teaching a bunch of full swing lessons. Just not nearly as many as I expected to be. Last school year, I did twelve TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) assessments. That includes initial assessments and reevaluations. I’ve done ten initial assessments already this semester. I have two more scheduled. In the first month of school, I will reach the same number of assessments I did last year. Maybe because last year it was new. Well newish. My predecessor was TPI level 1 certified. I know he did some assessments. But I don’t know how many students knew that it was an option. I know I introduced the Power/Fitness assessment to the program. Seeing so many students interested in their health and fitness is really exciting for me. Is that going to be their “thing”? Again, far too early to tell.

We definitely can’t say that health and fitness in golf is a new thing. Well, as long as the game has been around it’s relatively new. I think it could be tied back to the Tiger phenomena. He just changed the game in so many ways. This is one of them. A Golfweek article from 2018 gives some insight into his daily regimen from the early 2000s (Tiger Wood’s Old Daily Training Routine Will Leave You Breathless by Bill Speros). Four-mile run followed by lifting in the gym. Then he hit balls for two or three hours. Just warming up for the round that followed. Which he followed up with short game work. Then another four-mile run. That’s more in one day than many of you will run this year. Follow up that cardio with some more in the form of tennis or basketball. Sleep. Repeat. No wonder he was so dominant. He was an animal. These days though? He wouldn’t be the only one in the gym. Far from it. Golf fitness is now an established part of the game at the professional level. Now I’m not saying that they are gym rats. Watching Joel Dahmen in Full Swing definitely proves differently. I love that dude. I hope he continues to fight and scrap for his card for years to come. He’s so good for the game. Now we have products and services like GolfForever. Bringing golf fitness to the average golfer. If you are looking for an option and don’t know where to start, I highly recommend it. Is it the best thing out there? Nope. Having a personal trainer who builds a personalized plan and is in the gym with you for every workout is probably better but it’s so expensive. I did GolfForever for quite a while. It is challenging. I still use some of the exercises not only in my own workouts, but also to help players with feels for their swings. GolfForever donated one of their warmup stations to the PGM program and I paid for another one. Last summer I took TPI Level 1 (Golf pros, fitness pros and medical pros all start here), Level 2 golf, Level 2 Power, and Level 2 Fitness. An overload of information that I still go back to review. In fact, TPI came out with a brand new Level 2 Fitness this year and I am currently going through that class. Fitness is a part of the game that is here to stay and while I’m definitely not a fitness professional, I believe having that knowledge will make me a better teacher and coach.

I do have my limits though. Since I am not a fitness professional, I control what I will and won’t do. I won’t make you a fitness plan. It’s just not in my wheelhouse. Being TPI certified helps me in that arena. After a Level 1 assessment, the TPI program builds you a routine based on your results. It does the same for the Level 2 Fitness/Power assessment. Now I use TPI assessments differently than they are intended. The intention of Level 1 is to determine how your body will impact the way you swing the club. I use the Level 1 routines as a way to build a buffer zone to keep you healthy, not necessarily change the way that you move. If you do your Level 1 routine consistently, will it help you move better? Yes. And not just in your golf swing. It will help in everyday life. But that change of viewpoint is because I have continued to follow up that education with more. This year I started my journey with the Gray Institute. I am now a certified in Applied Functional Science and 3D Movement and Performance System (3DMAPS) and hold specializations in the Foot and Ankle and Functional Golf. The Gray Institute sees things differently than TPI does. Some of the TPI assessments look like golf so it's easy to understand how they apply to golf. But a lot of them don’t. The Gray Institute believes that if you are going to assess an activity, the assessments should look like the activity. They don’t have to be the activity (although that is preferred), but they should resemble the activity. Could I build you a workout plan based on the assessing you from 3DMAPS? Absolutely! Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time. Workout plans can’t be mass produced to be effective and efficient. They have to be personalized. I wish I could. I can’t be everything though. Someday in the future I hope to have a team to help me out with such things. A fitness professional, a physical therapist, a data analyst. Nothing crazy. Right now, I don’t so I have to decide where to place my time. That doesn’t mean that I’m not working on options. Part of the Functional Golf Specialization included different programs based on the focus for that person. I have been doing them since I finished the course. For being “mass produced” they are really good. I’m trying to find a way to start offering group sessions to the PGM students. I don’t think I will be able to get it fit in this semester, but as soon as I can figure out how, I’m going to start holding them. In the future, I want to expand that option to my private clients and PGA HOPE veterans.

Why does this excite me so much? There’s a couple reasons. First, sometimes you don’t value what you have until you lose it. I’m lucky to be able to function like I do. When I was in junior high and early high school I played baseball. I pitched and for my age, I could throw the ball. Until I hurt my shoulder. It still bothers me when I try to play catch. In 2010, I wrecked my left knee. With one quick cut on the football pitch (that’s the soccer field), something I had done countless times, I completely tore my ACL, MCL and PCL. My meniscus got off easy with a partial tear. At the time, I could run like the wind. No world records but two miles in under nine minutes isn’t too shabby. I’ve never even sniffed that again. While in the Army I got it back down to just under six-minute miles. I also worked up to being able to carry a 700 lbs yoke fifty meters. After my last deployment, my neck no longer allows me to put that much weight on my body. But I truly believe that all of those physical injuries would have been much worse if I hadn’t cared about my physical health. I can thank my dad for that. In 2004, he changed his lifestyle and lost a ton of weight. I don’t remember how much but when I came back from my first semester of college, he was a different person. And he made fun of me for being fat (I definitely gained the freshman fifteen and then some). So, I turned around and lost a ton of weight that second semester. He and my mom eventually became two of the top personal trainers in New Hampshire (my mom still is. Dad coaches people financially now, but coming up on 59, you wouldn’t believe how in shape they both are.) If he hadn’t made the decision to make sure he would be around for a long time, I probably would’ve followed the same path he was on and wouldn’t be where I am today. That’s reason number two.

Investing in your health right now, I can’t tell you how important that is. Hopefully, the partial synopsis of my physical health history portrays how vital it is to care. So, when I have a bunch of young college students who want to invest in their health, I get excited. They might only be doing it to help their golf game, but down the road, the decisions they are making to get in the gym and focus on their mobility and stability will be rewarded. I’m not saying that you have to two a days seven days a week. I’m not saying that you have to pick a certain diet and stick with it forever. Making the jump that big from nothing is what leads to burn out. Dr. Caleb Burgess is one of my favorite follows on Instagram. Here’ a couple of thoughts from him. “Most of the people who love to exercise, eat healthy and take care of themselves didn’t start that way. But as they stuck with it, they felt better, looked better, and fell in love with the process.” “You can have thousands of problems in your life until your health declines. Then you only have one problem that seems to matter.” “The greatest mistake is to do nothing because you can only do a little.” These kids may not realize that’s the decision they are making, but it is. And it’s very exciting to see.