After 52 years, Gary Player, a well known professional golfer, has decided that his appearance in the Masters tournament this year will be his last. Gary as most of you may know, is an avid fitness buff and has been well-known over the years for his great physical condition.
He stated that “I’m exercising profusely, but it’s very difficult at 73 to build strength. The golf course is so long. It is just so long. I mean, I’m hitting a wood to almost every single hole.” This shows that exercising to be in shape is not the key to hitting the ball a long distance. This, however, is possible even at 73. I and many golfers that I have worked with can attest to this.
The key to being able to hit long as you age, and really throughout your life, is to do specialized (dynamic correspondence) strength exercises that duplicate the joint actions that occur in the swing. In this way you maintain or develop strength as it is used in the swing.
Just being in shape by exercising to maintain or improve your fitness is great for feeling better and allowing you to keep playing. But it is not the answer to improving your golf swing or any specific joint actions that you want to improve in the swing. This is why Player is having problems maintaining his swing and power as he ages.
If he were to do exercises that were specific to the golf swing he would be able to not only drive the ball further, but he would be able to maintain his game as he has in past years. But, the concept of dynamic correspondence exercises is relatively new to the golf world. As a result, we see many great golfers dropping out of the game much sooner than necessary.
For more information on dynamic correspondence ( specialized) strength exercises see Explosive Golf. It has explanations and descriptions with photos of exercises that duplicate every joint action in every phase of the swing. To see the exercises being executed see the Explosive Golf DVD.