(Editor's Note: Golf fitness trainer Sean Cochran (www.seancochran.com) is at the 2006 Open Championship with Phil Mickelson, for whom he serves as trainer. Sean will be filing daily journal entries through the conclusion of the tournament.)
As I stated in my initial introduction, when my first journal entry appeared a few days ago, I am a golf fitness trainer on the PGA Tour. My most notable client is Phil Mickelson.
I am "across the pond" in the United Kingdom with Team Mickelson preparing for the 2006 Open Championship in Hoylake, England (I must continue to call it the Open Championship since I am here in the "Mother Country"). Our trials and tribulations as Americans overseas continue as of today.
Our driving to this day gets stares and comments. One scratched bumper and toppled guardrail were victims yesterday. And yes, I did play another round of golf with Phil’s agent and his PR director. I fared a little better, but I still can’t get over how you can hit a ball straight down the fairway, have it bounce 10 feet in the air, and then shoot directly left into the knee-high stuff! We did spend a fair amount of time walking through the high stuff searching for golf balls.
The trip has been going well, the weather has been uncommonly nice (sunny and in the 70s), and preparation by Phil appears to be going well (Phil, his short-game instructor Dave Pelz and his caddie Jim "Bones" MacKay have been at the course 10 hours a day, plus Phil has been doing his workouts with me). And that brings me to my topic of this Monday before the start of the Open Championship.
I hear all too often, "Come on, golf and fitness? Take a look at those guys out there, they are not in shape." Well, my friends, I am here to tell you differently and give you a little insight on how hard these players actually do work out.
I have spent more than 10 years in professional athletics in both baseball and golf, and a misconception exists in the public eye. An individual who is "fit" in the eyes of many is the man or woman we see on the covers of magazines such as Muscle & Fitness and Men's Health. The models viewed on the cover of such magazines have aesthetically well-developed physiques. They have "six-pack" abdominal sections and vascular biceps. As a result, many in the general public utilize the same physical criteria to judge the superstar athletes we see on television.
I would agree the models we see on these magazines are "in-shape" aesthetically, but how many of them do you see pounding a golf ball 350 yards down the fairway, throwing 95 mph fastballs, or hurling touchdown passes? "Not too many" is the answer. When we talk about athletes being "in shape," what I'm talking about and what probably every other professional strength and conditioning coach is talking about is "athletic shape."
I am not concerned with what the athletes I train look like aesthetically. My only concern is with their performance on the field of competition. Athletes in any sport are measured by their level of success on the field of play, end of story.
As a result, the training I do with Phil, plus other professional golfers and athletes, is geared to developing physical attributes required to successfully perform their sport at the highest level.
In relation to golf, the attributes of flexibility, balance, muscular strength, endurance, and power are the defining physical components of success - or lack thereof - during tournament play. So these are the physical components I will develop within the professional golfer. Time is spent on developing these attributes each and every day.
Phil and other golfers spend hours every week, off the golf course and unseen by spectors, working in the gym improving levels of flexibility, strength, and power. All with the goal of better play on the golf course and more tournament wins.
I hope this gives you a little bit of insight into what I do and the goals of strength and conditioning coaches in many sports. Remember "athletic shape" - not necessarily a Mr. Olympia body type - is what results in success in professional athletics.
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