Sorry I’ve been so scarce around here lately.  I’ve been extremely unhappy with the way the golf season wound down for me and I needed some time to mentally move on.  To be honest, I haven’t hit a shot since my disaster in mid-October.

Sometimes it’s best just to leave it alone for a while when things don’t go well.  Otherwise strong commitment can degrade into unbearable burden.  When golf stops being fun, then something’s wrong.  Well, I took a month-long breath and I think that did the trick.  I can tell you that when I hit balls again, I’m going to be fearful of the shanks, but I know how to work through it, so I’ll get that resolved eventually.

So, now what?  The first step is to evaluate the year.  It wasn’t all bad, even though it didn’t end well.  I got my handicap down to around 13 officially, but I was playing better than that by the end of summer.  As you probably know, once there are a lot of scores in the system, it’s hard to move the number quickly, but that’s OK.

I made improvements in every aspect of the game this year.  I was especially happy with the way I was hitting my irons near the end (prior to my October melt-down – in fact, let’s pretend October never happened.  From here out, I’m referring to the period up to that, unless otherwise specified).

My stats show that I need work in most of the statistical categories, but driving was a sore spot for me near the end.  I was having trouble hitting fairways and on my course, that’s a big problem because of the difficulty of the rough.  Putting also got a little hairy near the end, but that’s just a matter of putting time in to keep my touch sharp. I was spending a lot of time trying to iron out some of my shot-making problems and kind of let my short game coast along at the end.

In a physical sense, it wasn’t a bad year.  The only injury of note was that weird muscle problem near my hip in the middle of the summer.  I do feel like that robbed me of some momentum, but it went away after a while, so that’s good, at least.

That leads me to the plan moving forward.  Almost.

I did something different this year than what I did the first two years.  When I started this adventure, I obviously knew the importance of fitness in improving my golf game.  My problem was, I tried to do too much at the same time.  This year, I switched things up.  I worked on my fitness last winter and then when golf season arrived, I pretty much went to sporadic gym sessions and focused 99% of my energy directly on golf.

That actually worked really well for me.  I got my strength, flexibility, and endurance up and it served me well all season.  Aside from that one muscle tweak, I felt better physically than I had in previous years and I was able to play and practice more this year than I did in either of the first two years.

Where it really helped was with the mental grind.  I didn’t force myself to choose between practice/play and working out.  I wasn’t stretching myself thin time-wise, trying to fit it all in.

I like the way it worked out so much, that I’m going to do that again.  I just started working out again, and I’m feeling pretty good.  I have some work to do with my endurance, but strength-wise, I’m just about where I want to be.

Speaking of strength, remember when I told you about the Max Golf Workout?  That thing is the real deal.  I was using the “max contraction” method last winter and when the season kicked in, I was strong, and I was happy with my strength all summer long.

Now, I just started working out again.  I’ve done exactly two workouts, and my strength is at or above where it was at the beginning of the year.  Keep in mind that a strength exercise with that method is one 30-60 second rep with a 7-14 day rest period between workouts targeting a specific area.  I did my strength training two Sundays ago and again last Sunday.  When I worked out the second time, I had already maxed the curl machine, the bench press machine, the fly machine, and several others.  I can probably progress further with heavier free weights, but there isn’t much point.  I’m happy to just maintain a certain plateau and concentrate on endurance.  It really does feel like cheating to build strength so easily.

With respect to golf, I’m going to try and play and practice whenever I can, weather permitting, through the winter.  I’m signed up for a scramble on Thanksgiving morning for fun, so hopefully I can beat back the shanks before then.

Beyond that, I’ll continue to do the indoor things I typically do in the off-season.  I’ll spend time with my Pelz Putting Track and Elk’s Key working on my putting stroke.  I’ll also keep a few clubs inside to work on my grip, stance, posture, etc.  I can’t do much with full swings in here, but I think I’ll be able to get enough outdoor practice and that won’t be a problem.

So that’s it.  Well, I’d also like to crank out a little more content here too, since I should have more free time for a few months.  I have some book reviews in the works and I haven’t done a lot of technical posts lately, which I’d like to do more often.

I’m interested to know how all of you will be spending your off seasons, as well.  Those of you in places with no real off-season – keep the bragging to a minimum.  I won’t be able to contain my jealousy.

I think I’m pumped again.  Ahh, I needed that.

Did you like this post? Get free RSS updates!

Leave a comment | Comment Policy | Trackback URL