Performance Blueprint for PGATour Success

The start of the 2017 golf season couldn't have started any stronger! Andrew Putnam won his second event on the Web.com and punched his 2018 ticket to the PGATour and Adam Hadwin shot a historic 59 in January then went and followed it up with a win and few top 10’s putting him into 4th on the PGA Tour FedEx points list.

Very exciting times for our athletes.

I have been receiving a ton of congratulatory emails, texts and tweets from the Glisteners. Thank you for all the love but we need to remember that I am merely a Performance Support Team Member and the real hero is the athlete that makes the shots and sinks the putts. A ton of work goes into the player preparation to give them the best chance at success but they do all the heavy lifting. That being said a lot of you have asked about the training programs my athletes use.

Here is a great video where Adam Hadwin shares the work he does with his performance team.

It features Dr Kevin Dieleman who has been doing amazing work with Adam for years. The video is missing Dr Harry Sese who travels with Adam on Tour and is his medical soft tissue specialist week to week.

Enjoy:

The secrets behind Adam’s training and all my athlete’s for that matter is found in the Next Level LoadXplode program. Minimal Dose Training which relies on the High Threshold Training techniques featured here in this Intro to High Threshold video:

Intro to High Threshold | Next Level from Jason Glass on Vimeo.

The full version of this video is available on the Next Levels Members Only Section for our monthly members. So if you are a member get over to the Members Video section and watch it!

So you want to know how we do it? The basic process for all my athletes is as follows:

Needs Assessment: Assess the needs of the athlete based on what their goals are and what they come to the table within regards to meeting those goals. Some athletes come in with all the physical strength and power elements required to perform at the highest level but lack some of the performance elements like coordination, athleticism, stamina, or advanced motor control. Others come in as amazing athletes but lack the strength and power elements. Most often it is a combination of all the elements in different degrees of severity.

Assess Current Training Plan: Perform an in-depth analysis of what they are currently doing or what they have done in the past that has led them to this point in their career. You never want to completely throw out the old system and replace it with your system when the old system has had success up to this point getting the athlete to their current position. The real skill is being able to decipher which elements are helping and which elements of their training plan is hindering them.

Assess Their Event Preparation: What does your athlete do to prepare to train and play their best? Is there some areas that can be tweaked to enhance their performance state on game day? I feel the warm-up in many cases is more important than the actual training session. A quality warm-up and activation plan should incorporate the basic movement patterns that will be performed during the training session that is about to be performed.

Develop Warm-Up and Activation Plan: Each athlete has a unique warm-up and activation plan to prepare them for practice, training and pre-play. I have taken the key elements that I feel all athletes can benefit from and built them into my Dynamic Warm-Up video series. Some of these videos are included in the Members Video section while others are included in the LoadXplode program which releases the perfect warm-up to prepare the body for the workout in that specific phase of your training.

Introduce CoolDown Techniques: Most athletes know how to get ramped up or pumped for a session but not many have a technique or strategy to ramp down at the end of the session. The last 5-10 minutes of each session is used to ramp down the athlete and work on elements that are little lower intensity and target smaller muscle groups. The techniques used in this section transfer into their sport by allowing them to recover faster between rounds, holes and shots. There is a huge psychological element to the cool down that the athletes appreciate when under stress in all aspects of their training, playing and daily life.

Remove Limitations: After performing a thorough functional assessment a treatment plan for removing any limitations that may be holding the athlete back from playing their best is implemented. In the Members Video section we address two of the most common areas of concern for our athletes by providing you with the T-Spine and Hip series.
 

Develop Foundation with High Threshold: High Threshold is by far the most important element in my training philosophy. Often my athlete’s goals are met during this phase without even reaching the strength and power elements. The best part is that the athlete feels the high threshold exercises are the least physically demanding elements in the program but produce the highest results. This is why it fits so well into the Minimal Dose concept. Put the minimal load or stress on the body to produce maximal results while leaving the athlete with the energy and body needed to perform their skills practice and on-course playtime. The last thing I want to hear from my athlete is they had to take 2 or 3 days off from practicing because they were too sore.

Determine Speed Strategy: For rotational athletes its all about developing speed. If they lack speed or just want a competitive bump we need to determine what is holding them back from releasing maximal speed. Often it is a strength issue but it can also be a deceleration or neurological issue. This is why in our Strength and Power sections of the LoadXplode program we address all of these elements. In a in person session or a one on one scenario we will test for each element and adjust the program accordingly. But for 90% of athletes, following a strength and power program usually does the trick.

Strength & Power Phase: The methodology for developing strength and power has been around for ages. But applying strength and power for rotational athletes is different. I have spent the last 20 years fine-tuning and developing techniques to maximize strength and power without bogging the athlete down with unneeded bulk or hypertrophy. These techniques are brought in during the LoadXplode Phase 1 and taken to the next level in the LoadXplode Phase 2.

Reassess: This is the fun part. Get out there and see your client in action. See the results of all their effort. For me, this past month has been amazing to see Adam Hadwin finally show the world the hard work he has put in over the past 9 years in my gym. Amazing. I'm am very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with these 2 amazing athletes. Humbled by their kind words and amazed by their grace.

Hope you all enjoyed this insight into what has been an amazing start to the year for my athletes and we look forward to seeing them have continued success for the rest of the year! Hope you follow along and cheer on Adam and Andrew as they fulfil their dreams on the grand stage!

Sincerely yours,

Coach Glass