Kevin Stadler Wins!

Congratulations to Kevin Stadler on his first PGA Tour victory in Scottsdale this past weekend. He played great golf and deserved to win over Bubba Watson and Graham DeLaet. It was his first win in 239 starts.

Kevin Stadler is a big man…almost a carbon copy of his Dad, Craig Stadler, “The Walrus” (some of the younger among us may not even know what a carbon copy is).

This obviously shows that this “Golf Fitness Stuff” is just a bunch of baloney….right?

I am so glad you asked that question.  For some time now I have been struggling with the term “Golf Fitness” and how we relate it to what we at GolfGym are all about. Recently we were at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. We were demonstrating our newest product called the PowerSWING Plus. It will be coming to the market in March, 2014.  Many golfers asked what our company was all about. I told them that we were a Fitness Based Golf Training Products Company.  As soon as the word Fitness came out of my mouth, many of them either rubbed there stomach (as though a belly matters in golf) or they backed up saying, “I don’t like pushups or sit ups”. There were many variations of those reactions, but very few golfers, except for the fit ones, said “tell me more”.

The term “fitness” as associated with golf is really misunderstood, and Gary Player doesn’t really help much to assist us in understanding the misunderstanding. Let me explain. Gary is a phenomenal athlete and a Hall of Fame golfer. He says he performs 1,000 pushups and 1,000 sit ups a day. He also runs on the treadmill and does weight training and on and on. That is what Mr. Player has been doing his entire life.  It is not like he just woke up after decades of playing golf and thought to himself, “Hmmm, I think I need to get fit for golf to play better”. General fitness has been a part of his life forever. And by the way, thousands of sit ups and pushups don’t really help your golf swing directly.

We average golfers hear the term golf fitness and tense up…especially, if we haven’t sat up for years. Or maybe we had a bad experience in gym class in high school (back when there actually were gym classes in schools). Whatever the reason, the term golf fitness has been a “buzz” word ever since Tiger Woods came on the scene and it is attractive to some and repulsive to others.

OK, back to Kevin Stadler. Kevin is carrying extra weight and has probably struggled his whole life to get slim. I don’t know that for sure, but I do know what it is like to struggle with weight for most of my life. Would you look at him and say, “He isn’t golf fit at all”?  He crushes the ball and walks at least 72 holes, probably 90 holes every week, and just won a tough tournament for heaven’s sake.

Golf fitness does not mean general fitness. I go to a gym nearly every morning because it helps me get into the atmosphere of working out. I see all kinds of folks doing all kinds of exercising. Treadmills, elliptical machines, weight machines, free weights, etc.  I go into the open exercise area and do all my golf specific stuff which helps my rotation, leg strength and core strengthening. I hate pushups because I can’t do them well…and I don’t see any way that they help my golf swing. That’s just me. Otto the trainer will most probably disagree, but I ain’t doing them…period.

Our good friend, Chris Henning (GetGolfFit.com), has written several great books (some available on our website) on improving your overall fitness for golf. “Core To Score” and “Shed Pounds, “Save Strokes”. It is his passion and his mission to help one million golfers get fit, healthy and live longer, and play the best golf possible.

I use our PowerSwing Trainer, PowerBandz and 8 pound PowerBall doing exercises that help my balance, shoulder strength and develop the exact muscles needed to perform my golf swing. That is what works for me.  I am not slim and I am not young, but I dare anybody to try and hang with me doing the golf specific exercises I do regularly.  Am I tooting my own horn…yes, a bit, but it is all to make a point.

Golf Fitness IS about being fit for golf, the game we all love. If you are scared off by the term golf fitness because it seems overwhelming, please don’t be. Go to our website and check out all the free videos and exercises that are simple, and will definitely help you play better golf.  Also, get my free eBook, “Golf Fitness, What Is It Really”.

Golf Fitness is not a “Bunch of Baloney”. It is just a misunderstood term that doesn’t have to scare you anymore.

Congratulations again to Kevin Stadler

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Thank you for Reading
Ken Pierce, President GolfGym LLC