My Fitness

Something new I have added to my game is working with a South African physiotherapist, Cornel Driessen since the Dubai World Championships in November 2009.  I've been wanting to get the strength and conditioning department in place for a long time now and since we started working together I realised it was actually long overdue. My wife and I have also been blessed with a beautiful little baby girl recently, so it certainly makes sense to do all I can to protect the future of my golfing career!

According to Cornel, I naturally developed a very strong hip girdle and have no lack in explosive power (well developed "fast twitch fibres") in the muscle groups that results into hip acceleration and club head speed during my swing, but there's certain segments in my pelvis, lower back, neck and shoulder girdle that lacks the muscle strength to control the movement and also protect my joint structures during my swing(called dynamic stability).

Together with the fact that I'm naturally very flexible, it's no wonder I had a couple too many "niggles" in my golfing career this far! Well, now that I've seen the light I'm excited to put the extra effort in, although it's a big change for me and not easy to fit it all in on tour.

Cornel calls his approach "golf-specific performance enhancement therapy," which is the same approach he uses on Rory McIlroy and his other golfers, but obviously adapts it to each individual golfers' biomechanics and swing. He is a bit of a "hybrid" physiotherapist, and gives credit to various other modalities from different therapy schools he finds effective. He applies it through a golf specific protocol and places a lot of emphasis on strength and conditioning as a key factor to help us reach our goals.

On tour we do daily screenings, correct movement patterns, posture and alignment, muscle recruitment etc, and aim to optimize my biomechanics by addressing the weak points in my movement "chain". He adapts my warm ups and strength and conditioning programs accordingly.  For a start we have been focusing a lot on stability exercises for certain body segments and just general fitness. Off tour I have to admit I'm a bit lazy at times, but Cornel keeps motivating me as we're making gradual changes to my lifestyle on the bits that need to be addressed. 

Having my physio close by to gradually sort out all the old niggles, prevent new ones and at the same time give me better control of what I want to do with my swing is certainly a win-win situation!