Rolling with the Punches

2021 has already proven to be a challenging year for anyone who plays on an international stage. Travel is more difficult than ever, the threat of catching the virus in transit is always a risk, and of course the ever changing tournament schedule no matter what tour you play on!

These challenges are for the most part totally out of our control, and as a result the first part of dealing with these challenges is accepting that fact and rolling with the punches as they come up. However in doing so, we must also prepare ourselves for tournament play to the best of our ability.

It's a very fine balance in order to be fully ready for a run of "Potential" events. The situation is made particularly difficult because of ever changing government guidelines and tournament schedules that are far from guaranteed. That balance involves trying to make sure a player finds some sort of middle ground between being too flat or stagnant in their practice, and simply working too hard for too long and burning out before the tournament even begins.

"3 Week Peaks"

One strategy that I have employed with players is the idea of "3 Week Peaks" . This essentially is a 3 week build up to some sort of tournament , whether there actually is one or not. A three week peak would look something along the lines of the following:

Day 1 - Day 5

We begin our 3 week peak by ensuring that we are happy with some of the technical pieces of our swing. If there is something within our technique that we wish to work on, this is our window to do so. Two questions to as yourself:

1) Are my fundamentals in good shape (Set up, Ball position & Alignment)?

2) Are you happy with the technical aspects that you may be working on?

This does not solely apply to the swing, this covers each and every part of your game, but generally speaking this period is built around the cornerstones of your technique being in place before we kick on to the next step.

Day 6

Day off - Reflect & Relax