The Fitness Caddie Blog: “The Lip”

The rain has followed me once again, goodbye to sunshine and 90 degrees, hello rain and wind.  The forecast is calling for close to an inch of rain tomorrow with 40 mph wind gusts (Stewart if you are reading this, I am blaming you!).  Despite the conditions, my second practice round went much better today.  This is definitely a golf course that requires a lot of thought and focus.  A few holes had 20 mph cross winds where I had to aim almost 50 yards left of the pin!  Here are a few shots from today, hard to believe I’m wearing rain pants and a sweater when just yesterday even my teeth were sweating.

I tee of in the afternoon tomorrow, keep you fingers crossed that the weather holds up.  Be sure to watch scores at www.usga.org, live scoring will be going during the entire tournament!  Happy Golfing Everyone!

As I recap Day 2 here in Virginia Beach, I’m listening to a massive thunder storm accompanied by lightning flashes that would blind you!  Thankfully, the storm came in about 20 minutes after I finished my practice round.  Hard to believe it went from 90 degrees and sunny to this in just a matter of minutes, but most everyone I have met from here says this is not uncommon.

Today started with a quick workout, my upper back and hips were so tight from the travel that I could barely move.  But after working through some stork turns, hip flexors stretches, reachbacks and a lot of full body movements, everything was functioning better.  I hit the range and putted for a bit before teeing off with these awesome ladies!

Joan and Julie are from Michigin, and aside from being amazing golfers, they happen to be friends with my client Leslie Folsom (Leslie was just named to the Washington Team this week and will be competing in Savannah in a few weeks, go Leslie!). 

The golf course is like nothing I have played before, you literally end up using every club in your bag.  But it never feels impossible, they throw a few difficult ones at you and then give you a recovery for a few.  My lessons learned today……. well, really one lesson, STAY OUT OF THE ROUGH!!!!!  I’m saying this loudly because apparently I didn’t listen to myself today.  Aiming is everything for me right now, and I struggled finding targets which means rough.  Here’s a look at what happens when you miss the fairway.

I’m teeing off early tomorrow for my practice round, I definitely need to work on picking my targets and being decisive with my putts.  The greens are not receptive to dying the ball in the cup like they are in Seattle, plus with all the rain tonight, I’m sure they will be slow.  Doc Sese will be on the bag tomorrow, he just arrived tonight and worked on my back a bit.  Only a few knots in my upper back to report! 

One more picture for all of you, this is what was in my locker when I arrived!  The staff at Bayville are so amazing, can’t wait for the weekend qualifying to start, I have butterflies just thinking about it!

I made it to Virginia Beach!  After a red eye to DC, and a little car drive south, here I am in 85 degree temps, partnered with 100% humidity.  This is actually my first time travelling to the east coast, and whatever I thought was humid in Seattle most definitely is not!  Today was just a short practice session, making sure everything was still functional after my 10 hour trip.  This tournament is a whole different breed of amatuer events, the second I parked my car someone was waiting for me with a cart to take me to the clubhouse.  Here’s a picture of the outside, I found out that is was originally a dairy farm.

After getting a tour of the grounds, and finding out where my locker for the week is……

I headed out to the range to see how the swing was feeling after a full night and day of travel.  I’m used to seeing beat up range balls that only fly about 75%, and to my surprise the entire facility was outfitted with Pro-V 1’s!!!  There may not be anything better than hitting fresh Pro V’s, but I reserve mine for tournament play so to have free rain to hit 100’s of balls, I was in heaven!  Here is the beautiful range at Bayville.

Tomorrow afternoon I play my first practice round, the course looks really challenging.  We received an official scorecard with our players packet and they are throwing a little of everything at us: a 410 par 4, a 190 yard par 3, a few short par 4’s and even a 113 yard par 3.  My start time is in the afternoon so tonight I’m making sure to hydrate, and tomorrow morning I’m doing a light workout.  And what makes tomorrow even better is that my favorite Doc is flying in to caddy for me over the weekend!  That’s all for now, I will post more tomorrow, time to catch up on some sleep!

Earlier this year, I decided it was time to set some goals and start working towards playing competitive golf again.  It seems like I’ve said that every year, but then some injury would get in the way or work would just get busy.  In other words, I never fully committed to my goals in the past and always gave myself an excuse or an out because the truth is, I have been so afraid of failing for so long that it was easier to just watch everyone else compete.  There is nothing I love more than watching all my clients compete, however everytime I am out there cheering, all I can think about is wanting to be out there as well.  So, the US Mid Am became my mission this year.  But after my car accident in March and all the neck pain I have had to deal with as a result, my mission seemed to be slipping away again several months ago. 

I had this major epiphany though during a round of golf back in July.  I was going about my merry way, and realized that every time I made a mistake I said to myself “that’s ok, you haven’t been practicing” or “that’s ok, you’re still injured” and it only went on from there.  Walking off the course that day it became clear that I was just going through the motions out there, not caring and accepting mistakes.  It was there that I went home and actually signed up and paid for both the WSGA Mid-Am tourney and the US Mid-Am.  After that, I made a plan.  Number one on that list was to make golf a priority.  No longer could it just be something used to do well.  It was time to compete!!!!

Yesterday was the US Mid-Am qualifier at Fircrest Golf Club in Tacoma, Wa.  There was 10 golfers playing for just 3 spots to the Championship in Virginia Beach.  Not knowing what to expect, I went out there and just tried to post a number that would give me a chance.  Fircrest is an amazing golf course, that although is not difficult in length, the greens are hard, fast and the pins were on every ridge possible.  Thanks to my awesome caddy TJ Bourdeaux, I survived the greens and shot 5 over.  However, 2 other golfers came in with the same score and we ended up playing off for the last two spots. 

All three of us fought hard and when it was all said and done, we went two holes.  Two of us made birdie to advance, and yes, I was one of those!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In two weeks, I’m headed to Virginia Beach to compete in my first ever national event!!!!!! (can you tell I’m just a little excited :)

Here’s a few pics from the round yesterday, my favorite is TJ and I showing off our deep squats reading a green!

Big thank you to TJ, Harry and Heather for all your support!!!!

I can’t wait to get to Virginia Beach, and in the words of my favorite golfer Jerry Kelly “play nice and easy through qualifying and then put a bullseye on the back of everyone I play, walk right behind them and let them hear the footsteps!”

Day 1 of the WSGA Mid-Am is in the books, and unfortunately I could write a very long book about my adventures on the course today.  So as I reflect tonight, I thought I would share with you the good, the bad and how I am going to turn this around tomorrow!

Hole 1, the adrenaline was going, hit my drive about 250 and then hit a 9 over the green but got the up and down.

Hole 2, had to hit 3 iron off the tee, hit my next shot heavy and left myself 200 in.  I laid up with a 4 iron because of the hazards and then hit my chip 2 inches from the cup to save par!

Hole 3, short par 3, hit a 9 iron to  8 feet and made the birdie!

Hole 4, this is where I went into a brain fog.  I left my drive out to the right and was blocked out.  I put too much fade on my second shot and left it short on the right.  Huge mental error here, the green was running away from me and I ended up chipping it over the green, then failing to get it up and down, double bogie central

Hole 5, another par 3, hit the right club but got a bad kick into the bunker, up and down was a no go.

Hole 6, I was unsure off the tee on this one so hit my 4w just in case.  It left me in the fairway but with a weird lie.  I hit 3 iron hybrid and it came off the club face weird, landed in a water hazard and bounced way right.  From here, I let my anger get the best of me and when it was all said and done took home a snowman.

Hole 7, Left my drive right and had to chip out.  From there I was short of the green and did not convert the up and down

Hole 8, hit a great drive but my adrenaline got me again and I hit over the green leaving me with another bogie.

Hole 9, My drive went right again but I still had a shot to the green.  Ball was in the deep rough on an uphill lie, 145 to the pin.  I put it 15 ft behind the pin on the fringe and got the par.

Hole 10, Great drive to 125.  Left myself a 40 foot birdie putt and ended up with par. 

Hole 11, Weird par five with a split fairway.  I figured at this point I would challenge the left side since it was shorter and left myself 157 in!  Ended up hitting the green and two putted for the birdie, back on track!

Hole 12, Par 3 and 3 putted for the bogie

Hole 13, Great drive, but left my approach out to the right and hit the bunker.  Could not convert, bogie

Hole 14, Another well managed par 5 that resulted in a 3 putt

Hole 15, Great drive, missed the green left and got up and down

Hole 16, par 3, missed the green left and got the up and down after my chip hit the pin

Hole 17, probably the hardest hole on the course.  Hazard crosses the fairway right where most everyone’s drives would land, the problem is that when you lay up, you end up having close to 200 in!  Did my best, but walked away with bogie

Hole 18, Great drive, approach shot played way longer than I thought and couldn’t convert the par

Walked away with an 83 for the day, 2 shots off the lead (which is being held by one of my clients Leslie!).  Of 16 women in the field, no one broke 80 today if that gives you an idea of how tough it played.  I had plenty of opportunities out there though, and other than my two bad holes on the front and some 3 putting mishaps on the back, there was a lot of good things going on with my game.  So the goal tomorrow is to be decisive with my targets off the tee, take no prisoners, and to win! 

Big thanks to my wonderful fiance who cheered me on today, and to my caddy Heather!

It is the eve of my return to tournament golf, tomorrow I am playing in the WSGA Mid-Amateur!  OK, so it’s not technically my return.  I did play in the pub-links last year, but this is actually the first time I am venturing into competition with many of the same players I have spent the last 15 years playing against.  And if I’m being completely honest, my biggest struggle going into this tournament has been accepting myself and learning to believe in my abilities.  My swing coach said something to me over the weekend that rang very true, “You are good enough to win this, you just need to allow yourself to do it”.  It seemed very fitting then today that one of the blogs I follow regularly had a wonderful post about “Happiness Stealers”.  Just the pep-talk I needed going into the tournament tomorrow, and perfect reminder of how important it is to keep fighting for your dreams (even when you become your own happiness stealer!).

As if their amazing record of 6 WSGA Best Ball Championships wasn’t enough, my awesome clients Leslie and Jane worked their butts off this winter to add even more yardage to their impressive games and took home the tournament for the 7th time!  Here they are talking about their big win!

Scott Hanson from the Seattle Times did an awesome article on Dr. Sese and I This week!  Here’s a link if you haven’t seen it yet.

And if you are looking to get a hold of Dr. Sese, you can find him at drseseappointment@gmail.com or at 425.221.7253.

I love the plank!  In fact, nothing makes me more happy than that complete exhaustion I feel after pushing myself to hold it for minutes at a time until my body starts shaking and I collapse.  This has to be good for my golf game right?  That is a question I ask myself everyday whether with my own workouts or with my clients.  How do you decipher through the good, the bad and the “I can’t believe I ever did that exercise”?

The first step is to better understand your body and how every joint works with one another, and ultimately effects each other when dysfunction is present.  Gray Cook and Mike Boyle have explained it best with their Joint-by-Joint  approach.  It states that the body is made up of an alternating pattern of mobile and stable joints.  Starting with a stable foot, mobile ankle, stable knee, mobile hip, stable lumbar, mobile thoracic, stable should blades, mobile shoulder, stable elbow, mobile wrist, stable hand.  In an ideal world, joints would follow this exact pattern on everyone.  However, since most of us sit all day, slouch over a computer, sit in our cars, sit and have dinner, sit and watch TV and so on, life lends itself towards having dysfunctions in the mobile-stable pattern.

So what happens when a mobile joint stops moving?  The joints above and below are compromised, however, as Gray Cook explains here, sometimes the opposite can happen.  Lack of stability in the above and below joints can actually cause immobility as well.  (This is where I could go on for hours on why as trainers and golf coaches it is so incredibly important to have a medical professional on your team.  Being able to identify the root causes of joint dysfunction will only serve yourself and your clients better.)

What does this all have to do with the Plank?  As I said before, I love this exercise.  However, despite all the good it can do, it can also be problematic.  Ultimately, the golf swing is rotational.  It requires us to stabilize in places, while moving around out body at high speeds.  And this is where the plank can be an epic fail if applied too often and to the wrong person.  As Gray Cook talked about in his book, Movement, in reference to the joints above and below our lumbar region, “Logically we must make sure these areas are mobile, because if the hips and T-spine are not mobile, the lumbar stability we create is synthetic. It is not real. We develop enough stability and strength to do a side plank, but we don’t authentically stabilize in natural environments.”

Two of the most common places I see lack of mobility is in the hips and t-spine, which in many cases equals a golfer that comes in with back pain because they have been jamming their lower back in an attempt to rotate it.  The lumbar region is not built the same as our upper back, and throughout the golf swing it needs to stabilize.  So does this mean a golfer with tight hips and t-spine should do tons of planks in order to stabilize their lumbar better to stop it from rotating?  Here’s the problem, plank does not address the mobility restriction going on.  On the flip side, if this golfer was to isolate out working on just hip movement or t-spine movement without addressing the instability in the lumbar, there is a problem as well.

The key, finding movement patterns that work together and accomplish a goal!  If you choose to do plank, mix it up and incorporate mobility elements.  If you check out www.mytpi.com and go into the exercise library, you will be amazed at how many different ways there are to do plank that involve using mobility from the hip and t-spine.  And always keep in mind form when doing these exercises.  Next time you are at the gym, watch what most people look like when performing plank.  They usually have s-posture, the upper back is rounded, their head is dropped down.  Sounds a lot like the posture most of us have sitting at a computer all day, but then we expect the opposite when it comes to our golf posture.  Understanding how the body moves can only help us, and the more information you can find and learn the better.  They way the world is looking at exercise has changed dramatically: the plank is not just a plank anymore!!

A couple years ago, almost to the date actually, I posted this blog here. It was my 27th birthday and I had finally decided it was time to put my game back together.  Since then, it has been an adventure to say the least.  Hard to believe in 2 short years so many aspects of my life would change, but now that I’m staring down my 29th birthday today, I’m taking an opportunity to reflect and reset my goals.

My goal from 2009 was to get back into playing competitive golf again, and although it took a little longer than expected, I did finally compete last summer for the first time in four years.  (scroll to the bottom, there is a pair of 80’s next to my name :)  Although I did not score as well as I would have liked,  it felt amazing to be back out there experiencing all the nerves on the first tee again.  So for 2011, I originally planned on playing at least 4 events.  However, a few weeks ago that plan had to change completely when I was rear ended on the freeway.  Now on top of my laundry list of physical limitations in my golf swing, I have to add whip lash into the equation.

This was my very first car accident, and I figured I could just shake the whole thing off and my body would bounce back.  Wow was I ever wrong!  There once was a day where I could push my body to the absolute brink, and now I can barely do the most simple exercises without my muscles shaking or having neck/back pain.  I’m trying not to get frustrated, but there have definitely been a few meltdowns so far.  All I can do is follow my doctor’s treatment plan though and continue to rebuild my body.  In some ways, this may end up being the best thing that could have happened.  I’m notorious for doing more than I should throughout my day, and now I have to be mindful of how I demonstrate exercises, making sure I warm up properly before I do anything, and even be aware of my posture as I sit here writing this blog!

Back to my quest though, despite my bump in the road here, I have not given up on competing this summer!  Instead of 4 events, I am going to work towards one happening in September, the US Women’s mid-am. (Yes, I’m taking advantage of being over 25 and choosing to not compete with the young ones!).  We have a qualifier early September for the actual event which gives me almost 5 months to heal and prepare.  Today I’m sitting down to put a concrete plan in place for what I need to do to make my quest successful!