Winterizing With Mike Diffley

Some words of winter wisdom from guest blogger Mike Diffley, head pro at Pelham CC...

Hope everyone is catching some rest after a long beautiful fall here in the Northeast! It's great to have the seasons here in the Met area. Spring brings excitement, the Final Four, the Masters and the start of the golf season. Summer brings long days with plenty of opportunity to get outside and enjoy ourselves. Fall is an awesome time for golfers, conditions are great, the weather outrageous and the end of the season coming soon. Too soon sometimes but still it is great to have a beginning, middle and end.

Those of you that are not in the golf industry, I know you don't get enough time. Weekends seem to fly by even when you get to recreate a little. In the golf business, yes we work almost every day but it is our profession and we live and breathe what we do, so lucky us! Now for the winter, which totally sucks. And I hate the end of daylight savings time--I feel like someone hit me in the forehead with a brick! It is a time to rest, regroup, re-set goals and work on some things that will make us better and healthier.

So are you setting an off-season or winter list of goals? You should! I am!

Physical - You can become more fit ( flexibility and strength are the keys ) The purpose is to be stronger and to increase your club head speed. My favorites are stretching, plenty of places to learn that (Titleist Performance Institute Channel on YouTube) and using the Swing Fan and Swoosh. The Fan provides resistance like weight training and the Swoosh provides speed training. Modern sports science says both are needed to improve your swing speed. Do 2 sets of 10 each working your way up to 25 of each. A little cardio, I ride a bike (something to get you sweating).

Putting - Get a putting mat  (8 feet is enough) do sets of five or ten and make 50 or 100 total. To mix it up make 50 at three feet and then go and make 50 at six. I would do one set standard, one set looking at the hole, one set with your eyes closed, one set left hand only, and one set right hand only!

Mental Training - Read a book!  Here are a few that will stretch your brain and you might learn something about getting better at golf and more!

The Practicing Mind - Thomas M. Sterner (How learning golf is like learning music with deliberate Practice!)
Mindfulness - Ellen J. Langer (The opposite of mindlessness!!  Enough said)
High Performance Golf - Henry Brunton (Many aspects of getting better and developing golfers)

I'm going to Jupiter in a week or so to spend the winter. I'll be playing, coaching and enjoying the golfer life! Lucky me! I'll be starting off with helping Nannette Hill get through LPGA Q School. She is injury free and looks ready to me. Then on to Fox Club in Stuart working on my game and helping those who think I can!

If anyone wants to find me, this is a good avenue to track me down. Be well. Go Johnnies!

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf