By Sean M. Cochran
Special to PGATOUR.com

Some have been playing for a couple of weeks in Hawaii. Others are getting ready to officially start their 2006 season this week in Palm Springs. But make no mistake about it: in golf -- or baseball, football, basketball or any other pro sport -- there is no longer an offseason. So while this may be the first official shot of the season for some, the training process to get ready to make that shot has been quietly going on for months.

Realistically, there is very little time to take a break and do absolutely nothing for these pros. While every pro is different, there is a generic blueprint most will follow. After the pro finishes his last tournament, the first thing I like to do is have them take a break, anywhere from two to four weeks. And this is a total break, no working out, no swinging the club, no training. Just some well-deserved rest and relaxation. Every pro athlete needs that time to just recharge and give the body -- both physically as well as mentally -- time to recover. The TOUR season is one of the longest in sports and even though they may not play every week, it’s very taxing on the body and the time off is essential to ensure positive results when we begin training for the next season.

Following the rest time -- and like I said, it’s longer for some, shorter for others -- we begin ramping up for the next season by physically improving the parameters of the body for the upcoming year. The training during this time of year falls under the category of offseason training. Offseason training for Phil is when we start getting the body ready for next season. Just like any other golfer -- from the Sunday hacker to the scratch golfer to the club pro -- we work on trying to increase flexibility, balance, strength, endurance and power. While there may be some work on the course or practice range, 80 percent of the time is spent physically developing the body.

Next we begin what is, essentially, the preseason. This is when the player starts to practice the fundamental mechanics of the sport. If it’s a golfer, he’s on the range working on his swing, if it’s a pitcher, he’s throwing getting ready for spring training. This time of the year marks the point when Phil begins preparing his swing for the upcoming TOUR season by working with Rick Smith and Dave Pelz. Physically, we’re still training the body, but we tune it down while the player fine tunes his game. But make no mistake about it, even though working on the golf game is 75 percent of the focus of this preseason training program, we’re still working on the basics of flexibility, balance, strength, endurance and power training. The bottom line is if I overtrain Phil while he’s trying to work on golf skills, then I put his body in state of fatigue and that’s a dangerous thing in golf. If the body is in a state of fatigue, the ability to repeat the finite movements of a golf swing becomes that much tougher because he’s tired.

This continues until the first event the player tees it up at and then we begin our in-season program. Now that he’s playing competitively, he’s obviously swinging the club much more, which takes its toll physically and mentally, and the weekly schedule becomes much more hectic. We don’t stop training, but it’s more of a maintenance program. The program doesn’t change much. We’re still focused on flexibility, balance, strength, endurance and power, but the amount or volume of work is much less to accommodate the physical and mental strain of competition.

The other key to in-season training is flexibility. I may have a 7-day plan all ready, but then there’s a rain delay and Phil’s at the course for 10 hours and we have to make adjustments. The week he’s playing in The INTERNATIONAL, where he’s walking up the mountains, is completely different from when he’s playing a major, where the stress is a little higher. Both have an affect on the body and we have to adjust our training appropriately.

Again, every pro is different. What Phil does is different from what Vijay does, which is different from what Tiger does and so on. But the human body is the human body. I don’t care if the player is a high school golfer, a weekend hacker, a player on the Nationwide Tour or someone on the PGA TOUR, across the board it’s all the same. Yes, the Phils, Tigers, Vijays and the rest of the TOUR pros may be a little more specific in their training, but they are still working on improving their basic conditioning just like the average golfer. They go through some of the same struggles. They realize the body doesn’t respond as quickly as it gets older. Maybe they’re a little more specific in their goals that work specifically with their golf swing, but it’s all the same basic goal: stay healthy, stay on the course, prevent injury and improve performance.