Archive for June 2011

Mind – Body and Performance
June 27th, 2011, Posted by andrea |  No Comments »

This weekend I was lucky enough to get to know one of Canada’s finest athletes at the Glencoe Invitational Awards night hosted by Kinnear Financial. Melissa Hollingsworth was our guest speaker where she shared her story of persistence and passion for excellence to all the participants and volunteers of the event. Over dinner, we spent time chatting about the experiences she has had from the beginning of her skeleton career, being an Olympian, travel and competing in the World Cup events, and her training both physical and mental. There are a lot of parallels that can be made even though we are comparing sliding down an icy slope at 145km/h and golf!
1) An inch can be the difference between finishing 1st or 5th
2) Letting go of a mistake at the beginning and pressing through to the finish
3) Trusting your equipment, your body, and your training/practice
4) Not letting fear dictate your performance
I have attached a link to Melissa’s website and blog. She is challenging herself this summer on the pro rodeo circuit in barrel racing with her horse Rascal. This blog is a great read and has some great insights to performance that can be related back to the great game of golf and golfers at all levels.
http://mellisahollingsworth.ca/blog.php
Thanks for sharing your passion for excellence – it is contagious!!

 

Calgary City Ladies Amateur – Complete
June 23rd, 2011, Posted by andrea |  No Comments »

Three rounds of golf…I may have needed four to catch the young Nicole Zhang during the city amateur held last week at Silver Springs Golf Club. I was a very consistent golfer this week with scores of 73-71-73 to finish as runner up in the event. It was great to have the CTV sports team out on the course on the last day filming and doing interviews. Golf in Calgary is strong and we are always looking for support. Thanks to John Down for writting the articles in the Herald as well. See link to his article: http://goo.gl/6UjxW

 

Performance Inside and Out
June 9th, 2011, Posted by andrea |  No Comments »

Great golf performance can lead to a win. But to get there you need to understand all the factors that influence your game. These factors can be described under two categories – Intrinsic (within you) and Extrinsic (outside you). Physical limitation is an intrinsic factor that can have a cummulative effect with other factors. Simple Screening is available to identify areas of limitation or weakness in your body! Once they are understood, then they can be corrected or compensated for in a safe manner.

Tiger is a great example right now – his left knee and achilles injury is an intrinsic factor that is limiting his golf career currently. The pain and phyical weakness he has in these areas of his body will limit how he plays the game. He may not trust the leg to withstand his strong follow through, which may lead to doubt on where to aim, or compensation strategy with other areas in the body. If he continued to play in this state – there could be a snowball effect of doubt, pain in other areas, slow healing of injured tissue, swing mechanic alterations due to pain inhibition, and more time away from this great game.

I believe Tiger stepping away from the game to take care of his body under the pressure of sponsor and PGA to play instead…is the greatest thing Tiger has done in the past 2 years. It is hard to step back and take the time to heal – especially here in Calgary with such a short season. In the long run it pays off. You will be back playing the game better and stronger if you let the injury heal.

 

 
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