Why It's Okay to Start Small and Build From There

Welcome back to the AE Golf Performance newsletter! I appreciate the feedback received after the last issue.

Before we get into the topic for today, I quickly wanted to bring up a quick announcement!

I will soon have a limited number of remote coaching spots available for golfers and/or other consultancy work. This generally focuses on fitness/S&C, built around your specific needs, but can also include assessments/testing, helping design and fine-tune speed training programs, and other support.

Given my limited bandwidth to take on more coaching clients, I believe it is important that it is a good fit for both sides. I tend to work best with those that are serious about improvement, wanting to be a bit more data-informed with their approach, and ideally have some experience and confidence with physical training in the past.

If you are interested, please follow the link below and answer the questions, and we can see if this would be a good fit!

Link to Interest Form

For those that are not currently looking for individualized coaching options, I am considering building out some programs along with guides to making them suit your needs. Let me know if that would be of interest as well!

Now on to the topic for this week!

Start Slow and Build

Around this time of year is when a lot of golfers will be making commitments to fitness, speed training, or some combination of the two. But all too often, there is a tendency to dive in with extensive programs right from the start. I’ve made this mistake myself. You get excited about a goal, want to make a change, or have a desire to work hard on improving yourself and your game in some way. It can work for some people, but it also leads many to dropping off from the training within a few weeks.

Here are a few reasons why I think it’s not only acceptable, but often preferable to start somewhat small and build over time when it comes to training (whether it’s fitness or speed training).

1. Beginners tend to respond positively to even small amounts of reasonable training for a little while. Put simply, you do not need excessive amounts of training early on to make gains in most cases. This will not be the case forever, but take advantage of it while you can!

2. Because you do not need to crush yourself to make progress early on, you can focus on developing solid technique and competency within your program. Learn to do things well up front, and it will raise your ceiling for growth long term.

3. Similarly, you can focus on building solid habits and momentum from the start, which is important when trying to build new routines into your schedule. Getting some early wins from the start, and getting in the habit of just doing something regularly will help when it comes time to progress or add on more later.

4. Starting slow allows your body to adapt to the change in demands placed on it. If you go too hard, too early, you may find that you do not recover as well as you’d like and have excessive soreness. But the body has an amazing capacity to adapt to stressors when it’s provided in a progressive fashion.

In summary, when you first introduce a new type of training, there can be a lot of value in starting slow and building from there. This allows you the opportunity to focus on quality, build quality habits, get some early wins, and progressively adapt the body to the new demands placed on it. And you’ll still be making some gains along the way, even with this fairly minimal dose at first.

After that initial period, when you’re in the swing of things with your training, then you’ll have a great foundation to build upon in terms of progressing the amount, complexity, and intensities of the training performed.

So if you are someone that has challenges sticking with a new training program, do not be afraid to start with something simple at first. One of the best things you can do is going from doing nothing to doing something. You can always progress from there!

WHILE YOU’RE HERE
SUBMIT QUESTIONS OR TOPICS

I want to tailor my content towards what you are most interested in. Follow the link below to submit a question or topic that you would like me to address in the future. This link will be available on every issue of the newsletter, so you will have opportunities to do this any time!

Submission Form