Quick Nine: Interview with Golf Fitness Pro Katherine Roberts
I have always been a fan of Katherine Roberts and her golf fitness expertise. I reviewed the excellent movie, The Back Nine (by Jon Fitzgerald) a few weeks back (Best Golf Film of the Year: The Back Nine) and Katherine was featured very prominently in it.
Katherine is as much a terrific personal and motivational coach (as you’ll see in the movie) as a world-class golf and sports fitness guru.
She just has such a nice, simple way of communicating that it is very refreshing and after seeing the movie I knew I wanted to feature her on our GolfDash Blog.
We caught Katherine in between her many projects to discuss a little about fitness and golf.
1. GolfDashBlog: How can Yoga for Golfers
Katherine: Every golfer can benefit from a yoga program designed specifically for golfers. What do you need physically to play your best golf?
For most we can improve dramatically with more flexibility. Yoga also helps you develop more strength, balance, core stability and perhaps most importantly the ability to quiet the mind!
When I travel the world teaching I ask golfers what they are looking for. By far the first answer is more distance but the second is they want the ability to “quiet their minds” and to focus.
You know the saying, “Golf is 90% mental and 10% psychological”! Yoga teaches you breathing, which helps you focus, control your emotions and keep tension out of your body – a huge contributor to common swing flaws.
2. GolfDashBlog: “I really have no idea where to start and have limited time, can you give me a few simple suggestions that can get me started”?
Katherine: Here is my philosophy – Adherence to a fitness program is more important than duration of the program. I always ask my students this question, “What is a realistic amount of time you have five days a week to devote to your golf fitness program”? The second question I ask is to define three to five goals and areas of the body and game that need the most attention.
Once you establish your time considerations and goals pick ten exercises – five for more flexibility and five for more strength.
3. GolfDashBlog: What is “typically” the most problematic physical issue for golfers?
Katherine:I don’t like to make generalizations but typically most men can benefit from more flexibility and most women can benefit from building more strength.
4. GolfDashBlog: How can we substantially improve our golf power and distance?
Katherine:Focusing on flexibility in the torso and the ability to generate power from the lower body as well as proper sequencing can help you generate more power.
5. GolfDashBlog: How can we learn to relax our body to help us play better, effortless golf
Katherine:The breath is a mirror to what is happening in the body and mind. The fastest way to relax the body is to take long, cleansing breaths, inhaling and exhaling for a slow count of four. Imagine the tension leaving your body, specifically your forearms.
6. GolfDashBlog: Tell us about your new book “Swing Flaws and Fitness Fixes”
Katherine: The book is a compellation of over a decade of golf specific conditioning as well as over two decades as a fitness professional.
Because I feel it is critical to combine fitness, equipment and PGA instruction for maximum benefits I asked Hank Haney to help me with the book. We look at the most common swing flaws, explain the physical correlations to these flaws, Hanks provides his thoughts as it relates to the swing and I complete the lessons with a series of simple, effective exercises.
If you’re like most golfers, you’ve probably invested substantial sums of money into new balls, cutting-edge clubs, and professional swing instruction in an effort to improve your game. But what prevents you from playing your best probably isn’t your equipment or even your swing; it’s your fitness.
Here is a little intro about it:
In Swing Flaws and Fitness Fixes, renowned golf fitness expert Katherine Roberts outlines a precise combination of flexibility and golf-specific conditioning that will get any golfer in shape to play their best. The book begins with a breakdown of the muscles utilized in the golf swing, along with tests to let you measure your baseline fitness.
Roberts then takes you through the most common swing flaws in golf–from the “reverse pivot” to the “chicken wing”–with swing analysis by legendary instructor Hank Haney. Roberts will help you overcome the physical deficiencies that cause most swing problems with simple and effective exercises that require no fancy equipment.
Finally, Roberts details her game-changing Flex-Fit Method for better overall golf fitness, which will give you more power in your game, flexibility to prevent injuries, and the stamina to stay strong through all eighteen holes.
Guaranteed to give you an edge on the course, Swing Flaws and Fitness Fixes is an innovative new approach that will remake your body and your golf game.
Get the book here: Swing Flaws and Fitness Fixes: Fix Your Swing by Putting Flexibility, Strength, and Stamina in Your Golf Bag
7. GolfDashBlog: Give us a couple secret fitness tips that only the pros know
Katherine:First and foremost the pros work on their golf fitness and warm-up before they play. Secondly they train specifically for the sport. The golf swing is an explosive movement, from a static position. Physically it is very complicated movement, requiring a balance of strength and flexibility. The pros train specifically for the sport versus general fitness conditioning.
8. GolfDashBlog: Any particulate fitness products you like and would recommend to our readers?
Katherine:If you are a golfer who learns from reading books I genuinely feel that my new book is revolutionary and offers golf specific training as well as additional tips for building a healthy back, core, the best tips for recovery and rest and how vision effects your game!
If you learn more effectively from a DVD check out the More Power and Distance and Lower Your Score DVDs on my website @ www.KRFlexFit.com
9. GolfDashBlog: How can we use the power of our minds to help us play more efficiently and effectively?
Katherine:Most elite athletes, use the power of their mind and visualization to reach peak performance. You don’t need to have a “meditation” practice or be some sort of “guru” to access the power of your mind. Begin on the practice tee. Visualize your swing, the flight and trajectory of the ball, visualize it landing, rolling and stopping exactly where you want it to go.
Personally when I get to the golf course I go directly to the putting green and begin my visualization process. I seem to play better when I practice this way.
About Katherine Roberts:
Katherine Roberts is Founder and President of Katherine Roberts Yoga for Golfers. Roberts’ unique approach to golf conditioning is a hybrid of western biomechanical research and eastern mind/body conditioning for performance, and her work has been profiled by USA TODAY, Golf Magazine, Golf for Women, Golf Week and US Airways Magazine.
As a fitness expert and a regular contributor for The Golf Channel, she has appeared on The Turn, The Big Break, Your Game Night, How Low Can you Go and Game ON! Katherine’s new golf fitness series airs on The Golf Channel in summer 2008.
Katherine is the producer of nine DVDs and author of the ground-breaking book Yoga for Golfers (McGraw-Hill). Her second book Swing Flaws and Fitness Solutions will be published in early 2009. Roberts is dedicated to helping people achieve maximum performance and balance both on and off the course.
Related posts:
- Quick Nine with Golf Zen Master Dr. Joe Parent
- Interview with PGA Tour Biomechanics Coach Joey Diovisalvi
- Scot Duke Interview On His New Book – "How to Play Business Golf"
- David Duval Interview
- Training Tempo With Eyeline Golf’s Metronome Pro
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Comments
It is hard to accurately evaluate someone’s credentials who presents themselves as an ‘expert’. I read a lot of golf magazines that publish all sorts of ‘fixes’ and ‘tips’ and I have to ask myself ‘why should I trust this person’.
Golf is so personal that applying anything to your own game can do more harm than good if it’s not carefully considered in the whole context of how you play.
In Katherine’s defense, I have to say that yoga is good for any physical activity you’re involved in. Stretching and core strengthening always help. I’ve noticed in my own game that the more days I play in a row the better I get. It’s occurred to me that it might be more about strengthening golf specific muscles than anything else.
About golf teachers having to be good golfers themselves; I’m sure Harvey Penick was a decent player in his day, but when he started to become famous he was an old man who couldn’t swing a club anymore, but he sure helped some of the game’s best players with his intstruction.
I like the idea that her book is written with Hank Haney. The idea that better golf is a combination of exercise AND golf instruction makes a lot of sense to me.
I have always been on the fence about Roberts. Her big break on “The Big Break” was a farce – she was supposed to be a big time fitness and stretching coach for golfers, but she was on the show for her…feminine “attributes”. She added nothing but eye-candy to the show and never got to show what she was supposed to be good at.
Met her a couple of times at the PGA Merchandise Show – which is rarely a good place to draw conclusions on what a person is really like – but I found her to be rude and condescending…which could very well have been because it was late in the day and she had been dealing with people for 8 hours. So I let that slide.
Maybe it just bothers me that she keeps getting publicity as this golf guru, yet I have never seen her with a club in her hands. How does she know what is good and what isn’t for the golfer ? Her knowledge of yoga is impressive, but I can’t shake the feeling that she is just a nice looking lady who found a niche for a few stretches and is now writing the same book over and over again, like a golf magazine “fixing” your slice.