I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the movie “300″ but those guys were put through a grueling workout to get themselves into the phenomenal physical conditioning they were in to play the part of the Spartans. A couple men’s health magazines put together some workouts called the “300 Challenge”. I’ve kind of done the same thing, but for a very different purpose. Everyone has likely heard that it takes 3,000-5,000 repetitions to develop a habit. That’s a LOT of repetitions, and especially when it comes to learning movements in the golf swing. But, I’ve committed myself to making changes in my golf swing for longevity purposes and to enjoy pain free golf for years to come.
Many of you have watched Alison Thietje’s presentation videos on her website and there is a ton of great information on there, some of which is what I’m working on with my “300 Workout” I started today. In an effort to engrain some changes in to the biomechanics of my golf swing, I decided to do 300 slow motion golf swings in front of a mirror focusing on the changes that I’m making in my swing and this morning was the first “workout”. It was more challenging than I originally thought but incredibly insightful in the end and probably the most productive time I’ve ever spent working on my golf swing. Below I’ve chronicled this first workout so you can see what it was like.
9:30 am – Takes about 5 minutes to do 20 swings, the first 40 were sort of just feeling things out
9:47 am – By rep 60, I started feeling like my brain new what I what I was trying to do, things started clicking
9:54 am – By rep 80, I felt like I could really start to add speed to what I was doing
10:00 am – Rep 100 – Feeling very confident as my swing is looking and feeling like what I want it to
10:06 am – Rep 120 – Takeaway move really feeling good here, starting to focus on left side as well on downswing now.
10:13 am – Rep 140 – Noticing fatigue, arms and shoulders have never felt this soft and relaxed, really feeling left side pulling motion, starting to sweat, it’s a workout now, taking a 5 minute break to stretch and relax my brain.
10:21 am – Rep 160 – Do I even have arms and shoulders now? Club coming through effortlessly, completely core driven and club is ripping through w/ serious speed and zero effort as I’ve started to add a little more speed to my drills.
10:26 am – Rep 180 – Mixing fast and slow now, started getting a little sloppy and losing the feeling of using my core properly.
10:31 am – Rep 200 – Really feeling core now, shoulders super relaxed.
10:36 am – Rep 220 – Back to going super slow again, focusing on takeaway and left side on downswing. My setp feels very comfortable now.
10:41 am – Rep 240 – Tired, sweaty, taking a break. Wondering to myself how many people are actually going to do this? Hayes maybe…. 
10:47 am – Rep 260 – Starting to totally feel different muscles powering my downswing and complete separation from my shoulders and core.
10:53 am – Rep 280 – My golf swing feels like it’s from another planet. Completely controlled by the right and left side of my core, I don’t have arms, checking in the mirror to ensure they are still there.
11:00 am – Rep 300 – Don’t have arms but they sure are moving fast. Whew, I’m done!
It took an hour and a half to complete 300 swings like this, about the same time it takes to hit a large bucket of balls on the range, but this was way more productive in the long run. It’s certainly not a short term, quick fix, but in the end my joints are going to thank me – in fact, they already are!
I once watched Tiger Woods practicing at Isleworth here in Windermere where he lives and I saw him do the same takeaway drill for 45 minutes, non-stop, without ever hitting a ball. If you think about that, it’s amazing. He was intensely focused on a drill while a hole pile of brand new Nike One Platinum’s lay at his feet just begging to be hit. I never thought I could do just a drill for an hour and a half, but I just did and I learned a ton about the muscles that I want to actually fire in my downswing. I’m 10% of the way there!
To check my progress, I went downstairs immediately afterward and hit a few balls on film to see if anything stuck, here’s the sequence:
I’m very happy with a few things that I can already see as a result of my work this morning. One, I’m much happier with the coil and position of my left knee going back. I have a tedency to let it go back a bit far and get loose and sloppy. I’m extremely happy with my downswing progress, not perfect, but definite progress. My left leg is completely posted up on, not by using leg, using my core in the downswing! Because of this impact position, I’m getting a great release where the club is ripping through due to centrifugal force and nothing else.
Filming my swing helped me see what I need to focus on again tomorrow when I do another “300 Workout”, but I’m very pleased that swing has progressed already and can’t wait to see what happens when I hit 3,000 reps!
Funny you mentioning the ’300 workout’. I’ve been doing this workout at the gym twice a week for the last month, as well as some plyometrics and weight training.
My current ’300′ workout is more like ’150′….have you ever tried doing 50 pull-ups?… impossible, I can manage 25 at the moment!
I wonder how much ritalin I will have to take to last through a session such as this
It was a challenge. That’s apparently what it’s going to take to become a “Spartan” golfer like Tiger Woods! I was just comparing the frame of impact with the one from earlier this week from this post: http://www.oneplanegolfswing.com/golfblog/index.php/10/27/day-1-progress-report-rs2-swing-changes/
And my left leg is infinitely better. Completely posted and protecting my knee by comparison without me trying to post. Biomechanics are cool. Not a bad improvement for 3 days work.
Helps not to have a “Day Job.” =)
Harvey Penick talked about the value of slow-motion-swings.
Reads like a tough, tough workout. Maintaining the quality through so many reps has to be very much a strain. 100 a day for 30 days sounds so much more reasonable. Gotta’ have the quality!
I really think the ’300′ practice will accelerate one’s learning of these new biomechanical techniques.
Stay strong young Spartan, do not surrender to poor mechanics, remember the Battle of Thermopylae 480BC (before Creatine!)
Ray, I didn’t let myself cheat here, 300 quality swings and I took a break as needed. It’s a huge committment of time, but like Spuddy said, I’m going all Spartan on this deal! 10 days sounds way better than 30!
if we use a weighted club, do you think we can do less reps in less time to get the same results at the end of the training session?
No, unfortunately this is a “magic” number that was found through research of stroke victims and other people rehabilitating lost mobility and other injuries. For whatever reason, 3,000-5,000 is where the brain wakes up and says, “Oh, are you talking to me?” Also, doing it with a weighted club gets you focused on the extremeties, not the core, so it’s pointless. If you can’t or don’t want to do the time on relearning this, stick with the simple Rotary Swing 1.0 fundamentals which are easy to get a sense of and don’t require that everything be done perfectly. However, even there I stress in the book the importance of the body drill…
CQ,
Never doubted for a second that you did the 300 with high quality. Sorry if that’s what transmitted. Have my doubts that I can, though. =)Sounds tough.
Keep us posted. Looking forward to seeing your results.
300 swings in front of your mirror whitout ever hitting a ball, or you doing slow swings and hitting balls? Whatever you’re gonna be a machine in 10 days! But if i’m not a quality player like you and i’m doing this kind of working session, is it good or not?
It appears as though the pivot is more of a front/back motion of the knees with little to no lateral movement of the front knee.
Hayes, that is something that I don’t care for in my swing that I had to some degree, the lateral motion of the knee. It’s ok to some degree to have it if you are shifting the weight to the right, but it’s not necessary if your swing is pure rotation.
Joe, I’m doing 300 reps in slow motion without hitting a ball. I did let myself make a few faster swings in the middle there and then went back to slow. To be honest, it would be a complete waste of time to do this if you didn’t know what you were doing. In fact, it’d probably be more harmful because you’d be grooving the wrong thing. Be patient, Alison and I are going to give you all the tools you need soon!
Hey Chuck I’m a new member to the site and its funny to see people that are even more obsessed with Tiger’s swing than I am. I read that Tiger spent 45 minutes on a take away drill and I was wondering what it was because my takeaway is the weakest part of my backswing. Could you help me out?
Hi Chuck, great stuff! I am very interested in learning everything correctly for the 2.0 version of the rotary swing. I wasa member for a bit and quite when I hurt my back. I have hooked up with the guys at Club Golf here in Maryland and have rehabed my back and swing. But, I want to learn the rotary swing. Can’t wait to see what/how to practice as practice makes permanent and not perfect…need to make sure that I practice the right things! I will be signing up for online lessons soon! Keep up the great work!