Want Swing Speed? We Got It.
I now swing 130 mph. Thank you Ben Mackie. Cut it. Print it. Post it on a flier... I don't care.
I tried to finesse this column a million different ways to talk about a little trip I took down to Nakashima the other day to get on their launch moniter after not swinging a golf club for the better part of the winter solstice. Forget the fact that I was rusty, or that I was in jeans and loafers. And no one knows better than me that swinging that fast doesn't attribute to great scores but the fact remains that I do swing that fast. And that fact must be backed up by the only thing that's changed in the last six months was a strict diet of Mackie workouts.
6 a.m. every morning with the golf team. Golf specific, weight specific, cardio... take your pick, we've done them all. He's put us through workouts more suited for Her Majesties Army... (which makes sense because he served in the British Army) and workouts that would have been right at home in a pilates class. But regardless, spending 20 minutes on that launch moniter showed me something. Results.
You can talk as much as you'd like about form and technique and proper mechaniques of the golf swing but let's say it like it is. I'm not going Ben for golf tips... the guy should be coming to ME. I go to him to get bigger, faster and stronger. And apparently to be able to drive the ball 360-yards. I don't remember that being in the brochure but I'll take it. You can teach wedge control and putting stroke but only a 300+ carry can be crafted in the gym...
Excuse me... studio.
Let’s Start the Insanity
We're going to explore a specific school of thought on training and getting your body in shape today. First, if you haven't played competitive basketball for a few years expect there to be a few drawbacks. Your conditioning won't be there. You can't make the same moves you once did and even though your body thinks your capable of certain things... it will fail you at times. I learned that the hard way two weeks ago as I tried to reclaim all the past basketball glory within a few hours at noon. I got a good sweat out of it. I also got a gash on my arm, a lot of bruises and a severely twisted knee. This brings me to the second school of thought. If you haven't been in the studio for two weeks DO NOT by any means start back up at six in the morning with the Pacific Golf team. The Tigers, reaping the benefits of Ben Mackie, pun intended, get after it every morning before the sun has even thought about starting to rise. This morning Ben welcomed the team back, albeit in his own former-British-Army way....
100 reps of each
push-ups | ball sits | plank | russian twists | cross over twists | lunges | bicycles
And that's only 1/4 of the the morning as you do 100 of each of those and then come back and hit it 75 times. Then 50 times. Then 25. Welcome back!
The Butt Workout
Got a chance to check out Ben Mackie in action this morning at Fitness 360. Take a look for yourself as he puts his clients through the paces!
The BENefits of Mackie
I decided to switch it up a little for my fourth day at 360. Ben Mackie, one of Todd’s first trainers to join the studio had an opening in his afternoon group so I jumped at the chance to get away from the balance balls and squats with the small hope that maybe we’d be getting into something that I would do well at. Having seen women twice my age (god I hope I’m right on that or someone’s going to be mad at me!) doing drills twice as good as me has left me the need to boost the ‘ole self esteem. Ben’s group was composed of a handful of his regular clients and he would pair us into teams, give us a dozen exercies to complete together. For instance we had to run three laps, 300 jump-ropes, 300 sit-ups... etc.
I could perform all 300 sit-ups and my partner, a co-ed from Pacific (thank you Ben!), would do all three laps and so on. It was a great change of pace and involved a great deal of competition against the three other groups. Finally, I thought, something I can really get into. And I did. Now I don’t know whether it was the exercies that appealed to me, the injecting of competition or simply the wanting to not look bad in front of a college girl but it was a great workout. Completely different from what Todd has previously put me through but also very, very effective. Ben’s workout had a certain degree of laid-backness to it but at the same time no one took it for granted and got after it. He, like Todd, kept everything fun but made me work to finish sets and get a little more out of myself. At the end of the day we’re all there only because we want to be there but it’s great to have someone like Ben in your corner getting you to the next level.
