by Andre Sanchez

Fitness for golf is not only being supple and strong: it is knowing how to eat for golf so that you get through your golf round without losing your strength and finishing on a low after a great start. It happens to all of us, yet we frequently wonder why we suddenly start to go downhill after the twelfth hole or so.

You might think that you are getting a bit older, or are unfit due to a lack of training or practice, but what that does is to reduce your ability, not your endurance. Many confuse endurance or stamina with fitness, and while there is certainly an element of fitness and training in stamina, nobody can maintain peak strength and lasting power without proper nutrition. It is the glucose levels in your blood that determine your lasting power, but more on that later.

Contrary to what Mark Twain thought, golf is more that a ‘good walk’, spoiled or not. It involves a degree of fitness, strength and flexibility that a guy who writes for a living could never comprehend. You expend a great deal of energy on the golf course with the complex explosive rotational movement that is called the golf swing, and the trek over a championship golf course is about three and three quarter miles. If you play a couple of rounds a day, then you are walking seven and a half miles, with several explosive drives in between. A ‘good walk’ indeed!

Golf is a hard game to play, at least to play properly, and you have to be prepared before you start your round in the same way that any other sportsman needs to be prepared. Energy is generated in your body by means of blood glucose being metabolised in the mitochondria of your body cells into energy. That glucose can come from many sources, though it is produced in the body from fats, carbohydrates and sugars.

Most people can split their energy foods into three specific types: the quick fix of monosaccharides or sugars that are quickly converted to glucose, medium fixes of many simple carbohydrates, and the longer term gains of fats and complex carbs that take longer for the body’s biochemistry to convert to glucose. Can you see how to use these different types of food to spread your glucose availability over your day? Glucose availability equates to energy generation.

If you are playing golf from mid morning to mid afternoon, then a breakfast of oatmeal gives you the longer haul, and a sprinkling of sugar in your coffee gives you a quick fix. You can boost your immediate energy from some fruit or fruit juice and perhaps a banana. Take an energy bar with you on your round, and a glucose drink for a rapid energy boost when you think you need it. During the round eat a piece of fruit or some raisins and keep well hydrated to allow your body’s biochemistry to operate efficiently.

No professional golfer would consider going onto the course without some energy-boosting food since they know that they will eventually lose energy as the round progresses. A golf swing takes more energy than you probably believe, and energy cannot just be created out of nothing. All of the energy you have in your body, and use when swinging that golf club and sending that ball over 350 yards into the afternoon sun, comes from the food that you consume. There is no other source. You cannot absorb energy from the sun! You have to eat it, and you can maintain your on-course energy by bringing along some sugary drinks, bars and fruit.

You cannot eat your way to golf success, but you can sure make sure that you don’t run out of energy during your round as many people do. Your fitness for golf is very much in your mouth and your stomach, and if you learn how to eat for golf, then your game will improve because you will never be short of the energy needed for a full powered swing.

Fitness for Golf: How to Eat for Golf was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com