Sorenstam Radiates Confidence on Fairways

That toughness has vaulted her to the top of women's golf the last three years. She has programmed herself to be No. 1 - toughened physically by a grueling workout regime embarked on two years ago and steeled mentally by a will to win first ingrained by her athletic parents.

How tough is Sorenstam? "About as tough as they come," says her personal trainer, Kai Fusser.

When she first began working out with Fusser, she couldn't perform one pull-up. Now she routinely does 15. She started doing quads with 60-pound barbells. Now she's up to 300 pounds.

Fusser's program is heavy on weight work, most targeted to core training aimed at Sorenstam's upper and lower body. Balance work is big, too. Sorenstam can stand on a physioball that is 2 feet in diameter - and swing a club. "Not a lot of people can do that," Fusser says.

Cardio work is mostly interval training - rope jumping, rollerblading. She changes routines every eight weeks and works hardest in the off season, to peak in the spring.

The result: Sorenstam has become leaner (14% body fat) and stronger. She drives 25 yards longer and hits straighter.

Two years ago, after hiring Fusser, she followed her 8-win season with a stunning 11-victory season. Last year she won 6 times - and went toe -to- toe with the men on the PGA Tour.

"If you watch her walk down the fairway, she walks differently," Fusser says. "Her chest is up, 'Here we go!' There is a confidence there. When she goes to the tee, she knows she has done everything she can to her body and she is at 100% where she can be, and that doesn't leave any doubts in her mind."

Tough And Buff

How did Annika Sorenstam increase her driving average by 20 yards since 2000?

"People always want to talk about my swing, but my workouts have been just as important," Sorenstam says. "I'd like to dispel the myth that heavy weights are bad for golfers."

She started her current regimen with German trainer Kai Fusser. When she's not playing tournaments, Sorenstam works out five days a week. Tournament weeks, Sorenstam works out three or four times a week at nearby gyms.

The following exercises are the core of Sorenstam's program. Consult your doctor before beginning any weightlifting program.

Squats: Fusser says that although squats work the legs the hardest, they also involve the abdomen, sides, and back.

Sorenstam can squat up to 300 pounds and usually does three sets of eight repetitions.

Pull-ups: Most women -- and many men -- can't do these. That's one of the reasons Fusser chose them for Sorenstam: There's a psychological boost to mastering a very difficult exercise. Plus, they're great for overall upper-body strength. Sorenstam does three sets of eight with a 25-pound weight.

Wood chop: This exercise targets inner abdominal muscles that are integral to rotational power. It also helps the same muscle groups used in the golf swing to work in sync.

Crikey!

The 35-year-old Stupples is a perfect example of what has happened on the LPGA. She got fitter and stronger and became a much better player. She emulated Sorenstam so closely that two years ago she even hired the Swede's personal trainer, Kai Fusser, to work with her in Orlando, where she now lives. "I am much longer now," Stupples said, "and the added strength has given me more control over my swing. Working with Kai has made all the difference in the world."

Physics of Fitness

The stout climbing rope is the first thing you notice upon entering the gym in Annika Academy℠ at Ginn Reunion Resort outside Orlando, Fla. Everyone seems drawn to the rope. Athletes, members and staff all talk about it or try to pull themselves up, though most are unsuccessful. Hanging front and center from ceiling to floor, the rope may trigger memories of physical education classes past, but don’t let it fool you. This is no throwback gym; it’s a state-of-the-art fitness facility custom-designed by Kai Fusser, the professional trainer who has shaped Annika Sorenstam into arguably the strongest player on the LPGA Tour. Every piece of equipment — from the various free weights and benches to the treadmills and exercise bicycles — has been handpicked by Fusser to suit his specific intentions. Though you won’t find many gyms offering a climbing rope, the tool represents Fusser’s commitment to training techniques that integrate multiple muscle motions and whole-body efficiency. In the fitness wave that has swept professional golf in recent years, Fusser is a revolutionary.

Kai Fusser instructs a client on the proper use of a “tornado ball,” a medicine ball attached to a rope that, when properly swung from side to side, improves endurance, core strength, and range of motion. The exercise is geared toward helping golfers develop a smoother, more powerful swing.

Cutting Edge

Few Tour players, men or women, were working out seriously in 2001 when Fusser took the helm of Sorenstam’s training program. Conventional wisdom had held that strength training would build muscle mass that would only interfere with a golfer’s swing. Today, Fusser works with more than 15 professional golfers, including Laura Diaz, Karen Stupples and Reilley Rankin of the LPGA and Graeme McDowell of the PGA. (Other clients include the NBA’s Grant Hill, wakeboarding pioneer Darin Shapiro and numerous other pro wakeboarders and water-skiers.)

Sorenstam credits the strength gained under Fusser’s tutelage for much of her legendary success — 69 victories, 38 in five years while training with Fusser. “He looks at [fitness] from an engineering standpoint,” Sorenstam says. “It’s always about how we transfer the weight, how we get the energy going.”

Before becoming certified as a personal trainer and sports nutritionist, the German-born Fusser earned a degree in engineering. He also has been invited to several universities to present his theories on harnessing the laws of physics to improve athletic movement and performance. His presentations draw upon his own past experience as a professional water-skier as well as that of training world-class athletes.

Such broad experience has helped to shape Fusser’s unique fitness philosophy, and it’s what drew Sorenstam’s interest. “I was looking for someone who was knowledgeable about the body and sports,” Sorenstam recalls. “I didn’t want to do golf specifics because I’m already kind of uneven.”

In Fusser’s view, golf is a sport; its players are athletes. “A lot of people ask me about golf-specific this and that,” Fusser says. “I don’t quite see it that way. You have to stand. You have to rotate. Speed is a factor in creating power. Balance is very important. Range of motion is important. So [golf] is really like any other sport, just different intensity maybe.”

Precision

Balance Board - Simply standing on it strengthens the stabilizing muscles of the legs, hips, abdominals and back and improves balance. Once you master standing, add light dumbbell curls and raises.

In a phrase, Fusser’s fitness philosophy is this: “Efficiency through perfect movement.” As a result, much of his program revolves around progressive periods of training to improve balance, strengthen the core (the muscles of the torso, including those of the abdominals and lower back), increase range of motion and develop muscle speed and efficiency of motion.

To be more golf specific, Fusser maintains that greater strength lengthens drives, better balance improves the short game, endurance breeds consistency and enhanced range of motion generates smoother strokes.

Those are just the tangibles.

“If you look at the stats, I’m hitting the ball farther; I’ve improved in general,” Sorenstam says. “But it’s the way I feel. My shoulders are a lot stronger overall. My arms, my back, everything is even, and I feel like that can prolong my season and my career just by being generally fit.”

When asked about naysayers who claim that muscle mass interferes with a good golf swing, Fusser responds, “Theoretically it could happen if you build the wrong kind of muscles. Obviously, you don’t want to look like a body builder. What I’m after is creating fast-twitch fiber muscles and stimulating them and making them strong. Fast-twitch fiber muscles are more efficient, smaller and a lot stronger. You can create a lot more speed.”

Straight Cable Rotation - Simply standing on it strengthens the stabilizing muscles of the legs, hips, abdominals and back and improves balance. Once you master standing, add light dumbbell curls and raises.

What exactly does that look like in action? During one day I spent in Fusser’s gym, LPGA hopefuls from as far as Japan and Venezuela, current Tour player Rankin and one professional water-skier performed a variety of cable-pulling rotations, lunges on and off balance boards, squats, and free-weight dumbbell and barbell lifts — usually with light to moderate weight and never in sets of more than eight repetitions. There was no work on any Nautilus-style weight machines; those don’t exist in Fusser’s gym. To isolate part of the body or remove half of it from movement sequences does not fit his designs.

Fusser’s manner is low-key. He occasionally offered calm encouragement or instruction, reminding the athletes to engage their core, to keep their hips and spine aligned and to make the most of every rep.

“What the body does, it will remember,” Fusser told Hiroko Fujishima of the Japanese Tour. “Every rep needs to be perfect every single time.”

Personal Attention

Fortunately, Fusser’s well-rounded training guidance is not limited to the pros. His exclusive specialized service can now be taken advantage of by Ginn Reunion members and guests. Opening Annika Academy at Ginn Reunion Resort has fulfilled a dream for Fusser, Sorenstam and hitting coach Henri Reis, bringing under one roof all the elements that have contributed to Sorenstam’s success.

Hammer curl to overhead - Curling, then raising light dumbbells adds arm and shoulder strength. More importantly, focusing on keeping shoulders over hips over legs at all times helps to engage your core and enhance the benefits of each rep.

Lying at the far end of the driving range along Ginn Reunion’s Tom Watson Independence Course, the 5,400-squarefoot facility helps golfers tune up every aspect of their game and health. Fusser admits that he’s partial to one half of the building, but recognizes that there is much more to the total facility.

“It’s the gym I’ve always wanted, exactly the way I wanted, so obviously that’s my favorite part,” Fusser says. “But it’s just the perfect setting. Everything can be done here within a of couple minutes of driving. You can go to the water park. You can play tennis, use the practice facility for golf or play three courses. It doesn’t come any better than this.”

Fusser enjoys working with athletes of all abilities and ages, from children to seniors. He tells me about training kids, teenagers, professionals, beginners — even one 87-year-old golfer who recently began working out because he had lost some distance on his drives.

“For me, it’s a great contrast to train somebody like Annika at the peak of working out, then take a 65-year-old who is just starting and trying to get healthier,” Fusser says.

Unprecedented personal service is part of Sorenstam and Company’s standard of excellence for the Academy, and Fusser is able to give each of his clients undivided attention within Ginn Reunion’s premier environment. When asked how the program compares with other golf academies or resorts around the world, Fusser notes, “The main [difference] is taking care of the individual as much as we can, giving personal attention to every individual — versus a golf school where you never know who is going to teach you. Here you get the same people working with you who have worked with Annika and helped her get where she wanted to get.”

Don’t worry, they won’t make you climb the rope — at least not right away. Just don’t be surprised when you feel so good that you can’t resist trying.