Electronic Arts has officially launched Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, their browser-based pro golf game. For a subscription fee you get access to more content and features. You can also purchase packages of points that will give players access to purchasing in-game items from the Pro Shop or rounds of golf.
Want to test your skills on the cliffs at Pebble Beach, or the infamous 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass? With Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® Online, you can take on the world’s most challenging and legendary courses. And with the Course Mastery feature, you can tackle each course with a series of increasingly challenging objectives. Score multiple birdies, complete a 300+ yard drive and sink record-breaking putts to earn the title of Course Champion. Every course provides its own set of challenges, and the more courses you master, the more bragging rights you’ll earn!
A Healthy Body = Healthy Mind
“I believe great physical conditioning me an advantage when I have to play 36 holes in a match play event like the U.S Amateur or the Ryder Cup, or when the weather has forced a postponement. It gives me an extra gear when I need it. I needed it during the final round of the 2000 NEC invitational in Akron, Ohio, a real marathon because of a weather delay. We finished that tournament in near darkness, and I felt just as fresh in the end as during my warm-up that morning. Fatigue can affect your focus and cause you to make a bad decision. I never want to lose a tournament because of a bad decision precipitated by my being out of shape. In Akron, being at my physical best helped me to stay mentally sharp and allowed me to claim another trophy.”
Tiger Woods, 2001
Imagine a scenario where you are on the practice ground, hitting shot after shot, striving for that consistent perfection that every golfer craves. The harder you try, the more frustrated you become and mental and physical fatigue starts to set in. Wouldn’t it be great to have the capacity to stay out there for half an hour longer, and hit 10% more shots, working on that technical aspect that you have until this point struggled to get right?
Physical fitness strongly relates to what is known the in the world of physical preparation for performance as “work capacity.”
There are 3 components of work capacity:
1) The ability to tolerate a high workload. The key word here is tolerate. Many sportsmen/ women are capable of doing an occasional high workload but cannot adopt this workload on a consistent basis.
2) The ability to recover from the workload sufficiently for the next workout or competition. This is closely tied to the first concept. If the athlete cannot recover, then he or she risks overuse injuries or over-training. The athlete will not be able to adapt to the training stress
3) The capacity to resist fatigue, whatever the source. Fatigue is more than metabolic; it involves the nervous system and mental capacity. Resisting fatigue is the refinement of the efficiency and coordination of the cardiovascular, metabolic and nervous systems.
To better understand the concept of work capacity, it is useful to think of it as the components of athletic fitness that, if deficient, would limit the ability to do other training (e.g. Golf) and subsequently limit the ability to perform.
In essence, work capacity can relate to fitness potential. The more ground work you commit to, the more potential you will give yourself, when you want to go and perform. In this way, you will be able to do as Tiger claims in the above statement and that is to feel as fresh at the end of the round, as you do at the start.
Example Work Capacity Session;
Exercise Bike
Guidelines: If you cannot sustain 100RPM for the full duration of each repetition then you must reduce the level accordingly. Conversely, if you are maintaining the required pace comfortably for the full duration of each repetition, then you must increase your pace by 5RPM (e.g. from 100RPM to 105RPM).
GOAL: This is a Work Capacity session designed specifically to work at a high intensity in medium length intervals. A gradual increase in blood lactate will be felt and heart rate will rise and fall as the session progresses. The intensity of this session is 85-95% of HR Max at peak. A rough guide to your HR Max is 220-Age (e.g. if you are 20 years old, then 200-20 = 200. 95% of this would be 190 Beats Per Minute (BPM).
Article (c) David Parker MSc ASCC | Strength and Conditioning Coach & Performance Consultant. | sightlineperformance@googlemail.com
EA has confirmed plans to release a browser-based golf title that will be offered through a multi-tiered subscription from autumn 2009.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online will be streamed to web browsers and require no game installation, disc or additional peripherals.
Players will be able suspend play at any time and resume from the same point later on, said EA. At launch the game will feature “several world class championship courses,” with new features to be added “regularly.”
“Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online is for anyone who loves golf and is on-the-go,” said executive producer Mike Taramykin. “Whether you have ten minutes on your PC in the office, or hours on your Mac at home, this is a golf game that makes time for you. With Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online, golf lovers can satisfy their golf fix anytime.”
For more information, visit the website here.
