In my most recent blog, I look at one of the products we offer at the Jason Floyd Golf Academy – the WHOOP health and fitness wearable. WHOOP is one of the great training products that JFGA students can get exclusive discount on through their Student Discount where they get a free WHOOP and 1 month subscription included. To visit the JFGA WHOOP page, click here.

PGA Winners

Have you ever seen the five-time PGA Tour winner Nick Watney or other professional golfers’ wearing black straps on their wrist and wondered what they were for?

WHOOP is one of the newest wearable fitness tracking technologies designed for athletes and incorporates a data-driven band that provides essential information which helps increase your performance on and off the course.

Data Driven Athletic Information 

Student athletes can benefit from WHOOP’s extensive health monitoring during their training. WHOOP functions as a smart band worn on the wrist but it also functions on the bicep to continuously collect data in three key areas of the body: recovery, strain and sleep. Bicep placement can be particularly useful for golfers when moving from course play to physical training.

Easy To Understand

WHOOP gathers information and simply displays it on a mobile device that is easy for junior athletes to understand and review.  The app creates performance enhancing suggestions which applies more of a structure to health and fitness and can culture better routines. Students at the Jason Floyd Golf Academy can also utilise the data into their performance programme which is monitored by our instructors who can provide additional insights in line with the training at the academy.

The Jason Floyd Golf Academy has collaborated with WHOOP to offer student discount to Jason Floyd golf Academy students. With the JFGA WHOOP membership, students receive the latest 4.0 WHOOP free of charge as well as one month for free. The partnership between the Jayson Floyd Golf Academy and WHOOP embodies the “We don’t guess. We measure,” ethos of the academy where state-of-the-art golf and athletic technologies are used to provide a programme based on measurable scientific data. 

From Trackman, Smart2Move Force Plates, V1HD Pro camera setup and Hyperice Recovery Station, the Jason Floyd Golf Academy uses technology to enhance our students golfing and athletic abilities. With students able to access WHOOP through our student collaboration, students can choose to invest further in their athletic fitness and health with a WHOOP to gain additional insights into their training data.

Key Biometrics Available At A Glance

With WHOOP, students gain more insight to key biometrics such as heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and sleep performance. These are all key in helping the body recover. WHOOP provides easily understandable information which is analysed in three stages. Red, indicating your body is struggling to recover which could be a sign of illness, heavy training or stress. Yellow specifies your body is maintaining health, and finally, Green shows your body is well recovered and performance optimal.

Trusted By Leading Professional Golfers

The likes of Rory Mcllory and Justin Thomas have spoken about the WHOOP, highlighting the impact it’s had on their performance and recommending it as a tool that future athletes should utilise. This product will help athlete students reach their maximum performance providing them with essential data to help students gain a better understanding of their body and how .

Prior to the Player Championship in 2021, Justin Thomas used WHOOP to make sure he wasn’t overworking himself and would perform at his best that weekend. When Justin reviewed his whoop information he received throughout the competition, he was motivated by the green recoveries, which may have contributed to his thrilling victory at the Players Championship in 2021.

Balanced Strain & Recovery

The graphic below shows his daily strain (cardiovascular exertion on a 0-21 scale) and recovery (how prepared your body is to take on strain, from 0-100% and categorised as red, yellow or green). By keeping his strain in line with his recovery each day, Thomas enabled himself to be well rested and primed to perform when it mattered most.

In the crucial weeks leading up to junior golf tournaments, students might find WHOOP useful to ensure that their rest, stress, and recovery are balanced and that they can form routines that will help them improve performance on the course.

I sat down with Oli, JFGA Strength and Conditioning Coach to find out some more advice on this product from an expert point of view and what impact this can have on the students.


Ben: So, Oli, you’re a WHOOP user. I just wanted to find out some more information about how you use WHOOP and what are the key features you use.

Oli: Perfect, what would you like to know first?

Ben: As a Strength and Conditioning Coach, what’s the main benefit of using WHOOP?

Oli: From a coaching perspective, some of the key data that WHOOP gives us is their sleep, strain and recovery. We can use this data to tailor programmes on the day. If one of the students come in that day with a red recovery, we would ensure that we adapt their training to a lighter session to aid their recovery. Usually, we can tell this by someone’s body language when they come in but whoop allows us to be more specific and see in-depth results that allow us to identify a potential problems. After we have found the issue, we will guide the students into getting them back into the green zone, so they can reach their maximum potential everyday they come in.

Ben: That’s interesting. What sort of techniques would you use in the KinetiX programme to help students get out of a red recovery?

Oli: We start by having a conversation with the students to give them counter measures. Say for example you wake up in the morning and think you’ve had 7 hours of effective sleep however in reality your body has only had 5 hours of good sleep (this could mean that you’re not fully recovered). This is where those conversation come in and we can give the students techniques to help them sleep better such as helping our students manage an evening schedule as well as providing advice on techniques to improve sleeping patterns such as dimming the lights in the evenings or spending less time on their phone before bed.

Ben: Why do you recommend WHOOP?

Oli: I would recommend it to any athlete who wants more control over their training. It’s probably one of the best fitness trackers out there that is aimed more specifically towards athletes and it can monitor your fitness each week.

One of my favourite things about it is how much feedback it provides you with… In addition to this, the live feature offers a chance for JFGA students to share their experience with other students. So, students could take a video of themselves teeing off the 10th hole and share it to each other and the JFGA coaches. At the same time WHOOP will break down the video to show you data like your heart rate during your swing so students can see what goes on in the think box, play box and post box.

Ben: Perfect thank you for that Oli.

JFGA Students & WHOOP

I also was able to catch up with two of our current students – Lenny Koch who is on the Triple A Elite Programme and Kezaia Dimosi who is on the JFGA GAP Year Programme.

Ben: So, Lenny you’ve had a WHOOP now for over 2 years now, being an everyday user can you just tell me how your experience with WHOOP has helped you improve as an athlete and helped your golf?

Lenny: Yeah of course. So WHOOP has basically helped me to get my sleep, recovery and strain levels to a high level. This then helps me to achieve my best results on the golf course and allows me to reach my maximum potential in my 4 hours of dedicated training each day at the Jason Floyd Golf Academy.

 

Ben: Thanks Lenny. Kezaia you recently purchased a WHOOP, could you just tell me a little bit about why you bought this product?

Kezaia: I bought WHOOP because I saw all the top athletes and our coaches wearing it. I had also heard how it could improve my game and allow me to reach my maximum potential. Also, with the Jason Floyd Golf Academy, having a discount with WHOOP has helped me to make my purchase.

Ben: Perfect thank you Kezaia.

Jason Floyd – Founder Of The Jason Floyd Golf Academy

Finally, I wanted to speak with Jason Floyd. Jason is the founder of the Jason Floyd Golf Academy and has set up the academy and it’s programmes with the help of the team to offer elite training programmes for junior golfers who aim for a scholarship in the US or a career in golf.

Ben: Welcome Jason, I know that you use WHOOP every day as part of your training and recommend it for athlete golfers. Could you summarise the key points of WHOOP and how this product can help students.

Jason: Overall WHOOP is the ultimate technical tool that allows athletes to understand how their body works and it enables our students who use WHOOP to learn their strengths and weaknesses and recognise areas for improvement.

WHOOP allows our team to quantify student’s performance habits and from this they’re able to reach their maximum potential in their training programmes.

To find out more about WHOOP, speak to a member of our team or use the link at the top of the page which links to our exclusive JFGA WHOOP Student Discount page.