Training Around Tournament Week: A Conversation with Grip&Grind
When a tournament appears on the calendar, many golfers either abandon their strength work entirely or try to cram a full week of training into the days before the first round. Neither approach tends to serve them well. Sean, the founder of Grip&Grind, has built a platform around a different idea: that strength training should be planned around the golfer's actual week, not the other way around.
Grip&Grind was recently included in a Peekwire roundup of golf strength training programs alongside DRVN Golf and Fit For Golf. Sean agreed to answer three questions about how he approaches training when a tournament is approaching.
Start With the Week, Not the Workout
The first question was straightforward: when a golfer comes mid-season with a tournament coming up and their usual gym routine no longer fits the schedule, what changes first?
Sean's answer focused on the broader context before touching the training plan itself. "The first thing I'd look at is the week around the tournament: when their first round starts, how much they're practising, when they're travelling, and what training they can realistically recover from."
Only after mapping that week does he adjust the amount and timing of gym work. "Trying to squeeze a normal week's training into fewer days can leave the golfer carrying fatigue into the event. Shorter sessions with familiar exercises make more sense as the tournament approaches."
This principle is built into how Grip&Grind structures its plans. "There's room for heavier training when the calendar allows it, then the plan tapers towards the event. Our planning rule keeps heavy work outside the final 48 hours before the first round, with short, low-fatigue primers during tournament week."
That 48-hour rule is a concrete takeaway. It gives golfers a clear boundary: heavy loading stops, but movement doesn't. The taper isn't about doing nothing — it's about doing less, with exercises the golfer already knows.
What Most Advice Leaves Out
The second question asked what keeps coming up in these situations that most golf strength and conditioning advice online leaves out.
Sean pointed to a gap between exercise selection and scheduling. "A lot of advice explains which exercises to do without explaining where they fit into a golfer's actual week."
His reasoning is that the gym session is only one input among many. "Practice rounds, range sessions, walking the course, travel and poor sleep all affect how much training someone can recover from. Two golfers playing the same tournament can need different weeks because everything around that tournament is different."
This is a useful reframe for any golfer who has followed a generic program and found it didn't fit. The same exercises can be appropriate for one player and poorly timed for another, depending on how much they're already doing on the course and how well they're recovering.
Sean also noted that Grip&Grind tries to be transparent about the basis for its recommendations. "We also show the evidence behind our exercise choices and distinguish golf research from reported tour practice and general training principles." That distinction matters for readers trying to evaluate claims about strength training for golf or general athletic recovery.
Two Decisions Golfers Make Too Quickly
The third question asked what golfers decide too quickly when trying to train around a tournament week.
Sean named two common mistakes. "Two decisions I'd caution against are dropping all strength work as soon as a tournament appears on the calendar, and trying to make up missed training immediately before it."
Both come from the same impulse — treating training as something that must be either fully on or fully off. Sean's alternative is more measured. "There can still be room for training during a tournament week, but the amount needs to reflect the player's experience, recovery and playing schedule. Equally, a missed session doesn't create a debt that has to be repaid before Thursday's tee time."
He also flagged the risk of novelty close to competition. "I'd also avoid introducing unfamiliar exercises or testing personal bests close to an important event." The guiding question he suggests is simple: "Will this session help me arrive ready to compete, and can I recover from it in time?"
A Platform Still in Development
Sean added context about where Grip&Grind currently stands. "Grip&Grind is still a young platform, currently in beta and actively developing. We're continually improving the quality of our content and refining how the training plans work, with the aim of making everything as straightforward, efficient and adaptable as possible for golfers with different schedules, training backgrounds and access to equipment."
That transparency is worth noting. The platform is not presented as a finished product, and the focus on adaptability — different schedules, backgrounds, and equipment access — aligns with the scheduling-first approach Sean described throughout the interview.
Practical Takeaways
For golfers navigating a tournament week, the interview points to a few concrete practices:
- Map the week before adjusting the plan: first round time, practice volume, travel, and recovery capacity.
- Keep heavy work outside the final 48 hours before the first round.
- Use short, low-fatigue sessions with familiar exercises during tournament week.
- Don't drop all strength work, and don't try to make up missed sessions right before the event.
- Avoid new exercises and personal best attempts close to competition.
- Ask whether a session will help you arrive ready to compete and whether you can recover from it in time.
The broader point is that training around tournaments is a scheduling problem as much as an exercise problem. As Sean put it, an exercise can be useful, but its timing and dose still need to make sense.