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View Full Version : Happy Birthday Ernie!!!



jaster
17th October 2005, 09:57 PM
It's "The Big Easys" birthday today....here is his latest update..all I can say is LOOK OUT TIGER ;)


Fitness Progress Report

The "Dream Team" of people helping Ernie Els recover from knee surgery provides an update on his rehabilitation.

Okay, so you’ve heard a lot from me this past five or six weeks about my knee injury, the operation, and the kind of exercises I’ve been doing since then. Well, I thought you might like to hear from the experts, as it will help give what I feel is a better all-round picture of the type of rehab program I’m going through, where we are right now, and what we’re aiming for in the next couple of months leading up to my return to competitive golf.

As I’ve said before, the plan is to play in the South African Open in the middle of December. Just so you know exactly how I’m going to achieve that goal, this report is made up of contributions from my ‘Dream Team’; that’s my personal trainer Josh Salzmann, my physio Sophie Dhenin, and the surgeon who performed both of my knee ops Andrew Unwin. I’m grateful to them for what they’re doing for me…and for taking the time out of their busy schedules to put down on paper their thoughts about what sort of patient I am!

From Andrew Unwin, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon…
“Ernie is progressing very well following his ACL reconstruction. He has a full range of movement and good control of the knee. I must say he has worked very hard this past five or six weeks and as a consequence of that his rehabilitation has been excellent. He has completed what I’d say is the first phase of his rehabilitation and can now get started on a more aggressive routine. He has already started to swing a golf club effectively and has excellent balance and agility."

"He is in my view well on the way to returning to professional golf in accordance with his South African Open deadline in the middle of December.”

From Josh Salzmann, Director of Fitness at Wentworth…
“What we’re doing with Ernie is a classic progressive strength program. And you know something, I’d say he’s already 150 per cent stronger than he was, say, four or five weeks ago. The knee has come back really well and we’re targeting each muscle group with brief, intense, strength training sessions. The beauty of this program is the muscles get stronger and better conditioned, but he also gets a very effective cardio workout at the same time."

“Right now we’re in what I’d call the ‘power up’ phase where Ernie develops a really good base of total fitness which is going to give him the most power, energy and resistance to future injury and illness. Then as we get closer to his return to competitive golf in December, we’ll progress onto what I call the ‘taper down’ phase where we change his conditioning by targeting exercises which are specific to his golf swing."

"Throughout our period together I’ve also got Ernie to focus much more on his nutrition; to back-up the work he does in the gym by eating and drinking right, basically leading the right kind of lifestyle. That way he’s going to get maximum benefits in every sense."

“It’s been incredibly exciting to work with someone like Ernie. I mean, he is a phenomenal natural athlete; I honestly think he’d have been great at whatever sport he’d chosen in life. He’s that talented."

“Already he’s stronger than he’s ever been in his entire life. In a strange kind of way, this injury presented him with a great opportunity; an opportunity to get into the best shape of his life. You think about it, the golf season is so long now that these guys don’t get a chance to take time off in the winter and reach a peak of fitness that they can then maintain throughout the season. This enforced layoff has enabled Ernie to do just that, for the first time in probably 15 years. Believe me, when he comes back to playing golf the world is going to see a different Ernie Els. His body is already more chiselled and he’s so much stronger. More engine and less chassis, as I like to put it!”

From Sophie Dhenin, phsyio at the Scorpio Clinic in Sunningdale…
“Essentially we are now moving into the next phase of physio, which involves lots of balance and what you might call ‘wobbly work’, a typical example being the exercise you saw him doing in last week’s report and pictures, where he was swinging a golf club while standing on two cushions. On the day we took those photos Ernie was also able to run, hop and jump, all of which impressed his clinicians. To be honest, Ernie looked a bit shellshocked too!"

“Anyway, in terms of his physio we are now gearing everything towards his golf swing. It was very interesting watching Ernie swing a club last week, because he hardly put any stress through the knee. That really wasn’t what any of us was expecting. This kind of feedback is all very helpful. I think a lesser golfer would have been putting much more torsion through the joint.”

Coming up this week...
Hey, guess what? It’s pretty much more of the same this week! Actually I’ve got a few meetings and some other little things going on, but as you can probably imagine the main focus for me right now is still on my exercises. I’ll obviously write again next week and fill you in on all the latest news.

Until then, bye for now.

Courty
17th October 2005, 10:54 PM
Wow. Didn't know he was hurt :shock:. How did he bust his knee?

jaster
17th October 2005, 11:16 PM
Sailing on the Mediterranean :roll: :lol: