Golf is now a sport where physical training is an integral component of elite players' practice and contributes to the ability to play at a high level consistently and without injury. Relationships between physical conditioning and golf performance have not been reported. Therefore, the objective of this research was to identify physiological correlates of golf performance in elite golfers under laboratory (ball speed and distance) and tournament conditions (average score, greens in regulation, short game measures, and putting accuracy).The correlation analysis revealed significant associations between mass, height, body mass index, sit height, arm length, and predicted Vo2max and golf measures. Significant correlations were noted between anterior abdominal muscle endurance and driver carry distance (r = 0.38; P = 0.04) and average putt distance after a chip shot (r = -0.44; P = 0.03), between dominant side abdominal muscle endurance and average putt distance after a chip shot (r = -0.43; P = 0.03), and between nondominant-side abdominal muscle endurance and average putt distance after a sand shot (r = -0.59; P = 0.001). Further correlations were found among sit and reach and driver carry distance (r = -0.36; P = 0.04), 5-iron ball speed (r = - 0.41; P = 0.02), 5-iron carry distance (r = -0.44; P = 0.01), and score (r = 0.43; P = 0.03). Correlation analysis revealed significant associations among peripheral muscle test results, golf driver results, 5-iron ball measures, score, and putting efficacy.These results may be important for developing training programs based on sound physiological rationale and for the development of talent identification programs. Results suggest that core strength and stability, flexibility, balance, and peripheral muscle strength are correlated with golf performance and should be included in golf training programs.

The efficiency of the respiratory system presents significant limitations on the body's ability to perform exercise due to the effects of the increased work of breathing, respiratory muscle fatigue, and dyspnoea. Respiratory muscle training is an intervention that may be able to address these limitations, but the impact of respiratory muscle training on exercise performance remains controversial. Therefore, in this study we evaluated the effects of a 12-week (10 sessions week(-1)) concurrent inspiratory and expiratory muscle training (CRMT) program in 34 adolescent competitive swimmers. The CRMT program consisted of 6 weeks during which the experimental group (E, n = 17) performed CRMT and the sham group (S, n = 17) performed sham CRMT, followed by 6 weeks when the E and S groups performed CRMT of differing intensities. CRMT training resulted in a significant improvement in forced inspiratory volume in 1 s (FIV1.0) (P = 0.050) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1.0) (P = 0.045) in the E group, which exceeded the S group's results. Significant improvements in pulmonary function, breathing power, and chemoreflex ventilation threshold were observed in both groups, and there was a trend toward an improvement in swimming critical speed after 12 weeks of training (P = 0.08). We concluded that although swim training results in attenuation of the ventilatory response to hypercapnia and in improvements in pulmonary function and sustainable breathing power, supplemental respiratory muscle training has no additional effect except on dynamic pulmonary function variables.

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