SELLEST OSAST
Guest: Mitch Sadowsky (Top 50 Golf Fitness Pro, Aretas Performance)
Host: Jeff Pelizzaro
Episode Number: 364
Podcast: The 18STRONG Podcast
Join us as we reconnect with Mitch Sadowsky from Aretas Performance, who shares his invaluable insights on strength training and performance for golfers. We reminisce about his initial visit to the show and how his expertise has evolved, notably his transition from Florida to Wisconsin and the innovative work he’s doing in the realm of golf fitness. Listen in as Mitch breaks down the importance of kettlebell training for golfers, emphasizing how this tool is not just about strength but also about enhancing power, explosiveness, and the often-overlooked endurance aspect required for the long haul of a golf tournament.
Our conversation also covers the seamless transition from physical therapy to performance training, a path increasingly traveled by patients eager to return to their peak athletic form. Mitch and I explore the benefits of collaborative efforts between therapists and trainers and how they work together to create targeted exercise regimens. For those athletes we can’t work with in person, we discuss the creative ways we keep in touch, ensuring their training remains on track. Furthermore, Mitch shares his insights on kettlebell exercises that are particularly effective in building the explosive work capacity needed for golf, while also ensuring safety and quality in training.
To wrap up our chat, we delve into some of the lesser-known but equally critical aspects of golf training. We talk about the surprising benefits of rucking and nasal breathing, as inspired by the book “Breath,” and how these techniques can bolster back strength, core stability, and even mental clarity on the course. Whether you’re a pro, a collegiate competitor, or a weekend warrior, Mitch’s perspectives on training for golf will undoubtedly offer fresh ideas to enhance your game and overall health. Plus, we lighten the mood with personal anecdotes and favorites that add a touch of relatability to the discussion.
(00:04) Strength Training and Performance for Golfers
Mitch Sadowsky from Aretas Performance discusses kettlebell training, rucking, and proper breathing techniques for improving golf performance and overall health.
(10:40) Golf Training and Physical Therapy
Transition from physical therapy to performance training, collaboration between therapists and trainers, remote training for athletes, and innovative techniques for golfers.
(14:24) Explosive Work Capacity Training With Kettlebells
Integrating anti-glycolytic training into golfers’ regimens for explosive work capacity and endurance, with specific protocols and stop signs for optimal performance.
(23:45) Using Kettlebells
Kettlebell training for golfers of all levels, focusing on shoulder stability, midsection control, and combining strength and mobility.
(38:37) Improve Golf Mobility and Explosiveness
Maintaining explosiveness in training for golfers over 40, building ‘brakes’ for speed control, and addressing overlooked foot mobility.
(50:04) Benefits of Rucking and Nasal Breathing
Rucking benefits golfers by improving strength, stability, and work capacity, while promoting nasal breathing and serving as a de-stressing cardio option.
- Instagram: @mitchsadowsky
- Website: Aretas Performance
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0:00:04 – Jeff Pelizzaro
The 18STRONG Podcast, episode number 364 with Mitch Sadowsky from Aretas Performance. What’s up guys? Welcome back to the 18STRONG Podcast, where we are here to help you build a stronger game, because we know that every golfer deserves to play better, longer. In this episode, I’ve got one of my good friends, mitch Sadowsky from Aretas Performance, coming on the show. He joined us many moons ago back in episode number 16 of the 18STRONG Podcast and we brought him back on because Mitch is one of the top strength coaches in the world of golf. He was down in Florida for a long period of time working with a lot of professional golfers and has now moved back to Wisconsin where he’s still working with golfers but a lot of other athletes as well as bridging the gap between physical therapy and general population, that gap where people are finishing up with either their injuries or the rehab and finding a way to get back into their sports, their athletics, or just into their life. In this episode we talk about a lot of kettlebell strengthening. Mitch is one of the top coaches that I know and he’s an expert in not just strength training and coaching but in utilizing different tools like kettlebells to help strengthen in a little different way than most think of when they think traditional strength training. We talk a lot about different ways to build strength and power and explosiveness. We even talk about the idea that golf is, yes, it’s, an explosive sport, but it’s also an endurance sport because it takes such a long period of time to play, sometimes over the course of days. Mitch has been kicking around some different ways of training for explosive capacity that we go into a lot of detail on. We talk about rucking, we talk about breathing, we talk about a lot of different ways that you can train whether you’re a professional golfer, a collegiate golfer or just a weekend warrior like most of us and how that’s going to help you improve not just your game but your overall health. So you’re really going to enjoy this episode with Mitch.
Right after this, our partners over at Linksoul have been providing us with the best apparel for both on the course and off the course, from polos to t-shirts like the one I have on right now. Everything that they have is meant to be worn from the golf course to wherever you’re going next, whether that be casual, whether that be to the beach, there’s all different options over there. So go to 18strong.com slash Linksoul. You’ll get 20% off of anything in your cart over on Linksoul’s website. So again, 18strong.com, slash Linksoul for our favorite brand of apparel, for anything on the golf course and off. Now let’s get to this week’s interview, mitch Sodowski. Welcome back to the 18strong podcast. Thanks, man.
0:02:57 – Mitch Sadowsky
It’s great to be back on. We were trying to figure out which episode it was. It was 16. Yeah, number 16.
0:03:02 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I think that was back in 2015 is when that originally was, and we had started the podcast right at the end of 14. And then you and I got to hang out at the World Golf Fitness Summit in October of that year out in California in Carlsbad. And then it was love ever since.
0:03:24 – Mitch Sadowsky
Yeah, we were roommates, your statement that it was us, and I think, and Clint Howard and Nick Mueller, and Nick Mueller, yeah, and Lizzie Pals was there and we had the whole crew man.
0:03:39 – Jeff Pelizzaro
That was pretty awesome. That was awesome.
0:03:41 – Mitch Sadowsky
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Long time ago Back when I was a fish talk. That’s right, that’s right.
0:03:47 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Best fish tacos over in Carlsbad. That’s back when both you and I had dark, luscious beards. Now they’re big and white and gray.
0:03:56 – Mitch Sadowsky
Well, it’s luscious, just a lot whiter.
0:03:58 – Jeff Pelizzaro
That’s true, very, very true. So, howard things man. So you are, you’re up in more of a cold climate. You were down in Florida when I originally first met you, working down at Lake Nona, and now tell everybody where you are and what prompted the move.
0:04:13 – Mitch Sadowsky
Yeah, so you’re a little bit of a circuitous route. We moved from Orlando to South Florida and 2000, late 2017. Little bit for my wife’s job, but there’s some good opportunities down in South Florida for me. Got a chance to work with a lot of really really close friends. Bars Was at Coastal Performance, now for Fred with Brendan Hayden and was working a lot with Dr James Spencer, don Stanley, hugo Batero just really really solid crew of guys down there that we all worked really well together from the men’s side and performance side and what was able to refer out quite a bit.
And then we started talking about a year ago, so our daughter’s three, our son’s a year and a half, and we started talking a couple of years ago about getting our family back up to Wisconsin where I grew up, where my parents are, my sisters. It just worked out. So, actually through Jason Glass, I met a couple of guys who went through his mentorship and we met. I met Nate and Scott, probably around 2016,. 17 down in Orlando and Nate’s the first guy that I see coming in to the hotel and he’s got a Milwaukee shirt on and Wisconsin people like magnets to each other. So then, hey, where’d you get that shirt. I grew up there. So he and I started talking. We both have the same volleyball background, the same volleyball community in Milwaukee where we grew up, and he was a DPT, owned his own clinic. And from your performance side, I said, dude, I don’t need a good reason to come up home, so let’s see what we can work on. And we, you know I was able to come up visit a couple of times do some performance clinics at their facility.
And then, about two years ago, we started talking and said, hey, what are you doing for your performance program as your patients are moving out of PT? He said we don’t have anyone. I said, what would it look like if that was me? And he said, well, let’s talk. And last November we were up visiting family and it just got accelerated. I looked at my wife and said, hey, it’s time to get the kids back home.
So I saw Nate. Actually, that night we were at a box game with some other friends and I met Nate at half time. I said, all right, dude, let’s do this, let’s build something really, really big and it fits our visions and our dreams. And we started moving towards it in January, I think or sorry, not January, I think July 12th, 14th, something like that, the movers came, packed our stuff up, we packed everything up with cars and drove on up, and so a little shorter background. So Nate made opened up his own. He was with Team Rehabilitation and he and another guy split off from that company to form Eratos physical therapy. We have two locations and so we opened Eratos Performance in July and we’ve been going since.
0:07:27 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Awesome. So is Eratos Performance. Obviously you worked a ton with golfers. I assume a lot of volleyball players too Is this. Are you working with those two specifically or a little bit of all the athletes around?
0:07:42 – Mitch Sadowsky
A little bit of everybody right now. It’s, you know it’s sliding people over from PT, whether they’re just Gen Pop to firefighters, tactical populations We’ve got I do have a lot of golfers. It’s got. We got a lot of high school baseball players, a lot of high school athletes that are coming off PT. So right now we’ve got a little bit of everybody and you know we’ll be probably doing a little bit more. Specialization in golf is the performance side continues to grow and I would say probably 60, 60 to 70% of my time is continuing to develop our golf performance platform. But right now we’re, you know we’re we’re making sure everybody gets taken care of.
0:08:27 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I love it. I always thought that there was a missing piece in the model of the medical system of you know, going from a physical therapy setting to then just going back out to real life, right?
Or to real sport and not having that crossover, and it seems like it obviously it’s more prominent now than it was, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago when you guys you and I kind of got into this, this field. But I still feel like there’s a lot of that missing or it’s not something that’s been perfected. And I also see that you guys are working so closely together. Are there physicians that that you guys work with pretty closely too, that are kind of steady referrals to you guys?
0:09:06 – Mitch Sadowsky
Yeah, we’ve got we’ve got a number of orthopedic surgeons that we work with. We’ve got I would say mostly down there a couple other docs from outside that realm that we’re working with, that kind of believe in the not everybody needs therapy but everybody needs strength, that type of philosophy that they can say, well, okay, so if you know your knee is bothering you or whatever, you know you can go to Eratos. But we really want them to understand that. You know we follow the reset, reinforce, reload model through FMS, so that you know, once people start loading and creating a little bit more competency and whatever movement pattern we’re trying to fix, that they can slide fairly seamlessly over to the performance side, which is, you know, we try to make it as frictionless as possible.
We want people to understand that. You know, whatever, whatever misconceptions they have about strength coaches and strength and performance, that it’s really not what they think. It actually does look like like really good PT and good strength training look like really good PT as well. You know we want to bring down as many barriers to entry as possible to get people, you know, living as well as possible. And you know, for our golfers, playing golf is in as high a level as possible for as long as possible.
0:10:39 – Jeff Pelizzaro
With the general population. Clients, what percentage would you say tend to go from physical therapy over to you guys, at least for maybe, and what does it look like? Is it a few sessions? Is it then, you know, sometimes long-term programming and how many people actually take advantage of that?
0:10:57 – Mitch Sadowsky
It’s growing right now. You know, the more I’ve been here, the more people that we’ve met and start to kind of see what we do with our client, with the performance side of things, and so we try to get them over. Or you know, our therapist has done a really good job. They all buy into what we’re doing. They will say, okay, so instead of working with the tech, you know why don’t you work with Mitch for about 15 minutes? You know, here’s what we’ve been working on with them. Mitch is going to show you a few strengthening exercises you can do to help, you know, to help with whatever we’re working on. And then that’s how we sort of force that relationship and try to create that entry point down there.
0:11:40 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Very cool. And then, as far as your I know because you had a whole stable of professional golfers, high-level golfers that you worked with down in Florida are you still keeping in contact and working remotely with them? And then, what does it look like in person at the facility in Wisconsin?
0:11:56 – Mitch Sadowsky
Yeah. So I still have a number of my professional athletes that I work with. They’re on remote programming and then we’ll face time anywhere from one to two times a week and we do almost daily check-ins just to see how everything’s going. You know we’ve got a number of athletes. They’re professional athletes in Milwaukee and if they’ve come to see us for PT we’re reaching out to them to just say, hey, you know, whatever you need from us we’re happy to provide. So one of our collegiate athletes got drafted by the Dodgers this year. He’s still undergoing TJ rehab and you know he’s got some strength stuff that he does outside. But you know, we’ll consult. Just kind of, take a look at this program, say, okay, here’s what we would add in, here’s what we would. You know, kind of use the red light, green light, yellow light philosophy of stay away from, proceed with caution, or scream means go. So we’ll help them out with that. Just kind of be whatever they need whenever they need...
