Ship Shape

Roger King writes about golfing, CrossFit and getting in ship shape.

I may not be the world’s greatest golf pro. I may not even be the world’s greatest golf pro who works on a cruise ship. But I am pretty sure that no one can touch me on this: I am most likely the world’s only — and therefore greatest — golf pro who works on a cruise ship and is a CrossFitter who hits his drives a whopping ten percent further than he did a year before. If you think that’s a long and winding mouthful, wait until you hear about my journey, a booze, broads and broken-hearts odyssey of golf and fatness and fitness that has taken me around the world on various vessels with names such as Carnival, Holland America, Celebrity, Princess and P&0 for about a decade now, with no end in sight.

After doing CrossFit for a year, learning all the moves, doing the best I can in WODs and just getting generally, non-specifically more fit, it hit me like a ton of bricks one day: I have been golfing all over the Caribbean for over nine years and played these golf courses many, many times, but have never played like this before. On every course, I knew exactly where my ball would end up after my drives, but I suddenly started hitting the ball in places I have never been.

All this affected the way I teach golf now, converting everything to a functional movement pattern. I don’t know if anyone else teaches this way, but they should. My students sure seem happy. (For a free lesson on how I teach now, see the video links included.)

I’m pretty happy, too. Improving as a coach and as an athlete is a huge boost, no matter where and how you live. How long I can maintain this lifestyle, I don’t know. But I do know that I love golf and I love CrossFit. And if I ever decide to return to terra firma for good, I know exactly what I want to be doing for a living.