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Sleep Is Still the Most Powerful Performance Enhancer: A Preview of Fitness Level 2
One of the new chapters in our updated Fitness Level 2 course is a comprehensive overview of sleep for performance delivered by renowned performance scientist Dr. Andy Galpin.
If you're already coaching golf athletes on physical screens, training interventions, and recovery modalities, it's time to give sleep the same professional treatment. Why? Because as Dr. Galpin reminds us:
“In the world of recovery, nothing comes close to being as important as your sleep.”
"We track everything... Except sleep."
Strength programs are personalized. Nutrition plans are updated weekly. Practice routines are constantly tweaked. But most athletes still treat sleep like an afterthought - even though poor sleep undermines everything from motor learning and hormonal balance to injury resilience.
This new chapter changes that. It gives TPI professionals the tools to assess, track, and improve sleep with the same precision we use for swing characteristics and physical assessments.
What You’ll Learn in This Chapter
Dr. Galpin's 47 minute "Sleep for Performance" lecture is one of 13 chapters in the Total Program Design unit of the Fitness Level 2 course.
The goal of this chapter is to offer an evidence-based framework to treat sleep as a critical performance lever, not a background variable.
If you want to take your coaching from great to elite, it’s time to do what Dr. Galpin teaches:
Stop guessing, start measuring. Stop generalizing, start personalizing.
The chapter covers:
- The importance of sleeping to perform, including literature that highlights the impact poor sleep can have on motor learning and sport performance.
- How to evaluate issues with sleep by being aware of common symptoms (20 - 40% of athletes have clinical sleep disorders, 80% of which go undiagnosed).
- How to upgrade sleep performance by focusing on five key factors: duration, latency, consistency, timing and quality.
- Variables that influence good sleep hygiene.
- When (and how) to use sleep extension and napping.
- Keys to building a pro-sleep culture among your athletes.
- Tools for assessing sleep performance, from scientifically-validated questionnaires (provided in the course) to advanced in-home sleep assessments (such as Dr. Galpin's company, Absolute Rest).
Wearables - Are they worth it?
According to Dr. Galpin, most consumer devices are reasonably accurate at detecting total sleep time and can be extremely valuable for building awareness and accountability - often helping athletes realize they’re sleeping less than they think. However, he cautions against relying on them for sleep stage data, wake detection, or recovery scores, which he considers too inaccurate to be useful.
Wearables also can’t diagnose sleep disorders or explain why someone is sleeping poorly. For Galpin, wearables are a helpful starting point, but true optimization requires deeper, more precise assessments.
Sleep isn’t just downtime - it’s the engine of recovery. Supplements, nutrition, and devices all play a role, but they’re only effective if sleep is dialed in. As Galpin puts it: "Nothing enhances recovery more than sleep."
The nature of competitive golf is not conducive for optimal sleep. High travel demands, inconsistent schedules and early tee times all have the potential to disrupt the congruity and quality of sleep.
This chapter in our updated Fitness Level 2 course gives coaches, trainers and rehab professionals the tools to assess, address, and optimize all aspects of a golfer’s sleep in order to maximize performance potential.
Dr. Galpin’s message is clear:
“Sleep is still the easiest and cheapest way we can improve performance - and it’s time we took it seriously.”
For more information on our updated Fitness Level 2, visit the course page on our site. If you've already purchased Fitness Level 2, you'll find the updated course in your online library on our site.