Despite the fact that the PGA Tour year now officially starts in the fall, a lot of pros still look at the January events in Hawaii and southern California as the real start of the season. And even though they're pros who play golf for a living, if they've taken a few weeks off before heading to a tropical paradise for the Sony Invitational or the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, they still can find themselves slightly out-of-sync with their game.

I talked to Ben Curtis when I was out on the west coast and he admitted to feeling a little bit rusty. Just a small break from playing was enough to take him out of his game.

I'm always asked what the job of a golf fitness coach is.

Does what I do help a swing coach…or does what I do interfere with what a swing coach is trying to accomplish? Do players even need to work with a swing coach or a club pro if they're working with a biomechanics coach?

It doesn't take a genius to tell you that playing your favorite course on a brutally hot summer day is a whole lot different from playing that same course on a crisp spring morning.

The fairways are different, the greens are different, and there's a very good chance that your scores are different. If you find your game starting to slip as the August heat rises, you may be surprised at one of the best ways to get your golf back on track.

I've been lucky enough to have published a book through St. Martin's Press -- "Fix Your Body, Fix Your Swing." Now, I have a DVD out -- "Golf Fitness 1" -- that some of you may have seen advertised on the Golf Channel. It's funny. I've gone about my business making golfers better at playing golf for years, but it wasn't until I entered the gigantic world of marketing that I noticed how many other folks are out there trying to make golfers better at playing golf. And they have plenty of ideas and concepts they want to sell you.

Arguably the most complicated 1.5 seconds in all of sport,

a consistent golf swing requires messaging, feel and feedback through over 40 miles of nerve pathways involving virtually every muscle and joint of the body to create a controlled high speed crash of clubhead and golf ball at over 100 mph.

If you follow me on Twitter (@CoachJoeyD), you'll see I add the hashtag #GolfBody to a lot of my tweets.

My goal is to get the concept out to the golfing public.

It's great that so many golfers -- both the pros on the PGA and LPGA Tours as well as recreational players -- are now adding a fitness component to their game. What I'm seeing, though, is that a lot of these workouts aren't all that focused on improving the way people play.

Balance is one of the least understood components of golf fitness training.

Balance is about being aware of where your body is and then being able to control and stabilize it. When you add movement into the equation -- like you do when you swing a golf club -- you're really upping the challenge. Without good balance, the 50 mph that your club head is moving during your takeaway will be enough to pull you out of position on your backswing.

Once you've lost that posture, it's anyone's guess where your club face will be at impact.

The golf swing is essentially about two things.

You create movement and then you control movement. The movement that you create starts with your takeaway and must be controlled all the way up to the top of your backswing and then down through impact and follow through. The best golfers in the world are able to create and control their movements perfectly because they work at it. A lot. Soon-to-be-better golfers are starting to use golf fitness exercises to build awareness and strength that lead to more control.