We are delighted to announce that Stewart Craig Golf Academy have now secured the services of Tom Ellerton Unwin who is a Titleist Performance Institute Certified Physiotherapist and Strength & Conditioning Coach.  Tom finished his undergraduate studies at Brunel University, West London in 2010. He gained experience training at the British athletics facility at Brunel. Starting his working life in the NHS in Yorkshire he also developed an interest in Rugby League, and looked after the Hull FC academy squad. A highlight being team Physiotherapist to England U16’s during a summer training camp in Manchester. Whilst in Hull he competed in Triathlon and road cycling, which took him to Belgium riding over the cobbles in Flanders.
Moving to Scotland in 2014 he started working in the private sector specialising in Musculoskeletal problems and sports injuries. Tom uses his spare time to continue his interest in rugby with Stirling County RFC men’s team. Since living in the Stirling area he has begun mountain biking, fell running and playing golf. A keen golfer as a junior, he hopes to increase his knowledge and experience in this area.
In the future, Tom will continue to complete his MSc in Sports Physiotherapy from the University of Bath, and develop his skills in strength and conditioning.
Quaifications:

• BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy
• MSc – Manual Therapy – Lower Quadrant Module
• LUBAS – sports trauma management qualified.
• TPI – Titleist Performance Institute Certified
• Member of Health Care Professions Council
• Member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
• Member of ACPSM

Stewart said "This is a major coup for the Academy, Tom is a 2 handicap golfer himself and really understands the functional movements required by every golfer in order to produce an efficient, consistent swing. This really has been the missing link in our improvement programme. The addition of Tom will help so many of our clients unlock potential they didn't even realise they had."

In the first of a series of major signings Stewart Craig Golf Academy has secured the services of Stuart Martin, an Advanced PGA Professional, born 30th August 1985, was raised in Scotland. Stuart was introduced to golf at an early age by his grandfather, and received his first set of miniature clubs from his parents, aged two, whilst holidaying at the Home of Golf, St Andrews. 

An established golfer by his early teens, Stuart played in many national competitions and became a part of the Scottish National Development Squad aged fourteen. 

Since qualifying as a PGA Professional in 2008, Stuart has held esteemed roles at the World renowned Loch Lomond Members Club before becoming Head Professional and Manager at Portugal's number one course, Monte Rei. Stuart has traveled the World to many of the best and most exclusive courses where he has engaged with the Worlds best players and coaches. 

In 2017, Parsons Xtreme Golf (PXG) and Max Golf Protein presented Stuart brand ambassadorships. Stuart has a wealth of knowledge and experience in coaching, custom fitting and event management that golfers can truly benefit from and enjoy.
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Academy Director Stewart Craig said "We are absolutely delighted to have secured someone of the calibre of Stuart. Having worked and coached at some of the world's top facilities he is a fantastic addition to our team." 

Stuart is available for Individual and group lessons at Forthview Golf Range and can be booked by calling the range on 01324 831112 or email Stuart direct on stuartmartinpga@gmail.com ​

After working with my client Gerry Armstrong last night I felt it pertinent to post the results of our last 6 months work together. We were both so exited last night as we looked at the results of some technical improvements, some better understanding, some equipment change and some real hard work and practice.

Gerry like many golfers was struggling with his driver off the tee. He had in fact resorted to leaving his driver at home and using his 3 wood off the tee as it was going just as far if not further. Below is the summary of Gerry's Driver numbers in March.

Like lots of everyday golfers Gerry was getting very steep with his Driver giving him really poor launch conditions with an average distance of 165 yards and ball speed of 104 mph. However below is the improvement only 6 months later, with the average distance of 209 yards and ball speed of 132 mph Gerry's driving is transformed. Indeed Gerry's last 3 drives last night were 243 yards, 249 yards and 223 yards which is a massive turn around in the last 6 months.

So be more like Gerry, grab your game by the scruff of the neck and give it a shake up. Anyone can replicate Gerry's success with the correct direction and some hard work it is achievable as Gerry has proved.

I have just finished one of the best coaching seminars I have ever attended this week in the Polytechnic University of Madrid hosted by the Spanish PGA. The conference was entitled "The Forces Applied in the golf swing" and covered a variety of topics from Ground Reaction Force to Club Applied Force and the practical application of Force in The Golf Swing. The Keynote speakers were Dr Young-Hoo Kwon a leading expert in Golf Biomechanics, Dr Sasho Mackenzie a Professor in Human Kinetics and Rob Houlding a Golf Teaching Professional of 25 years an a leading light in outside the box teaching techniques for golf.

Rarely have I ever attended a Conference where the three Keynote speakers complemented each others style so perfectly. All three coach a very scientifically based model but with such ease of understanding that it was easy to forget at times during the sessions that you were learning extremely complex motions and movement patterns researched in infinite detail. For my particular group we started with Dr MacKenzie learning about the forces applied to the golf club during the swing, velocities, accelerations, torques, moment arms, couples and moment of force. It was very interesting to understand the science behind the forces that the golfer should apply to the club and think about, as I know with my clients the myths and ideas golfers in general have about how the club should be swung and the ball should be struck. A really enlightening session from Sasho and one that will change my approach to how I explain to my players how the club should be swung.

Next up for my group was Dr Kwon, a charming South Korean Professor of Biomechanics at Texas Woman's University. Dr Kwons area of expertise is ground reaction force (GRF) and I am very fortunate to already have had a great grounding in this area during my years developing the ProStance training aid
http://www.pro-stance.com and having worked with the SamBalance Lab for over 10 years now this was an area I was particularly looking forward to. Dr. Kwon's research has gone deeper than anyone in the past and has certainly thrown up some great new information but more importantly for me and my clients new practical applications to incorporate into my teaching.

Finally was Rob Houlding and by Rob's own words a guy who but for the Internet and social media in particular would be like many teaching pros working away day in day out with his clients mostly unknown. However over the past 2 years Rob has built an almost Cult following of teaching professionals from all over the world who check into social media every day to get one of Rob's "Golden Nuggets" of wisdom on how to fix a student with this problem or that. A very visual guy who knows exactly how he wants a golf swing to look but mere importantly how he wants it to function. And he has more drills for getting the job done than most pros I have met. He reminds me very much of another friend of mine Frank Scott based in the borders of Scotland who has a very similar style and vision and these two guys definitely need to meet one day. As I had hoped and never really doubted Rob threw out one or two absolute bombs of drills that are fantastic at helping create the correct learning environment for a student to improve which will be going straight into my toolbox when I'm back in the bay on Thursday. The final think that struck me about Rob was how passion and emotional he is about his work at. Least a couple of times over the two day he almost reduced himself to tears relaying stories of his student and that people is worth more than any money you will ever pay for a golf lesson.

I can't wait to get back now and put my new knowledge into play.

Stewart