4th Spanish PGA Biomechanics Conference

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