Sports Specific

ITS runs in-house seminars to teach how to apply Biomechanics Coaching to any sport. These courses are run on request, so please contact the office for more information.
Here is an exmaple of how our golf seminar works.

Golf & Biomechanics... the future looks brighter..

There is information available widely through the web, PGA courses and magazine articles that brings you up to date with the latest thinking in golf. They teach you the latest on how to swing each club correctly, how to putt, how to analyze your swing, how to get mentally ‘tough’, how to improve your flexibility and how to get fitter and stronger for golf.

There is a plethora of information being offered about golf today. Some of it correct, all of it interesting, but how much of it is relevant to your clients? Take some key teaching aids available like video analysis; although interesting from a coaches point of view to establish the movement discrepancies in a golfer's swing, it doesn't tell us why they are performing any particular movement variations. Knowing what you're doing wrong, but not knowing why you’re doing it, is sometimes worse than not knowing what you're doing wrong!
Golf coaches need a simple system of analysis that can be used in conjunction with coaching techniques to find out why their students perform their particular swing.

Although there are fundamental similarities to all good swings, each swing is like a finger-print and unique to that individual. Why is it unique? It’s because we are all biomechanically different and unless you understand what those differences are, and can measure them simply and effectively, how can you identify the best way of improving a golfer’s swing? A variation in a swing could be due to poor skill levels but it could also be a compensation for a biomechanical problem they have with their spine or pelvis for example.

It is important that any modifiable risk factors are addressed to effectively reduce the risk of injury and improve performance. By providing the teaching professional with a set of skills that can eliminate these limitations and provide objective measures, as well as, corrective exercises for which they can help their students increase their performance and reduce their chances of injury. This will increase secondary sales and provide a better, safer and more holistic teaching approach.

“The variety of golf swings that exists represents the many ways that the human body can compensate for its biomechanical problems”, says Martin Haines, CEO of Intelligent Training Systems.

• ITS - PGA - EuropeanTour Performance Institute
• Worldwide Golf Seminars/Workshops.
• Golf Special Interest Group.

ITS & PGA

ITS is now the Biomechanics Coach training provider for the PGA National Training Academy (European Centre of Excellence). We offer a Golf Biomechanics Coaching workshop to teach PGA members key, simple and timely screens to check their students ability to perform the swings that they are being taught. Learn the best exercises in a simple format to show your students to help them swing better. We also look at what swing alternatives they may use if a student can’t physically perform the swing they are trying to teach, to suit their student’s body.

Preparation is everything.

“This video explains the scope of work that we will be delivering for the PGA professionals and the different elements that we will be covering on their programme. Golfers realise that ‘preparation is everything’ and the top players spend significant time preparing themselves based upon exert guidance. In these programmes we make these expert programmes available to teaching professionals and their students in a very simple and timely manner.”

Click image to watch video.

ITS & ET

ITS was also invited to teach the therapists on the European Tour and the screening and conditioning techniques are being used as part of the screening programmes to help the injury prevention and injury management programmes for their elite players.

ITS CEO Martin Haines is on the European Tour Performance Institute and works as part of the team to look at the best screening and exercise preparation programmes for use on the European Tour with the players.

Global Golf Biomechanics Tour

The golf biomechanics coaching workshops are so popular they have now been requested internationally. We ran our first one for our Swedish Distributors on 29th October in Malmo, Sweden. Among the group were golf professionals, personal trainers, physiotherapists and naturopaths. We covered the principles of Biomechanics Coaching and how the unique screens impact upon both the swing and the exercises used to improve it. The 1-day workshop was very well received and one of the physiotherapists said that it was the best course she had ever taken.
The next course in Sweden is on 25th February in Malmo. Contact Jonas Morin for more information and booking.

UKBCA Launch the 'Golf Specific Special Interest Group'

We held our first Golf Special Interest Group meeting in Hemel Hampstead, with attendance from PTs, Golf Pros and specialists in the area of golf, we discussed and shared ideas on the following;

Specifically we plan to meet periodically to;

• How biomechanics coaching can be applied in golf.
• Condition and training ideas.
• Marketing and PR ideas.
• Network sharing for those who do not have the capacity to manage their case load.
• Looking at which biomechanical faults that can lead to;
• Swing faults.

We plan to meet periodically and share ideas especially on how,, as a group, we can become more involved with and influence the professional golf market.

Next Meeting; 9th February 2011, 1pm Chingford Golf Course, Bury Road, Chingford, London, E4 7QJ - MAXIMUM 12 PEOPLE

Please contact Martin Haines or Mike Andreou to confirm your place.

Golf Seminars

A 1 Day seminar looking at the golf swing and how it is influenced by intrinsic biomechanical flaws.

Martin says "The great variety of individual golf swings represents the huge number of intrinsic biomechanical problems that golfers have to compensate for. Problems arise when a golfer tries to change his swing towards a more biomechanically correct swing in order to shoot lower scores and his body is not prepared sufficiently. This increases the risk of injury significantly as the player continues to work against his body's natural movement mechanics. If the specific reason for this can be identified and resolved in a simple and timely manner, it has a profound effect on a golfer's performance and injury prevention".

He will be going into detail and look at how the biomechanics of the pelvis, shoulders and spine in particular affect how we swing a golf club.

In addition he will be paying attention to the nervous system and look at how biomechanical problems within it can significantly affect not only the swing but also the incidence of injuries that our golfers receive. As well as looking at how and why these factors affect the swing, he will also be talking about what management strategies you can employ to resolve them in a timely and simple manner. This will be helpful to personal trainers, therapists, golf coaches and strength conditioning coaches who work with golfers.

Martin has worked with professional and recreational golfers from Greg Owen to mark McNulty and is on the International Advisory Board to the European PGA Tour Physio Unit.

Email Jo rainsley for more information and booking jo@intelligenttrainingsystems.com

New to biomechanics?  Visit our What is Biomechanics page!