5 Tips to Find the Right Golf Fitness Expert

We have seen it happen on all of the tours and now it is a part of many weekend golf warriors’ routines. Golf fitness is playing a larger and larger role in everyone’s game. With the development of new technology, many fitness professionals can now develop golf-specific training programs for their clients that will improve their performance on the links. This does come with the caveat “Buyer Beware” as some trainers are attempting to pass themselves off as having training in how to create a golf specific workout when in fact it is just a marketing concept for themselves. So now the question becomes: How do I find a golf fitness expert? Here are some tips.

1. Ask yourself if you will be more comfortable with a man or woman. Seems simple enough. You want to find someone who will listen to you but yet still push you and drive you to find new personal bests.

2. Before you begin looking around, know exactly what you want for your golf fitness. Have a set of golf fitness goals in mind, and find the trainer that will most likely fulfill those goals. Depending on your goals and your budget, you may be able to accomplish this in a class or group setting.

3. Make sure to find a personal trainer with a certification from at least one of the major national organizations, such as the American College of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, or the National Academy of Sports Medicine. In addition, a personal trainer that has been certified by the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) is very well trained on how to use golf specific exercises to improve your overall fitness and golf game.

4. Narrow your search. After you have a clear idea, and have checked with the national organizations, find interview the trainers near you. Ask them for references and talk to their past clients. Talk to the trainer themselves prior to training. Understand how you are going to achieve your goals and what it will entail from a time standpoint. Your personal trainer should set up a series of achievable goals (a certain amount of weight lost, a certain amount of repetitions, etc.) or else the workouts will start to feel meaningless, which will lead to a loss of motivation.

5. The trainer selected should have experience with golf-specific training. A golf-specific workout program emphasizes strength, flexibility, and balance and should include each of these aspects in your golf workouts. Each of these categories will not only improve your game, but also help prevent injury.

The price of a personal trainer can vary drastically depending on the area of the country you reside in. The National Strength and Conditioning Association’s survey of trainer prices found an average of $50 per hour, with a range of $15 to $100 per hour.

As the golf fitness craze hits the masses, golfers of all levels are getting their golf games into shape as well as they are getting themselves into better overall shape. A qualified personal trainer who has been trained in golf specific training can go a long way to helping them achieve their golf fitness goals.