To help PGA Magazine readers learn more about the ways they can bring golf together with health and wellness, this department includes best practices information from the Golf Fitness Association of America (GFAA). The GFAA was started by the publishers of PGA Magazine in 2020 and is led by an advisory board of PGA of America Golf Coaches and highly regarded golf fitness experts, including GFAA President Dr. Steven Lorick. We hope you find this department beneficial and encourage you to learn more about the GFAA at golf.fitness.com.
Focus on Physical and Mental Training in Winter
Chris Clemens, PGADirector of Instruction and Founder,Indianapolis (Indiana) Golf Academy,2025 Indiana PGA Section PlayerDevelopment Award winner
It’s never too early to start considering off-season plans for your golfers. How will you keep them happy, healthy and moving forward in their progress? Our winter player development program is designed to build the foundation that helps golfers perform at their highest level when tournament season arrives.
A large percentage of our winter participants are junior golfers who compete regularly, so every aspect of the program is intentional and supports long-term athletic and competitive development. The winter months provide a unique opportunity to shift the focus to form over function, with tournaments no longer the immediate priority. This is the ideal time to improve movement quality, body awareness and physical efficiency. Rather than emphasizing performance outcomes, we concentrate on developing proper movement patterns that will support better golf mechanics in the future.
Health and wellness are equally important components of our winter development program. Each group session typically begins with approximately one hour of physical training focused on functional movement, mobility and golf-specific fitness. Every fitness session concludes with approximately 30 minutes of meditation. Maybe more so than any other generation, teaching juniors the value of mediation and mindfulness helps them develop the ability to remain present, regulate emotions and improve concentration. Learning to control breathing, quiet distractions and focus on the moment enhances not only athletic performance but also overall well-being.
By combining purposeful physical development with mindfulness and body awareness, we help juniors build the tools they need to return to the course stronger, healthier, more confident and better prepared for the demands of competitive golf.
Deliver White-Glove Service to Help Clients Reach Goals
Lance Gill
Founder,Lance Gill Performance,Oceanside, California
We treat every client differently because every client’s body is different than the next, and his or her goals are different. In fact, my team and I have never written the same program twice, and we aim to deliver white-glove service to each athlete with whom we work. There are so many factors that go into the program that we ultimately prescribe a client – body type, height, athletic background, physical attributes, ailments, injuries, available time, dedication and resources, to name just some of them. I prefer to spend a little more time and effort with each athlete to enable them to reach their goals vs. trying to maximize quantity. This white-glove service extends beyond my high-level professionals or competitive amateur or college players.
I see my remote clients according to their schedule, but ensure a monthly face-to-face conference call during which time we discuss their objectives and goals. We also do a physical screen every month because the human body changes a lot and often. I’m on top of my remote clients every month to ensure the path we mapped out is still foremost in their minds. Based on these results, we reprogram according to the client’s time restrictions, needs and physical capabilities.
In addition, I’m checking in with my clients every 48 hours to see how their efforts are going. Sometimes they just want to send us updated videos for analysis and feedback. We program regressions or progressions based on this engagement, client feedback and physical results. This level of service is paramount to the long-term success of my business and the continued progression and improvement of my athletes.