This past week/weekend I attended the World Golf Fitness Summit in Orlando.  Hosted by the Titleist Performance Institute, the conference included over 690 attendees from 30 plus countries, and included 43 speakers ranging from teaching professionals, sports psychologists, nutritionists, fitness experts to medical professionals.  What an experience it was!  Getting to meet people who started, and are continuing to mold the golf fitness industry is very exciting.

I will be posting bits and pieces this week from some of the notable speakers who made an impact on me. Baseball pitching coach legend Tom House talked about speed in golf golf swing, how it is a product of acceleration and deceleration between the right side and left side anterior and posterior chains of muscles. Newton’s second law states force equals mass times acceleration.  He talked about training the nervous system, by going through a progression with minimal ground force reduction to the full ground force reduction while doing the “happy gilmore.”

Each progression included swinging a heavier club right and left handed and ended with an end-range joint proprioception exercise.  He definitely understands how to get the most out of each specific movement. Some of Tom House’s golfing students have ball speeds of 227 mph and pitchers with speeds of 118 mph!

Former strength coach for the Chicago Bulls Al Vermeil, a legend in the sports fitness world, talked about the importance of foam rolling, T-spine mobility and keeping active as we age.  Many references were made throughout the week to Gray Cook’s contribution to the world of mobility and stability and movement patterns. This definitely gets me excited because I have already read his book, movement and will get certified next year in the FMS and SFMA in the future.  Future blog posts and tweets are sure to include the increasing amount of research which supports the FMS (Functional Movement Screen) and SFMA (Selective Functional Movement Assessment) in injury prediction and prevention.

Nutrition is very important to me and hearing the different perspectives from experts Robert Yang, KC Craichy and Don Tolman.  If you ever get a chance to see Don Tolman speak, Do IT!  He will change your life. His first quote was, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”  This may be hard to believe, but 3 times now, he has drank only water for 40 days, on the 41 day drank a gallon of fresh squeezed grape juice, then ran a 26 mile marathon!

His insight into the pharmaceutical companies control over our health (much like the Doctored movie), definitely confirm my choice to not pursue a Medical Doctor degree.  Having spoke to many prestigous medical schools like John Hopkins, his claim to fame (backed by research) is whatever the fruit or vegetable looks like, it is healthy for it. For example, a head of broccoli or califlower is good for brain function and can reduce brain tumors.  Red peppers and tomatoes are red and have 4 chambers, they are healthy for the heart.  A cross-section of a carrot looks like the pupil of the eye, and is obviously healthy for the sight.

I could go on and on, however I challenge you to get his volume of books called the Farmacist Desk Reference. Although not cheap, they are crucial reference books for every doctor concerned with natural healing and nutrition.  Stay tuned this week as I will be posting more bits of cool information I’ve learned this past week!