Look How Far We've Come
Golf Fitness Training - Original Gang by Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
I started training golfers in their homes before golf fitness was as big a part of player development as it is today. We’d focus on increasing mobility and flexibility and develop a workout plan to help them create more power in their swing. Sound familiar? Our goals were similar to our objectives today, but the methods for attaining them differed greatly, as the modalities available at home are not nearly as robust as we have at the studio.
I opened It’s Working Out, a brick-and-mortar location in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2011 and recently moved to a larger studio to better facilitate our programs and serve our clients. Here we offer individual and small-group personal training sessions, golf stretch and foam rolling classes, 3D body scans and of course, golf performance training. We start every new client with a TPI screen and develop subsequent programming based on those results.
Our golf performance program includes nine weekly golf performance classes and three flexibility/mobility classes. Members can attend as many of these sessions as they want via online scheduling. In addition, Golf Performance Program members get a private TPI assessment and report every three months as a way of tracking their progress and updating their corrective exercises. We house our corrective library on our YouTube channel and offer over 100 on-demand golf-specific workouts via our website. The maximum benefit, however, is realized through in-person engagement, though the video library serves as an effective alternative when clients are away or otherwise unavailable to come to our studio.
My facility has five TPI-certified fitness trainers who work with our golf clients. Currently, approximately 70 percent of our clients are golfers. We get referrals from local PGA Professionals, enjoy word-of-mouth promotion from current clients and have individuals finding us when searching via the TPI website.
Our junior program is highly driven by the pros in our area. Our junior high and high school programs run from November 1 to the end of March, as we get students ready for their spring golf season, and for many of them, a busy summer tournament schedule.
As I mentioned, we moved to a beautiful new facility just three months ago. In that space, we have Keiser functional trainers, cable systems, Rip trainers, medicine balls and more. We offer the full schedule of classes and training opportunities that I highlighted earlier.
Having been in the fitness industry for more than two decades, I understand that the concepts that we implement are not always familiar to our clients. As a result, ours is an educational environment that is based on engagement with a fitness professional. We’re not an open gym where clients come to work out. The workouts that clients enjoy are at a set time and under the guidance of a trainer. We feel that developing these relationships helps maximize retention.
Determining our clients’ needs is the first vital step to getting them playing injury-free and at a higher level of performance than when they first walked through our doors, and we help them appreciate the process as much as the results.
