Anne Medvar is the Athletic Director at Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venice, Florida.
Anne Medvar on the importance of building golf fitness awareness:
I’ve been teaching fitness and better health to individuals for more than 35 years, and started my time at Plantation Golf & Country Club as a trainer, now almost 15 years ago. I had a few external clients at the time who were also members at Plantation, and they told me to come see for myself, hoping there might be a work opportunity. The club had minimal fitness facilities at the time, essentially a treadmill and stationary bike in a vacant office, and a ballroom dance floor for group classes. Since that time, we moved our equipment and tools into an existing 2,250 square-foot building and also use an adjacent modular structure for group fitness classes and engagement. We have a new facility in the works that will be considered a golf performance center, where we’ll delineate golf fitness from the general fitness programming that is run out of our primary fitness locations. I conduct the majority of the group fitness classes, like yoga, HIIT, Water in Motion and Arms & Abs, and also facilitate golf-specific and TPI-inspired programs that work on stretching and strength. In addition, we’ll engage tournament participants during our larger events, often right at the cart staging area, getting them out of the carts and into some vital stretching exercises. This exposure to our golfers is one tool we use to get our message out. We are here to improve your game! After all, they often tell us they didn’t know we had fitness training that focused on the golf swing.
Anne Medvar on the business impact of building golf fitness awareness:
We market and promote through weekly email blasts, Facebook posts and a dedicated portion of our club’s newsletter. Getting the word out is the biggest challenge, because once we have them in front of us, our expertise in assessing their abilities, analyzing their potential and formulating a plan that will help remedy their limitations becomes the easy part. Whether they need a few sessions, a six-week program or an extensive long-term relationship, helping members understand the benefits of our engagement together is vital to gaining the desired results. We use tools such as bands, stretch sticks, foam rollers and weighted bars within our golf conditioning. Looking at 2023, I am always considering ways to get golfers into our golf fitness programming. It’s about communication and exposure and disseminating the right message. With our renovated facilities, increased programming and other engagement opportunities, we think we’ll continue to boost golf fitness participation in the new year.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email AMedvar@plantationgcc.com.
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