Rick Murphy, the 1988 PGA Youth Player Development Award winner, a two-time Carolinas PGA Section Teacher of the Year, the 2016 Section PGA Professional Development Award winner, the 2008 Section Golf Professional of the Year and a 2020 Carolinas PGA Section Hall of Fame Inductee, is the PGA of America Director of Instruction at Greensboro National Golf Club in Summerfield, North Carolina and the Owner of Rick Murphy Golf Academy and Practice Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Rick Murphy on the importance of studying how the body moves in the golf swing:
I started working with Dr. Gary Gray and Gray Institute in 2011 to learn about the human body and how it moves within the golf swing and recently became a certified 3D Functional Movement Coach and a 3D Functional Golf Coach. However, the golf instructor’s understanding of how the body moves in three planes of motion throughout the golf swing is only the first step. We must also communicate these ideas so our students can apply the concepts within their golf game and improve their performance faster than before. I also took a deep dive into cutting-edge biomechanics and how the body and the golf club move and work together as a system, as well as where and when forces and torques are applied. Most recently, I completed the GFAA-Gray Institute 3D Functional Movement Coach and 3D Functional Golf Coach program to reinforce what I learned more than a decade ago and consume the most recent findings of experts like Dr. Gary Gray and Dr. David Tiberio. I serve as an advisor to Gray Institute on these new learning modules and don’t believe a golf professional could truly understand how the body moves without learning the concepts taught in the GFAA-Gray program. After all, much of what we do today is based on isolating golfers’ limitations to most effectively correct or strengthen them. I find that many students have a lot of mobility but often lack the stability needed. This is due to a lack of understanding of how their bodies move.
Rick Murphy on the business impact of studying how the body moves in the golf swing:
It’s been inspiring to see the advancements in golf fitness over the past two decades, especially in the past few years. Golfers now know what ground reaction forces, mass, momentum, mobility and so many other concepts mean to their performance. This is a credit to the PGA of America Golf Professionals who have an insatiable desire to learn more, and the fitness pros, like those at Gray Institute, who are sharing their expertise with us. I’ve developed my own way of communicating the multiple layers of a proper warmup with my students and started a program three years ago to help clubs that don’t have fitness professionals or those where a disconnect exists between the golf and fitness professionals. I collaborate with Lori Gordon, a sports physiologist and Gray Institute for Functional Transformation (GIFT) alumnus, to work with the professionals to better serve their clients. We are invited to visit clubs for a two- or three-day workshop, where Lori and I take their club members, golf professional staff/teaching staff and fitness professionals through our special programming. It is transformational for the participants and inspirational for the golf and fitness staff. We help them make the connection between fitness and golf. Hence, driving better communication and revenue to their income and ultimately the club’s bottom line as a result. It’s been a home run for the clubs!
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email rmurphy@rickmurphygolf.com.
