Matt Palazzolo, a 2021 Golf Fitness Association of America Award Winner, is a Golf Performance Specialist based in Windermere, Florida.
The past few years have presented some great opportunities for me to travel and engage new clients, while maintaining relationships with my existing ones. Leaving New York two years ago, I spent some time in Nashville and have recently relocated my in-person services to central Florida.
My new homebase is at Isleworth Golf & Country Club in Windermere, Florida. The setup is ideal, and the PGA Professional staff is great to work with. They’ve been very welcoming, which has fostered a collaborative result that will benefit our mutual clients. I leave the golf coaching to the golf coaches and they leave the fitness and performance focus to me.
It’s been a rather unique, yet effective, process thus far. My introduction to the members has been primarily through the golf and fitness teams in an unofficial meet and greet. I’ll watch what they’re working on in a lesson and will pick up on their movement inefficiencies right away. I have my bands and training aids with me, and will actually do some teaching in that lesson. Once they see and feel the difference that I bring to the relationship, that’s when we know they’re on board. From there, we decide what initial steps to take on the fitness side.
Working at Isleworth this summer was a lot like my days at Golf & Body in Manhattan a few years ago. Once we set our goals, I’ll train the client one day and then request subsequent swing videos to review how movement patterns have been applied. We can capture Swing Catalyst and TrackMan data, and I watch how the golf coach works with the student, allowing me to gear our next session towards the goals mutually-set among the student, the golf coach and me. When I do my job, it makes it easier for the golf coach to clean up the clubface, swing path or other aspects of the golfer’s swing.
Being in Florida has allowed me to expand my junior engagement. For instance, I recently worked with an excellent young player from Boston, who spent most of the summer in Orlando. As he returned home for senior year, I sent him with an individual plan, which I create for all my clients, that addresses our objectives and provides actions that he can perform on his own and report the results and updated progress back to me remotely.
As we head into fall, I will continue to meet members as they return from points north, and collaborate with our PGA Director of Instruction Matt Borchert and PGA Head Professional Nick Joy. We’re really one unit in our efforts to improve not only the golf game of our members, but their health, wellness and happiness. Throughout my time across various facilities, this holistic approach to instruction that brings multiple minds together in a tech-driven coaching environment has proven to be the most successful. I look forward to growing my business in Florida, while continuing to work with my existing clients from New York and Nashville remotely, enjoying the best of both worlds, a lot like my students themselves.
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