I was blown away in 90 minutes. What I was about to see changed my thinking forever. Here’s the story;

The Austrian Ski team are leaders in their sport. They even have a complete biomechanical research team to help them improve. And it was these scientists that had a huge impact on me. What has skiing and golf got in common? I know, it’s a little strange but here’s what happened.

Austrian training methods make them virtually unbeatable in downhill skiing events. Their scientists have rewritten the book when it comes to ski instruction, methods that were previously considered fundamental have been shown to be less effective compared to the new training concepts based on science.

One concept is the use of roller blades in the summer months. This type of training was considered normal until the researchers discovered roller blading hindered, not helped, their skiing performance. So the biomechanics went to work and devised a range a training drills to assist the skiers. And this is where things got really interesting…

Many of their training drills didn’t resemble skiing at all. They are done indoors and focus on an intricate part of the skiing skill. One such drill required the elite skiers to slide back and forth on a plastic mat. It didn’t look like skiing one bit but allowed the skiers to improve their turns significantly. When you consider how many times a skier has to turn and change direction, every millisecond counts!

This was like a huge slap in the face for me. The training drills made it easy for the skiers to learn what the scientists wanted. I was struggling because I was filling my mind with about a million little bits of information and it was killing me. Has this ever happened to you in relation to your golf game?

I was so impressed with their approach that I vowed to do the same with my golf training. I wanted to break down the science and devise learning drills that made implementing this biomechanical swing easy. I wanted results, just like the Austrian Ski Team (Their skiing times improved during the summer without any “real” skiing and set them up for another terrific year.)

Now you might be thinking this is all pretty good stuff. And it was. But things got even better because after the presentation I go to,

Pick the minds of these really smart scientists

It was better than good. After the presentations there was lots of socialising and this is where I came into my own. I’m no scientist and pretty laid back – can’t say the same thing about the them. Boring. But they liked my style and enjoyed someone with a passion for learning.

And I bugged them with lots of questions about golf, biomechanics and performance. These guys really opened up (the beer helped – the Germans and Austrians love beer!) and let me in on some huge secrets about learning and applying technique. Here’s a quick summary.

• Scientific research is important. Without accurate information coaching is almost impossible.
• Coaching is not about filling the pupil with lots of information. It needs to be broken down into simple chunks. (this is where much of traditional instruction goes wrong)
• Technique (golf swing) is only part of the puzzle. The best coaches understand the science of the swing as well as the science of learning. (almost no golf coach gets this)
• If you can apply the biomechanics in a way that makes learning it easy and help golfers play the game, you’ll become one of the best coaches in the world. (this was the ah ah moment I had)

Next: Better coaching for golf