The frosty weather meant it was another week of little or no golf around the courses of Cork, and while many golfers are disappointed not to be able to play because of the weather conditions, many are working on plans to improve their golf.  While the driving ranges are still open in most weather conditions, the gyms are definitely open and a growing number of golfers are focusing on the strength and flexibility to improve their golf.

Peter O’Keeffe has been working with golfers since 2015 when he started out under the Peter O’Keeffe Golf Fitness brand.  That evolved into Golf Strong, a name that has now become the biggest golf fitness brand in the country.  In the early years Peter focused on individual assessments supported by personal training and personal programmes.  However his new and improved Golf Strong app has allowed him to scale the business and offer every golfer the opportunity to use his programmes.  While some clients can access Peter’s gym in Douglas or his gym in The Hermitage in Dublin, everyone can access his training with his new and improved app.  Having started off with a large library of you tube videos, the Golf Strong app is the newest part of the programme and it’s something that has taken a lot of time and effort to get right.

“I wasn’t happy with the first version of the app, it turned out to be more of a content hub” explained O’Keeffe.  “So we scrapped it and redesigned a whole new app which took about 10 months.  But the new app is fantastic.  It gives me the opportunity to book people in via the app, assign users specific programmes.  It’s all video led obviously, every programme has timings for the sets and the reps and even the rest period.  It’s easy for people to follow, they just bring the phone into the gym and press start and the programme starts for them.  The user experience is really good and it’s more interactive.”

The new app offers a better range of supports for golfers, and a much wider range of programmes, and these are selected based on the targets set out by the user.  “The new app is very interactive, when you sign up you complete a questionnaire and based on the information you put in you will get pushed towards a certain programme in the app.  So whether it’s a stretching programme or a band programme, an upper body strength programme or a three day programme, or the 8 week programme.  What we now have as well is a driving range programme which users bring the phone to the range and the app will tell you exercises and different types of swings when you’re tying to improve your swing speeds.”

Although the brand and the awareness has evolved, Peter’s approach to golfer fitness hasn’t.  “The first key point a golfer should look at is an assessment session, we can do these in person or online” said Peter.  “We get an idea of where the player is at and what they’re working on, we’d often involve their coach in this.  After that we do a mobility screen and once we do that I would do up a programme and they can get cracking.”

Peter’s college degree is in sports science and he still has a huge interest in the body and improving performance.  With close on 10 years experience he now has a tried and tested approach when working with clients.  “I would always start with mobility.  You need to know the limitations that people have before you add any load.  I had a guy who’s hips were very tight.  He does have sciatica issues so I have to be mindful of that so he’s not going to be going straight into back squats.  He’s got a nice mobility programme that’s not going to load him or load that area too much.  The other side of that is when he does progress we will look at strengthening the area because strength is not all about loading, you are mobilising the body as well so when they go hand in hand they are very useful.”

Personal training is still part of the offering from Peter, and with the support of a team of strength and conditioning coaches he offers this service in Cork and Dublin.  “We also do personal training, golf specific and non-golf specific here in Cork and in the Hermitage.  Last year we launched the Golf Strong Academy which is athletic development for kids involved in sports, not only golf.  Along with myself we have Keith Egan, Billy O’Regan and Dan Coughlan all S&C coaches who are working with groups of kids on all things development; lifting, movement, flexibility, mobility and power, all that good stuff.