Swiss PGA hosts Dave Alred
23.11.2018

The 2018 Swiss PGA further education season has drawn to a close with a visit with one of the worlds most respected performance coaches. Dr. Dave Alred MBE is famed for his work in Rugby and also Golf, being part of the team that took Luke Donald to Number One on the PGA and European Tour and now is part of Francisco Molinari’s rise to the top in 2018.

On Tuesday 20th of November, Golfpark Otelfingen was the venue for the Swiss PGA Playing Professionals. Stuart Morgan (Performance Manager) conceived the day, to help with preparation for the 2019 season. Each invited player together with their coaching staff was given the chance to listen to Dave Alred’s principles and start to apply them. Of great importance, was the ‘No Limits’ principle, doing away with conventional assessments with an upper ceiling and encouraging these young players to simply become a better version of their previous self. He helped players understand how anxiety works and give them tools to deal with it on their journey whilst encouraging the coaches to ensure the messages the players receive are understandable and achievable.

A big emphasis was placed on the necessity to get into the ‘Ugly Zone’ when training. A fictitious place where development occurs, this heavily research subject looks at how improvement can only happen when challenge is present and that this process is not a comfortable one but without it, improvements will stagnate.

Wednesday 21st of November saw Dave move to Golfpark Holzhausern, welcoming 45 PGA Professionals including visitors from Austria, Germany and Italy. Due to Alred’s commitments, chances to share his knowledge are few and far between, so it was a privilege for Swiss Golf to benefit from his expertise for 2 days. The audience of coaches were able to benefit from an expansion on the aforementioned principles but Alred took great time in helping coaches understand the importance of language in both negative, positive and constructive contexts whilst also helping coaches understand the importance of the types of training golfers must partake in, in order to develop.

Although Alred works in an elite environment, his principles and systems can work at any level and in many contexts (he also works in business and education performance). Lastly, the discussions moved to the importance of parents in the junior golf context. No matter how good the player and the coaching, if the parents do not buy into similar beliefs and behaviours, then all the good work is likely to come undone.

The Swiss PGA is continually committed to empowering its members with contemporary knowledge that can be applied in practice to ensure both players and coaches are more successful. We look forward to the 2019 Season to see how these principles take effect.