Amanda Ehrlich is a TPI-certified former collegiate golfer who competed for four years at the NCAA level. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science with a minor in Athletic Coaching and recently attained her master’s degree in Health and Human Performance from Oklahoma State University. There, she has worked closely with the men’s and women’s golf teams, conducting performance research through the Golf Research, Innovation and Performance (GRIP) Center within the Kinesiology Department.
Amanda Ehrlich on the importance of building a golf performance profile:
To better understand player performance both on and off the course, profiles can be created and used by fitness professionals and coaches to identify limitations, track trends and evaluate the effectiveness of training programs. A well-developed profile allows coaches to guide the athlete toward peaking at key points in the season, while ensuring the athlete is improving without overtraining. There are many methods to create profiles and track athletic performance, but the methodology I use follows a simple, intentional step-by-step process. I start by watching the player swing. Every golfer swings differently based on their physical abilities. Because of this, there is no “one swing fits all” model. Instead, the goal should be to identify that player’s natural tendencies and patterns. By observing the swing, you can recognize compensations, identify limitations and anticipate what may show up in the performance tests. This step bridges the gap between the gym and the swing. While you don’t have to be a golfer to train golfers, understanding what contributes to an efficient swing allows you to better communicate with the athletes, and helps them understand how their body influences their performance. The second step is determining which assessments you will use to evaluate the golfer. There are many options, but the categories that should be set in stone are mobility, strength and power. When possible, especially when working with elite juniors, collegiate and professional players, aerobic endurance should also be assessed. The assessments should be reliable and valid and ensure that the athlete is comfortable and confident performing them. It’s not only what you measure, but also how you measure it that is important.
Amanda Ehrlich on the business impact of building a golf performance profile:
Once the assessments are selected, it’s time to run the tests and collect data in a structured way. Simple spreadsheets are effective for organizing and visualizing results. One of the most useful methods is a radar chart, which allows you to display multiple performance qualities at once, highlight strengths and weaknesses and provide the athlete with an immediate visual understanding. In our work at Oklahoma State, we compare the athlete against our internal database of performance assessments. This allows us to evaluate how players stack up against larger samples of similar athletes and identify trends across the team over time. We can also monitor whether players are increasing or decreasing in certain areas, and track individual trends for players who have been in the program for over one year. Finally, how a coach uses the results from an assessment is ultimately what sets them apart. Collecting and measuring data is only valuable to golf coaches and players if it leads to action. The main goal is to take information and translate it into a focused, individualized training plan that impacts performance directly. Effective programming should target the root cause, not throw a bunch of exercises together based on all the limitations. It should follow a logistical progression — Mobility…Stability… Strength…Power — and align with the player’s swing and performance goals. Great coaches don’t just prescribe exercises, they connect findings to performance.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email Amanda.ehrlich@okstate.edu.
