David Leadbetter Teams with UPMC to Launch The David Leadbetter Golf Fitness Lab

ChampionsGate, FL (PRWEB) October 12, 2006 -- David Leadbetter Enterprises announced today a partnership with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) that will allow David Leadbetter Golf to offer comprehensive fitness analysis and improvement programs through their world-class golf instruction academies.

The first Leadbetter Golf Fitness Lab will be located at the David Leadbetter Golf Academy World Headquarters in ChampionsGate, Florida and will include a staff clinician and technicians trained and certified by UPMC. It will use state-of-the-art golf simulators and swing analysis instrumentation, with results focused on improving a golfer’s balance, strength and flexibility.

“Increased balance, strength and flexibility are vital elements for anyone looking to improve or maintain their game,” said David Leadbetter, the world’s leading golf instructor. “UPMC’s vast experience, built upon the research conducted by the University of Pittsburgh, in using biomechanical data to analyze a golfer’s fitness level and create customized conditioning programs will allow our academies to offer a more comprehensive game improvement program that can benefit every golfer from tour pro to weekend enthusiast.”

Through the Golf Fitness Lab initiative, the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC have studied more than 600 golfers and 5,000 golf swings to identify fitness and conditioning variables that affect golf performance, while developing a fitness program that has been proven to prevent injury and increase performance by an average of 10 percent, or 20 yards in driving distance. UPMC has licensed this technology from the University of Pittsburgh for commercial use.

“We’re excited about the synergies between David’s rigorous, high-quality instruction and our medically based, scientifically validated approach to performance enhancement and injury prevention,” said Scott Lephart, Ph.D., A.T.C., Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS). He is also director of the SHRS’s Neuromuscular Research Laboratory (NMRL).

Based on years of sports medicine research data and its leading work in golf injury prevention, the University researchers at the NMRL collaborated with UPMC to create the Golf Fitness Lab in 2004 to provide scientifically proven golf assessment, conditioning and injury prevention.



About The David Leadbetter Golf Academy

Delivering a philosophy which is flexible to golfers of all ages and abilities, the David Leadbetter Golf Academy offers first rate golf instruction and a top class service to every standard of golfer, world-wide.
David Leadbetter is recognized as the leading golf instructor in the world. His teaching theories and methods have revolutionized the game and his influence on all levels of golf is unparalleled. Often associated with his contribution to the successes of Nick Faldo, David continues to work with the world’s leading golfers, most notably Ernie Els, Michelle Wie, Charles Howell III, Trevor Immelman, Ian Poulter and Nick Dougherty.

The same principles taught to these top professionals are equally as applicable to complete beginners as well as high and low handicap amateur golfers. In establishing the David Leadbetter Golf Academy (DLGA), David has personally overseen the training of world class instructors to communicate the Leadbetter philosophy to people of all ages and abilities.
DLGA has now developed into a network of Golf Academies spanning Europe, USA and Asia - and has evolved as a truly exceptional global facility. There are currently 30 Academy locations across the world.
For more information, go to http://www.DavidLeadbetter.com



About UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh’s NMRL

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is the largest integrated health care system in Pennsylvania and one of the leading nonprofit medical centers in the country. It is one of only 14 hospitals nationwide to earn “honor roll” status in U.S. News & World Report’s 2006 “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. UPMC is western Pennsylvania’s largest employer, with 43,000 employees and nearly $6 billion in revenue. It comprises 19 hospitals, 400 outpatient sites and doctors’ offices, retirement and long-term care facilities, an insurance plan, and international ventures.

The UPMC Center for Sports Medicine is one of the most highly regarded sports medicine clinical and research programs, attracting professional athletes from around the world, as well as amateur and scholastic athletes and non-athletes from throughout western Pennsylvania. UPMC is the official sports medicine provider to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as numerous other athletic organizations.

     The Neuromuscular Research Laboratory (NMRL), part of the Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS), contains state-of-the-art neuromuscular and biomechanical assessment tools. Researchers use the latest sports medicine and athletic conditioning techniques to concentrate on two main goals: preventing and managing injury while enhancing athletic performance. Laboratory faculty include those from the Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition within the SHRS and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University’s School of Medicine. In addition to golf-related research, the NMRL has ongoing studies of sports performance, injury prevention, treatment and rehabilitation involving cycling, the female anterior cruciate ligament, and the shoulder and lower extremities.

For more information, go to www.pitt.edu/~neurolab/

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