The European Tour and the magnificent Terre Blanche resort and golf club have inaugurated the Tour’s first Performance Institute in France as part of a long term programme to create a worldwide portfolio of state-of-the-art Performance Institutes.
Golfers of all levels will be able to benefit from the latest knowledge, hi-tech equipment and facilities at Terre Blanche, near Cannes in Provence, which in November became the latest European Tour Destination within its network of world class golfing venues.
The European Tour Performance Institute (ETPI) combines golf coaching and sports science in order to optimise each individual’s capabilities, from the novice amateur to top flight professional golfers such as Terre Blanche’s Touring Professional, Raphaël Jacquelin.
Fredrik Lindgren, Head of the ETPI and a former Tour player, together with David MacLaren, the Tour’s Director of Property and Venue Development, were present at the inauguration of L’Albatros Golf Performance Centre, along with Terre Blanche General Manager, François Vaugoude and Director of Golf, Jean-Marie Casella.
The key personnel at the ETPI are Jean-Jacques Rivet, the highly respected Head of Biomechanics and Sport Performance, and acclaimed teaching professional Alain Alberti, Head Coach of the David Leadbetter Golf Academy at Terre Blanche. Rivet will be the lead biomechanics expert for future development of ETPI facilities across the world.
Lindgren welcomed the partnership with Terre Blanche, commenting: “This is the first ETPI facility in the world and is the permanent incarnation of the Tour’s mobile Physiotherapy Unit, drawing on 20 years of knowledge of sports medicine, science and understanding of golfers’ physical capabilities.
“The ETPI has the capability of creating personalised physical development programmes for players to optimise each individual’s performance. In Jean-Jacques and Alain we have two outstanding individuals who complement each other in bringing the PGA professional coaching and sports science closely into alignment.”
The ETPI at Terre Blanche contains a battery of analysis equipment, allowing Rivet to conduct full body screens to ascertain individual weaknesses and find the solutions in conjunction with Alberti. Players have their feet and balance analysed to see if they require custom-made golf shoes to complement custom-fitted clubs along with personalised training programmes.
Lindgren added: “Skiers have worn personalised boots for 30 or 40 years. Why not golfers? With the advances of knowledge and technology we can now truly personalise equipment and solid foot grounding is the beginning of a powerful swing. The ETPI brings science and precision to the game at all levels.”
Golf Director Casella said: “We are delighted that L’Albatros Performance Centre here at Terre Blanche has become the very first European Tour Performance Institute. The facilities that we offer golfers of all levels are of the highest quality and the Performance Centre ties in perfectly with the hotel and resort, alongside our two outstanding golf courses. This is a perfect extension of our exciting status as a European Tour Destination.”
“We have been hosting the French amateur national squad for more than a year and they have already become World and European champions. We are very proud of their achievements, from a base at our own centre of excellence, and we hope that perhaps one of them will play in the 2018 Ryder Cup in France.
Golf, in common with other sports, has moved forward in terms of biomechanics and Rivet said: “The concept is to understand and assess how the body works and to develop a more technical approach in the areas of biomechanics and the physiology of the golf swing. The demands from the professional golfer have been increasing every year and this concept is growing in popularity at all levels.”
Alberti, coach to European Tour champions Jacquelin and Jean-François Remesy among others, added: “I’ve worked with Jean-Jacques since 1995 and we realised that top players would benefit from the combined assessments of us both. Jean-Jacques conducts the tests, we both assimilate the data and work on finding logical solutions together. It is all in the detail.”
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