Orlando PGA Show 2013

I have just returned from the 2013 PGA Show in Orlando and as per usual it has fired me up for the upcoming year. I'm not sure what happens, but I am always motivated and excited to get down to providing a better, more informed product for my students by the time I leave.

This year was my best show for education and networking purposes. I attended my second TrackMan University workshop where TrackMan founder Fredrik Tuxen shared some invaluable knowledge. Here I also met Jeff Ritter, Terry Rowles, Martin Chuck and Josh Zander - already great teachers looking to broaden their knowledge base with TrackMan data.

I also attended the very first (of many I believe!) Facebook Golf Teaching Professionals Live Forum on Wednesday night. Talk about a loaded room - there were 150 of the brightest and most cutting edge minds in the game in attendance. From fitting to fitness, from old school to cutting edge and from scientist to psychologist, they were all there. The evening made for great theater and was very well moderated by Nick Chertock, Chris Como and Michael Michaelides.

On Thursday the actual show got started and I spoke to and met some extremely smart people. They included, but were not limited to: Brian Manzella, Joseph Mayo, Kirk Oguri, Tim Cutshall, Tom Patri, Lorin Anderson and Mike Shannon. I have a tremendous amount of respect for all these folks and their expertise in their field is second to none.

On Thursday night I attended my first TweetUp. Ten years ago I would never have thought I would go to a strange place to meet up with strange people I had only met and conversed with online, but here I was hanging out with a large group of extremely talented instructors and I had a blast. If you do not currently use Twitter I would encourage you to get going and once you do hit me up for who to follow. I have learned so much from my affiliation with these teachers through Twitter this year! Thanks to Sara Dickson and Mike Fay for setting this up - I wish I could have stayed longer.

All in all I felt like a learned more than I ever have at the PGA Show and I am inspired to go out and do more research and do a better job for my students than ever before. I am really looking forward to a fantastic 2013 - stay tuned....