The Performance Development System (PDS) has been developed to increase the learning, motivation and performance of individuals and teams.

BB&O Golf Partnership's Junior Academy coaches Rob Watts (Castle Royle), Stuart Morgan (Mill Ride), David Armor (Abbey Hill), Andy Atkinson (Waterstock), Matt Woods (Donnington Grove), and Shay Brennan (Studley Wood) recently gained the qualification after attending workshops held by Matt Bennett, MBE, the designer of the system.

Bennett spent over 16 years looking at many of the key challenges preventing people from achieving their potential in life.

The PDS system has been used to great effect by a diverse range of people, including schools to help children with confidence and fitness issues, health club chains to increase member retention, elite athletes and the British Military to increase individual and team performance.

After years exploring numerous methods and observing instructors, teachers and coaches from a wide range of disciplines Bennett discovered one key trend - although many coaches were highly skilled technically, very few of them could consistently influence the learning and behaviour of all the people they were working with.

He found the most common reason for this was that individuals and teams were relying far too much on the coach to make the decisions for them.
Bennett said: “Relying on a coach too much in the decision making clearly blunts people's own learning. It can also negatively affect self analysis, confidence and motivation.  One of the initial challenges for many coaches that attend my training is the passing of control and decision making over to the player.

“If you think about it, the majority of practice takes place without the supervision of a coach; people practise on the driving range and on the course.  So if players cannot effectively self review in an objective and systematic way the skills taught by their coach, they could be developing bad habits during unsupervised practice time.

“Coaches cannot afford to waste any time when they are with a player. They need to be able to identify specific strengths and weaknesses, link it to clear goals and have a specific measurable outcome for each session. Not only that, before the player walks away the coach must have formally confirmed that they can practise and self review the element of learning from that session linked into the players own action plan.

“My aim during the PDS Performance Coach course is to provide people with the key tools to achieve these important outcomes.

“It was fantastic to see all the BB&O coaches changing the way they planned sessions and communicated with players. The impact PDS can have on an individuals learning and performance is very powerful and can be seen fairly quickly. Some coaches observe the improvements during the very first session.

“This training will certainly give them a clear edge over other golf professionals. I believe the impact PDS can have on coaching in the BB&O will be quite considerable. The fact BB&O has had the foresight and confidence to lead from the front will provide its players with the very best opportunity to succeed, not just in golf but in life”.

Bennett is also a guest speaker and is currently working with double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes, designing and running training for the fitness industry and health clubs.

For more information regarding the Performance Development System and other services go to www.PDSisthe.biz