Golf is experiencing a massive, record-breaking surge in popularity. Given the sport’s unprecedented growth, it is not surprising that golfers continually seek ways to gain a competitive advantage. John Irvine, 37, specializes in helping golfers find exactly that.
John turned a fitness background that began with strength and conditioning for high school and collegiate sports into functional fitness, competitive training, and professional gym ownership. He opened his first Iron Tribe Fitness location in Memphis in 2014. Not just the owner, John’s roles in the business include coach, leader, and visionary; all of which laid the foundation for his understanding of how to coach adults and how to do it well.
A golfer himself, John quickly realized that so much of what golfers are chasing in their swing is limited by what their body can or cannot do. Even though golf fitness content was on the market, it seemed too basic or too gimmicky to John. Golfers were being told to do random “golf-looking” exercises but were not following a true progressive training program. “The more I trained myself and other golfers, the more obvious the need became. Golfers did not just need stretching. They did not just need swing lessons. They needed to train like athletes,” John says.
This realization of a need to train golfers, himself included, combined with his immersion in the fitness world, led to the creation of Golf Gains, a functional golf training system developed by John. This system takes the same fitness principles of strength, coaching, accountability, and personalization and applies them specifically to golfers. Tailored programs within Golf Gains are designed to help golfers build swing power, gain distance, and improve mobility on the course.
Most golfers seek John’s coaching because they want more distance, better movement, weight loss, pain relief, or simply to feel athletic again. John’s training encompasses a full-body, athletic approach, combining mobility, strength, power, speed, conditioning, injury-prevention, and nutrition to enhance their game. According to John, his Golf Gains programs are designed to help golfers build a body that supports a better swing, including improving mobility in key areas such as the hips, thoracic spine, shoulders, and ankles. Building upper-body, core, and posterior chain strength also helps enhance mobility.
“Golf is not just a rotational sport. It is a power sport that requires mobility, strength, stability, sequencing, and the ability to produce force quickly,” John states. Therefore, power training, rotational work, med ball throws, jumps, speed work, and conditioning are all layered to create dynamic, golf-specific fitness programs.
John says the feedback from golfers who have trained with him has been incredible. His golfing clients regularly report they are hitting the ball farther, swinging faster, moving better, and playing with less pain. John has had golfers lower their handicaps, break scoring barriers, increase clubhead speed, and feel more confident over the ball. However, he says one of the most rewarding statements he hears from clients is, “I feel athletic again.”
Learn more about training with John Irvine at Irontribefitness.com or Golfgains.fitness.
Follow on IG: @golfgains.fitness
By Alicia Johnson
Photo by Tindall Stephens
