Schempp to Speak at PGA Teaching & Coaching Summit

Paul Schempp, director of UGA's Sport Instruction Research Laboratory, will be among the featured presenters at the ninth biennial Teaching & Coaching Summit of the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Dec. 8-12 at the PGA Learning Center in PGA Village, Port St. Lucie, Fla.

The Summit theme, "The Power of the Individual Instructor," explores the state of today's game and the power that reaches from instructors to individual students. Instructors will explain what it takes to connect to students in order to empower their own games and explore what can done to enhance one's teaching skills using today's technology.

Schempp, a professor in kinesiology who has spent the past decade studying how the best teachers help students learn, will make a presentation titled, "Traits That are Common to Great Instructors."

The Summit is an enduring forum of learning for golf instructors. The PGA of America's largest educational event continues as a mission that began in 1988 to elevate golf's instructors who represent the link to growing participation and enjoyment in the game.

Some 1,000 PGA professionals and instructors from throughout the world are expected to attend the summit, and for the first time, the public is invited to participate in a Play Golf America Day on December 8, a daylong festival of golf involving clinics and games for the entire family at the 35-acre PGA Learning Center.

"This day gives the public a chance to interact with some of the greatest teachers in the game," said PGA Director of Instruction Rick Martino.

Other presenters include David Leadbetteer and Jim Flick, two of the country's best known instructors; Stan Utely, whose short game skills and teaching ability have earned him accalim among Tour professionals; Jim Hardy; Rick Jensen, who will team with LPGA Hall of Famer Beth Daniel to demonstrate a Tour professionals practice techniques; Scott Lephart of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Golf Research Laboratory; and Fred Shoemaker, coach and author of "Extraordinary Golf: The Art of the Possible."

For the past eight years, Schempp and his UGA research team have helped analyze and select Golf Magazine's list of "America's Top 100 Golf Instructors." Schempp's expertise on expertise has also led to his becoming a consultant to the Swedish National Golf Team.

Schempp was named 2004 Distinguished Scholar by West Virginia University's International Center for Performance Excellence and received the Mabel Lee Award for outstanding potential in scholarship, teaching and professional leadership by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) in 1999. He was a Senior Fulbright Research Scholar in the fields of education and social theory in Germany in 1992. Schempp joined the UGA faculty in 1991.

For more information on the summit:
http://www.iowapga.com/pdf/2004%20Summit%20Update%20Rel.pdf

For more information on UGA's Sport Instruction Research Laboratory:
http://www.coe.uga.edu/sportlab/

Tuesday, November 30, 2004
WRITER: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu
CONTACT: Paul Schempp, 706/542-4379, pschempp@uga.edu