Geoff Weigand | PDx - Performance Coaching History
Over the course of more than 30 years, working with high performance participants in diverse disciplines from world class athletes to global business executives – PDx founder Geoff Weigand an elite multidiscipline athlete himself, and one of the original protagonists of the then new sport of athletically minded rock climbers. He became one of the world’s first professional climbing athletes as well and as achieving Cat. 1 road racing cyclist status. Weigand synthesized then applied his own diverse athletic experience, study and insight first in maximizing his own athletic ability and then by coaching and other performance minded people in learning how to maximize their own performance.
Weigand was coached and mentored by elite coaches and mentors in a wide variety of disciplines beginning before the age of five. He was extensively trained and competed in a wide variety of disciples – Soccer, Cricket, Tennis, Golf, Rugby League, Gymnastics, Swimming, Track and Field, Road Running, Road and Track Cycling, Orienteering, Chess, Classical music, public speaking and meditation. He also has extensive training and experience in land navigation, wilderness hiking/living, ultralight travel, canyoneering X-country skiing and eventually rock climbing. The breadth and scope of these activities has given a unique wealth of experience which is now synthesized into every PDx program.
Weigand’s life trajectory changed the first time he climbed at age 14. Such was his connection to the experience he gave up (almost) all other activity for that single pursuit. After only a couple of years of intense climbing and/or training every day of the week – by the age of 16 he was already one of Australia’s best climbers.
Weigand began his professional life in coaching when he created his first company in Sydney at the age of 18. He provided climbing safety and technique instruction to people interested in trying out the adventurous sport it was a natural expression for him. By the age of 19 (’84) he had established himself as Australia’s top up and coming climber- pushing the national standards in every climbing discipline.
Later he met and became good friends with Wolfgang Gullich, perhaps the world’s first scientifically trained climber who instilled the concept of total preparation and execution – and showed the reality by establishing the world leading standard on more than one occasion! He was also a proponent of actively applying the “power of the mind” as the ultimate performance element. The concept and his performances were undeniable and resonated strongly with Weigand as he instinctively operated in the same way.
The first video analysis of climbing. During that period in 1985 while residing in the Frankenjura, Gullich’s professors invited him, Weigand, Kurt Albert and Stefan Glowacz to participate in a scientific video analysis of climbing technique and efficiency. Interestingly the results of the objective scientific analysis only confirmed what the 4 climbers already knew about their own and each other’s strengths, weaknesses and capacity.
The roots of PDx formal coaching programs came as a result of Weigand being approached by his climbing peers – those that had reached a plateau somewhere in their own process. His success in helping them by apply his performance concepts only increased the demand for his coaching, all done while still reaching new levels of performance himself. By coaching his peers when they’d plateaued in training or got stuck on a personally difficult route his methods were tested and established in action.
PDx started out with intensive workshops for small groups of elite climbers where technique, neuromuscular coordination and cognitive performance strategy were addressed. As demand grew he expanded the services to include comprehensive programs that addresses the full spectrum of performance elements – technical capacity, sports specific power and endurance, nutrition, cognitive processes, strategy, programming and the role of “state of mind” in performance. What he found for himself and his students was that the more elements of the spectrum one was able to engage, the more powerful the training effect and resulting successful of the person.
Eventually he was coaching an increasingly large and diverse group of professionals and world class athletes in wide ranging disciplines: rock climbers, swimmers, road cyclists, mountain bike racers, alpinists and professional ballet dancers.
The Role of Nutrition in health and performance. Weigand also consulted for the health & nutrition industry on a wide range of products helping refine nutritional programs and supplements. During this time he met and became friends with Dr Ben Tabachnik – former elite sprinter with a PH.D in “Speed Development” and one of the founders of modern sports science. Also an author and consultant to Michael Jordan’s Bulls and various NFL teams – the former head of Russia’s Olympic scientific research group became a colleague and a mentor to Weigand where they conferred on every aspect of healthy and legal performance, the best applications of theoretical sport science and technology with real world training and performance, best training methods, the effect of overall health on performance, and developing effective and safe nutritional programs for elite athletes. Weigand continued with his interest in the role the brain and “state of mind” played in finding ones ultimate performance with his own track of research.
Art of Climbing curriculum. Soon after retiring as a pro climber Weigand aggregated his 25 years of experience as an athlete and coach and designed and wrote a full scope “art of climbing” instructional curriculum that could be delivered both on indoor climbing facilities and outdoors on the cliff. Today, this wealth of experience benefits PDx’s understanding how we achieve new levels of capability in almost any given activity.
Whether you are an adult wanting to go in the adventure trip of a life time, the parent of a child that has great interest or potential sport, a professional with a highly challenging job or a committed athlete wanting to find your ultimate potential, in a local event or the Olympic games – Performance Dynamix custom programs are designed to work with you to maximize results.