Robyn Smith, owner of Elite Golf and Running, is a Board Certified Sports Physical Therapist, certified Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Level 3 medical and fitness professional, certified personal trainer, and certified fascial stretch practitioner with many years of Sports Medicine experience. She opened Elite Golf and Running in 2016 while still working in the sports medicine physical therapy realm, and now is exclusively working on her own full time. Robyn graduated from GVSU with her physical therapy degree in 1998. She has extensive experience in orthopedic physical therapy as well as directing performance enhancement and wellness programs. Robyn has worked with both runners and golfers of all ages and ability levels, from the novice to the elite. Her passion lies in injury prevention for these athletes as well as performance enhancement.
Robyn has been a competitive gymnast, runner and triathlete herself and understands the motivation, dedication, and hard work that goes into sport. Whether it’s running or golfing for fun or you’re training at a high level, no one wants to be sidelined by pain and everyone can benefit from training correctly to reach your optimal goals.
Robyn has a passion to work one-on-one, providing the utmost quality care to her clients. This is the driving force to her owning her own business and having the flexibility needed to tailor services to her clients needs and not the demands for “quantity vs. quality” care that our traditional health care system drives. You will work directly with Robyn for all of your services, and years of experience allows for a multitude of treatment potentials. From moving better during golf, to running pain free, to general physical therapy services, fascial stretching, personal training, and combination of treatments/sessions, everything you need to reach your goals are possible with Elite!
Running
Robyn was among the first in Grand Rapids to begin performing video running gait analysis in 2002. She has worked with all levels of runners and triathletes from middle school to the senior athlete; college runners and Olympic marathoners; brand new runners and weekend warriors. She has trained extensively in the foot and ankle as well as orthotic assessment and evaluation. She recently “retired” from teaching “Managing the Runner” continuing education across the nation to other medical professionals. She has lectured nationally and internationally on topics of running injury prevention and ACL injury prevention. She works with injured runners to find the root of the problem and rehabilitate them to run pain-free. She also works with runners for performance enhancement focusing on form, efficiency, and speed. Robyn has worked for many years in the Sports Physical Therapy realm staying active in current research and trends in running. She has served on the review board for the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy as a manuscript reviewer for any submission of running related topics. Robyn continues to be passionate in helping runners stay on the road and reach their goals.
Golf
Robyn is certified as a Level 3 TPI Fitness Instructor and Medical Professional. She began this journey in 2007. She has worked closely with Titleist board members teaching Selective Functional Movement Assessment nationally. Her specialties include getting clients swinging pain-free as well as improving consistency, accuracy, and power. Robyn also enjoys working in close collaboration with the teaching golf professional to provide the ultimate results for her players. She has worked with many golfers from the amateur to the professional (those that have played on Latin-American tour; Korn Ferry, and PGA) as well as working closely with several teaching golf professionals to improve their body and their game. Robyn has the medical background to work through and rehabilitate an injury, get to the root of the cause of pain/injury, and then provide training to overcome these set backs and improve performance. She has the fitness background, to build exercise programs to improve movement, flexibility, strength and power. Robyn is the only medical and fitness professional in the area to pursue this as her career path to help golfers in a full-time capacity!
