
Meet Doc Smith
Dr. Mark J. Smith is a high-performance coach and a world-recognized expert on high-intensity interval training and Paleolithic nutrition.
Working with passionate golfers, tennis and racquet sport players, and active people throughout Southern California, Doc Smith helps people with sports performance and nutrition and diet.
Doc Smith is a member of the Advisory Board of the Titleist Performance Institute and a TPI Certified Coach. He has been recognized three times by Golf Digest as one of the 50 Best Golf-Fitness Trainers in America. He is Chief Science Officer of The Paleo Diet and has helped people solve or ease health conditions using The Paleo Diet for over 30 years, making him one of the most experienced Paleolithic nutrition clinicians in the world.
Doc Smith holds a doctorate in Physiology from Colorado State University, where he became the first graduate student to study Paleolithic nutrition under Dr. Loren Cordain, founder of the modern Paleo Diet movement, in 1990. He is a leading expert on supramaximal interval training. He holds a masters degree in Exercise and Sport Science, a bachelors in Physical Education and Sports Science and teaching certificates in Physical Education and Mathematics from Loughborough University.
Doc Smith’s performance and nutrition clinic has been based in the Mission Hills Country Club near Palm Springs, California since 2006.
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Golf Digest Best Golf-Fitness Trainer
2019-2020

Golf Digest Best Golf-Fitness Trainer
2022-2023

Golf Digest Best Golf-Fitness Trainer
2025-2026

Member of the TPI Advisory Board
At-a-Glance
Career Overview
1998: Started Paleolithic graduate studies with Dr. Loren Cordain
2006: Joined Mission Hills Country Club
2019: Became Chief Science Officer of The Paleo Diet
2024-2025: Coauthored Paleo for Life
Golf sports image courtesy of: Pexels/jopwell.