For those of you, like me, that live in a cold winter climate, this can be a little golf-depressing time. Right now as I look out the window there is a light coating of snow on the ground. And for me, I’m not one to go out and play golf when it’s less than 50 degrees. So as we start to experience the winter wonderland I’m often asked about indoor lessons and my thoughts on them.
First, I’ve never given any indoor lessons, nor have I ever taken one, except for the ones my dad used to give me in the garage while hitting balls into a net – but that doesn’t count. And now many more indoor places that offer golf instruction are starting to pop up. So is there a value in taking an indoor lesson? Yes, no, and it depends.
There are a few factors to consider. First, of course, we’ll assume that it is a qualified instructor giving the lesson (another topic I’ll be blogging on soon). Now the question becomes is there a value when you cannot see the ball flight. Now, everyone that knows me, or has read my book, knows how strongly I believe that learning from ball flight is the ONLY way to learn to play golf. Many times indoor lessons focus on “teaching” the golf swing, studying it in detail on video, without having any idea of where the ball is going. But there could be a value in that, to a certain extent. What I find, and what most golfers already know, is that making a swing change, learning a different sequence of movements, can be very challenging. But what I find is sometimes the ball gets in the way of that change. In other words, a golfer will start making the swing change, but maybe because he or she starts topping the ball, their subconscious mind starts working to get the ball airborne, more times than not, with the particular movement that they are trying to change. Real progress could be inhibited or nonexistent.
So maybe the perfect learning environment would be a little of both – indoor and outdoor. A little indoor training, so the student could focus on the movement they are trying to incorporate, without worrying about where the ball goes, then once they are somewhat comfortable and have at least partially integrated that movement, making decent contact with that movement, move outside to where they can hit a ball, watch it fly, and continue the process of learning through ball flight. I suppose that if a place has no outdoor facility, but has a golf simulator, that could also be helpful, but not as effective as actually watching a ball fly. I hope to one day be able to help golfers learn with both of these environments to see if that could help accelerate learning process for golfers.

At the PGA Summit there was much discussion about the state of the game and how, not only is the game not growing, it is shrinking, especially in these difficult economic times. It’s a serious state we’re in for the game of golf. Anyone that knows me or has read my book is aware that I believe the primary reason golfers don’t improve is because they are working making perfect swings and being “taught” golf, as opposed to learning it. Could this be the same reason the game is not growing? On the flight home from the PGA Summit I was sitting next to a guy my age (46) and we starting talking and of course I asked him if he played golf. He said that he always wanted to learn, but he figured it was too late at his age. Of course, I assured him that that was not the case and encouraged him to start (he actually had clubs and had been to a range!)
Certainly golf is a challenging sport, especially to play at high levels. But is that what the goal should be? Shouldn’t it be to have fun first? Most golfers leave the game, or in this case, don’t become golfers because their experiences are filled with “don’t do this” or “you didn’t do that” as the learning environment. How much fun is that, feeling like you’re failing more than succeeding? Having your motion dissected by fellow golfers, or worse yet, by well-meaning golf professionals, just can’t be considered a fun environment. We don’t learn golf like we do any other physical activity. It is by far the most over-taught sport in existence.
I was speaking to a couple of pros at the Summit and they believe that the recent changes in the instruction/education department will be the first step in having golf professional learn and be more in tune with developing a learning environment, as opposed to what presently exists, for the most part, a teaching environment. And I’m of the belief that if this movement, which is slowly growing, is a very important one and as it continues to grow, it may well prove to be the most helpful thing in growing the popularity of the game.

I just returned from Florida where I had been attending the annual three-day PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit held at the PGA Golf Learning Center in Port St Lucie. The summit is where several hundred PGA professionals gather and lectures are given for three days. This year the topics, among others, were: club fitting, physical fitness, biomechanics, learning, video and other types of technology, and of course a few top teaching professionals giving their thoughts and approaches on helping golfers improve. To say that a lot of information and areas were covered would be a major understatement. What you realize when you attend these is how much you don’t know, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed trying to absorb all of this information.
But the question is do I really need to? In other words, most of the first day was spent talking about physical fitness (nutrition was day 3). Now I agree that fitness is very important, after all I’m killing myself daily in the gym to see just how much of a difference it can make in my golf swing. But how many individuals are going to embark on a full blown exercise program to improve their golf games? Of the golfers I know, not too many. These types of programs are really for very serious golfers, many of who are trying to play for a living. I need time to sift through all of this material and figure out how I can use it to help golfers improve. But it needs to be practical. With regard to fitness, if I can learn a better understanding of the human body and how it relates to the golf swing, maybe I could give a student a couple of simple ideas to help with their strength or flexibility in the area they are limited and by improving it they may be able to improve their motions. But it has to be something that is simple, practical, and only takes a few minutes a day. Same thing with something like nutrition. Certainly what you eat on the course is important, but I can’t give most of my students a complete daily dietary program and expect them to follow it. But I could give them a couple of tips on what to eat just before, and during the round. Again it has to be something practical. Some of my students consider their diet at the turn to be 2 Heinekens and a Milky Way.
So over the course of the next few weeks I’ll go through this material and my notes and share some of my thoughts and experiences from the Summit.