As I continue to take guitar lessons, I also continue to analyze the learning process and the relationship between an instructor and the student. There have been a few things that I’ve learned during this process with a new guitar instructor. Just as a reminder, I have been playing guitar for about a year, basically self taught, but of course used resources on the net to try and acquire knowledge that could help me progress. I still take golf lessons and work on my game, but the process with guitar is new to me (I’ve been playing drums since I was a kid). By the way, if you have are thinking about learning a instrument – do it – you won’t regret it. And it’s never too late!

Like most self taught students, especially beginners, there is a tendency to develop some poor fundamentals, which can really become an obstacle in a student learning to improve a skill and for me it was no different with guitar. My “setup”, how I held the guitar both with the right and left hand, my posture, etc, all needed some adjustments. and of course like all golfers (and probably all motor skills), changing something that you have been doing for some time and becomes a “habit”, can be frustrating process as more times than not we can’t perform the skill to the current level we have attained. So this is where patience and determination become a necessary part of the process. For me, I look at playing the guitar, just as golfers look at golf, as something they will hopefully able to enjoy for the rest of their lives. But, and this is the big part, if you choose to improve at golf or any motor skill, you need to enjoy the process and become less focused on the results. While this is certainly easy to say, it’s much harder to do. I’m sure I lost MANY students after the first lesson – they became frustrated, didn’t see the results and improvements that they desired, so decided not to return for a second lesson.

Well, and I’ve said this before, you need to give any instructor a fair shot. If you are struggling with integrating a new idea or change, go back to the instructor and discuss the challenge you’re having and give him or her the opportunity to give you some helpful ideas, or to possibly even take a different approach. As an instructor it’s easy for us to believe that after the lesson the student fully understands and can integrate a change, but then when left on his own he struggles, gets frustrated, and gives up.

Another possible practice recommendation, I have learned through guitar and working on new things and becoming physically uncomfortable (like a grip change in golf), I take a break and start playing a song. As a golfer, if you are working a grip change, you might want to take a break, go hit some chips, putts, or work on your bunker game (all things you should be doing anyway), then go back to the tee and practice the new grip. Change does take time, but if you muster up some patience and determination and learn to execute and integrate the needed changes, over time, the rewards in your improvement will be realized.

You don’t have to improve at golf. You read that correctly. I think we all play golf for different reasons. You can play for relaxation, the social aspect, the challenge, the competition, enjoying the outdoors, etc. But I think the thing is, regardless of the reason that you play golf, it should be an enjoyable experience. Otherwise, why are you doing it? I see way too many people playing golf and not enjoying themselves. So maybe the first question you need to ask yourself is why do you play golf? Once you have answered that question, and it may take some thinking on your part to really know why, you should then begin to put your focus on that aspect or aspects that you enjoy – the reason you play the game.

If you play golf for the personal challenge – to see how good you can get -there are going to be some sacrifices in time you’re going to need to make to realize your goals and your potential. However, saying that, those things don’t have to be a negative experience. In other words, if you dislike either practicing and/or taking lessons, it’s unfair to you to be hard on yourself with regard to performance. I see this all the time. I’m playing with golfers and someone who never practices and works to improve their game games really frustrated with bad shots or holes. Now I must admit that I’m guilty of this. In season, I get to play 2 or 3 times a week with the members, however, I have very little or no time to practice. Then I hit some bad shots or have a bad hole and find myself being frustrated and disappointed, but then at some point I always say to myself “What do you expect? You never practice, then you expect to come out and play your best golf!” When this happens, I’m not being fair to myself. And playing frequently is not really going to help you to play well. Certainly, it will help more than playing infrequently, but you can’t really improve your game and take it to another level by just playing. This game, like many things in life, gives back what you put into it. So if you REALLY have a desire to improve, you need to start finding the time to put something into your game.

Now if you can’t find the time, or don’t want to, then focus on other aspects of the game that I mentioned earlier. Enjoy being outside and spending time with friends or meeting new people. Then when you hit a bad shot, focus and remember that these reasons, and the purpose, of why you play golf.

I recently purchased the newly released Stack and tilt book and gave it quick read. I plan to give it a closer read – their were parts I liked and of course parts I didn’t like as much. I’m also considering giving the book an in-depth review here on my blog.

But with my recent book purchases (I also purchased the new Jim McClean and Hank Haney book), I started to think about the possibility of writing a second book. In fact, I’ve already had some preliminary conversations with my literary agent about it. So why another book and how would this one be different? Well, to start, I certainly haven’t changed my philosophy since the first one, but rather it would be delivering the same philosophy in a different way.

First, let me state that there is no one book that is the “end all” of golf instruction for golfers. If you’re looking for a book that has all the answers – forget it – it doesn’t exist, and this is an author stating this. Just as one method can’t work for all golfers, one book can’t have all the answers for all golfers. One book can be really helpful for one golfer and be disastrous for another and the same can be both for the same golfer – depending on how the material is interpreted and applied. I’ve read a lot of golf books and have pulled “gems” out of a book that I felt – for me – was 95% useless. I’ve read others where I felt the much of the information was very helpful.

There’s what one of my Amazon reviewers, who gave my book 3 stars, called a “reader-book mismatch”. My interpretation of this is that I was just not connecting with the reader and while I have been very fortunate that my book, “The Negotiable Golf Swing”, has received overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon, I’m sure there are readers out there that found my book not as helpful and disappointing and just didn’t bother to write a review.

So how can I help all of the golfers in the world? Well, I can’t. But I do believe if the next treatment of my philosophy is different then possibly I can help some of those golfers that missed my message the first time (if they give me a second chance), help golfers similar to them, and provide more help to the golfers that found my first book helpful, and help golfers who will read my second book, but didn’t read my first. And when, and if, I do write the second book, it will be with the understanding that it can’t be helpful for every golfer – that’s just something I have to accept and try to deliver a message that can help a “majority” of the golfers seeking help with their game.