I’ve been coaching golf for some time now and the one thing that is most challenging is figuring out the most effective way to coach someone – everyone is different. By far the easiest group I work with is juniors – from the ages of 10 to 17. The reason why is their minds have not been filled with a lot of information. They’re not constantly watching the golf channel or reading golf instruction books and magazine. So when they come to me I’m more or less working with a blank slate. It’s amazing how simple my approach is with juniors. I focus on setup, then getting them to learn how to move the club, while understanding the relationship of the club and ball by reading their ball flight. And amazing things happen with these juniors.

Most adults are completely different. As we evolve intellectually many of us have the tendency to analyze everything we do. I know I’m an analytical thinker. Unfortunately, this type of thinking, when it comes to learning any motor skills, especially golf, is arguably the least effective way to learn the game and to make progress. And I get these types of thinkers all the time – they’re worried about keeping their head down, where is their elbow at the top, starting to move and clear their hips on the downswing – the list goes on and on and on.

Over time what I’ve come to realize is that as much as I want to – I can’t change that. As much as I want to use the same simple approach with juniors, the one that focuses on how we learn all physical activities, it’s just not enough for an analytical thinker. So I need to make a compromise – I give them a little of what they want and A LOT of what they need. What furthers the challenge is that many of their swing thoughts are burned in their belief system. They think if they keep their head down, which is more detrimental than helpful, they will hit a good shot. So I spend a good deal of time, trying to convince them of why their ideas are not really helping, but rather hurting them, or if possible, reshape the idea so that I can get them to use it in a positive way.

The ironic thing is that giving them a lot of what they need is not necessarily a lot of information. In fact, it’s more like pulling the thoughts out of their brains, throwing them in them in the garbage, and then reshaping and inserting the most effective approaches that will help the student. Coaching golf will always be a challenge, because how each student thinks, what the current shape of their swing, their physical limitations and desire to improve, vary greatly from student to student and therefore each approach has to be different.

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.