The primary reason that golfers have the most challenge controlling their driver, versus the other clubs in the bag – is simple physics – the clubhead is traveling faster, there is less loft, and more sidespin. The combination of these factors simply magnifies any curvature with the golf ball’s flight.

But I’d like to offer another possible reason for the erratic drive – the driver has no limits or boundaries. In other words think about a comfortable distance, for an approach shot to the green, that you hit an iron. Let’s say you hit a 7 iron 150 yards. It’s a comfortable distance for you with the iron and all it requires is a smooth swing to make the ball go 150 yards. But now let’s say you’re between a 7 iron and a 6 iron so you try to “jump” on the 7 and hit it as far as you can. More times than not you probably find that the shot does not come off the way you intended, which is why many times you’ll take the longer club and swing smoother.

Now let’s move to the tee shot and let’s say it’s a short hole and you don’t need a driver so you decide to play conservatively, and hit a 5 wood (metal). So you hit a smooth 5 wood because you don’t need the distance, and put it out in the middle of the fairway – your normal 190 yard shot.

Now let’s look at your driver. How far do you hit? Generally when I ask golfers this question they’ll give me the old “range”, for example “220 to 230”. But do you swing the club in that range, whatever that range is? In other words, are you trying to hit the ball, in this example, 220 – 230 yards? Or are you like most golfers trying to hit the ball as far as you can? And when you blast one right up the middle, its fun and can impress your foursome, but more often, erratic shots occur more than the killer one up the middle.

I have to confess that I also suffer from this syndrome. With normal playing conditions, and a comfortable smooth swing, my range is 260-270. That’s it unless I catch one downwind, on a down slope, or very hard fairways. So what I try to think about before I hit my driver is to make a smooth swing and focus on hitting my drive 260 yards – no more than that. When I do this I hit more 260 yard drives in the fairway. When I don’t I find the trees much more frequently or other undesirable spots on the golf course.

Another explanation for this syndrome could be I’m a man and my testosterone levels get in the way.

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.

I’m currently looking for a GUITAR instructor. I’ve been playing for a little more that a year and I’m basically been teaching myself through material I’ve found on the internet. And while learning guitar and golf has it’s similarities, it also has it’s differences. But the one thing it has in common is that students are looking for the best instructor they can find. So how do you go about it?

Well, the one thing I’ve learned about guitar instructors is that they don’t need much credentials to call themselves “guitar teachers”. It appears that all you have to do is be able to play and you can hang a sign outside your shop (or basement of their home) that reads “Guitar Teacher” and start giving lessons and getting paid to do just that. To me this is very scary, and it makes me think about how students seek out an instructor. After all students, whether you are a golfer or guitarist, are going to be spending their hard earned money and dedicate precious time to practice what the instructor gives to them. So I started searching the net and doing some research on some guitar instructors – who they’ve worked with and whether they have any “certifications” and/or were educated in the area of education. I’ve found someone and will be starting with him this week, with hope that he will work out well. But the fact is he might not.

And so the search for a golf instructor should not be much different. If you are currently in search of a golf instructor you can start by asking your fellow golfers who they have worked with (I didn’t have the benefit of knowing a lot of guitarist who take lessons) and which ones they have liked. But keep in mind that one golfer can think a particular professional is a genius and another golfer thinks that same professional is a terribly ineffective instructor. You could also go online and start doing some research there. Some things to factor in are credentials – most golf instructors, at least in the Metro NY area are PGA Members, or at least, PGA Apprentices. Now this certainly has some value, but due to the fact that, in my opinion, the PGA does not require enough studying in the area of instruction, that credential by itself can only be weighted so much. There are PGA Members who I consider very good instructors and others who, well let’s just say are not as good – just like in any profession. If you belong to a private club, you could start with the instructors at your club and they may or may not be good for you (my fellow pros are going to hate that I said that). The fact of the matter is that I have a handful of members at my club who seek the help of professionals not at my facility – and I have to accept that I or my other assistants can’t be the right instructor for everyone or it could be as simple as we don’t have a female professional and some women prefer to take a lesson from a woman. Other members have found other instructors that work for them – that’s just the way it goes and to me all that really matters is that the golfer is finding someone they are comfortable and confident with.

Now, even if you do find someone you think you might want to start taking lessons from, you should at least make the commitment to do a handful of lessons before you start to evaluate whether it’s a good fit or not, unless you find the communication skills of the professional just doesn’t work for you. If that’s communication between you and the instructor isn’t good then you might want to start looking for another one sooner rather than later. But trying a few lessons is really the only fair way to see if the relationship is going to be a beneficial one. I’ve more than few times where I was working with the same student and it wasn’t until the third or fourth lesson where we were really able to make a breakthrough. I’ve also had many golfers come to me for one lesson – then to never see them again. We’ll never if our relationship could have worked if given a little more time.

Finding an instructor can be similar to find a therapist. You may have to work with a few before you find the right one for you. So I’m excited to work with this guitar teacher, but also realize that he may not be the last one I work with.

Last year I attended the PGA show in Orlando and during it attended a couple of seminars.  One of them of the seminars was on teaching and my friend, Tom Patri, who is also a top 100 instructor, was one of the speakers. Tom was talking about how he helps students and how he uses a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 approach to helping his students. He spends one third of his time with them on the full swing, one third on the short game, and one third on the golf course.  I thought this was a very balanced approach, and while I was already working with my students on the full and short game, it was rare that I gave playing lessons, so I started suggesting these to my students and it turned out to be one of the best things I’ve incorporated into my teaching.

The reason for this is simple.  When I go out with one of my students and actually watch them play, I learn far more about their games then I can working with them on the range. And ultimately, on the range we end up working too much on “golf swing” and not enough on “playing golf” – which is an entirely different thing. When I watch a golfer play, I can better see things like pre-shot routine, alignment, strategy, club selection, trouble shots, etc., and the insights I gain from these observations are invaluable – I really learn how the student plays golf.  And many times the discussion we have about these areas on the course really helps the student to improve their games, and of course their scores, just by improving these parts of their games.

I would highly recommend, to anyone taking lessons, to ask your pro about taking a playing lesson – he will learn so much more about your game then he could possibly learn sitting on the driving range watching and helping you hit ball after ball, while working on your golf swing. And you will most likely learn things about your game that can bring you instant results – which is nice.