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.

As I continue to share the hockey learning experience with my son, I’m watching closely on how he learns and how I help him learn to do things.

Along with us skating together, we also play some foot hockey with a ball in the driveway. So my son has been hitting slap shots, but all of them roll, with some speed, along the ground. So last week I started telling him at he needed to start seeing if he can start hitting the ball up into the upper parts of the net (he know what that is as he does it on his NHL 10 PS game). 

So we went out the other night and he was hitting slap shots and I was standing on the side of the net stopping his shots that were rolling on the ground. So I asked him to try and hit the shots higher and see if he could hit the middle of the net – but he struggled and couldn’t do it.

So I took the opportunity to try to help him. I moved his lowered hand so that it was lower on the stick to help him get more power, than I took his stick and tilted the face of the stick slightly toward the ground and asked him if I hit a shot like that what would the ball do, and he responded it would go along the ground. I then turned the face of the stick toward the sky and asked if I hit a shot with the stick like that what where would the ball go, and he responded it would go in the air. So said let’s try and hit some shots with the stick looking like that.  Well within three shots he starting getting the ball up in the air and within 10 shots he was hitting them in the upper part of the net, with one of the shots hitting the crossbar. He was very excited about his progress – as was I.

The moral of the story is the same. When you’re playing a stick and ball game, which is essentially what golf is, once the student learns the relationship with golf club and how it impacts the flight of the ball, he or she can then start experimenting to make the ball do something different then it currently does when the student hits it – it’s what the learning experience is all about.

This works well with kids, but many times this approach is a struggle for adults, because as we mature intellectually many individuals what more information. We want more details, about how the body moves and so on, which more times than not, while the answers make the student feel better as they feel they understand it more, in actually slows down their learning process and the potential progress they can make.

At the age of 8, my son Quinten has finally chosen a sport, with prior activities limited to PlayStation and the computer. This is very exciting – the downside is he could have picked golf, which would have been virtually free, but instead chose ice hockey, arguably the most expensive sport.

Watching him learn to skate – he’s only been on skates four times – has been an interesting experience, as he is learning a new motor skill. But what has been just as interesting is I have been skating with him. Skating for me is not a new activity, since I grew up with golf and ice hockey, my brother going to college for hockey and me for golf. And considering that I haven’t been on skates in probably 20 years, I can still get around okay. But my challenge has been that I can skate fairly well forwards, in a counter-clockwise direction, and backwards in a clockwise direction. So as my son is learning, I’m working on practicing and developing the skills that I don’t as well. So it’s not that I can skate in the opposite direction, but rather it is kind of new, and very awkward.

So how do I approach it? Well, just like I recommend golfers making changes in their golf swing. I start with small steps at a slow speed, and then build up the speed until I reach the point where I start to lose control, then to slow down. It’s the same as I learn guitar – I start slow until I develop the pattern, then work up to a speed where I start to lose control, then back down the speed. In learning new or improving all motor skills, the way humans learn is to do things slowly and small, then work up to the desired speed or results, just as when learning or changing something in your golf swing. If you can’t create a good impact position when you chip or pitch the ball (small swings), how can you possibly create a good impact position in a full swing at full speed? It’s the same thing with working on changing the sequence in your full swing – you should try taking a lot of practice swings, then start hitting making full swings, at say 50% speed – say a five iron at 75 yards. Then continue to “dial” up the speed, while incorporating the new change until you reach a speed that you lose control, then back it down and build it up. 

 All humans naturally approach learning or improving a motor skill in the same way. This is the way we are built, so it only makes sense to use the same approach with golf.

Every golf tournament I watch, it’s inevitable and only a matter of time, before one of the broadcasters, whoever is the “expert’ on the golf swing, will say something about a player’s missed shots or even the positive analysis of a player’s swing, to make me so mad I want to throw my drink at the TV. There are two problems here -one is that damn “Biz-Cam” that does video playback at 1 zillion frames per second. The other is commentators that don’t know much or anything about the golf swing.

The combination of these two things can cause disaster for the average golfer. Breaking down great player’s motions at that speed inevitably leads to over analysis, and to be honest, analysis sometimes I don’t even understand. But that’s easy to do – if you watch something that’s in SUPER slow-motion it’s simple to go “look at this” and “look at that”. Soon they’ll be talking about Tigers right pinky and how it moves in the golf swing – and you should be doing that. To me, the most infuriating thing is when a player misses a shot and they go right to the video playback, then someone offers the reason that the shot was missed. And comments by former tour players (with exception to maybe Nick Faldo) are worse than the swing analysts, because honestly, just because you can play doesn’t mean you know about the golf swing – it just means you can play.

At least the guys that are instructors are fairly knowledgeable, and in their defense, many times I think they need to fill in dead space and constantly offer explanations for why a guy with 130 mile an hour clubhead speed missed a fairway by 15 yards – maybe it was just the clubface was slightly open at impact? At that speed it doesn’t take much to cause the ball to go offline. But that would be boring after awhile, so there’s the need to look at how the hips are rotating and stopping, the shoulders are moving to slow or too open, the hands are not “releasing”, blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile anyone who knows about video playback also knows that if you put two swings up on the screen side by side, many times it’s very difficult to see the minute differences between the swing of a good shot and a bad one. But this doesn’t stop them – and maybe it can’t. If they want to keep their jobs, the swing commentators need to offer an analysis to the reasons why – even if those reasons are inaccurate. Now I’m suggesting they are not sincere in the analysis, I’m suggesting they’re pressured to say something and fill in the blanks.

Now if this sounded like a rant…well, it was. And it’s not because I think they know nothing and I know everything, but rather because golfers listen to them, because they are “experts” in the golf swing. They are like talking magazines, or Golf Channel shows, that offer tidbits of information, more times than not unrelated to the listener’s golf swings. This just continues this cycle of passing around bad information and confusion that circulates with golfers, and eventually they come and see me. So I guess I shouldn’t complain too much about the swing analysts, I think they might be helping to keep me in business.

Many times golfers come to me complaining that they “can’t put two nines together” – they either play a good front nine and poor back nine, or a bad front nine and a good back nine. Golf is a fickle game, and on any given day that just may happen, but if you start to see a pattern of this occurring, it’s probably something you might want to take a closer look at. My opinion for this is that golfer’s are too focused on their score – a problem for nearly all of us that play this game.

Golfers may start out poorly on the first few holes, get discouraged then play poorly for the rest of the front nine. Then they add up their score for the front nine, realizing that if they shoot the same on the back it will be a poor round.  They then begin to relax and “not really care” and end up playing much better on the back nine. The opposite occurs (good front, bad back) for a different reason. A player gets in the zone on the front and starts really playing well. While making the turn, he or his playing partners add up his score for the front nine and the player realizes how well he is doing.

Then comes the kiss of death – he thinks “if I shoot the same number on the back” I’ll have my best score, or I’ll break 90 or 80, etc. Putting more self-imposed pressure on himself (all pressure in golf is self-imposed); he plays poorly on the back, and “ruins” what could have been a great round.

The moral of the story is, don’t constantly add your score up in your mind. That’s why you always hear tour players, when interviewed about how they feel about tomorrow, with a chance to win the tournament, they respond “I’m going to focus on one shot at time” – they are focusing on staying in the present, not thinking about what happened in the past, or what could happen in the future. It’s an easy thing to say and intellectualize, but a challenge to incorporate into your mental game. But when you do, you’ll be surprised at how well you can play with that mindset.

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.

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.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work with several talented collegiate players and many junior golfers (ages 13 – 18). One of the biggest challenges I face with coaching these juniors are their parents. The parents always mean well, and many try to coach the juniors themselves. This should be left to golf professionals, which is a separate topic in and of itself. But the challenge I face is that the parent is giving their own lessons to the students that I’m coaching. I’ll sometimes overhear the parents coaching (many times in a firm tone of voice) ideas and suggestions different than mine.

Obviously this is nothing new, and there is no way I can stop it. But it can be VERY destructive for the student, because they are getting, more times than not, too much instruction, conflicting ideas, and much of what comes from that source is uneducated and ineffective – in other words it gets in the way of the student’s progress. What I try to do, provided the junior is comfortable with it, I invite the father, mother, uncle, or whoever is the person that spends the most “golf time” with the junior, to the lesson. What this allows me to do is make certain that the adult understands what I’m trying to accomplish with the student and he/she can actually act as a “second set of eyes” when the junior is practicing or playing. It also helps me emphasize, to the adult, the areas where the focus needs to be and to not introduce any other ideas.

If you’re a parent, trust in your coach to guide your child, and try to stay out of the way. I know you mean well and are just trying to help, but if you are giving advice that is different than the coach it’s not going to be helpful. Or if you don’t like the progress you and your child are seeing with the coach, you might want to consider finding another one.

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.