#1 Fault in Golf Instruction

[Deadly_Scope]

Instruction is important as alot of people doom themselves before the ball is even struck for various reasons. A good number of people set-up for failure. Another number just have the wrong attitude for various reasons. Others just do the same mistake over and over again and never seem to learn.

This can also include touring professionals as well as amateurs.

 

[Guitar Hero]

walmart instructors

Most of the walmart instructors that teach on the ranges just watching the golfer hit balls with no idea what to do, waiting for the lesson to end.

This is a big problem and is why many golfers do not take lessons.

 

[Bronco Billy]

Hey John... Did You See My Post? It's a Few Back and It's Bold Dark Red....

A more vertical path puts less stress on my back.

.

 

[Richie3Jack]

I'm pretty much along the lines of Brian. I think the #1 fault in today's instruction is instructors really not knowing what a good swing is and thus conveying what they think a good swing is to other golfers. Too much talk about swing plane and other things that while they have their importance, they are nowhere near as important as the positions at impact and a proper pivot which I believe enables the golfer to get at the proper positions at impact and with an improper pivot, makes it nearly impossible for a golfer to consistently get at the correct positions at impact.

I would call the other stuff (i.e. swing plane, grip, address) have their importance, in comparison to impact positions and pivot, they are merely window dressing.




3JACK

 

[Guitar Hero]

.

The vertical path I use is just above the right shoulder on the back swing.

 

[Biffer]

My pick for #1 Fault would be that I see very few (if any) players with their hands and arms setup correctly at address position. Especially after they have had lessons from a professional instructor.

 

[cmartingolf]

Good points

I think the biggest fault in golf instruction (as a helpless student) is that many of the instructors make you feel you're simply another hour lesson. ...... Nothing irritates me more than starting 5-10 minutes late, spending 15 minutes to hit balls and refresh the instructor on what they went over last time, 20 minutes to change something, 15 more minutes of focus on the change, and then 10 minutes review and book your next lesson and then you're left there to beat balls on your own as the instructor is off to his next lesson. It's all about the instructor and his/her time not the student. It's not really the instructors, it's society in of it self. Customer service or satisfaction are a mythical beast that went extinct sometime ago. Find me one good customer focused instructor and I'll find you 30 who see students as bodies - Houston is littered with them...

As for the above mentioned simulators and cameras, I see them as a fancy way for the instructor to stay inside out of the elements and closer to the next lesson.

Perhaps $200 an hour for golf instruction is kind of like a tailored $1700 Armani suit, you get what you pay for? It's just ashamed that it takes so long to understand that most of the department store instructors are wasting your money and making you look sloppy....

GREAT points.

This has nothing to do with the knowledge piece of instruction but more the service and readiness:

Back in the day one of my mentors had a carbon paper document with various points; Grip, Stance, Posture, Pivot, etc... This was a very simple document and he wrote the notes of the lesson on it, during the lesson. He gave the student a copy and kept a copy. He'd review it prior to the next lesson. He was PREPARED for the lesson and would recap the previous lesson at the beginning of the new lesson. A lot of times students would ask for old copies if they lost theirs.

It made sense and I did the same thing. It is huge. I have files of lesson on carbon paper. My stick figures got pretty good too!

When I got more techy, providing DVD's of the lesson, I got away from the carbon paper thinking it was overkill. Big mistake. I was that guy you mentioned. I found myself trying to recollect what we had worked on during the previous lesson which might have been last season! Anyway, carbon paper is back in the fray. I find more people refer to the notes than review the DVD's.

Being prepared give me great satisfaction and I'm pretty sure it gives the student a confidence in me too.

 

[tongzilla]

Teaching positions instead of thinking about what the club is doing and the ball flight.

 

[Brian Manzella]

Teaching positions instead of thinking about what the club is doing and the ball flight.

Great, great Post, Leo!!

 

[Guitar Hero]

More Sweet Spot Balance Info

Me too please.

I have studied the sweet spot balance and the impact it has on the golf swing with 3-D machines, CAD and with high speed video.

With this information I have found two easy ways to swing the sweet spot in balance and all the great players are doing it. The first way is how Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones did it.

If you read the forward by Hogan in his five lessons (hard back book) He mentions about opening the club face as much as possible on the back swing and rotating it like a baseball bat. This is how Hogan explained sweet spot balance but it was not enough information and golfers got it wrong.

Most golfers that tried what Hogan wrote in the forward rotated the club face open on the back swing with the forearms and this is incorrect and will put the sweet spot out of balance.

Hogan did it correctly and the results made him one of the greatest. The Great Bobby Jones did it as well.

Today’s Instructors are looking at shaft planes with 2-D video and line programs. The sweet spot swinging in balance will look off plane in some parts of the swing when looking at shaft planes.

Watch this video of Moe Norman and you will see what I am talking about. YouTube - Why Moe Norman's swing is simpler and more efficient. www.swinglikemoe.com

The second way is what Moe Norman did.

Swinging the Sweet Spot in Balance will not make you look like Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones or Moe Norman. It will have your Sweet Spot swinging in balance like them.

I also have golfers try both ways and see which one works best with their swing.

 

[ggsjpc]

ok. so now we know a few guys that had IT, but we still don't know what IT is. Guitar Hero, any chance you could define what sweet spot balance is for us please?

 

[cmartingolf]

ok. so now we know a few guys that had IT, but we still don't know what IT is. Guitar Hero, any chance you could define what sweet spot balance is for us please?

Yeah, Come on John, "Stop the teasin!" (Circa, Andrew Dice Clay - 1989)

 

[James Marshall (Hogan1953)]

I think the biggest fault in golf instruction (as a helpless student) is that many of the instructors make you feel you're simply another hour lesson. Quality of lessons suffers because of the quantity of lessons the instructor wants/tries to book. Nothing irritates me more than starting 5-10 minutes late, spending 15 minutes to hit balls and refresh the instructor on what they went over last time, 20 minutes to change something, 15 more minutes of focus on the change, and then 10 minutes review and book your next lesson and then you're left there to beat balls on your own as the instructor is off to his next lesson. It's all about the instructor and his/her time not the student. It's not really the instructors, it's society in of it self. Customer service or satisfaction are a mythical beast that went extinct sometime ago. Find me one good customer focused instructor and I'll find you 30 who see students as bodies - Houston is littered with them...

As for the above mentioned simulators and cameras, I see them as a fancy way for the instructor to stay inside out of the elements and closer to the next lesson.

Perhaps $200 an hour for golf instruction is kind of like a tailored $1700 Armani suit, you get what you pay for? It's just ashamed that it takes so long to understand that most of the department store instructors are wasting your money and making you look sloppy....

From a committed teacher's perspective you could say the same about students who turn up late to class, having done no practice between lessons, and whose expectations of radical improvement in their golf game are way too high. As Brian quoted the other day, it takes 10, 000 hours to master a field, research from K.Anders Ericsson and popularised recently in Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, "Outliers, The Story of Success", an hour or so of instruction, if it's good, is a start but only that.

 

[d0n]

From a committed teacher's perspective you could say the same about students who turn up late to class, having done no practice between lessons, and whose expectations of radical improvement in their golf game are way too high. As Brian quoted the other day, it takes 10, 000 hours to master a field, research from K.Anders Ericsson and popularised recently in Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, "Outliers, The Story of Success", an hour or so of instruction, if it's good, is a start but only that.

No argument here. If golf is rich in tradition shouldn't it's teachers be competent ambassadors instead of mere tax collectors? I'm sure for every tax collector there is at least one ambassador.

There seem to be a lot of good instructors in this forum. Unfortunately this forum isn't comprised of even 99.99% of all the golf instructors out there.

 

[Steve Khatib]

The political reality is that people in a 'mass market' will respond to the 3 A'S:

Two of these are capital A's and the other one is a lower case a

-A ffability

-A vailibilty

-a bility

Sad but a true fact. So the teacher must convince the student's beyond the first two capital A's as they will wear thin on student's eventually depending on how savy they are to work out the teacher is a capital double capital A fudger. The real teachers are the lower case a's with the capital A's complimenting their ability.

 

[tongzilla]

The political reality is that people in a 'mass market' will respond to the 3 A'S:

Two of these are capital A's and the other one is a lower case a

-A ffability

-A vailibilty

-a bility

Sad but a true fact. So the teacher must convince the student's beyond the first two capital A's as they will wear thin on student's eventually depending on how savy they are to work out the teacher is a capital double capital A fudger. The real teachers are the lower case a's with the capital A's complimenting their ability.

what about Affordability?

 

[jenhaoyen]

what about Affordability?

good one.

 

[matt kluck]

Affordability and availability usually go hand-in -hand.

 

[birdie_man]

Some of my friends are all into Dice.........they just went to see him......they sat in the front row and each wore a letter. (D-I-C-E) Apparently he made fun of them throughout the show.

 

[cmartingolf]

From a committed teacher's perspective you could say the same about students who turn up late to class, having done no practice between lessons, and whose expectations of radical improvement in their golf game are way too high. As Brian quoted the other day, it takes 10, 000 hours to master a field, research from K.Anders Ericsson and popularised recently in Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, "Outliers, The Story of Success", an hour or so of instruction, if it's good, is a start but only that.

Great point too.

I had a funny experience about 12 years ago in Palm Desert. This lady showed up late, had zero talent, had the worst and weakest left had you have EVER seen (betcha). After watching a few 30 yard grounders, I started in on adjusting her left hand.

She quickly said, "No, all of you teachers want to do that. My nails are more important than my golf game." She had long fake nails and no, she was not hot.

I was dumbfounded and speechless and could hardly manage to stand there for the rest of the 30 minute session.

Of course. She wanted more distance off the tee.