Gary Battistoni. Clarence, NY.
He is a teacher in my area that is considered by many to be one of the best. He has taught many of the top local players. I have never taken a lesson from him.
I was searching the web looking for the phone number for his golfing center when I came across the article below. It appears as though he is somewhat of a TGM guy... He is not an authorized instructor, but from the sounds of it, TGM is his foundation.
I was looking to set up some lessons with him for my girlfriend as she lives right near his golfing center. After reading this article, I may have to go see him myself.
So anyone know anything about this guy? The only thing I know is that he has turned out a rather impressive list of players over the past 10-15 years. I know that doesn't mean he is a great teacher. It could just be that he had great players go and see him. That is what I always thought. After reading this article, I am not so sure the teacher didn't have a lot to do with the success of his students.
Artilce:
http://www.isledegrande.com/keithzahner.htm
Here is an excerpt:
Battistoni was, himself, a golf prodigy. He took lessons from Ed Pfister and Dean Jewart at East Aurora Country Club, went to the state championships four times out of East Aurora High School and earned a scholarship to Bowling Green, where he was all-conference and captained the team his senior season.
He spent three years after college bouncing around tours in South Africa, Europe and South America, hauling his clubs, luggage and a swing unreliable in the heat of competition.
"The problem was I was a very good golfer myself, but to a certain degree I really didn't even know how I swung," Battistoni said. "I played the Porter Cup six times and I shot a lot of rounds in the 60s, but I also shot some rounds in the 80s, and I was never really able to put four rounds together.
"The ability to rationalize that my technique was going to work, I'd just get to a certain point and then I couldn't do that anymore."
He left competitive golf and completed the requirements for his Class A teaching license. He gave lessons, although he doubted his students were getting much out of it. How could they? He didn't have much to say.
"I didn't know what I was doing," Battistoni said. "I'd go to the lesson tee with the members and I'd hit balls for them. I say, "Here, watch what I'm doing. You got to bring the club from the inside, swing out to the right.' You get a guy to hit a draw and he's happy. And I played a lot with the members and they'd see me shoot 68 and they'd think, "Well, this guy must know what he's doing.' I guess my ability to play gave me the credibility I needed to skid my way through it. But I wasn't going to develop any Billy Haneses that way.
"So I figured if I was going to start teaching I had to get some information on how the swing is governed. Certainly it had something to do with physics and the laws of motion, so I decided to go to Tom Tomasello, who taught Jodie Mudd in the late '70s and early '80s, and he learned from Homer Kelley, who was the gentleman who wrote "The Golfing Machine.'
"Now if the average person picks that up, it's impossible. It's all about directional force vectors and impact physics and the geometry of an object that moves on an arc. But what he did is, he gave me a starting point where it was based on the math of it. I understood how to apply the principles of engineering to how a person was to move. I developed an understanding for how centrifugal force worked in a golf swing. The center of the body only has to move 5 miles an hour to make the clubhead go 100."
He is a teacher in my area that is considered by many to be one of the best. He has taught many of the top local players. I have never taken a lesson from him.
I was searching the web looking for the phone number for his golfing center when I came across the article below. It appears as though he is somewhat of a TGM guy... He is not an authorized instructor, but from the sounds of it, TGM is his foundation.
I was looking to set up some lessons with him for my girlfriend as she lives right near his golfing center. After reading this article, I may have to go see him myself.
So anyone know anything about this guy? The only thing I know is that he has turned out a rather impressive list of players over the past 10-15 years. I know that doesn't mean he is a great teacher. It could just be that he had great players go and see him. That is what I always thought. After reading this article, I am not so sure the teacher didn't have a lot to do with the success of his students.
Artilce:
http://www.isledegrande.com/keithzahner.htm
Here is an excerpt:
Battistoni was, himself, a golf prodigy. He took lessons from Ed Pfister and Dean Jewart at East Aurora Country Club, went to the state championships four times out of East Aurora High School and earned a scholarship to Bowling Green, where he was all-conference and captained the team his senior season.
He spent three years after college bouncing around tours in South Africa, Europe and South America, hauling his clubs, luggage and a swing unreliable in the heat of competition.
"The problem was I was a very good golfer myself, but to a certain degree I really didn't even know how I swung," Battistoni said. "I played the Porter Cup six times and I shot a lot of rounds in the 60s, but I also shot some rounds in the 80s, and I was never really able to put four rounds together.
"The ability to rationalize that my technique was going to work, I'd just get to a certain point and then I couldn't do that anymore."
He left competitive golf and completed the requirements for his Class A teaching license. He gave lessons, although he doubted his students were getting much out of it. How could they? He didn't have much to say.
"I didn't know what I was doing," Battistoni said. "I'd go to the lesson tee with the members and I'd hit balls for them. I say, "Here, watch what I'm doing. You got to bring the club from the inside, swing out to the right.' You get a guy to hit a draw and he's happy. And I played a lot with the members and they'd see me shoot 68 and they'd think, "Well, this guy must know what he's doing.' I guess my ability to play gave me the credibility I needed to skid my way through it. But I wasn't going to develop any Billy Haneses that way.
"So I figured if I was going to start teaching I had to get some information on how the swing is governed. Certainly it had something to do with physics and the laws of motion, so I decided to go to Tom Tomasello, who taught Jodie Mudd in the late '70s and early '80s, and he learned from Homer Kelley, who was the gentleman who wrote "The Golfing Machine.'
"Now if the average person picks that up, it's impossible. It's all about directional force vectors and impact physics and the geometry of an object that moves on an arc. But what he did is, he gave me a starting point where it was based on the math of it. I understood how to apply the principles of engineering to how a person was to move. I developed an understanding for how centrifugal force worked in a golf swing. The center of the body only has to move 5 miles an hour to make the clubhead go 100."