Brian Manzella
Administrator
My name is Brian Manzella.
I am 48 years old. I am a native of New Orleans and a current resident. I started playing golf at 10 at City Park. I started teaching golf in 1983 at the City Park Driving Range, first with the Junior Program, that I grew from a dozen kids to over 150, then with all golfers after I finished my college golf eligibility in 1984. I attended, played golf for, and graduated from The University of New Orleans. I played mostly #1-#3 man there, and was the captain my senior year.
I decided to teach golf for a living before I even started to. It seemed to me to be a profession I could "start in the middle," since I had seen many local teachers teach, attended some clinics of "name" teachers and read all the books and magazines I could get my hands on, had accepted "advice" of other golfers who had taken lessons their whole lives, and I was not very impressed with any of it.
My goal was to be the #1 teacher in the world, and my secondary goal was to be thought of as such.
I love to systematize things, but I hate to be tied to a system.
Early on in my teaching career—in 1986—I wrote a golf book long hand. It was called "Absolute Golf." It was a compilation of everything I had learned to that point. And although I had been playing for 16 years, I had only paid attention to golf technique theory for about 6 of those years.
Looking back on it, it was a pretty good attempt at a book on how to swing a club. But I was far from satisfied.
The why to my dissatisfaction is a very important distinction to anyone who seeks to understand why I do what I do the way I do it. Not only now, but then.
I think a golf teacher should be able to get a golfer to hit the ball more solidly and more accurately in a relatively short amount of time in a golf lesson. And most of the time, they should "look more like a golfer" doing it.
This is what I thought a golf lesson should be when I took my first one at 12 years old, and it hasn't changed in the 28 years I have taught the game.
I want results. I some it now. I want it in a way that I can keep improving with.
Period.
Whn I was a young teacher, I thought that if I taught well enough, the media would find me and promote me, and the "powers that be" in the golf business would bestow great jobs upon me.
I was very wrong.
After learning all I could from a book written by an engineering aide named Homer Kelley called The Golfing Machine that I had purchased in 1982, Ben Doyle in 1987.
Ben was Homer's first "Authorized Instructor," and had gained fame from his work with Bobby Clampett. Doyle was panned throughout the teaching business as too complex.
He wasn't.
He made his interpretation of the book quite clear to me the first five days I visited with him.
I came home a transformed golfer and teacher.
My new found knowledge, and its ability to help me help students, gave me the opportunity to teach several very talented golfers. Mike Finney, Tom Bartlett, David Toms, Greg Lesher, Jimmy Tritt, Mike Heinen, Craig Perks, and Fredrik Lindgren were the cream of the crop within driving distance of the the City Park Driving Range I had far from escaped from.
I helped some, and I hurt others. With some I had little effect. Looking back, I just didn't have the right information.
It would take a while to figure that out, and longer to find some of this "right" information.
In 1989 I left the City Park Driving Range for a miserable half-year attempt at the "Club Pro" business, where my teaching and research were interrupted twenty times a day with things I was not interested in. In 1993 I left for a different state.
I taught in Louisville for the 1993 golf season. I found out why I hadn't progressed enough on the business in New Orleans. There is big world of golf out there, and I need to travel to find that out. The "Prophet in your own land" thing is as real as any saying I ever heard.
I returned to New Orleans in late 1993 as the range I was at in Louisville closed. I was 32 years old. I had taught someone to the PGA Tour and worked with him "out there." I had left home to ply my trade in a new area. I had made a million mistakes in my life and almost as many in my teaching.
But I was a lot better teacher for all of it.
The more I learned, and the more technology had advanced, the more I realized that no one was even close to having the correct information.
By this time I had gotten to teach dozens of golfers that had been to the big name teachers, I had attended as many seminars on the subject as anyone my age, and I knew I thing for sure if I knew anything.
These "big name" teachers weren't any better than I was. And many of them weren't as good.
By 1997 I had had enough of the New Orleans teaching business, and moved back to Louisville.
I vowed to "take over" the city in a way I hadn't quite been able to do in New Orleans.
I did.
By 2003, I had taught everyone I wanted to teach in Louisville, had started to get pretty good media attention, started doing radio, had reconnected with David Toms for the "Million Dollar Lesson" and found a way around all the glass ceilings I had encountered within the PGA of America and the Major Magazines.
The internet.
It still amazes me to think of how far I have come since those days. The internet gave me a chance to COMPETE with my peers. And it gave me a chance to speak my mind and meet folks from all over the world.
Just think, I said I could out teach every other teacher on earth in 2002, and folks started coming to see me that year.
Maybe I am out-teaching the field, maybe I am not.
But I am booked solid everywhere I go, doing ten or more different "Tour Stops" and schools all over the country.
I now have English Turn as the headquarters of my Brian Manzella Golf Academy and have finally escaped "Da Park."
Folks come to see me that have worked with everyone you have ever herd of and many almost no one has. Many of these folks who come to see me are teachers, and the vast majority of those are very impressed and have become fans, friends, colleagues, and students.
I have spoken at nation level seminars, and put on teacher education programs.
Do I know it all?
Hardly.
Do I still think I am the best?
Depends on what "the best" means to someone.
I think I can give live lesson where the student will be able to MEASURABLY hit he ball better right in front me than anyone, doing it with as scientifically as sound information as anyone else I have seen teach.
I am often criticized by others for voicing my opinion of other teachers.
My answer to that is that I never do it unless I have a damn good reason for it, and have a lot of facts behind my words.
Every other teacher I have ever met criticizes other teachers, some just do it more behind the other teacher's backs.
Why would I be critical of my competitors at times?
I hear HORROR STORIES from my Manzella Instructors who have just fixed the swings and games students WRECKED by FAMOUS TEACHERS.
To my knowledge, when students work with me, and then go to work with another teacher, they are never quite near "wrecked."
It always amuses me to get 100 straight good reviews by real paying students, and have my detractors jump with delight when they hear of one less than stellar review, or find out someone is playing better with another teacher "on the clock."
Newsflash!
I don't bat 1000, and when you are talking about pretty good players, anything might work better than what they are doing now. Regardless of where that comes from.
I am going to be 50 years old late next year. That is the point in many lives where folks star taking stock of where they are and where they want to go.
I have proved I can teach. I have challenged the world to a teach off, and gotten no takers.
I can hardly find anyone who wants to debate the golf swing with me.
And I can't teach everyone.
So, starting as soon as I can make it happen, I am getting in the best shape of my life, and starting the next phase of my teaching career.
I am still going to teach. But somewhat less.
It is time for Brian 2.0
I am 48 years old. I am a native of New Orleans and a current resident. I started playing golf at 10 at City Park. I started teaching golf in 1983 at the City Park Driving Range, first with the Junior Program, that I grew from a dozen kids to over 150, then with all golfers after I finished my college golf eligibility in 1984. I attended, played golf for, and graduated from The University of New Orleans. I played mostly #1-#3 man there, and was the captain my senior year.
I decided to teach golf for a living before I even started to. It seemed to me to be a profession I could "start in the middle," since I had seen many local teachers teach, attended some clinics of "name" teachers and read all the books and magazines I could get my hands on, had accepted "advice" of other golfers who had taken lessons their whole lives, and I was not very impressed with any of it.
My goal was to be the #1 teacher in the world, and my secondary goal was to be thought of as such.
I love to systematize things, but I hate to be tied to a system.
Early on in my teaching career—in 1986—I wrote a golf book long hand. It was called "Absolute Golf." It was a compilation of everything I had learned to that point. And although I had been playing for 16 years, I had only paid attention to golf technique theory for about 6 of those years.
Looking back on it, it was a pretty good attempt at a book on how to swing a club. But I was far from satisfied.
The why to my dissatisfaction is a very important distinction to anyone who seeks to understand why I do what I do the way I do it. Not only now, but then.
I think a golf teacher should be able to get a golfer to hit the ball more solidly and more accurately in a relatively short amount of time in a golf lesson. And most of the time, they should "look more like a golfer" doing it.
This is what I thought a golf lesson should be when I took my first one at 12 years old, and it hasn't changed in the 28 years I have taught the game.
I want results. I some it now. I want it in a way that I can keep improving with.
Period.
Whn I was a young teacher, I thought that if I taught well enough, the media would find me and promote me, and the "powers that be" in the golf business would bestow great jobs upon me.
I was very wrong.
After learning all I could from a book written by an engineering aide named Homer Kelley called The Golfing Machine that I had purchased in 1982, Ben Doyle in 1987.
Ben was Homer's first "Authorized Instructor," and had gained fame from his work with Bobby Clampett. Doyle was panned throughout the teaching business as too complex.
He wasn't.
He made his interpretation of the book quite clear to me the first five days I visited with him.
I came home a transformed golfer and teacher.
My new found knowledge, and its ability to help me help students, gave me the opportunity to teach several very talented golfers. Mike Finney, Tom Bartlett, David Toms, Greg Lesher, Jimmy Tritt, Mike Heinen, Craig Perks, and Fredrik Lindgren were the cream of the crop within driving distance of the the City Park Driving Range I had far from escaped from.
I helped some, and I hurt others. With some I had little effect. Looking back, I just didn't have the right information.
It would take a while to figure that out, and longer to find some of this "right" information.
In 1989 I left the City Park Driving Range for a miserable half-year attempt at the "Club Pro" business, where my teaching and research were interrupted twenty times a day with things I was not interested in. In 1993 I left for a different state.
I taught in Louisville for the 1993 golf season. I found out why I hadn't progressed enough on the business in New Orleans. There is big world of golf out there, and I need to travel to find that out. The "Prophet in your own land" thing is as real as any saying I ever heard.
I returned to New Orleans in late 1993 as the range I was at in Louisville closed. I was 32 years old. I had taught someone to the PGA Tour and worked with him "out there." I had left home to ply my trade in a new area. I had made a million mistakes in my life and almost as many in my teaching.
But I was a lot better teacher for all of it.
The more I learned, and the more technology had advanced, the more I realized that no one was even close to having the correct information.
By this time I had gotten to teach dozens of golfers that had been to the big name teachers, I had attended as many seminars on the subject as anyone my age, and I knew I thing for sure if I knew anything.
These "big name" teachers weren't any better than I was. And many of them weren't as good.
By 1997 I had had enough of the New Orleans teaching business, and moved back to Louisville.
I vowed to "take over" the city in a way I hadn't quite been able to do in New Orleans.
I did.
By 2003, I had taught everyone I wanted to teach in Louisville, had started to get pretty good media attention, started doing radio, had reconnected with David Toms for the "Million Dollar Lesson" and found a way around all the glass ceilings I had encountered within the PGA of America and the Major Magazines.
The internet.
It still amazes me to think of how far I have come since those days. The internet gave me a chance to COMPETE with my peers. And it gave me a chance to speak my mind and meet folks from all over the world.
Just think, I said I could out teach every other teacher on earth in 2002, and folks started coming to see me that year.
Maybe I am out-teaching the field, maybe I am not.
But I am booked solid everywhere I go, doing ten or more different "Tour Stops" and schools all over the country.
I now have English Turn as the headquarters of my Brian Manzella Golf Academy and have finally escaped "Da Park."
Folks come to see me that have worked with everyone you have ever herd of and many almost no one has. Many of these folks who come to see me are teachers, and the vast majority of those are very impressed and have become fans, friends, colleagues, and students.
I have spoken at nation level seminars, and put on teacher education programs.
Do I know it all?
Hardly.
Do I still think I am the best?
Depends on what "the best" means to someone.
I think I can give live lesson where the student will be able to MEASURABLY hit he ball better right in front me than anyone, doing it with as scientifically as sound information as anyone else I have seen teach.
I am often criticized by others for voicing my opinion of other teachers.
My answer to that is that I never do it unless I have a damn good reason for it, and have a lot of facts behind my words.
Every other teacher I have ever met criticizes other teachers, some just do it more behind the other teacher's backs.
Why would I be critical of my competitors at times?
#1. They say something and do something else—I'll point it out.
#2. They say something is so, that isn't so—I'll point it out.
#3. They are beyond unimpressive in live lesson I witness with my own eyes—I'll let folks know about it if the golf media says otherwise.
#4. Their students come to me broken down, and trying to do things that are just plain wrong—I'll let everyone know if I have a damn good reason to let everyone know.
#5. They do me wrong and need to be exposed—I'll expose them if I think it will help the cause.
I don't come on this site and air all of everyone's dirty laundry. My critics have no idea how much we don't say.#2. They say something is so, that isn't so—I'll point it out.
#3. They are beyond unimpressive in live lesson I witness with my own eyes—I'll let folks know about it if the golf media says otherwise.
#4. Their students come to me broken down, and trying to do things that are just plain wrong—I'll let everyone know if I have a damn good reason to let everyone know.
#5. They do me wrong and need to be exposed—I'll expose them if I think it will help the cause.
I hear HORROR STORIES from my Manzella Instructors who have just fixed the swings and games students WRECKED by FAMOUS TEACHERS.
To my knowledge, when students work with me, and then go to work with another teacher, they are never quite near "wrecked."
It always amuses me to get 100 straight good reviews by real paying students, and have my detractors jump with delight when they hear of one less than stellar review, or find out someone is playing better with another teacher "on the clock."
Newsflash!
I don't bat 1000, and when you are talking about pretty good players, anything might work better than what they are doing now. Regardless of where that comes from.
I am going to be 50 years old late next year. That is the point in many lives where folks star taking stock of where they are and where they want to go.
I have proved I can teach. I have challenged the world to a teach off, and gotten no takers.
I can hardly find anyone who wants to debate the golf swing with me.
And I can't teach everyone.
So, starting as soon as I can make it happen, I am getting in the best shape of my life, and starting the next phase of my teaching career.
#1. Upgrading this site in every way and spending much more time on it.
#2. Providing much more content. More "pattern" videos, upgrades of all the current ones, and more live and taped free content. Writing my first book, and then doing many more.
#3. Spending less time on the road, but visiting more places every year.
#4. Working harder on my game.
#5. Teaching better everyday.
I'd still like to be acknowledged as the best at what I do, but what I do is not only teach, but provide content. And that is equally as important to me, because there is not enough time in the day to help all the golfers who need it, but through videos, and books, I can help many more folks enjoy the game.#2. Providing much more content. More "pattern" videos, upgrades of all the current ones, and more live and taped free content. Writing my first book, and then doing many more.
#3. Spending less time on the road, but visiting more places every year.
#4. Working harder on my game.
#5. Teaching better everyday.
I am still going to teach. But somewhat less.
It is time for Brian 2.0
