Brian Manzella
Administrator
Hey, Golf Teachers of the world…
Do you have the Answer or just the Antidote?
There will always be competing ideas in the golf instruction business. It is no different from any other business that sells ideas or training of any kind. Whether it is the “head centered pivot” vs. the “spine centered pivot,” or the “cupped left wrist at the top” vs. “flat left wrist at the top,” or some other golf swing technique debate, determining which is really the best is very hard to quantify. Most good players use a variety of ideas from multiple sources to develop the swing they play with. How does anyone know where to turn for answers?
In my opinion, there is one very important fact to consider, when you are judging the effectiveness of golf instruction:
Is the golfer actually doing exactly—or very close to—what the teacher is trying to get them to do?
Case in point: If a teacher is teaching a student to have their head dead still in the middle of their feet from address to just past impact, and the student does not have anywhere near a still head, and that head is nowhere near the dead middle of the stance,
can that teacher really claim credit for that golfer’s success, or claim superiority of his preference for no head movement over a teacher who advocates using a different pivot center by using the example of a golfer who actually uses the pivot center they are claiming superiority over?
They do it every day.
When Jimmy Ballard was the hottest teacher in golf, he taught golfers to move every laterally on the backswing and use their right sides to generate most of the force in the downswing. Whether or not he had success with his students, from hacker to the professional level, is not up for debate. By any measure, he had success as a teacher.
But, in my opinion, Ballard’s success had much to do with the fact that a generation of golfers—the ones Ballard was enjoying his success with—had been taught nearly exactly the opposite of Ballard’s preferences for years.
Did the golfer’s who were previously taught to “stay over the ball” and “pull with their left sides,” play better because Ballard’s “behind the ball at the top” and “hit it with your whole right side” was superior information, or because in trying to do what Ballard was telling them was producing a swing that was neither exactly like Ballard was teaching nor what they had been previously taught?
Was Ballard’s teaching the Answer or just the Antidote?
Again, just my opinion—but, most of the time, it was the Antidote.
Once upon a time, I had golfers focus on hitting the inside back of the ball almost 100% of the time. This was until I found that a great percentage of these golfers were actually swinging too far “out to right field.”
Now, I make sure good players don’t do this in excess, but sometimes—I’m sure—I wind up having them swing too far to the left.
Funny thing, one of my high profile players is always swinging too far to the right after working with their other instructor, and I am always tempering this.
He does pretty well for himself, somewhere in the middle.
I will say this in my behalf, I know when I am trying to give the Answer or just the Antidote, even though the result is sometimes not what I had in mind.
But, more importantly for the golfer looking for help with their games:
Does the teacher actually have any golfers doing exactly what they teach. Or is it all just an Antidote?
If so, you’d better have the right disease for that particular cure.
Do you have the Answer or just the Antidote?
There will always be competing ideas in the golf instruction business. It is no different from any other business that sells ideas or training of any kind. Whether it is the “head centered pivot” vs. the “spine centered pivot,” or the “cupped left wrist at the top” vs. “flat left wrist at the top,” or some other golf swing technique debate, determining which is really the best is very hard to quantify. Most good players use a variety of ideas from multiple sources to develop the swing they play with. How does anyone know where to turn for answers?
In my opinion, there is one very important fact to consider, when you are judging the effectiveness of golf instruction:
Is the golfer actually doing exactly—or very close to—what the teacher is trying to get them to do?
Case in point: If a teacher is teaching a student to have their head dead still in the middle of their feet from address to just past impact, and the student does not have anywhere near a still head, and that head is nowhere near the dead middle of the stance,
can that teacher really claim credit for that golfer’s success, or claim superiority of his preference for no head movement over a teacher who advocates using a different pivot center by using the example of a golfer who actually uses the pivot center they are claiming superiority over?
They do it every day.
When Jimmy Ballard was the hottest teacher in golf, he taught golfers to move every laterally on the backswing and use their right sides to generate most of the force in the downswing. Whether or not he had success with his students, from hacker to the professional level, is not up for debate. By any measure, he had success as a teacher.
But, in my opinion, Ballard’s success had much to do with the fact that a generation of golfers—the ones Ballard was enjoying his success with—had been taught nearly exactly the opposite of Ballard’s preferences for years.
Did the golfer’s who were previously taught to “stay over the ball” and “pull with their left sides,” play better because Ballard’s “behind the ball at the top” and “hit it with your whole right side” was superior information, or because in trying to do what Ballard was telling them was producing a swing that was neither exactly like Ballard was teaching nor what they had been previously taught?
Was Ballard’s teaching the Answer or just the Antidote?
Again, just my opinion—but, most of the time, it was the Antidote.
Once upon a time, I had golfers focus on hitting the inside back of the ball almost 100% of the time. This was until I found that a great percentage of these golfers were actually swinging too far “out to right field.”
Now, I make sure good players don’t do this in excess, but sometimes—I’m sure—I wind up having them swing too far to the left.
Funny thing, one of my high profile players is always swinging too far to the right after working with their other instructor, and I am always tempering this.
He does pretty well for himself, somewhere in the middle.
I will say this in my behalf, I know when I am trying to give the Answer or just the Antidote, even though the result is sometimes not what I had in mind.
But, more importantly for the golfer looking for help with their games:
Does the teacher actually have any golfers doing exactly what they teach. Or is it all just an Antidote?
If so, you’d better have the right disease for that particular cure.
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