Overteaching

[grahler]

I was watching a fella trying to teach golf today-I don't have much respect for the guy and he had on his hands two beginners-I think he managed to destroy any hope they had of utilizing athletic talent before they ever moved a club via overteaching.
I have seen this happen before since I used to teach tennis professionally.
I found the less I said the more my students learned.
So has anyone else had an experience with 'overteaching' or any comments?
I think there is definitely a dialogue that must develop between the player and coach and if both do not understand the results will never be good.
There is a very very important genius in teaching anything that includes simplicity-I would run immediately if I could not understand what was suggested for me to do.
I liked what Butch Harmon said about teaching Watney-Watney was hitting balls and kept looking back at the silent Butch and finally Butch says "Looks good-I will tell you if I see something"
Thats what I am talking about sometimes the teacher simply needs to know when to "allow" learning.

 

[SteveT]

The person isn't "over-teaching", they are "lecturing" excessively, making "teaching" ineffective.

If a teacher cannot make their point in less than say 30 words and within 30 seconds of demonstration, the student will fail to learn the actions. Teaching athletic movements is a building block process that takes time and repetition.

 

[spktho]

Absolutely. From my perspective, those teachers who know the least are the best at over-coaching.

A non-golf example. I have been around baseball as a player and a coach through the college level and am helping coach my son's 7-8 yr. old little league team. The other coach played in high school to his 10th grade year, but feels the need to micro-manage everything he can--and he really has no clue about it being right or not. But, he tells the kids and parents these incorrect things with such conviction that they think he really knows what he's talking about. I just had a little argument with him telling the players to only touch the bases with their right foot when rounding them because he says it is faster and that they have a better chance to injure an ankle if they touch the base with their left foot. My point is that say a player gets a hit that should be a double, but he is not going to hit first base with his right foot, so he shuffle steps slowing down so that he can touch the base with his right foot and then gets thrown out at second by a step. Even these 7-8 year olds are physically capable of rounding bases by touching the bases with either foot and not get injured. O.k. rant over.

 

[coach]

What was he trying to teach ?

 

[dschultz6072]

I get pissed off and have to move if I hear that crap next to me on the range. It's terrible. The people who have the most to say about things seem to always know nothing.

 

[Kevin Shields]

I was giving a lesson the other day and we overhead some guy teaching his friend and while he was over the ball my student stepped away and said "that guy just told him to do 4 things on the next swing. He has no chance." Always good to get a reminder every now and then to not over teach.

 

[ZAP]

That's the beauty of what this crew does. They only give the student as much medicine as they need. When I took a friend to work with Kevin he was sure they were going to change his grip first thing. What happened was they worked on his path and clubface which made it uncomfortable for him to grip it like he did so he changed it on his own to a more orthodox one. And they never had to fumble with making him try to make contact with an uncomfortable grip. Props to Kevin and Lindsey for that one.

 

[Erik_K]

Last year at the range, I was hitting balls next to a high school player. He had a rather different looking move in that his head would dip emphatically at impact. BUT he had no issue hitting the ball whatsoever.

The gentlemen next to him noticed how he was swinging and then proceeded to go on and on about various tips, why his head bobs up and down, does he watch the Golf Channel, and so on. For God's sake - did you watch the damn ball in the air, or are just concerned that he doesn't look like Els through the ball?

I fought every inclination to tell this kid to ignore what the other guy was telling him.

Admittedly I thought I new what I was talking about with respect to the swing. Since I had access to the Golf channel, a few Golf Digest magazines, and the very fact that I played 2-3 times per month made me an expert.

I now realize that on a scale of 1-10, I'd rate myself at a 1.5 in terms of golf knowledge and/or teaching ability (it's far, far lower on the actual playing scale as well).

Erik

 

[mgranato]

My bracket is littered with examples of this... and under performing.