What makes a Great Teacher (and how to become one)

[Brian Manzella]

What Makes a Great Teacher?

By Brian Manzella

1. Can explain ANYTHING to ANYONE and can get them to do it
2. Can adapt to the student and the situation
3. Knows their subject cold and from multiple resources
4. Makes learning fun
5. Gets long-term results
6. Is teaching something that if done as prescribed will produce the desired results
7. Knows the difference between the antidote and the cure
8. Gets the student to believe beyond their current beliefs
9. Teaches the student to teach themselves
10. Constant motivational support

How to Become a Great Golf Teacher

by Brian Manzella

1. Read everything you have time for, plus a little more & Watch every video ever filmed.

2. Watch high-speed video of golf swings of all levels of golfers.

3. Try everything yourself at least on the range.

4. Try to become the best player you can, play in REAL tournaments, put your score "on the board."

5. Learn The Golfing Machine from an AI that you want to take lessons from for your own game.

6. Write articles and do videos, "If you can't make it 'child-like' simple, you really don't know it yourself."—Don Villavaso

7. Teach really young juniors (under 5) and plenty of 5-15 year olds.

8. Give a few thousand lessons and SELF-SCOUT everyday.

9. Go to every seminar possible and ask questions, watch as many teachers teach as possible.

10. Teach several dozen Adult-Education beginner classes.

11. Be able to give the competion's lesson BETTER than them, know why it might work and why it might not.

12. Go watch your students play in tournaments.

13. Give a few hundred playing lessons to all levels.

14. Find a talented golfer and get them to DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU TEACH, that is the only way to know if it REALLY WORKS or not.

15. Find a teacher that everyone else thinks is too complicated, or too cocky or too ANYTHING that has nothing to do with results. There is probably a REAL good reason why they are a percieved THREAT.

16. Buy every training aid (or borrow) and figure out if it works and if it doesn't. If it doesn't, figure out a use for it.

17. Challege yourself to use the NEXT 20 items you see to demonstrate or explain a golf swing concept.

18. Hang up your shingle and see if you can build a base of students with NO HELP FROM THE 'HOUSE.'

19. Buy the best video and computer equipment you can afford. Use it (but not nessasarily in lessons).

20. Never be satisfied with your work. Never ever stop improving. EVERYDAY.

 

[Brian Manzella]

there's more...

21. INVENT something new about golf instruction yourself.

ANYTHING.

 

[Biffer]

You are one. Believe it!

 

[birdie_man]

So you did all that eh....

...

Maybe your best post ever.

 

[rchang72]

Impressive. Mostly so, because it is very evident that you do EXACTLY what you've laid out. Just curious how long it took for you to work out the how part of being a great teacher?

 

[Spike]

#22

I had the opportunity to teach tennis for the great Aussie coach Harry Hoppman. Here is a little part of a conversation we had shortly before he passed away...

HH: So, Spike (a little grin at the nickname), what do YOU want?
S: I want to be a really good teacher, sir.
HH: Hmmm, I see. Spike, I want you to think about this...anyone can be a good teacher but everyone can be a good person.

So, perhaps #22 of how to be a GREAT teacher should be... learn to be a good person.

Great list Brian, thanks.

 

[joeparr]

So which is it?

Number 16,what is the best teaching aid beside you?

 

[Brian Manzella]

The PURE SWING!

By Rover Golf

http://rovergolf.com/pages/pureswing.html

 

[Brian Manzella]

Scouting, Self-Scouting, Study, Game Planning, EXECUTION!

Just curious how long it took for you to work out the how part of being a great teacher?

About one day.

Getting my ass kicked by inferior teachers got old early on in my career—it still does.

Why did that student go to him?

Why did that student not like their lesson?

Why did that student hit it perfect on the range and shoot 80?

Why does that teacher stay booked?

Why does that teacher get on the golf channel and in the rags?

Why did I not get to that student?

Why did I not play as well as I did in practice?

Why? Why? Why?

And the answer ALWAYS is:

Figure out WHY. Learn what you didn't know. Research it to find out if is is or isn't valid. Try it yourself. Teach it some. Re-evaluate. Take some video, Study it hard. Bounce it off other smart guys. Lay awake at night examining ALL the angles.

Come out on the other side BETTER than before.

Repeat.

EveryDAY for 25 years.

I figure I am about 60% of the way there.

 

[jimmydean]

Being a great teacher

brian,
agree with everything you have said. i have said this before, but would like to add that a great teacher must be able to explain things in many ways because people learn in several ways i.e. by sight, by feel, etc. i am sure that you already know this, but just wanted to add my 2 cents.
keep up the good work, brian, it will pay off.
regads,
jim

 

[shootin4par]

some other things that could help you to become a great teacher.
take speech classes. While in the class you get to see 30 or so people make speeches, you can evaluate what speaking styles work, very few, and what is wrong with the other 27 speaking styles you see. you create the dos and donts of speeches by watching others. You video yourself speaking and critique it like the others in the speech class, add and subrtact compenents when necessary. wahtever your nervous buzzword, like but or um, learn how to never say it in a speech.

take general education classes so you can learn about child psychology, teaching styles, learning styles, etc.. Adults are basically children, with a little bit more ingrained habits.

by taking some classes you can speed up the communication of ideas process.

 

[Spike]

some other things that could help you to become a great teacher.
take speech classes. While in the class you get to see 30 or so people make speeches, you can evaluate what speaking styles work, very few, and what is wrong with the other 27 speaking styles you see. you create the dos and donts of speeches by watching others. You video yourself speaking and critique it like the others in the speech class, add and subrtact compenents when necessary. wahtever your nervous buzzword, like but or um, learn how to never say it in a speech.

take general education classes so you can learn about child psychology, teaching styles, learning styles, etc.. Adults are basically children, with a little bit more ingrained habits.

by taking some classes you can speed up the communication of ideas process.

Good one!

 

[hue]

What makes a Great Teacher (and how to become one)

Brian, Do you see a great teacher being the same as a great coach? I see them as two separate things. What makes a great coach ? I put you and Ben in the great coach category rather than the teacher category

 

[c21heel]

A good teacher can tell you what you are doing wrong. A great teacher can articulate...in a way the student understands..how to do it right.

 

[bts]

The next level

A true teacher knows exactly what's in the student's mind and take it from there.

 

[Brian Manzella]

Brian, Do you see a great teacher being the same as a great coach? I see them as two separate things.

John,

I need YOUR definition of coach & teacher.

I have a feeling that it is different in the UK.

 

[tongzilla]

Brian, who would you like to learn from these days (except yourself)? Is there anyone more knowledgeable than you about improving golfers (except yourself)?

 

[Michael Finney]

Brian, who would you like to learn from these days (except yourself)? Is there anyone more knowledgeable than you about improving golfers (except yourself)?

i have never seen Brian, at any point in his life, rest on his laurels....he is ALWAYS looking for more and better information......

he reads the magazines hoping he sees something that makes sense...
he watches the golf channel praying to hear something worthwhile...

he travelled to all over the country wishing there was a better way....

right now he is teaching alongside michael jacobs in new york....he is there helping students from this website and i'm sure picking michael's brain....


Brian has always thought that the manufacturers of balls and clubs have the best information around.....whether they can interpret the info is another story...but i know that brian would love to have the opportunity to spend a couple days each at Ping, Taylor Made, Callaway, Titleist, and Cleveland.....

In the recent golf digest with the cover title "never slice again", our boy from the titleist performance institute (the place in the world that has the BEST chance of lowering the national handicap if they could get their act together) made this bold proclamation....

Question to Dave Phillips of The Titleist Performance Institute:
Why do golfers slice?

Answer: 44% of the golfers we tested came over the top.

Your best slice tip: Improve your core stability. This will help you maintain dynamic posture. Without it, your torso and arms will dominate and bring your clubhead across the line.

Dave Phillips has access to $50 million worth of golf measuring devices - and this is the best he can come up with? Wow.

Anyway, Brian would probably say that an R&D guy from a company with a big budget would be tops on his list to learn from.

 

[hue]

John,

I need YOUR definition of coach & teacher.

I have a feeling that it is different in the UK.

Brian , I believe there is a difference between a teacher and coach. A teacher would deal with the concepts of the golf swing in an academic way .A coach will guide and direct a pupil towards a stroke pattern with the emphasis on improvement rather than being too concerned educating on an academic level. A TGM teacher would explain the book and the concepts of the book and a TGM coach would be more interested in improving the pupil in front of him using his TGM understanding .

 

[Brian Manzella]

It is different.

A "teacher" is someone who can GET a student who doesn't KNOW something to KNOW IT
or can't DO something to DO IT.

A "coach" is someone who takes someone who already KNOWS something to be able to PROVE it in a "testing" environment, or gets someone who can already DO IT to DO IT under the gun.

Haney - Teacher
Rotella - Coach

Some "Golf Instructors" are just teachers, some are really just coaches. Some teach so-so, but coach like mad and the students win tournaments anyway.

Someone who TELLS you WHAT the Capital of every state is, and tells you to go read chapter 10 and study hard—and that's all—might have the title of "Teacher," but what they really are is a lecturer.

The person who can get you to UNDERSTAND why there ARE Capitals in every state and help you LEARN ALL OF THEM by telling stories that bring the states and their important cities to life so you really LEARN SOMETHING is—in my opinion—a REAL teacher.

A coach is the guy with a whistle and a chew of tobacco yellin':

"Damn Manzellee. You hit 'em with your purse."