Lessons? I thought you could already play
That is an actual comment made to an LPGA tour player when she arrived at her home club from another member, often we also see criticism of players who have tried to change or enhance their game and performance with the coaching getting the blame as they struggle and they should have stayed with what they were doing. So what is the actual point of lessons or coaching and how can you measure its worth
Human Evolution v The Golfer
This is a bit deep but stay with me on this. As human beings we perform at our best when we are challenged and don’t fear getting something wrong or making a mistake. Think of a child learning to walk or talk they fall over, blabber but keep going and get better and better so then try and run or string words into sentences and so on. The more they are challenged the more they continue to develop and improve as appose to golfers who may accept the state of their game and are afraid to change or understand what they do so they can continue to improve or develop.
The Why?
So if we think of our child the why to walking they want to get something or somewhere without needing someone else so they are driven by need. For a tour player, with the plethora of data about scoring and performance and what its takes to hit their ambitions, they can be distracted from the true need and are often dragged into a conversation that creates too much comparison to others and led down a path that ultimately they struggle to learn from. The why is all about what you truly consider important in you playing the game and its amazing when you sit down with a PGA pro and have the conversation what comes out. Once you know the real why it’s a lot easier to go to the crux of how its not happening and what needs to change or even remain the same to get the why to the forefront of any golfers thoughts and improve their experience. For some golfers a lesson is about being able to understand what they’re doing and what happens when they feel a certain thing rather than actually changing anything, for the next pupil it could be down to how can I make sure I’m always the longest off the tee in my group so then how can we improve distance though either ball speed, club speed or improvements in strike through changes in movement or setup. The clubs being used can also have an impact on performance, for more information on custom fitting, click here
The How makes the Plan
This is where golf lessons are so varied and why 2 are never the same as when you measure where you are against where you’d like to be everyone’s pathway is different and resembles a bowl of spaghetti. We’ve all got different timetables, lifestyles, physical limitations let alone beliefs about the game and swing. This is where a plan built with a PGA pro will give you quality rather than quantity as you are measuring the changes against your self and your target. The 10,000 hour rule often quoted to master skill is not relevant to golf due to the variety and complexity faced on a regular basis so little and often works best. As the plan works to the why this doesn’t mean lesson’s are all about the range either, often even something like driving it longer might be spending time on the course improving how you take on a shot that needs to go further and dealing with the environment and applying skill rather than changing it
The Plan changes the Why
As you get closer to and surpass each small goal and the eventual ‘why’ goal you are learning from the journey, learning from mistakes and ultimately what does and doesn’t work. This gets you into a learning state like being a child again where you learn a skill to fulfill the why which then brings up a new why. This is why every top player has coaching, they understand that everything keeps changing and that once they have mastered a skill of sorts then a new why arrives
This is what coaching with a PGA pro in the modern world is about, identifying the need, understanding the why and then acting as guide to the journey that’s as personal as a fingerprint. If you are interested in improving your game, get in touch on 0117 956 7007
