ANDYTROW
Club Champion
I am about to book some new lessons and would like to know your thoughts on whether I should stay with my current pro and go for consitency or use a different pro and get a different viewpoint.
Golf Lessons
- Thread starter ANDYTROW
- Start date
par_par_par_treble
Assistant Pro
It depends whether you feel you are getting what you are looking for with your current pro?
I had some lessons last year at the local driving range, but this year have gone to the pro at the club i have just joined. Both seem to be very good teachers, but i changed for convenience.
If you feel you are making good progress though, I would continue along the same line. A different teacher may have a different point of view and undo what you have just been taught???
I had some lessons last year at the local driving range, but this year have gone to the pro at the club i have just joined. Both seem to be very good teachers, but i changed for convenience.
If you feel you are making good progress though, I would continue along the same line. A different teacher may have a different point of view and undo what you have just been taught???
GB72
Money List Winner
I agree with the comments made and any decision should be based on whether you feel you are making progress. My wife took lessons with the pro at the local club but was not really developing and was, more importantly, not enjoying herself. She switched to the pro at another nearby club who I had used in the past and is now coming on and leaps and bounds and enjoying every minute. As in any area of life, there are different styles of teaching and what is good for one person is not good for another.
Junior
Tour Winner
Look for a pro with all the latest video technology so you can watch yourself swing a club. I find that it helps for you to see yourself what is going wrong.
The_Golfer
Club Champion
Andy, in my experience not all pros are good teachers; you need to find a pro who is a good teacher, someone who educates you and gives you a greater understanding of what you are doing. With every lesson you want to go away thinking that you have learnt a little more rather than just being told to do something and that something is difficult to incorporate anyway. We all learn when we understand so a good teacher is there to provide you with the knowledge and blueprint of how to do things and the understanding and putting things into practice is down to you.
Learning is about absorbing and retaining information and not just mimicking or doing something without a real concept of how and why.
For example, the golf swing is very similar in science to a playground swing.. When you are pushing someone on a swing you are not thrusting or aggressively forcing them forward, moreover you are adding forward energy to something that is happening anyway, i.e. once taken back they will swing forward. In addition when you are on a swing without someone pushing you, you can generate speed and momentum simply by shifting your weight as you go back and forward, that’s physics and that is the same physics that is incorporated in the golf swing, exactly the same.
I am not suggesting that with this miniscule information you can fully understand the swing etc, but as most golfers think swinging the club is akin to a baseball swing or it’s a feeling of pulling down; completely not true. Baseball swing is once force aggressively hitting another force, namely the ball which has been thrown; baseball is more akin to a head on collision with two stock cars. The golf swing is just like the play ground swing, you take the club back just as you would a playground swing and then you gently manipulate/increase the forward energy on the way down/forward as you would a playground swing. In addition remind yourself of the feeling you have when you push someone on a swing and you are just about to let go, you give it that little extra nudge/thrust, and this again is the same at impact area of the golf swing, thus ensuring increased energy or speed as we refer to it, through the hitting area.
Please accept my apologies if I go on or seem to be telling you how to suck eggs, that’s not my intention. My point is that most golfers fail in their quest to reach their true potential not because they do not invest enough time and energy in their beloved sport but simply because there are so many bad teachers out there very few of us are actually learning…..so to re-iterate you should always look to change teaching pro until you find someone who is a good teacher, best of luck….
Learning is about absorbing and retaining information and not just mimicking or doing something without a real concept of how and why.
For example, the golf swing is very similar in science to a playground swing.. When you are pushing someone on a swing you are not thrusting or aggressively forcing them forward, moreover you are adding forward energy to something that is happening anyway, i.e. once taken back they will swing forward. In addition when you are on a swing without someone pushing you, you can generate speed and momentum simply by shifting your weight as you go back and forward, that’s physics and that is the same physics that is incorporated in the golf swing, exactly the same.
I am not suggesting that with this miniscule information you can fully understand the swing etc, but as most golfers think swinging the club is akin to a baseball swing or it’s a feeling of pulling down; completely not true. Baseball swing is once force aggressively hitting another force, namely the ball which has been thrown; baseball is more akin to a head on collision with two stock cars. The golf swing is just like the play ground swing, you take the club back just as you would a playground swing and then you gently manipulate/increase the forward energy on the way down/forward as you would a playground swing. In addition remind yourself of the feeling you have when you push someone on a swing and you are just about to let go, you give it that little extra nudge/thrust, and this again is the same at impact area of the golf swing, thus ensuring increased energy or speed as we refer to it, through the hitting area.
Please accept my apologies if I go on or seem to be telling you how to suck eggs, that’s not my intention. My point is that most golfers fail in their quest to reach their true potential not because they do not invest enough time and energy in their beloved sport but simply because there are so many bad teachers out there very few of us are actually learning…..so to re-iterate you should always look to change teaching pro until you find someone who is a good teacher, best of luck….
Brookwood
Hacker
I changed Pros because the one I started with was young (nothing wrong with that)but he had a set routine. He used to arrive a couple of minutes late and was always looking to leave a couple of minutes early. And he kept saying excellent, good shot all the time.
The pro I have now has been at it for forty odd years never stops talking even when the hour is up. He devotes 100% attention to me all the time and while he repeats himself a lot it gradually started to stick in my brain. He never said excellent or good shot the nearest I ever got to a compliment is when he didn't say anything, in other words I didn't do anything wrong. It became my life's ambition to stop him criticising my swing.
If he didn't have another lesson I very often got an extra ten to twenty minutes principally because of his love of the sport and his determination to help me.
But in return I did a huge amount of practice between lessons. From the pros side there can't be anything more disheartening to learn their pupil hasn't had time to practice.
Above all else the pro must be able to communicate and if one idea doesn't stick then have the experience to suggest other things.
I once acted as a subject pupil for a pro taking one of his exams and I'm glad he wasn't going to be my pro. He was ever so nice and helpful but somehow I could just hear the formula being repeated.
There used to be three pros teaching up at my local driving range where I used to spend most evenings and all three of them said the same things. I could almost repeat what they were going to say verbatim.
Good luck; remember there are lots of pros out there and everybody reacts differently to different coaching.
The pro I have now has been at it for forty odd years never stops talking even when the hour is up. He devotes 100% attention to me all the time and while he repeats himself a lot it gradually started to stick in my brain. He never said excellent or good shot the nearest I ever got to a compliment is when he didn't say anything, in other words I didn't do anything wrong. It became my life's ambition to stop him criticising my swing.
If he didn't have another lesson I very often got an extra ten to twenty minutes principally because of his love of the sport and his determination to help me.
But in return I did a huge amount of practice between lessons. From the pros side there can't be anything more disheartening to learn their pupil hasn't had time to practice.
Above all else the pro must be able to communicate and if one idea doesn't stick then have the experience to suggest other things.
I once acted as a subject pupil for a pro taking one of his exams and I'm glad he wasn't going to be my pro. He was ever so nice and helpful but somehow I could just hear the formula being repeated.
There used to be three pros teaching up at my local driving range where I used to spend most evenings and all three of them said the same things. I could almost repeat what they were going to say verbatim.
Good luck; remember there are lots of pros out there and everybody reacts differently to different coaching.
ANDYTROW
Club Champion
I play at least 27 holes a week, is that classed as practice or do I need to go to the driving range.
The_Golfer
Club Champion
The driving range is there to practice, if you get it wrong you assess and adjust, you experiment. Playing is not practice, it's performance, good or bad. Footballers have to keep fit and practice their agility and moves off the pitch, on the pitch is where it matters, where it happens, and its the same as on the course...
ANDYTROW
Club Champion
Had my second free "lesson" last night in the pouring rain (now thats dedication), my thought being that if I turned up for a comp in the rain I wouldnt turn around and go home so the same applies for the lesson. Anyway all I did was hit about 100 balls with a 9 iron with the pro watching and what an improvement there is from when I joined in April and had my first lesson. I am no longer trying to send the ball to the moon and have slowed everything down and am now achieving greater accuracy and am probably hitting the ball 20yds further. Even my bad shots where the red mist comes down and I top it or hit the ground first go in the right direction with distance!!!
My last lesson will be chipping then I will pay for a course of proper lessons.
My last lesson will be chipping then I will pay for a course of proper lessons.
