If you are obviously naturally crap, can lessons really help?

Gibbo me old mate, I am crap at golf and don't have any talent what so ever, I found my biggest improvement came from a day with JO, the problem I have is that he is to far away from me to keep meeting up and also I need someone to keep showing me how to do it.

I still try and do what JO showed me and have looked at the Bookmark from the day , but I know I am doing things wrong , it may be that if I want to try and get better I will have to have a proper plan and look for lessons unless JO wants to move to Hampshire. What I would add is that since that day I am enjoying golf a lot more .

Good luck in your quest mate and I hope it all works out.
 
Here's my 2 cents so take what you need.... From reading your posts you have a real hunger for the game just like us all on here..... Some get immersed in every detail of it ME...Others use it to socialize, more use it just to get away from it all and have a break...... I got to a 14 handicap without lessons and not really knowing what i was at... Like Murg i just went to the range and hit ball after ball and figured out what helped and what didnt.... I then decided to get 8 lessons.....

I dropped from 14 to 9 in a little over 7 months...... But i think what helped this was focussing on my short game.... I was still missing left and right after the lessons but not as far...It did tighten me up....
15 months on and i still cant swing the way my Pro wanted me to but i know my swing a lot better than i did at the start....


No idea what your handicap is but if you can knock a hybrid 190 yards stiff then you Can hit the ball.... Ill bet that if you give a total beginner ( with the exception to the rule ) a hybrid to hit they wont knock it 190 yards....

So you have a hurdle..... First off you need to be truthful to yourself... Do you want to improve?

Secondly fix one thing at a time... Dont try and put a half dozen fixes into place at once..... Pro's are kind of weird... I know the lad i went to was constantly pushing me... Everything he gave me to do i did and he would add a little more..... It came to the point where i was having a meeting with myself over every shot.... Not good......

One particular position he wanted me to get into i couldnt.... I spent 15 months trying to do this....3 times a week i was at the range with one of my alignment canes vertically stuck in the ground 3 feet outside my left leg.... I was supposed to swing through the ball and miss that cane....... I lost count of the amount of times i made bits of it or it took off down the range...... After a bit of searching on the Net i realized that my swing falls into a particular type..... From reading about it i know what i should and shouldnt be doing so im now not worried about trying to get into this position my Pro wanted me to..... Even though i still try at times..... Iv always trusted what he is trying to get me to do.... You have to believe that he is getting you to do things for a reason.

If James has spent time with you then you cant have that bad a swing.... He's passionate about the game also and he's been there and bought the T-Shirt....

The odd thing is that you dont need to hit balls to get a lot of things right.... There can be huge rewards in just doing some mirror work at home while watching the TV....

Also watch your head as you swing.... If it moves everything has to go with it to stay in balance..... You then have a timing issue.... So if you can keep your head relatively still or even minimize its movement it might help you a lot....Its not a Magic fix but it should help...... Do the little things competantly
 
I've spent the last 3 years at the same level. I kid myself that I've practices etc and put time in. I have but doing the wrong things over and over isn't practice, just ingraining bad habits. This winter I've invested in lessons 3 so far with plenty of range time doing what I've been told. No more 100 buckets blasted away down the range. Small buckets taken over the same time but concentrating on what I should be doing. It's slowly becoming more natural and my scores and play are improving. My destructive hook has practically gone. My plan is to keep the lessons going on the full and as soon as the lighter nights and better weather arrive start the short game and putting. It's in there somewhere I have no aspirations of single figures just a decent level to enjoy the game more. On saying that my pro has been very positive and claims I have the basics for low teens to high singles but I guess they all say that!
 
"Hard work will always overcome natural talent when natural talent does not work hard enough"

basically the single phrase that keeps me interested in this game
 
Gibbo, golf is a mechanical game by and large, if you take a few lessons and do what you're told you WILL play better. No, it's unlikely you'll achieve single digit handicap but you'll enjoy the game and knock it around ok
 
Firstly you aren't naturally crap, you're actually surprisingly good.

Secondly, the people who really get places in this game are the ones with the right attitude, those willing to learn (sometimes even taking a backwards step). The stubborn ones (those unwilling to accept change or that they might be doing something wrong) will also get better... but at a far slower rate - then they'll start preaching that you should just "step up and hit it".

I did have you pencilled in as someone who was willing to learn and who would rapidly improve once they 'grasped' how to do it.

Will lessons help? If you can barely hit the ball then YES, but you'll still be told to do things according to the 'model swing' that the pro wants you to follow.... and that means if you've got a pro who wants you to have (for example) a neutral grip - then that's what you're gonna have to have!! ...if you can't accept that then don't have lessons.

Happy to look at a vid of your 'current' swing any time you want to mate :thup:
 
too many people worry about hitting certain positions in the backswing. The ultimate aim of a perfect weight shift causes people many problems. swaying way off the ball and then wondering why they are hitting fats, thins, tops and worse.
 
JustOne said:
Firstly you aren't naturally crap, you're actually surprisingly good.

Secondly, the people who really get places in this game are the ones with the right attitude, those willing to learn (sometimes even taking a backwards step). The stubborn ones (those unwilling to accept change or that they might be doing something wrong) will also get better... but at a far slower rate - then they'll start preaching that you should just "step up and hit it".

I did have you pencilled in as someone who was willing to learn and who would rapidly improve once they 'grasped' how to do it.

Will lessons help? If you can barely hit the ball then YES, but you'll still be told to do things according to the 'model swing' that the pro wants you to follow.... and that means if you've got a pro who wants you to have (for example) a neutral grip - then that's what you're gonna have to have!! ...if you can't accept that then don't have lessons.

Happy to look at a vid of your 'current' swing any time you want to mate :thup:
Click to expand...

I agree with most of this!

As an 18-capper, you ain't crap! You are about average! Why that is could be all sorts of reasons and it may be that you have 'peaked' - but I doubt it.

The joy of the handicap system is that you can always be competitive and, like sex, you don't actually have to be good at it to enjoy it! :whistle:
 
Foxholer said:
The joy of the handicap system is that you can always be competitive and, like sex, you don't actually have to be good at it to enjoy it! :whistle:
Click to expand...

I'd say that you can be really poor at it but still enjoy the end result, it's only your partners who's not going to get any fun :whoo:

Oh well, you can't please everyone !
 
Athletic ability is different for all of us, the important thing for everyone on here is to enjoy playing, none of us make our living hitting a golf ball so the point is to enjoy your game, if you genuinely do not enjoy the game because of your perceived lack of ability find a different pastime. OR come to terms with what you can realistically achieve if you work at it, if that's a 24 h/c what's the problem, go out and enjoy playing off 24, don't day dream about a goal you will never reach it will only frustrate you. And by the way all amateurs hit bad shots, it's the amount of bad shots that vary from player to player.
 
Ive tried the odd lesson from time to time... enough to know I cant/wont ever do the model grip or swing

Re grip/swing, I know what I can do to achieve an acceptable (for me) shot result and as a high handicap player I also know that all I need is consistency of the acceptable result in order to knock half a dozen shots of my handicap

The type of teaching pro that will work with what I have is rarer to find than those that know/teach the model

So for me its practice/trial & error over lessons

I do believe that I was at fault on the range post lessons. Basically if I've only remembered 8 of the 10 minor things I was supposed to do with my stance/grip/swing then the end result wont even match what I could do pre lesson. The model is right but only if you can do 10/10 on the checklist (which is really more like 40/40 things)
 
Slab said:
Ive tried the odd lesson from time to time... enough to know I cant/wont ever do the model grip or swing

Re grip/swing, I know what I can do to achieve an acceptable (for me) shot result and as a high handicap player I also know that all I need is consistency of the acceptable result in order to knock half a dozen shots of my handicap

The type of teaching pro that will work with what I have is rarer to find than those that know/teach the model

So for me its practice/trial & error over lessons
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I agree.gif
 
I had a friend at school, very academic, didn't do sports at all, quite uncoordinated. He took up golf, I'm not sure what attracted him to it. He took lessons and practiced hard and has played now for over 40 years, mostly off single figures. He's now 66 years old and still playing off 5. I can outdrive him by probably 40 yards but he's learned to hit it straight and has a good short game. He's done this with absolutely no natural sporting ability, so there's hope for us all. Learn good technique, groove it with practice & use your head on the course. Perhaps I should take some of my own advice.
 
A few years ago I played quite a few times with a new lady member - new golfer just out of the club academy - I was a mentor (don't laugh please). She had great sporting ability but would continually get heavy and down on herself as she felt that once she had got a regulation par (fairway off tee, second on green, two putts) on a hole then she had 'learned' how to play the hole and should therefore be able to do it every time. As it wasn't working out like that she deemed herself a failure - to be completely crap - why did she bother as she clearly hadn't 'got' it. It took more than one talking to to explain how the game actually works...:)
 
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G1BB0 said:
Played Saturday and ok it was my 1st hit of a ball since ther beginning of december but I realised I am crap! Driver was shocking and irons were fat city.
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I wouldn't read too much into it, you haven't played in 6 or 7 weeks. I'd struggle to remember which way round to hold the club after that long!
 
as others have said first off its is about desire, motivation & commitment to learning .... you can only decide that.... I'd love to play fiddle.... but I'm lacking the last two.... so I can't & don't.

Once that is sorted it it then realising some basic fundamentals, and a pro (or good low handicap friend) can certainly help .... grip, stance and posture and as Garry picked up minimising swaying.... get those broadly right and you'll be able to knock a ball around with better than average success.

Then it is just practice.... the old maxim 10,000 hours to be expert..... like any hobby you want to be serious about its not a couple of hours a week at beginning ....
 
naturally doing what I do for a living I am going to 100% disagree with those that said 'no' you can't improve and others are just more naturally gifted so just settle for the game you have and try to enjoy it.

There are very few limits in life apart from those we set ourselves. Bob Rotella talks about a guy in one of his books who has one arm, and fused ankles. He can shoot level par over 9 holes. He plays to his physical limits in the long game and keeps it in play. His short game and putting are immaculate and an example to us all of what is possible with hard work and dedication.

If you want to improve, play more consistently, and lower your handicap then go get it. Design a practice schedule and set yourself some short and long term goals that are challenging yet achievable. If you want help with either of those things then drop me a PM and I will be happy to give you some advice.

Of course you can do it so don't ever think otherwise.
 
Like anything if you don't believe in yourself its pointless.

If you write yourself off as crap that is exactly what you will be.
 
There isn't really anything else to add to what everyone else has already said. If you want to improve and combine this with some hard work in practising the right things, you will. To what extent you want to take things will be up to you in the end.
 
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