Lesson Confusion

[Bdill93]

So been having lessons for a while which were good and got me to a good standard of hitting the golf ball anyway been playing the course a lot now probably 4 times a week and Range only once a week any last week lesson went great and so did the course in patches and then today i went onto the course and was doing okay hitting irons etc... and then went to my lesson after and i just couldn't hit anything because we started going through it properly again setting the wrists etc.... and i thought to myself ive been doing okay on the course and learnt to play in those conditions should i just stop lessons and continue in my own way , as it starts making me think of a lot and thats no good, or should i continue with lessons and go to the range more as well

So I have a very similar situation myself. I started lessons with our pro last year and he got me striking it a lot better, range and on course. My scores got pretty consistent high 80's - but now I want to step up a level.

The pro has made it clear, this times time, effort and hard work. Dont expect the outcome of the lessons as being instantly better golf on the course, keep doing what hes telling you to do and youll get there - hes the pro after all. If youre not enjoying the course so much, get back on the range until you're confident in your swing again - then get back out there! Rome was not built in a day, and if youre anything like me you want a fast improvement after a lesson, but thats done now - the easy gains have been made, the gap between a bogey golfer and a 12 handicapper is big and it takes time and effort to get there.

Trust the pro, work hard, you'll get there again and be better than before!

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Good lessons, learnt well last a life time.

I have only ever known one self taught golfer to be a really good one (low single figure).

I have seen many a golfer who has clearly never had a lesson who will never be a good golfer.

I’m Self taught , not one lesson and have managed to do ok , also know plenty who don’t or haven’t had lessons and do ok

I also know loads that have had lessons and don’t improve one single bit , and some who go backwards

Everyone is different - if the OP had had some lessons and feels he is doing ok then continue to just play the game for a while , then if he feels he needs another lesson then for either an MOT or further improvements then go back

There is nothing better than getting on the golf course and getting things working

 

[r0wly86]

So I have a very similar situation myself. I started lessons with our pro last year and he got me striking it a lot better, range and on course. My scores got pretty consistent high 80's - but now I want to step up a level.

The pro has made it clear, this times time, effort and hard work. Dont expect the outcome of the lessons as being instantly better golf on the course, keep doing what hes telling you to do and youll get there - hes the pro after all. If youre not enjoying the course so much, get back on the range until you're confident in your swing again - then get back out there! Rome was not built in a day, and if youre anything like me you want a fast improvement after a lesson, but thats done now - the easy gains have been made, the gap between a bogey golfer and a 12 handicapper is big and it takes time and effort to get there.

Trust the pro, work hard, you'll get there again and be better than before!

I think the difference in the mind is thinking of them as a pro who is there to fix your swing, and a coach who is there for a longer haul to improve your game as a whole.

In any other sport you would expect a coach to be there for a while and improve all aspects of a game, not just focus on one fault and leave.

Tour pros are obviously a thousand times better than anyone on here will ever be, yet they work with their coaches and on the range much more than anyone on here

 

[RichA]

I can only speak from my own experience.
I bought 6 lessons up front and had them over a period of a month, last summer.

The first was revolutionary, fixing my posture.
The second destroyed and rebuilt my swing.
Three and four taught me generic chipping and putting techniques that didn't work for me and I have since abandoned and improved on my own, since realising there are other accepted techniques that work better for me (achieved by just getting out there, practicing and experimenting).
Five and six were on course learning management which, again, is just about patience, practice on course and knowing what I am and am not capable of.

While the first couple were invaluable, I have improved more in the months since I have just been enjoying playing then I did immediately after the lessons.
We are all different.

 

[r0wly86]

I can only speak from my own experience.
I bought 6 lessons up front and had them over a period of a month, last summer.

The first was revolutionary, fixing my posture.
The second destroyed and rebuilt my swing.
Three and four taught me generic chipping and putting techniques that didn't work for me and I have since abandoned and improved on my own, since realising there are other accepted techniques that work better for me (achieved by just getting out there, practicing and experimenting).
Five and six were on course learning management which, again, is just about patience, practice on course and knowing what I am and am not capable of.

While the first couple were invaluable, I have improved more in the months since I have just been enjoying playing then I did immediately after the lessons.
We are all different.

a lot of that will come down the quality of the coach.

Some coaches are of the though "this is the way to do it, the only way to do it, so will build every person into this template" the better coaches have a much thorough understanding of the swing and tailor their approach to improving their tutee.

Did you tell the pro that you couldn't get on witch the chipping technique? That's another issue a lot of people will just accept what the pro tells them. No one knows their swing better than you, to get the most our of a coaching session you must feel comfortable in challenging the pro if you are not comfortable with it

 

[Crazyface]

A mate of mine went for a lesson last year. Waste of time imo. He's made of wood and 60+. I told him to try pilates of yoga to get more supple before even bothering with lessons. Of course he scoffed at this and had the lesson. Two weeks later everything he'd been told was discarded. He's still poo, but loves the game. He claims he can now break 100, but I've yet to witness this miracle.

 

[Crazyface]

a lot of that will come down the quality of the coach.

Some coaches are of the though "this is the way to do it, the only way to do it, so will build every person into this template" the better coaches have a much thorough understanding of the swing and tailor their approach to improving their tutee.

Did you tell the pro that you couldn't get on witch the chipping technique? That's another issue a lot of people will just accept what the pro tells them. No one knows their swing better than you, to get the most our of a coaching session you must feel comfortable in challenging the pro if you are not comfortable with it

This is what the Pro should have done with my mate, but didn't.

 

[Bdill93]

a lot of that will come down the quality of the coach.

Some coaches are of the though "this is the way to do it, the only way to do it, so will build every person into this template" the better coaches have a much thorough understanding of the swing and tailor their approach to improving their tutee.

Did you tell the pro that you couldn't get on witch the chipping technique? That's another issue a lot of people will just accept what the pro tells them. No one knows their swing better than you, to get the most our of a coaching session you must feel comfortable in challenging the pro if you are not comfortable with it

This is a big takeaway - TALK TO YOUR PRO/COACH!

Mine asks for my feedback, whats going well, what is my bad shot, how does it feel to me, loads of details but all tailored to ME, not all of his "students"

 

[garyinderry]

This is what the Pro should have done with my mate, but didn't.

60+
Cant break 100
Made of wood



The pro isnt a miracle worker. For this type of player. A lesson in course management might be more useful in the real world.

 

[Treeman42069]

How often are you having lessons? I'd stick with them if you can afford it, and are willing to put the effort in to practice what your coach is teaching. You need to have some patience though, as lessons aren't a miracle cure and it can sometimes feel like backwards progress until you get the hang of swing changes. Golf's definitely way more fun when you're hitting it consistently well and scoring low, and lessons are more likely to get you to this point that if you go it alone. Also, I'm sure many of us will testify to how hard it can be fixing bad habits further down the road!

 

[HeftyHacker]

Good coaches should understand what you want to achieve and also any limitations that may stop you getting there. I had my first golf lesson just after the reopening in April and basically went in and said where I was struggling and give him my perception of my limitations. I also said that I'd basically filled my head with swing thoughts from watching too many YouTube videos and needed to really banish those.

Within 20 mins he'd analysed my swing and gave me two or three minor things to change, and then two things to think about when setting up and in the practice swing.

What a difference, within 3 lessons I'd gone from being a bogey golfer (on my best day) to consistently playing to my handicap and being annoyed at stupid shots left out there and actually shooting to single figures for the first time.

Have a word with the coach and understand the process he is trying to work you through, put in some time on the range embedding the changes.

 

[Neilds]

a lot of that will come down the quality of the coach.

Some coaches are of the though "this is the way to do it, the only way to do it, so will build every person into this template" the better coaches have a much thorough understanding of the swing and tailor their approach to improving their tutee.

Did you tell the pro that you couldn't get on witch the chipping technique? That's another issue a lot of people will just accept what the pro tells them. No one knows their swing better than you, to get the most our of a coaching session you must feel comfortable in challenging the pro if you are not comfortable with it

Agree totally with this. Before lockdown I had a series of lessons with a pro I got on with but at lesson 5(of 6) I went completely backwards and couldn’t hit a thing in the air, topped the lot despite what the pro was trying to get me do. After about 30 minutes of trying different things he said he needed to go to the loo. When he came back he got me try one last thing by explaining it in a different manner. This instantly improved my strike and I was back where I should have been. He admitted afterwards that he deliberately left as he was getting frustrated and just needed to reset his thinking to try and explain what he was trying to get me to do?

 

[Boomy]

How often are you having lessons? I'd stick with them if you can afford it, and are willing to put the effort in to practice what your coach is teaching. You need to have some patience though, as lessons aren't a miracle cure and it can sometimes feel like backwards progress until you get the hang of swing changes. Golf's definitely way more fun when you're hitting it consistently well and scoring low, and lessons are more likely to get you to this point that if you go it alone. Also, I'm sure many of us will testify to how hard it can be fixing bad habits further down the road!

Absolutely 100% all of this ??

 

[sweaty sock]

How often are you having lessons? The vast majority of golfers under estimate how long it takes to learn.

Pros try to avoid giving you the same lesson as you had last time. As they dont want to deal with complaints or seem like bad value. So give you something else to work on when you having finished learning from the original lesson.

This ends up with your brain and body, trying to take a natural sub conscious movement, and manipulate it in many different ways. Your conscious mind is far too slow to achieve this.

So you end up trying to do to many things at once, loosing focus on your goal, and strike and ball flight become inconsistent.

My advice would be to continue with lessons, but slow them down to maybe 1 a month, that means all your range and course time can be spent learning one thing at a time before moving on to the next.

A month seems like a long time, but I'll bet come the next lesson youll still be concentrating on the initial new movement!!

A general rule of thumb is to leave at least 24 hours or targeted practice on a change before considering moving on!

 

[RichA]

Did you tell the pro that you couldn't get on witch the chipping technique? That's another issue a lot of people will just accept what the pro tells them. No one knows their swing better than you, to get the most our of a coaching session you must feel comfortable in challenging the pro if you are not comfortable with it.

Short answer - no, I didn't.

Long answer - I played for over 20 years without a lesson, quit for 10 years, started again last year for a few months then had the lessons. Decided to just open my mind and be taught from the ground up. The chipping technique was very much aimed at helping non-golfers avoid the duff. Ironically, my self-taught chipping and putting were the only reliable part of my game already. I wasn't a chip duffer, but I was keen to learn what I believed would be the correct technique.

In retrospect, I would have asked to concentrate on my long game and leave my short game well alone. Having the confidence to do that would only come from knowing my own game by putting the time in playing on course.

In many sports, the emphasis in coaching has changed in the last 10 years to developing what characteristics the student has already got, rather than training them to be a technically perfect batting/bowling/golfing/tennis robot. Not all coaches subscribe to that theory and not all students have the confidence or experience to know what they want.

 

[Treeman42069]

How often are you having lessons? The vast majority of golfers under estimate how long it takes to learn.

Pros try to avoid giving you the same lesson as you had last time. As they dont want to deal with complaints or seem like bad value. So give you something else to work on when you having finished learning from the original lesson.

This ends up with your brain and body, trying to take a natural sub conscious movement, and manipulate it in many different ways. Your conscious mind is far too slow to achieve this.

So you end up trying to do to many things at once, loosing focus on your goal, and strike and ball flight become inconsistent.

My advice would be to continue with lessons, but slow them down to maybe 1 a month, that means all your range and course time can be spent learning one thing at a time before moving on to the next.

A month seems like a long time, but I'll bet come the next lesson youll still be concentrating on the initial new movement!!

A general rule of thumb is to leave at least 24 hours or targeted practice on a change before considering moving on!

Yep I was going to mention this also. I think often people have lessons more frequently than allows them to properly practice what they're being taught. A couple a month is maybe ok when you're first starting out, but around once a month is probably the sweet spot for most, unless you're able to fit several hours on the practice ground each week.

 

[sweaty sock]

Yep I was going to mention this also. I think often people have lessons more frequently than allows them to properly practice what they're being taught. A couple a month is maybe ok when you're first starting out, but around once a month is probably the sweet spot for most, unless you're able to fit several hours on the practice ground each week.

I'd say that even to get best value at 1 a month you need to be getting a good few hours a week in!

Golf is hard.