When did you call it a day on lessons?

[kid2]

I'm just curious as to when you felt you either didn't need to return for anymore lessons or maybe didn't have the time to practice what your pro needed you to do......

And has your game and handicap improved or worsened since the decision.....

I play with a lot of mid single digit handicappers and some really low lads off scratch up to 3...... The one dominating thing that comes to mind is that you need a really good short game once you hit around a 9 handicap to get any lower.... Now this part of the game is probably the easiest to learn but for a lot maybe the most difficult to discipline yourself to practice.... Coincidently its the one part of practice I get a kick from.......


The one great round of gross 75 I shot this year I can put down to hitting my wedges close enough to give an outside chance of a birdie with a definite chance at par which I suppose is what its all about..... My chipping around the greens that day was at a low single handicapping level... Everything just clicked..... I didn't hit the ball particularly straight that day off the tee but the main thing was I kept it in play.....

Have you achieved your ambition since dropping lessons and taking off the training wheels.....

 

[Imurg]

One of the more extreme examples here I guess...
I started playing properly in early Spring '93
I had a free 30 minute lesson that lasted 10 when I joined a club in early Spring '93.
That was the last official lesson I had.
I've had tips and advice since but no formal lessons.
Handicap when I had my lesson - 15.0.....

Could I have been better - possibly, probably even.
But I'm happy with my choices..

 

[kid2]

Murg.... Right now I'd take your handicap pal..... I'm getting splinters on my ass at the moment from sitting on the fence about working away myself or getting 4 this winter..... To be honest I got 8 last November that finished in march.... Although my handicap dropped I can't tell whether it was due to my lessons or practising my short game so much.... I guess it tightened me up a little alright and my swing definitely shallower as well.... But I'm at a bit of a crossroads at the moment...

 

[duncan mackie]

I have taken lessons from time to time over the last 30+ years, as and when I feel professional help is required - the last time was about 8 months ago. Different issues trigger the feeling that help is required - no simple answer to that one!

It always helps - even though the advice can range from the need to make what feels like a fundamental change to something like 'the fundamentals are fine but you need to swing freely rather than trying to steer the ball as you are swinging'.

I used to think that a pro couldn't help when the issue wasn't about what to do, but why I was, or wasn't doing it - now frequently surprised by how many solutions they have in their tool box! an example was a post some time back by Bob on here suggesting that someone think about the other shoulder going up rather than the one they were focusing on going down (or something similar); sounds like the same thing but the mind can process it differently.

 

[JustOne]

It's not my place to say that someone shouldn't have lessons because many people wouldn't have a clue at all without them.

My skepticism comes from seeing plenty of people who have had many, many lessons but still swing the club around the back of their legs, come over the top, early extend, flip the club or ALL OF THESE. It makes me wonder what the hell they're being taught! You can't just start tweaking your downswing position if your club is across the line at the top because you swung it around the back of your legs to get it there.

I think you need lessons (and you might as well book them).... but you need the RIGHT ones. You need someone who is going to explain what goes where.. and why... rather than just getting you to hit half a dozen balls without shanking them. I do think your swing has improved... and I think it will continue to do so... I'm going to keep pushing you!!!!


I certainly don't buy into the 'just swing it' theory, or 'go with what you have', for example; if someone wants to go to the practice ground to work on their putting then that's brilliant... I would never stop them from trying to be better... and if they need a lesson to learn a better putting stroke then that's probably waaaay better than just going with what they have - the same applies to the full golf swing.

 

[kid2]

It's not my place to say that someone shouldn't have lessons because many people wouldn't have a clue at all without them.

My skepticism comes from seeing plenty of people who have had many, many lessons but still swing the club around the back of their legs, come over the top, early extend, flip the club or ALL OF THESE. It makes me wonder what the hell they're being taught! You can't just start tweaking your downswing position if your club is across the line at the top because you swung it around the back of your legs to get it there.

I think you need lessons (and you might as well book them).... but you need the RIGHT ones. You need someone who is going to explain what goes where.. and why... rather than just getting you to hit half a dozen balls without shanking them. I do think your swing has improved... and I think it will continue to do so... I'm going to keep pushing you!!!!

Thanks O-B-One.......:thup:

Im just getting a little cold feet for now..... Just asking myself some questions of whether or not ill improve further......
Im playing ball with the Devil and the Angel so to speak....:lol:

 

[JustOne]

Thanks O-B-One.......:thup:

LOL... I quite like that :rofl:

 

[kid2]

LOL... I quite like that :rofl:

Just grow the beard now and get the cloak......

 

[Tab373]

i had lessons in my teens that were group lessons Mainly worked on the basic list Grip Stance Posture Weight etc and from memory ive had 2 lessons since .im 40 now. the last of which lesson was 3 years ago and that was when i had a serious shanking problem. i play once every 12to 14day at the moment and on a good day knock it around 2/4 over and on a bad day bout 10/11 over. i do go to the range also once in the 12/14 day and out of approz 40 ball half are used to sharpen my short game. i find my aim to be my first part of my swing to go wrong and when it does i got back to basics. and check through the list.to get back on track

 

[Lump]

Most low guys can see things in a swing that work, most will be able to teach themselves these positions. Lessons are no good if you can't understand what and why things are being changed.

I've had a course of 5 lessons. All of these lessons went on grip, posture and alignment, not a single swing change. I had the lessons at 14 handicap 3 years ago.
My swing this year is better than the year before and last years swing was better than the years before that. I will bet next years swing is going to be better then this years. I'm fairly happy with my swing as is atm, but it just needs to be refined. I will not have lessons, taking a camera onto the practice range during the winter is better then any pro for me.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I have had lessons and think I am getting the right tuition. No plan to reinvent the wheel and my pro and I are working on what I have and not trying for a textbook swing. As long as I can get something that is repeatable and to some degree getting the club in a good position at impact I'm happy. I will be focussing on the short game over the winter but disagree that it is the easiest facet to learn. I've had a number of lessons from good teaching pros and it still lets me down. I am working hard with the v-easy again and it coming back. I'm hoping I can take a better path and quieter wrists into these lessons and come out next season with something that gets me back towards my goal

 

[Slab]

I've given up on lessons, trial and error is the way to go for me

Last one earlier this year only wanted me to follow 'a textbook' posture, grip etc (regardless of whether I could physically do it!)

He wanted me to stand taller than I actually am, point chin at the sky but look down at my ball, talked about my back shoulder (even though both my shoulders have always been in my back) he wanted my feet level then told me I had my front foot planted wrongly. Fortunately we didn't get on to 'noisy' wrists or swinging inside or any other jargon that they use to try and make themselves sound like an expert!

I don't need a teaching pro to sound like an expert, I just need them to act like it

 

[Hobbit]

Get the basics. Work on grooving them, then go back every so often for an 'M.O.T.' to make sure no bad habits have crept in.

 

[Snelly]

Never had a proper lesson and never will.

That said, I agree largely with Hobbit. Have some lessons to get the message on grip, alignment and tempo then maybe one a year after that to make sure all is as it should be, purely in terms of those fundamentals.

 

[JustOne]

Get the basics. Work on grooving them,..

If only!!

How many people do the basics correctly?

 

[Alex1975]

I have just decided not to take any more lessons. I have had 8 lessons since Christmas and while I respect my pro I had a lesson with him last week and clearly showed him with numbers and ball flight that the way I was now swinging gave me exactly what we have spent 9 months working on. I did not achieve these numbers by doing what he has been asking me to do for 9 months (and I seemingly could not do). I did it by learning how my body could best get to where I wanted it and grooving exactly that. He was not pleased about it and started trying to change what I was doing despite the numbers being what we had worked so hard.

I am after results.

For now at least I have the information and am seeing what I want to see, I know why, how and so on so shall be going my own way for the foreseeable.

 

[londonlewis]

I stopped having lessons when I quit having piano lessons, aged 14.
I didn't enjoy someone trying to teach me something that I was terrible at (reading music in the case of the piano).
So I then decided to teach myself how to play guitar.

This has now become a fairly constant approach in my life and I took this approach to my golf.
I am entirely self taught - which clearly means I will have some fairly unique approaches to my golf. I could benefit from lessons, I don't doubt that but I am defintiely happy with the progress I have made.

Started golfing in Summer 2010 - would pretty much always shoot over 100.
Broke 90 in Summer 2011
Broke 80 earlier this year and shot my best ever round of 4 over par earlier this year as well.

 

[G.U.R]

Never had a lesson, two reasons one financial the other based on the fact that I only starting playing Golf regularly last April, before that it was only three or four times a year. I felt that I would see how my handicap got on playing regularly and once it levelled off would then contemplate the outlay.

 

[Bash]

Strangely enough I've got my first lesson (for a year and a half) tomorrow. have had lessons several times over the last 6 years but too often have the lessons and just go out on the course and play, without committing to serious practice on the practice field. Inevitably I have ended up playing my old (poor) game on the course, for fear of 'wrecking' my card. The one time I did commit to following my pro's advice, my game went downhill for 2 months, then I went from 18 h/c to 14 in the next 3 months. Have gone from 11.6 to 12.5 this year and back to the ugliest swing/s you have ever seen so deffinately time for lessons
(and some serious practice)

 

[Robobum]

If I played for my living, of played to a good standard I would continually have lessons.

As a fee paying club member, I want those subs to be well spent playing the course. I don't want to throw cash at a 1/2 hour lesson that needs another couple of days on the practice ground to groove changes.

Set up well and whack it. If it goes off line, whack the next one harder.