I witnessed first hand last week a situation that i as a golf professional i found astounding, and quite concerning. A good friend of mine who holds a full card on the European Challenge Tour explained to me his recent lesson with the coach he has been working with for some time. His stock shot has always been a fade yet has struggled recently and has often been visiting the left side of the course with a pull or pull/draw. The concerning thing was that having spent 2 hours with the coach the day before, he was now standing on a range with no idea what he was trying to achieve. No mechanical or visual understanding of the move he was meant to be making or an understanding on how the swing should feel. As the conversation went on I also found out that during the intense session my friend had only managed to hit a handful of fades (a so called stock shot for him) in the whole time his coach was present. Oh and by the way he was flying to Kenya the following day for the next Challenge Tour event.
As a golf professional you have duties that must be fulfilled to satisfy the needs and requirements of each of your clients. Whether it be a complete beginner or an elite golfer, the golf professional must make sure that they are satisfying these needs as well as leaving a clear understanding regarding what has been worked on, how it has been done and what is the desired result. It is basic stuff. It's a bit like going to the dentist. Would you feel happy visiting the dentist with toothache yet leaving with toothache and still having no clue as to why that was the case? I am sure you wouldn't. Similar to visiting your golf professional with a slice, yet having no solution or understanding as to the long term benefits of any work you may have just carried out together.
Going back to my friend i think one thing is very important here and that is that the guy is heading out to a tournament a few days after a lesson with no idea how his swing is working. That is criminal surely? Where is the player/coach relationship that allows the 'team' to work together to develop improvements and build the belief that a strong performance can be achieved in a top level event. He even admitted that during the whole time that the lesson was taking place that he only managed to hit a couple of shots with the desired strike and shape. This shot is his stock shot, surely not too hard to come back to. I think a glaring miss of fixing ball flight was performed with too much emphasis on technical change. This guy needs a shot to take on the golf course, sort the ball flight out straight away!!
I think it is improtant for all golf coaches to be clear and concise as to what they want their players to work on with good and simple reasoning why these changes are necessary. This will leave the player with the belief they are making positive steps and able to take these changes to the range and also into game time.
Since hearing this, and also seeing the state of the player post session i have made doubly sure that this will never be the case with my sessions. I hope that will remain the case.
Dan Gale
PGA Professional/TPI Certified
Dan is a fully qualified memebr of the PGA & a certified TPI Instructor
Check out his website at www.dangalegolf.com
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