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8 Aug 2016 Steve Williams, USGTF Level IV Member

Working With A New Student

By: Steve Williams, WGCA contributing writer It can be very easy for a golf instructor, working with a new student, to just pick out swing faults, and then tell a person how they’re doing it wrong. Then, that teacher shoves their knowledge of the golf swing down the student’s throat until the student feels intimidated, embarrassed, or even angry at that teacher. All this can happen while the teacher has no idea what has happened. Weeks or months later, though, they may realize that they didn’t hear back from that person again regarding golf lessons. When working with a new student, we simply have to go through an interview process. In that discovery period, I am trying to ascertain many things that simply must be understood before I can have any realistic chance at helping that student to experience the excitement, improvement and fulfillment of taking lessons, thing such as: *Average score *What defines fun for them while playing golf *What their goals might be *Physical limitations *Work ethic *Time available for practice *What they hope to gain from lessons *Any preconceived ideas of what it takes to improve This is just a basic outline of things I need to understand. There will be more questions as we proceed and I find out certain things about that individual. It is necessary for me to acclimate each student to what my intentions are during our time together. I actually have to reprogram the vast majority of new students to a new thinking pattern regarding lessons, if we are to make progress at a rate which makes lessons and the improvement process…FUN! How much fun they are having is directly proportional to how long they will work with me. Fun – not being defined as laughing – but more in the aspect of excitement and anticipation of what boundaries they will break through as we proceed. Additionally though, fun can be defined as them overcoming obstacles that have controlled them in the past. Believe it or not, oftentimes I have to eliminate prior thinking patterns which were placed there by other instructors, or possibly even by me in times past. I also have to (and this can take weeks) train that person that their improvement will be a result of us developing a relationship, built upon trust. That trust is not the result of me showing them how much I know about the golf swing, or trying to make them believe that I am the best teacher they have ever met. It is built upon us exchanging thoughts. It is built upon me understanding them by listening to their frustrations, their fears, what makes them excited, and what discourages them. It is built upon me looking them in the eye when I talk, and when they talk. They will become fascinated if I listen well enough to their words, to actually tell them about obstacles I see, which they have created and suspected were present, but had not really shared with me up until that time. If a person is not comprehending more about themselves, including their weaknesses and their strengths as we work together, I am simply not doing my job as well as I could. When a student starts to gain epiphanies about themselves – and what has held them back in the improvement of their golf game – they will start to see that many of those same obstacles have held them back in life. When our time together reveals those things, we start to form a bond that makes our time together rich, exciting and full of anticipation for our next lesson. I must always remember that although I am the expert being sought out by the student, I will learn things as I work with that person. But that fact, if not kept in balance, will slow our progress if I forget that it is my responsibility to stay in control of the lesson and motivate that person to leave their comfort zones, both mentally and physically. I have to lead them away from old habits which may have been destructive, without them knowing. I still get goose bumps when I see a person start to overcome a swing fault. I also get goose bumps when I see the light go on in a person’s mind, about inefficient and destructive thinking patterns in which they have dwelt for far too long. Nothing creates more passion for me and my job than seeing their expression and life-changing results when they realize that their boundaries are only defined by the prison doors they have erected themselves, through the years of them being defeated by their own lack of focus, understanding and fears. I’ve had people tell me that I don’t really work because I am teaching people to play a game, rather than something that is worthwhile or necessary. Unless they have seen the richness of seeing people change through what we endeavor to do together, and the richness of our relationships together as we both experience the highs and lows of working through problems while we identify obstacles which have held them back, they have no idea. Each new person I work with is a new adventure for me. Each person I work with helps me to discover more of my weaknesses. Every person has a puzzle to put together. Puzzles can be fun and exciting. The puzzle pieces are already present in that person’s life. All I do is help them to see the actual picture of the puzzle so that together, we can start to identify each piece. Getting older doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, getting older can be more fun than when we were young if we stay on the edge of self-discovery. I don’t just teach a game! I help people to discover more about themselves and grasp the fact that although their time on earth is getting shorter, it can become richer through self-discovery, diligence and hard work. Golf is simply the vehicle with which we use to illuminate these things!

Feel Is Real…Or Is It?

Healthy human beings are gifted with five senses: sight, sound, feel, smell, and taste. And three of those can be used in imparting golf instruction, unless someone has found a way to also incorporate smell and taste into a lesson. Now, wouldn’t that be interesting! In many lesson scenarios, it’s common to hear the teacher keep up a running monologue for the duration of the lesson. Such teachers are sound-based, or audio-based, where most of the instruction is imparted via the spoken word. Other teachers like to demonstrate often during the lesson by hitting many shots. One has to wonder whether they’re just trying to sneak in some practice on their own games by teaching this way. However, there actually may be some merit in this type of teaching, as it addresses the visual portion of our senses. Less common is the lesson where the teacher is actively putting the students into swing positions, helping them move throughout the swing, or having them do drills for the majority of the lesson. This is a feel-based lesson, and for some reason it seems to be the least-used method of teaching. Teachers who teach mainly with a sight-based or sound-based method of communicating should realize that the student needs to eventually translate this instruction into feel. Regardless if the student learns best by sight or sound, or is analytical, he or she uses feel to move the club throughout the swing. Speaking of which, the teacher needs to determine which sense the student learns best with. Some players only need to hear what they need to do and can then translate this into feel; others need to see it in action. The sense of sight The two ways for a student to gather information in regards to sight are watching others or watching themselves, such as through video or still pictures. Students who learn best through sight can benefit from a teacher who hits many shots during the lesson, especially if the teacher has a fine swing. Think about it: A lot of people love to hang out at the range at a tour event, watching the players hit shot after shot. The late Moe Norman used to give clinics where he mainly hit shots for a couple of hours, with a minimum of instruction and speaking. People were fascinated with his abilities, and were content to just watch. Some clues that may indicate a student learns best by sight is if they like to watch golf on television, like to look at swing sequence pictures, or are often videoing their own swings. Such students may benefit with the teacher also videoing the student’s swing throughout the lesson, instead of just filming a couple of swings to start the lesson, which is more the norm. When giving demonstrations, teachers should take great care in making sure the demonstration is accurate, and that the demonstration matches up with the verbal explanation. The sense of sound Some students prefer to hear what they need to do. Highly-skilled players are experts at this, as they tend to have all their senses heightened when it comes to golf. Amateurs and club players may also tend to prefer verbal instruction if their overall comprehension skills are at a high level. Such people may include writers, editors, and people who do a lot of public speaking in their jobs. People who love to read books about golf may also be verbal-based learners. When giving verbal instruction, the teacher needs to make sure the instruction is easily understood and accurate, and that the communication is clear. A good way to do this is for the teacher to speak to his or her students as if they are in grade school. This is not to say the students should be spoken to in a condescending manner, but rather, in a simplified manner. The sense of feel As was mentioned earlier, all instruction needs to eventually be translated into feel by the student, and feel is an individual thing. Two golfers may be making the same move and yet feel it in totally different ways. In helping a student translate visual and verbal instruction into feel, the teacher needs to ask the student what it feels like, instead of telling them what it should feel like. It’s okay to give some suggested feels, but the final judge is the student. The headline of this article asks whether feel is real or not. A lot of teachers have pointed out that throughout the years, various tour players aren’t really doing what they say they are doing. With video being so prevalent, this doesn’t happen as much as in the past, but you still hear it. Mark O’Meara, in a Golf Magazine cover story a number of years ago, said he started his downswing with his arms and hands, although any video analysis clearly showed he started it with his lower body. Another case where feel isn’t real is the student who drags the club back inside and then comes over the top. To them, they may well feel like they’re taking it back and through on the same plane. When they actually do take it back and through on the same plane, it will in all likelihood feel as if they’re taking the club back outside and looping it to the inside. We can conclude feel is real when the student makes a move different than he or she is used to, but may not be when it comes to making their normal move. Golfers often give a feel-based analysis of what they did wrong after a poor shot, and generally this is an accurate feel of what went wrong. Our jobs as teachers involves not only making sure the student has the right feels, but feels them accurately. If we can do this, the student will have the minimum of trouble making the desired change.

A GOLFER’S FEEL

Feel is a part of many sports: hockey, basketball, baseball, and especially golf, to name a few. Also common to each sport is the importance of the right mechanics. When both are executed at a high level, then greatness can be achieved. There are times, though, that the right feel outweighs the importance of mechanics. Recently at The Open Championship at Royal Troon, Phil Mickelson was in contention from day one. He was driving it well, hitting good iron shots, putting and scrambling like only Phil can. During the last round in the now-famous duel with Henrik Stenson, Mickelson did something very few golfers would ever do, especially during in the hunt of the last round of a major. Phil normally putts using a “saw”-type grip. He moves his lower hand into the “saw” position prior to stroking his putt. During the last round of the tournament, I noticed Phil using two different grips: a normal, or convention grip, and also the “saw” grip. At first, I thought maybe he was using the normal grip on longer putts only, but during the middle of the round, he made a 12-foot putt using the normal grip. Going back and forth between grips might sound odd to some people, but Phil was very in-tune to his feel that he knew was working. If his practice stroke felt okay with a normal grip, then he stayed with it; if not, he reverted to the “saw” approach. Understanding that his feel was spot-on allowed him to play a great round. Unfortunately for Phil, he didn’t win the tournament, but it wasn’t from poor play. Stenson played better that day. Teaching your students to trust their feel is an important part of teaching. We need to show our students that there is more than swing mechanics. Golf is a game of feel.

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