Blog

4 Oct 2013 Corina Pelloni

KNOW YOUR YARDAGE

I have the pleasure of working with some great high school student-athletes who want to play at the college level.  Tournament golf is very different from recreational golf, and scoring average is very important.  As many of you know, the short game is the most important component of scoring, which makes it the place we need to focus most of our practice time. When I begin working with a new student, I walk off 20 or 30 yards, drop a head cover, walk another 30 yards, and drop another head cover.  I will ask them how far the head covers are and after their guess, we shoot the head covers with a laser range finder.  More often than not, they are far off with their guesses.  This exercise is a great segue into talking about the importance of knowing your distance and the impact it will have on your next shot.  If they are off by 10 yards, this equates to a longer putt of almost 30 feet. A great drill to improve your wedge distance control is to measure out 10-yard intervals from 30 to 100 yards.  Drop small towels or range buckets at each increment.  Start hitting wedges with the student’s most-lofted wedge.  Hit 10 balls using a half-swing.  Measure the average of all the shots and record the carry distance.  Move to a three-quarter swing, repeat, and then finish with a full swing.  Replicate this exercise with all wedges.  For me, I prefer to carry four wedges, so I have three swing-lengths with each club, and I have 12 reliable yardages inside the scoring area. Knowing average yardages will allow your students to improve their short game, and in turn, lower their scoring average.  Not only that, you will help your students increase their confidence inside 100 yards, giving them a reliable game plan for shots within that distance.  

4 Oct 2013 Corina Pelloni

STAYING IN CONTROL OF YOUR GOLF LESSONS!

Have you ever felt yourself losing control of a golf lesson? I see it happen quite often, and in all honesty, it has happened to me more than once. Maybe you think you have never lost control of a golf lesson in the past. I’m not talking about the entire lesson being in disarray with you and your student hollering at each other. Hopefully, if you do lose control, it will be much more subtle than that. What can we use as criteria to determine losing control of a golf lesson? How about a breakdown in communication, to the point of your student saying that he/she doesn’t understand what you are saying to them? What about you and your student disagreeing on the objective of that lesson? What if your student was to get frustrated to the point of raising their voice towards you and telling you that you don’t know what you’re doing? I remember losing control of a lesson once, and from all appearances, my student had no idea that I felt that way. Let me tell you what happened! With the help of video, I had shown my student that his trailing leg was bowing outwards during the backswing. I explained that we needed to keep the knee on the inside of the foot at the top. I had the student do some drills, make some practice swings, and then hit some golf balls. After hitting a few balls, the student was getting frustrated because he was hitting the ball so badly. Frustration was rising! Finally, he hit a ball very nicely, and I could see that he was pleased. His pleasure with hitting the ball that way broke the tension that was present. I liked it that he was so pleased, but I said something to him that I really didn’t believe. I said, “Now that was better!” It wasn’t, though. His knee bowed out as bad as it ever had. You see, I lost control of the lesson right there. In one sense, it was an honest mistake, because I really wanted to give the student some praise, and my intentions were to help. However, I allowed my student’s frustration to cause me to lose focus and say something that I knew wasn’t true. I knew better than that, though, and in the years that have passed since, I’ve been careful not to make that kind of mistake again. So, let me give you my opinion about this kind of situation. A few minutes into a lesson, after an evaluation has been made and a certain amount of give-and-take between the student and teacher has taken place, the teacher should make it very clear to the student what they will be working on. The teacher should always remember that the student is sensing a different feel each time they make a repetition of a certain motion or position. If the teacher tells the student that he did well, even though he did not make the correct motion but did hit the ball solidly, the student’s confusion will only be magnified. Remember this:  Although you don’t always need to say everything that is on your mind to a student, you should never say something that you know is untrue, even if you’re doing it to relieve a tense moment. If you are going to stay in control of a lesson, you need clear communication, an objective, and the self-confidence to stay focused on that objective, even when you feel that the student is becoming frustrated. Your students are coming to you because they want you to lead them…so lead them! Many of them can sense when your confidence is wavering. Hold their nose to the grindstone, or to use another term, keep their feet to the fire. Train them that if they will work on the new position and not worry how they hit the ball, they will make more efficient progress. Trust your instincts and teach with confidence. Let me balance that out now! At the end of the day, the quickest path to trusting your instincts and teaching with confidence is by constantly assessing your decisions and actions and having the guts to admit when you were wrong. Good golfing!

4 Oct 2013 Corina Pelloni

REFINING YOUR GOLF TEACHING SKILL

Three simple elements that will make you a better golf instructor: Positive Communication  Make sure you introduce the skill in a clear and concise way.  Use language that the golfer can understand.  Try to be as brief as possible and create a positive learning environment. • Get the golfer’s attention. • Make sure that the golfer can see and hear everything about the skill that they need to. • Give a reason for learning the skill. Demonstrations Every picture is worth a thousand words.  Shapes you see affect shapes you make.  Show more and talk less.  Ask players to mentally rehearse the movement after they have seen the demonstration.  For your own credibility, it is important that you use demonstration.  If you cannot perform the skill, use the best available model, or even use a video. The Golf Swing is not Static When someone hits a golf ball, the swing is a continuous motion.  Too often the motion is broken down into separate parts, resulting in a loss of the continuity. The golf swing is best taught by correcting a flaw with a key thought or feeling.  Find a simple solution that allows the student to continue the motion of a full swing.  Encourage drills or training aids that promote the complete swinging motion.  These thoughts or feelings are less likely to break down when put under pressure.