Blog

18 Dec 2013 Corina Pelloni

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

This time of year, many of us will reflect back over the past 12 months, thinking about the good things that happened, as well as what we would like to change for the upcoming year.  Hopefully, our students are doing the same thing for their golf game:  Analyzing their rounds, possibly worrying about things that could go wrong, and wanting to do better in 2014. As golf teaching professionals, we should encourage our students to focus on the positives for the upcoming year and provide them with a plan to make their resolutions become reality.  The most important thing to do is make them aware of your presence, even if you’re not physically there working with them on the course.  As their instructor, it is our duty to provide encouragement every step of the way. During the month of December, I send an e-mail to each student from the previous year.  The content of the message is to express the enjoyment I have had at being their golf teaching professional, discuss the improvements they made, and recommend a few things I think they should focus on at the beginning of the new year. Typically, I will select three or three things for them during the winter months.  Suggested areas could be fitness, mental game, short game, scoring, or swing fundamentals.  For most people, being inside during the cold winter months gives them a great opportunity to focus on an area which doesn’t require observation of a ball flying into the air at the driving range.  Some things might be as simple as swinging a club 50 times a day in their garage or enrolling in a yoga class to increase flexibility, which in turn increases distance.  Depending on the student, you could prescribe something more complex, like buying a small putting mat and working on three- to six-foot putts. Whatever drill or exercise you choose will keep your student in the routine of doing something to improve their game.  Keeping in contact over the winter months when they may not take regular lessons lets a student know you care about them and their game.  Plus, you’re on their mind and will be the first person they want to call when spring comes.

4 Dec 2013 Corina Pelloni

TECHNOLOGY OR TRADITION – WHICH IS BETTER FOR TEACHING GOLF?

Legendary teacher Bob Toski never got on board.  Nor did the late USGTF teaching professional Julius Richardson, a member of Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Teachers list.  There are a number of other teachers who didn’t, either.  To what am I referring? Technology.  Things like video, computers, the K-Vest, etc.  “Old school” teachers like Toski rely on their eyes to tell them everything they need to know about what’s going on in the swing – even finely honed swings like a tour player’s. So, we see it’s possible to teach at a high level without technology.  This brings up a question:  Which is better, old school or new school? A few years ago in one of the golf magazines, they attempted to answer the question of which school was “better.”  The writer first went to a traditional old-school teacher in Scotland who taught by feel, and then he went to a teacher in the US who used high-speed photography, training aids, and launch monitors.  The “new-school” teacher was apprised of what the old Scot’s instruction had been, and he dismissed it by saying it wasn’t going to fix the problems that the launch monitor had identified with the writer’s ball flight, nor would it fix the problems with his swing that had been identified through video analysis.  In the end, the writer said he got better results from the old-school methods. I’ll also never forget watching Julius give a lesson one day to a lady who was struggling.  It was easy to see mechanically what she was doing wrong, and so I figured Julius would focus on that.  Nope.  Instead, he simply told the lady to “soften your shoulders through the swing.”  Huh?  I never saw that coming.  Well, the next shot she hit was a beauty, and she was thrilled.  She continued to hit shot after shot much better than what she was doing before. Let’s keep something in mind.  Both Bob Toski and Julius Richardson were great players as younger men.  Teachers who were legitimately tour-level, or even plus-handicappers, know what a truly sound, fundamentally correct swing feels like.  If you’ve played to this level and have taught for many years and made a concerted effort to study the craft, you can probably find great success with teaching through “old school” methodology.  If you don’t have all that going for you, you probably need some help through technology.  That’s not to say teachers who are/were fine players who know a lot can’t benefit from using technology; many do.  I prefer it myself.  The key is to be able to transfer the numbers and video images to feel. The definitive answer to the question, “Which is better, old school or new school?”, is elusive.  What do you think?

4 Dec 2013 Corina Pelloni

PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICE

The following are solid principles to follow that will help to develop your teaching skills: Only perfect practice makes perfect Golf is a skill; therefore, practice golf in pressure conditions.  This is the major difference between learning a skill and learning a technique.  Keep practices sessions short and frequent when working on a new skill.  Use practice time efficiently.  Students should experience a reasonable amount of success at each practice session.  Make practice fun as well as challenging. Positive Attitude towards Learning No matter what the standard of the player, a good instructor will make him or her better. It is important that any learning situation should focus toward success. The attitude of the teaching professional and student should be characterized by two qualities:

• An open mind to receive new ideas.
• An enquiring mind to question new ideas.

Organization Learning is based upon memory and students will recall more information when the material is organized.  Think of our memory system like a file cabinet.  The more organized the material is filed, the easier it is retrieved. Thus, instructors need to devise their lesson plans.   This allows the student to easily organize the material. Teaching is about creating environments that enable players to develop at their optimal rate.