The Importance Of Interaction By The Professional Instructor
12 Jun 2012

The Importance Of Interaction By The Professional Instructor

Of the many components that make up good golf instruction, the most overlooked has to be the instructor’s ability to key in on the way people learn. A vast majority of golfers try to learn verbally. In the worst-case example, they listen to their friends and relatives spew out “tips” and try to take the spoken word and translate it into a physical movement.

Many years ago I heard a great quote from the Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth, winner of an amazing 74 LPGA tournaments: “Golf, unlike most sports, has a number of clichés, often disguised as ‘tips.’ My advice is, watch out!”

I never hear the word “tip” without thinking of her. Unfortunately, most golfers don’t apply every day common sense to golf. Can you really learn any complicated movement by just listening to someone describe it to you in their own words? Revisiting the ways we learn, verbal learning is the least effective. Golf is way too full of verbal, ineffective tips and clichés, which, more often than not, are simply poor or even detrimental pieces of advice.

Above verbal learning we would place visual learning. Visual learning is much better than verbal, but still not very effective for most. Demonstrating a movement or position would be an example of teaching visually. Studies have shown older adults lose the ability to learn visually. It can be effective when teaching kids and very specific learning types.

Physical (kinesthetic) learning is by far the most effective. Since that fact is so well established, what does that teach us as golf instructors? The lesson here for the teacher is to be interactive. Find ways to help your students feel the improved or new motion. Help them swing the club. It’s that easy.

Why don’t more teachers do it? That is a question I have asked myself thousands of times. I am still without an answer. Perhaps it is the hesitation to invade someone’s space. If this is the stumbling block for the teacher, it is imperative that they get over that hurdle. Students want to feel the correct motion. Trust me, they do! Engage your students professionally from a physical standpoint and you will be amazed at how much faster they improve. They want to feel the correct static position, as well. Physically help them grip the club. Move their shoulders to square. Interact, period.

Observing so many great teachers of the game over the years, it is striking to see how different they interact with the student compared to the average new instructor, or even with coaches in other sports. Professional football and basketball coaches constantly teach kinesthetically. Some use very little verbal instruction, only talking as they physically help their student.

Go to an NFL training camp and watch the offensive and defensive line coaches. Ever notice how crazy some basketball coaches get on the sideline when one of their players sets a pick incorrectly? They are dying to go out on the floor and physically correct the player. I personally witnessed a great example of kinesthetic teaching in 2008, watching Hall of Fame basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski physically show NBA superstars how he wanted them to defend a certain play during a practice, moving each player into position and physically showing them the proper foot and body movement.

These were NBA millionaires, at the most elite level of their sport.

To watch the contrast of the challenged golf teacher standing 10 feet away from their student, trying to verbally describe the grip to a new 60-year-old female golfer, is quite eye-opening. Another situation taught me the value of teaching feel: Teaching golf in a foreign country and having the students not know my language. To make it more challenging, I couldn’t speak their language either.

After 28 years of teaching, if I was only able to give one piece of advice to a new teacher, it would be to “teach feel.” Golf is a game of feel, and if you don’t teach it to your student, no one will.
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A Gift From Albert Einstein To All Teachers!
1 Jun 2012

A Gift From Albert Einstein To All Teachers!

Do yourself and your students a huge favor and memorize a quote from Albert Einstein, and then apply what he said to your teaching so that you can not only understand more about cause and effect in the golf swing, but also learn how to communicate with your students more effectively.  This quote is regarding his first postulate (assuming something is true because of a preponderance of evidence) of his Theory of Special Relativity.  Sound too intellectual?  Really, it is not difficult to comprehend once you can assimilate the basic meaning.

I memorized what he said back in 1998, and I can tell you emphatically it has made me a much more effective teacher.  In my opinion, what he said applies to every single facet of life.  I wish I had heard, memorized, and understood it back when I was in my teens, because it is the most fascinating information I have ever learned.  Not only does it apply to physics, it applies to mathematics, history, geography, and any other subject that you can think of.  Get this: It also applies to relationships, love, hate, anger, patience, creativity or any other thing you can imagine.  In my opinion, it is a principle that is as true and constant as time itself.

Here it is:  “All motion is relative, and all points of reference are arbitrary!”

Basically, this is what it means: Anything that moves is moving (or “changes is changing”) relative to something else, and you can choose to assess that motion from any perspective you choose.  But, that also means that you will have a limited understanding of that motion if you choose to view it from just the angle in which you first viewed it.  That doesn’t sound too terribly complicated, does it?  Nothing in my experiences as a teacher has better equipped me to teach than understanding this statement.  I am astounded by its simplicity and its application to every single facet of existence.

Would you like to be regarded as a teacher who has the ability to break down even the most complicated of subjects to such a degree that your students say that you are a gifted teacher who can teach difficult-to-understand concepts or principles to even the slowest of learners?  One of the critical aspects of learning is the ability to contextualize information.  Understanding what Einstein meant will send you light-years (no pun intended) ahead in your ability to contextualize information and thereby increase the speed at which you learn and are able to articulate your thoughts.

It will only take a minute or two to memorize this quote, but a lifetime to exhaust the limitations of its applications.  Please contact me to share any epiphanies that you may get as you apply this principle to every aspect of your understanding.  In doing so, you will broaden my perspectives and help me to become a better teacher!

Good Golfing!
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