Today’s equipment, or the advances in technology over the last 10 years or so, have (apparently) helped today’s average golfer, but hindered the career of perhaps the greatest talent who has ever played the game in Tiger Woods. As you can probably tell, you know where I’m going with this. I’ll admit at times I’m a contrarian, but not without doing research.
Let’s take, for example, Trackman and the data it provides us from the touring professionals. Contrary to popular belief, the “average” PGA Tour player does not hit up on the ball (positive angle of attack or “AoA”). The average AoA amongst the men is -1.3 degrees, whereas amongst the women professionals it’s +3 degrees. As well, there is an astronomical difference in average clubhead speed, where the women swing on average at 94 mph versus the men at 113 mph. In talking to many coaches who use TrackMan daily and are specialized in understanding the data and ideal numbers, there is a consensus that with the driver the AoA number should remain within the -2 to +2 range.
We’ve heard Justin Thomas has a +5 AoA with his driver; however, this is simply not the truth. His average is +1.4 degrees. He perhaps can attain this number and perhaps bombs it when he does, but it is not ideal. This leads to the point of this article. The majority of golfers today who struggle with the game can in essence blame technology (again contrarian), but the question is, why?
The club manufacturing industry has led the golfing public to believe longer and forgiving is better. Get your launch angle to 17 degrees, adjust the driver to lower the spin and increase launch, get the ball airborne easily with our secret outer-space alloy strategically placed in a progressive heel-to-toe pattern helping to adjust the COG even while you swing. Let’s call a spade a spade. Modern equipment has helped people tremendously in getting the ball in the air, but has it made them better ball strikers? Of course not. For those who grew up only knowing what a blade iron and wood head were, you get it.
The goal of the golf swing is to hit with accuracy and to strike the ball purely in the middle of the face with an iron, making a relatively shallow divot commencing after the ball. Game improvement irons with wide, bouncy soles, low COGs and perimeter weighting have taken this sensation, and I would go as far as saying taking the opportunity away. “The opportunity to do what?” one may ask. It is the opportunity to know what it takes to strike a blade properly – the fine-tuning of one’s swing so it becomes possible.
All the competitive players (some quite young) I coach work with a blade. They play with game-improvement irons except for a few; however, they all practice with a blade as a means to develop a better club-ball contact and effective AoA, which will hold them in good stead with every club in the bag. The average female player on the tour, in my opinion, would be well served to perform a similar exercise. With an average +3 AoA with the driver, the path must shift more toward an inside approach to the ball. Although this may help some with lower clubhead speed attain distance, it compromises their ability to hit pure shots again and again from the turf with short and mid-length clubs. The clubhead speed these women attain is quite similar to many male average golfers. I hope this offers some food for thought.
Chris Richards of Trinidad and Tobago was only 12 years old when he was first introduced to the world of golf, and he believes that event changed his life forever. His older cousin Marlon Nunes, who was a caddie at the Chaguaramas Golf Club, encouraged Chris to come and work at the course to make some extra money, and Marlon promised to show him the “ropes.”
Chris didn’t know a thing about golf – he had never swung a club before – but the second that he did, he fell head over heels in love with the game. “I picked up the club, swung, and missed completely!” mused Chris, “But that just made me want to try again. So I kept trying and I haven’t stopped since.”
At that time, Chris was a student at Diego Martin Junior Secondary School, living with his mother. Other boys his age were getting involved in all kinds of wayward activities like drugs, alcohol, stealing, and getting in trouble with the law. He took a long hard look around and knew what he wanted for himself. What he wanted most was to make his mother proud, so instead of getting into trouble, he got into golf. And… in a big way.
By the age of 14, Chris became a member at Chaguaramas Golf Club, and later that year played in his first tournament. He stunned everyone by winning it, all within the six years of picking up a club. Chris had earned himself a +3 handicap. Ten years ago, Chris went to study at the U.S. Golf Teachers Federation and earned his Level 3 Certified Golf Teaching Professional license. Chris is more interested in the personal development aspect of the game, and coaching is something he finds rewarding. “I love that coaching aspect of golf, even after a lifetime of playing it. I see there is still so much for me to learn.”
Golf starts with fundamentals, I’ve learnt that you don’t teach someone to play like how you play; you have to bring out the golfer in them. Presently, Chris is a Certified Master Golf Teaching Professional and is based in Trinidad and Tobago. Chris believes the turning point in his life was golf.
Handicapping, as in horse racing, allows players of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis with each other. Each player is assigned a handicap index that results from the scores recorded for that player, is revised over time, and moves up or down as the player submits scores and his game changes.
The handicap index is calculated to one decimal place so your index may look like this: 13.4. You will also have a course handicap for your home course, which will usually be a different number of 1 or 2 digits, e.g., 15 if you propose to play competitively on another course. The important number that you must carry is your handicap index.
There is no minimum handicap index, but the USGA recommends a maximum index of 36.4 for men and 40.4 for women. Clubs may stipulate a maximum course handicap for competitions. The mass of players have a positive number handicap, as above, but better players may have a negative number handicap, such as minus 2, which is stated as +2, so that in a handicap competition, such players must add their handicap to their gross score to arrive at their net score.
If each course has a course rating and a slope rating, a player can play competitively on any of those courses, through the use of a conversion table which translates the player’s handicap index at his home course to a course handicap for the other course. If you propose to play on a different course, you must therefore know what your handicap index is, and you will usually be requested to have it certified by your club before you are allowed to play in a handicap competition at another course. Each course will also have the different tees rated, and there will be a different course rating and slope rating for each tee. This is important for converting handicaps of players against each other from different tees.
Anyone who watched the Match Play Championship this past March in Austin, Texas, witnessed Jason Day playing some great golf. I noticed something about him that is very interesting. He always seems to swing the club in an aggressive manner. You never see him swing too easy or try to guide his shot.
Day played this way at last year’s PGA Championship, as well. Even with Jordan Spieth right on his heels, he always swung the club hard and aggressively. Referencing back to this match play tournament, even when he was up in a few matches, he kept the same “rip it” type of swing. There are some good points we can learn from Day’s swing to teach our students.
When someone tries to slow down their swing or “guide it,” a few things can happen. As the body slows down, it is easy for the arms to pull across the target line, causing a pull shot. When we try to guide or steer a shot, we don’t release through impact, causing the club face not to square up.
Both of these misses can be potentially remedied by continuing to take an aggressive swing. It seems that Day has figured out the best way – for him – to hit the best shots under pressure by keeping his swing speed up. Next time you or your students are struggling with guiding or steering shots, try to act like Day: keep your speed up and be aggressive. Grip it and rip it!
Seems like talk of changing golf always comes up this time of year. Most likely because the Masters is just around the corner, which signifies the start of the golf season for many north of the Mason-Dixon Line. I have recently seen discussions of rolling back the golf ball or creating a tournament ball.
The subject of bifurcation has come up again, also; bifurcation, a glorified term for having a different set of rules for pros and amateurs. Like amateurs don’t play by different rules already. How many times have you seen mulligans off the first tee or inside-the-leather happy zones? Those same golfers then go in and post scores and receive handicaps. Every time I see or hear such talk, I am reminded of phrases like, “How you going to keep them down on the farm?” or “You can never go home again.”
In the history of golf, the game has never reversed course. The only constant has been the theme that more is better. And judging by the money invested in club and ball design, course conditions and extravagant clubhouses, it must be worth it. Sometimes I think there is more science in the head of a driver than in a NASA rocket. Tour pros are hitting the ball well over 300 yards, requiring courses to be stretched to 7,500-7,600 yards to keep them at bay. Many old and venerable courses can’t hold up to the onslaught. A lot of traditionalists don’t like that and advocate slowing things down. The problem is that a majority loves the long ball, and advertisers provide the siren song for their odyssey.
I don’t see reversing course as an option. Too much money for all concerned at stake. Besides no one wants an old jalopy when a shiny new chic mobile can be had so easily. Slowing it down. I don’t see it anytime soon. That ship sailed long ago.
Those who watched the World Golf Championship at Doral this year saw something very interesting. Adam Scott tried to drive the short par-4 16th hole. His tee shot went just over the green in a bunker. It was a very straightforward bunker shot, on the upslope with a good lie. What happened next was the interesting part.
He shanked his bunker shot. It almost went into the other greenside bunker. It was a horrible shot, in fact, and embarrassing to the point that Scott apologized to his caddie for hitting the shot. Now he is short-sided in deep rough with an awkward stance. Scott was able to shake off the shanked bunker shot and focus on the most important shot, his next shot.
He hit a great flop shot and made par. He went on to win the golf tournament with another great up-and-down on the 18th hole. The most important shot is always your next shot. Once you have played a shot, either good or bad, it is time to focus on the next one.
Dwelling on what we did poorly or letting the previous shot affect our mindset on the next shot is going to produce poor results. Clear your mind, allow yourself to get over the last shot, and then focus on the shot at hand. Adam Scott didn’t let the poor bunker shot affect him; you shouldn’t either.
Recently, I played a round of golf with three friends of mine. The game was put together last-minute. and everyone was rushing to get to the course. We all arrived about the same time, a few minutes prior to our tee time. No one hit a range ball or a practice putt, just walked right up to the first tee.
Of course, as golf teaching professionals, we are not new to this; a typical day includes rushing from the lesson tee or the pro shop to the first tee. Sometimes the shots off the first tee are good, other times not so good. This particular day, one of my friends hit a nice, low-running worm-burner about 150 yards. He proceeded to chunk a couple shots, then finished off with a lovely three-putt for a crowd-pleasing quadruple bogey.
At the next tee box, my friend was heated, upset about his 8 and mad at the world. I calmly asked him what he was upset about (with a straight face I mind you) and he told me he was mad about his score, duh! Of course I knew why he was so mad, but I wanted to point a few things out to him.
I asked if he had a good warm-up session, I asked if he had a good stretching session and if he had a few hours to clear his mind prior to the round. The answer was no to all of the questions. I then put my arm around him and asked him to look ahead and describe what he was seeing. He spoke of the green grass, the sand bunkers, the trees and the bright blue sky. I asked if he saw his office anywhere or anyone asking for deadlines and results.
We talked for a minute about enjoying what the game really is. It allows us to be outside, away from normal working environments. Golf challenges us with all kinds of things, and we need to embrace the challenges. There are worse ways to spend four hours rather than being outside with your friends and testing yourself with all the challenges that the game has to offer. After this conversation, my friend smiled and started to enjoy the frustrations involving the game of golf. He also started playing better! Next time you or your students fall into the same rut, remember: golf is a frustrating game, but you should love the challenge it provides.
Having studied very successful golf instructors for many years, I have discovered one important trait that they all have in common that you do not see with the average golf teacher.
This one thing goes right to the heart of how human beings learn physical motion. For the sake of space and your boredom, I won’t go deep into motor skill learning. The simplest way to understand how we learn motion is to think of how you learned to eat, drive or brush your teeth.
Motor skill learning in its most basic form is repetitive motion that is learned and captured in the nerves that connect the brain to the muscles. Having spent most of the last twenty years helping golf professionals learn to improve their teaching skills, the one thing I have noticed more than any other shortcoming is the lack of understanding how the dynamic of motor skill learning works.
So, what is this one trait? Besides the obvious, which is the ability to communicate well, the one trait is the understanding that human beings learn from feel.
Successful instructors not only verbally explain the motion, but they actually interact with the student by helping them physically make the motion. New or inexperienced instructors spend the majority or even all of their instruction time verbally teaching the student. While all of us that teach the game have the desire to help people play better golf, we need to understand better how humans learn.
Therefore, it is not a lack of caring or effort on the part of teacher. It is simply a lack of education. Either through experience, education or even trial and error, successful instructors understand what the famous instructor Gary Wiren said forty years ago: “A golfer needs to clearly feel and understand what he or she is trying to do. Even more simply put, golf is a game of feel. “
Our main purpose as golf instructors trying to help our students improve is to teach what the motion should feel like. The only truly effective way to do that is to physically move them or the club while attached to them. Teach feel. Some of us can watch and imitate. A very, very small percentage can read it and then translate the written word into motion. But the vast majority of us need to be taught how the correct motion feels. Watching instructors attempting to help their students, I see them way too frequently attempt to talk their students into a better motion, commanding verbally, “Don’t do this or don’t do that.”
Back to our basic motor skill learning. As we make a movement, the human brain is wired to learn motion so as to repeat that motion eventually on a subconscious level. Think of having to learn to use your fork and spoon from the beginning every time you ate a meal. That would make for some long dinners. Try this simple motion. Take your hand from a positon of resting it on a table and use your index finger to touch the tip of your nose. This simple motion has six million possible motion variances; that’s correct, six million. Therefore, one aspect of simple survival for us is our ability to learn motion.
Next time you are giving a lesson, ask yourself, “How much am I talking and not showing?” Understandably, some are apprehensive to physically help their students. That is completely understandable. But an important step of improving your instruction is to get over that fear and just do it. They can’t release the energy of the club head through impact? They have never felt their hands stay solid through impact on a chip or putt? Help them swing the club slowly through impact, teaching them to feel the correct movement. Trust me, the reward and response you get from your students from teaching feel will surprise you.
Everyone has heard phrase about how the world is changing and you have to adapt to the change. For some of us, this might be natural, while for others, it’s extremely hard. Change is everywhere: from the way people communicate, the way people learn, the way information is exchanged and the way information is taught.
For about six years, I have been working with a young man who is a now a freshman in college. The way he likes to communicate is via text messaging. To me, this is somewhat strange. I would call and he would not answer; shortly after he would text me. It took me a bit to figure out that texting was the best way to communicate with him. He would text a novel, but face to face it was hard to get two words out of him. Texting is the way young people communicate.
Think about the options available for college. There are the traditional, daytime classes that are now being overtaken by night, weekend, or online classes. People like online learning because itprovides the freedom to work or take care of a family. The higher educational system has realized that in order to capture market growth, they have had to alter what they offer.
As golf teaching professionals, how are we changing to adapt to our students and their needs? Websites and social media might be the medium through which your current or future students want to communicate with you. They want to text videos of their swings and have you communicate back via text. Some people only like to email. They want to email their swing video to you then have you respond via email back.
To maintain or grow your success as a teacher, you have to modify your approach. Think about the way you have done things in the past and the how your student demographics are changing. Figure out where the gaps are between your style and their learning and communicating methods, then close those gaps. It might be scary at first, but once you embrace the change, you will be happy you did.
Our golf course just added a foot golf layout. For those unfamiliar with this new sport, an individual uses a soccer ball and kicks it down the fairway to a hole about the size of the top of a 55-gallon drum. There are flags in the hole so one knows where the hole ends. Each hole, like with a golf course, is different in length and weaves around trees and hazards. The purpose is to increase revenue and provide a fun outdoor activity to active people. Just like golf, you can play individually or in groups. Based on my observation thus far, it does not require a lot of skill, just a strong foot.
The real question is what is the overall purpose of this activity? Was it designed to expose more people to golf with the hope of creating new golfers, or to add more money into the course coffers? I suspect both, but money will most likely win out. No question we need more golfers, but I’m not sure this will be the answer. I say this based on my own experience and that of some savvy young people in a recent golf camp I conducted. For me, it was pretty dull. Not a lot of excitement. About the equivalent of skipping rocks on a lake.
At my Christmas golf camp, I earmarked one afternoon for all the kids to play a round of foot golf. Ages ranged from 6 to 11. When asked if they liked it, the overwhelming response was “it was okay.”
Not a ringing endorsement. Where it will lead, no one can really say.
