Taking Golf lessons

I teach in a seasonal location, which means that many of my students leave for the spring and summer seasons. When our instructional season comes to a close, I am often asked if it would be beneficial for them to continue taking lessons at their home club with another instructor. I am quick to point out that yes, it may very well help, with the understanding they do not become confused by what they perceive as conflicting information! 

Perceive is the operative word because the information may not be conflicting at all; in fact, the two instructors may very well be saying the exact same thing. The problem arises when the student thinks the instruction conflicts! There are several reasons for this and exploring them may benefit your learning process; it may just clarify the whole process of taking golf lessons.

The great John Jacobs taught us that every golf lesson is conducted in three parts:  Diagnosis, Explanation and Correction!

Diagnosis: The instructor must decide on the swing flaw.

Explanation: He/she must explain it thoroughly to the student.

Correction: A tailor-made lesson plan is adopted for the individual student.

The commonality in all the above should be the diagnosis. There can be no debate about what is wrong with the golf swing. However, the verbiage used to explain and correct can vary widely, and therein lies the problem! The communication part of a lesson is often when the misunderstanding occurs. Let’s take a concrete example: shoulder turn. Left should be behind the ball, right shoulder initiates the motion, get back to target, sternum 180 degrees from target, the list goes on and they are ALL designed to indicate the same motion. The student, in turn, says to the second instructor, “Well, he wanted me to get my left shoulder behind the ball, but you are telling me to turn my back to the target. I’m confused,” or something along those lines. You see the problem. The lessons are not different, but the learner has internalized what was heard completely differently! One cannot expect a universal language among all instructors. The onus is on the student to be perfectly clear on the overall message and understand the commonality; both instructors wanted a more efficient shoulder turn in the backswing - they simply expressed it in different ways. 

The lesson here is obvious. If you are seeing another instructor, either for a second opinion or to be used as your seasonal coach, you must be clear on the instructor’s message and exactly what you need to work on. Do not be confused by words. If you don’t understand the lesson, it is so important that you ask and explain your confusion. I do not mean to indicate that a lesson cannot be wrong. It happens at times. However, if you do not fully understand the message (which very well may be just another way of saying the same thing), you may get worse instead of better.