Golf lessons are supposed to make you better.
But, can they do more harm than good? Can golfers be their own worst enemy?
It’s common practice for golfers to look to improve their game. More times than not, that includes taking lessons from PGA qualified coaches.
Whether it is looking to fix a slice or cure their lack of consistency, people look to a golf professional to help get better. But, it’s the mindset of golfers that can often have the reverse effect.
Speaking on the Your Golf by NCG podcast PGA-qualified coach Jack Backhouse and professional golfer Nicola Slater, outlined how too many golfers arrive at lessons with unrealistic expectations.
They point to factors like overloading themselves with too much information and often leave without really understanding what they’ve been taught.
Lower your immediate expectations
Backhouse points to a big misconception that golfers often have in believing a single lesson will completely transform their swing.
“One of the things I think people get wrong is like they think that they’re going to turn up for a lesson, and leave with a completely different swing,” he said.
“You’re not going for a full swing rebuild, because that doesn’t happen in 30 minutes or an hour.
“Generally, what should happen in a lesson is you should hit some balls, there should be some analysis of where’s the ball going, what’s causing the balls to go that way, and then what moves are you making that are contributing to that strange ball flight.
“Then generally you should get one thing, one move, one tip, one new drill that addresses that (the issue). It’s never right, well, let’s change your grip, let’s change your posture, etc.
“It’s a hard thing to change a motor pattern, especially if you don’t do tons and tons of practice.
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“I think golf lessons should start pretty technical, but finish like no non-technical whatsoever.”
Taking on too much
Golf is hard. That’s before filling your head with a number of big technical swing changes.
Slater admitted that being given too many changes in one lesson can quickly become a distraction.
“I think if I went for a lesson and suddenly came back with, like, three different things to think about,” she said.
“How can I sort of process that all? I find it just overwhelming.”
Strategise your practice
The tempting thing to do is to smash through bucket after bucket of golf balls on the range. It may sound counterproductive to say, but doing this during a lesson is not always best practice. Far from it.
Backhouse notes that some golfers actually learn less, instead focusing on constantly hitting shots instead of understanding what they are trying to change.
He points out that: “Some of the best lessons I have, people hit the fewest balls, because they’re more intense conversations. I genuinely feel like the people understand a lot more when they hit less balls.”
“I’d say you’re probably looking for two, at least two to three practice (swings),” Slater added.
“The first one being slow and deliberate, and then building up speed to actually then hit the shot.”
Be diligent
“Try to ask more questions to better understand,” Backhouse .
“I’ll have people explain things back to me, tell me what that means to them. What are you feeling? What can you, you know, can you explain it back?”
Understanding what your changes your coach is trying to get across is clearly of huge importance, as is reiterating these key points.
Golf lessons can often feel clear in the moment, but is there a danger that the details from them can quickly become more mudded later on? Slater believes so.
“If I have a lesson, I quite like to either finish the lesson and get my phone out and do a voice recording of myself, explaining it to myself – how you (golf coach) might have said it might not like relate in my head,” Slater explained.
“Or equally just write it down. But I do think, if you actually speak it out loud it helps put it into your terms.”
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