Quote:
Originally Posted by BamaBoy451
I'll tell you a good one. It seems you almost can go to the Lopez short game area without having a local pro provide unsolicited advice on your game. We're not short of experts here in the villages are we?
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It happened to me as I was hitting balls into a net. I play with four guys every week and we are all decent players. One of them was struggling and after hitting a bad shot on the last hole, one of the others went up to him and tried to give him a "pointer". The instructor walked away and my friend muttered to me, "Just what I need. Lessons on the golf course."
I taught golf for 35 years and would never offer unsolicited advice to anyone. And I'll tell that it's difficult not to say something. I have a trained eye and can spot faults. In fact I usually see many faults and have the ability to decide which is the most important to work on. But I would never point out anything specific without being asked.
I have a friend that I play a lot with and he knows my background. He's really been struggling. A few times I've told him that his downswing is very steep and if he'd like we can go to the range and I'd be happy to help him with it.
But here is another point. Seeing a fault is one thing. Being able to give advice on how to correct it is another and the player's willingness to go out and work on that specific point is the third and possibly most important step to improving. One of the great teachers in history once said to me that we cannot really teach people how to play golf. We can only show them how to learn.
And that is the biggest point. In order to improve a player has to work on specific movements in a swing. That has to be done at a range and will take many hours to get down. This idea that you're going to point out some little thing in a players motion (and most of the time it's irrelevant to what's causing the problem) and suddenly all his problems will be over is ludicrous.
I find it amusing to go to a range and see a husband trying to teach his wife to play. I played behind a foursome last week where one guy was standing in front of the other three teaching them how to play. Watching the "instructor" I got the impression that was about an 18 handicapper who was trying attempting to teach some 30 handicappers.
Everyone thinks that they're a teacher. Teaching golf involves a lot more than simply seeing something that you think might be wrong and telling the person. And just because a person is a good player doesn't mean that he/she is a good teacher. Not all of the great teachers in history were tour players and of those who were, were not hugely successful on tour. Most of the tour players coaches today were not tour caliber players. I've taught players that were much better than I. In most cases, players play and teachers teach. Bill Belichick never played in the NFL.