Everyone knows there are no magic pills for improving a golf game. You, as the professional, must trust your knowledge and track record of success. The goal is to make long-lasting, incremental improvements over time. Encourage your students to be patient with you, as well as themselves.
By Matt Kilgariff, Director of Player Development, The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe (Calif.)
When it comes to teaching, be sure to stick with “your” instructional process. Do not be tempted to skip over important steps that have worked for you and your students in the past, regardless of how hard a student may push for a “quick fix.”
Everyone knows there are no magic pills for improving a golf game. So you, as the professional, must trust your knowledge, process, and track record of success.
An improvement-process plan for any golfer is driven by your initial assessment. You will need a thorough understanding of underlying issues, to diagnose and assist with corrections. A plan is then developed, followed by the orchestration and execution of that plan. Remember that you and your student are a team on this journey, and you both need to understand the plan and allow for input.
Along the path, appropriate tweaks and changes will be necessary while maintaining trust in your initial assessment that helped to build the improvement plan. As the teacher, you will continuously need to be curious and consistently ask yourself many “why” questions, such as:
• Why did the ball do what it just did?
• Why does the clubface turn the way it does?
• Why is the path of the club traveling the way it is?
• Why does this student set up as they do?
As you answer your own questions, you will be able to get to the root cause of problems and provide the proper “prescriptions.” Instructors often take a Band-Aid approach and just attack symptoms, rather than taking enough time during the assessment stage to dig deep and understand the issues.
Here is a good example of what I mean by this: The clubface dictates what the path needs to be to make solid contact. If you choose to work on path only and do not address clubface issues, your student will never fully correct their swing and ultimately fail in achieving their goals. These situations are a lose/lose for both of you. The student feels like a failure, and there is a big possibility that you will lose them as a student.
Communicating effectively with your student is very critical for the overall success of any plan. Students must understand their “opportunities” for improvement, why you’re asking them to make changes, and what the expected outcome of those changes can and should be. Elaborate by explaining the cause and effect of any change.
Be honest and compassionate with your students. Tell them that you understand that making any type of change can be challenging, and that this is especially true with the great game of golf. Remind them that very few players master this game. Share that improvement in this sport is low and slow, like a marathon, versus fast and furious like a sprint.
The goal is to make long-lasting, incremental improvements over time. Encourage your students to “trust the process” and be patient with you, as well as themselves.
Need help learning how to assess, diagnose and prescribe the proper fix? I highly recommend going to the Titleist Performance Institute, which developed a program to train Golf Professionals, Personal Trainers, Physical Therapists, Chiropractors and Medical Practitioners for how to understand the correlation between a golfer’s physical limitations and their swing flaws.
In my many years of teaching and studying this game, success comes back to one thing—running your process every time, without fail.
Matt Kilgariff is a PGA professional who spent much of his career working for Butch Harmon and the Harmon Family. He is currently the Director of Player Development at The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Prior to joining The Bridges, Kilgariff was Director of Player Development at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Matt has also been part of TaylorMade’s National Advisory Staff since 2012.
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