From the ”Great Golf Questions" series by Alex Nicolson PGA, Founder Premium Golf Ltd.
There is a cultural misconception that a golf lesson is an exchange of money for information. However, the idea that your brain can just translate a coach’s instructions into skill poorly reflects the reality of getting better at things - we’re not robots. True physical learning is more organic; task-driven; an experience of targeted trial and error. Understanding how...
...a coach can truly help you will make the process of improvement much more fruitful for both the golfer and the coach.
Good coaching isn’t prescriptive
It’s not surprising that most golfers come to a lesson expecting to be prescribed what to do (“hold it like this, swing it like that”) - mass media instruction is all about telling you what to do. The result is information overload, poor performance under pressure and abandonment of any instinctive ability you had for the game. Good coaching, however, leverages your innate learning abilities.
Learning how to learn
Good technique evolves (and in the right conditions can evolve quickly) when the right ingredients for learning are present. For example; being clear on the underlying task, feeling free to adjust and adapt without the constraints of “what you’re supposed to do”, and immediate feedback from the coach to keep you on track, can produce brilliant results.
A good coach creates this dynamic and engaging environment in every lesson. (S)he does not bombard you with information, but, with good questions, (both verbal and in the form of physical tasks) coaxes out the mini struggles required to earn more skill and hit better shots.
Staying on track - longer term
With such a myriad of golf tips out there, it is easy to get distracted from what you were working on. With regular communication, your coach can ensure you don’t go off the reservation.
Motivation
If your learning is on an upward curve, performance will follow suit, but it’s not a steady journey. There will be bad rounds, and dips in motivation and self belief along the way, but your coach can be an abiding source of encouragement.
Commitment to the process
If you are a casual golfer for whom better golf is a bonus rather than a source of real satisfaction, taking the odd lesson reactively can be helpful. However, if the game means more to you than that, then both golfer and coach have to make a commitment to the process... A sufficient number of coaching hours, scheduled over the year, spaced around events you might be playing in. This way your coach knows that you are genuinely in it for the long haul and can ensure you get the maximum return for your efforts. It also means that the whole year isn’t derailed by a temporary loss of motivation.
Seeing a golf coach simply as a dispenser of information will limit your improvement. To get the most from your coaching, think of your coach more like a physical trainer. A good coach will motivate and challenge you, give accurate feedback, and progress tasks and exercises by the right amount at the right time... if you invest your time in the process.
Learn more about the ways in which you can become more skilful at golf - CLICK HERE.
How does the club need to be delivered to hit this shot?
From the "Great Golf Questions" series by Alex Nicolson PGA, Founder Premium Golf Ltd.
Context: range or course, pre-shot
Although most golfers rarely consider this, it is EXTREMELY relevant to preparing for your next shot.
There are two primary reasons why.
1) If you want the ball to travel in a certain way to your target, the only absolute is what the clubhead does to the ball through impact. Your body is capable of finding lots of different ways of getting this done, but the physics of the task are set in stone.
2) Our brain evolved to solve physical problems extremely well, but clarity of the underlying task is essential. In the case of a slightly drawn 7 iron to a tight pin position, the underlying task is what that gleaming piece of metal has to do to the ball to make it fly correctly. If the brain “gets” how you need the clubhead to smash through that ball, you’d be amazed, given the right conditions, how quickly your body can adapt to find a way.
A 3D journey
The clubhead’s journey is three dimensional, and might initially be hard to conceptualise at first. The club’s path, where the face is pointing and the point of impact on the club are some of the factors that golfers need to influence to hit the shot they want.
Although the terminology and numbers associated with the clubhead’s journey can seem inaccessible to non-coaches (e.g. a Trackman video), it is possible with good coaching and deduction, to form a more intuitive feel for it. This is considerably more useful when you’re actually playing.
The clubs journey to hit a deliberate fade
Focusing on the effect rather than the movement
I find that the average golfer devotes so much attention to a body-related swing thought, that their brain is starved of this vital information - what’s the effect you are trying to create?
The power of this question is it gives the brain a chance to direct your set-up and swing to improve without conscious interference. Kind of how we learnt other sports.
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Why performance goals might be damaging to your golf
It is embedded within the culture of golf that our score, our stats, our handicap are what the sport is about. The proportion of golfers who come to me stating handicap reduction is their primary motivation is significant. However there is interesting research to suggest that these goals can actually reduce performance.
Daniel Pink in his excellent book "Drive" laid out much research which found that for complex problems (like learning golf for example), focusing on the mastery of skill is more effective. This focus can be described as a "growth" mindset. It encourages a healthy relationship with failure which stimulates learning (and therefore future performance). An obsession with results is typical of a "fixed" mindset, one that can hinder learning.
Read more about this here.
Growth mindset - a good relationship with failure
Golf demands many skills and a good relationship with failure. In your next practice session or even the forthcoming season of golf, make learning and the pursuit of skill mastery your raison d'etre and two things will happen. Good results will be more likely to happen, and you'll have a much more fulfilling time along the way.
One of the most enjoyable moments in learning any sport is that point where you just “get it”. After an initial struggle you figure out how to stand up on a surfboard, curve a corner kick or flop a ball over a bunker. “I get it” moments are great because it’s the first time it actually feels repeatable, maybe even easy.
Although seldom discussed in golf instructional articles one of the keys that can unlock your natural ability and experience these moments is when you intuitively get the underlying task in a golf shot - the purpose of the swing.
"What does the club need to do to the ball to play this shot?"
However, when I ask golfers the crucial question “what does the club need to do to the ball to play this shot?” it normally reveals, at best, a sketchy understanding of what’s required. If the purpose of the swing is vague (or completely wrong), conflicting instructions are sent from the brain to the body and swing faults can quickly develop. If you ever see a golfer falling backwards after a shot, it’s possible their impact concept is that the club needs to “hit up” the ball to get it in the air.
Take the test
So the first thing to find out is whether your impact concept is helping or hindering you golf. You can get a feel for this by trying our Impact IQ survey here. We are conducting a national survey on it. Click here.
When we have compiled the results we send you a report which potentially could unlock some golfing talent that had been held back by faulty concept.
Aha moments
The good news is that when faulty concept is replaced with something accurate, the improvements can come extremely quickly. It’s as close to an “Aha” moment as we get in golf.
