Are golf videos useful to watch ?

Hello,

I am taking lessons from a golf instructor and overall he is quite good. I asked him about the usefulness of watching golf videos of youtube etc. He told me absolutely to stay away from watching generalized videos because he says each person is different and what you see in a video might not be applicable to you.

What do you all think ?

There are thousands of videos online and I thought some of them were quite good. Do the videos have to be so personalized ?

I am not saying to stop taking lessons and substitute it with videos. But if you watch videos in parallel to taking lessons do they help you ?

Thanks.

The problem with all videos is that most of the time you need to have a really good understanding of the golf swing to start with, only then will the video make sense to the viewer, who can then determine if the video and message is applicable to their own swing, providing they do in fact understand their own swing!

The pro teaching you has seen your swing, has observed your shots and would've determined what you should be working on improving. Do what he says, work hard at it and you will improve.

Thanks.

But how about short game videos like those for chipping and putting ? Since chipping, putting are touch and feel games aren't those videos also useful ?

Depends on the video.

~Video Lessons from GOLF Magazine's Play Like a Pro instruction book ----don't even have to buy the book to see the videos (an accumulation of bonus videos)

http://www.golf.com/instruction/video-lessons-golf-magazines-play-pro-instruction-book

If I were your coach, I'd worry that you're going to suffer from paralysis by analysis by watching too many videos. Some are good - but not "one size fits all". --some videos are bandaid fixes to common problems we hackers have - and you might find yourself adopting a lot of bandaids, making your swing very difficult/complicated.   But we hackers do have similar issues w/ our games, and some instructional videos that you find online are good in that respect.  I'd recommend staying away from Sean Foley videos - he's very complicated and difficult to follow, at least in my opinion.   I like Shawn Humphries - he has a good website. I also like Zach Allen who is often in Golf Tips Magazine. Both have websites if you google them.

I personnally have learned a lot from watching golf videos. I took up golf at age 54 and in less than two years I was shooting in the 80's. I took only a few lessons and 90% of what I know came from golf videos.

However, it is true that many videos are garbage, many present contradictory information and many may not apply to you.

What I do is that when I have a certain topic in mind, say take away, one plane swing, grip or whatever, I take the time and effort to watch around TEN videos on the exact same subject. I actually have fun doing it. I  look for patterns and common denominators. The garbage also becomes very apparent.  Most of the time, when watching ten or so videos on the same subject there is one that really clicks for me because some instructors are better at explaining things than others.

This has been my experience. But everybody is different and others may not have the same success.

I agree - you start hearing a common theme in the videos - and I too have been helped by videos and often go to them for refreshers when thing start to go astray on a part of the game.

I think depends on the video and the person watching.

There are a worrying amount of videos on YouTube giving just flat out incorrect information. But on the other hand there are a lot of good videos explaining concepts etc. I think the one's with tips/drills etc are good if you know your mechanics and can work out if the drill applies to your swing but if you don't understand those things certain drills can worsen your problems.

For example my current evolvr piece is to move the hands first in the downswing to create more distance between hands and right shoulder with the feel of karate chopping the ball with my left hand. However to someone coming "over the top" already this feel could just make it worse etc...