About to get my first lesson

[Cantankerish]

Heya.  I am going to my first lesson in a few hours.  It is technically called a swing evaluation. I am unlikely to be able to get many lessons purely due to the price tag.  So I would like to hear some wisdom on how to get the most out of the lesson.  (After it is done, I will probably have additional questions I bet.)  The company is golftec.  I have seen the place.  They have a pretty sophisticated setup and a team of instructors.

What do you wish you had asked at your first lesson?

What should I be looking for to gauge the quality of the instruction?

What can I do while in the lesson to get the most out of my time?

 

Thanks for your thoughtful responses.

[Double Mocha Man]

At a minimum get a printout or write down all your numbers from their Trackman, or whatever else they use.  Those will be valuable for the future, with club fitting or additional lessons from other teachers.  Or even self-teaching via online videos or books.

[ShawnSum]

Well what are your goals for this lesson? You've clearly put some thought into it and are willing to go out and seek instruction to get better, so what lead up to this? Whatever the answer is to the above, that's probably what you need to be filling them in on.

My first lesson was when I was around 20 years old, my natural swing produces a nasty high slice..at the time I wanted to get better and wanted to take things more seriously. So in my mind the only way to do that was to go out and have someone teach me what I'm doing wrong. That was my reason for going..I wanted to learn how to correct the wrong that I was doing. 

Hope it goes well for you!

[Double Mocha Man]

11 minutes ago, Cantankerish said:

Heya.  I am going to my first lesson in a few hours.  It is technically called a swing evaluation. I am unlikely to be able to get many lessons purely due to the price tag.  So I would like to hear some wisdom on how to get the most out of the lesson.  (After it is done, I will probably have additional questions I bet.)  The company is golftec.  I have seen the place.  They have a pretty sophisticated setup and a team of instructors.

What do you wish you had asked at your first lesson?

What should I be looking for to gauge the quality of the instruction?

What can I do while in the lesson to get the most out of my time?

 

Thanks for your thoughtful responses.

Quality of the instruction?  They need to tailor teaching to you, to your mindset, to your particular swing.  Not just apply one-size-fits-all instruction.  If you hear the pro giving the same exact swing keys to the person next to you on the range, ask for a refund.

Edited July 31, 2019 by Double Mocha Man

[Patch]

Best thing to do without follow up lessons, is to take a copious amount of notes on your swing evaluation. Write down or record everything the guru tells you is wrong with your swing. Also the good stuff. 

Then with that swing info in hand, read up on, and understand about the swing issues you came away with. Do this on your own. You can also ask questions about you evaluation on TST. Their info is pretty sound. 

I have been to our local GolfTech store. (years ago) My guess is you won't get a full evaluation on your swing. They will want you to return for further evaluations. Caveat Emptor.

 

[jlbos83]

I think you can get decent instruction at GolfTec, though it of course depends.  In the evaluation, I expect they will key in on you biggest (or perhaps easiest to fix) flaw, so that you leave feeling like you are better than when you went in.

However, if price tag is you issue, they are not the place to go.  They are going to try to sell you a series of lessons.  The advantage is that it sort of forces you to follow through.  The disadvantage is that they are not cheap.

[dennyjones]

You should see if you can get a video of the lesson along with a lesson plan.    Whatever, make sure to practice what your instructor suggests.   Practice until you have accomplished the lesson plan.   If you have questions, ask!   Find out if you can text, call or email him to ask questions.

Good luck...Keep us updated.

[Zippo]

Is there a reason you chose GolfTec as opposed to online instruction such as Evolvr?

[Cantankerish]

Zippo, the place is nearly walking distance from my home. I know...Florida.  Anyway, I am very pleased that I did.  The lesson exceeded my expectations in nearly every way.

The guy, Nick Content, was very knowledgeable and friendly.  He had a firm lesson plan, but he was entirely willing to let me choose what to focus on.  He had a presentation planned that included how to get me to sign on to a bunch of lessons.  But when I was clear that I just wanted the one evaluation, he immediately abandoned the plan to devote more time to what I wanted.  Then he spent extra time with me and let me pepper him with questions after time was out.  Bravo, man.

The entire lesson was recorded and he was organizing it into sections as we went to make it easier for me to look up events without having to search the entire video.  The audio is us talking and stuff.  The video is whatever is on the computer, mostly my swings compared to some pros with his notations and numerical breakdowns.

He also had me hooked up to equipment that 3d modeled my swing with focus on turn radius and comparisons to tour pros. Naturally, there was also a launch monitor with an analysis of all of the details you would expect.  It made a big difference that he was there to tell me exactly why the ball's path was happening, though I think I mostly understand the mathematics of all that now.

This part is the single biggest advantage of this lesson though: I have got myself into a condition of poor swing with bandages all over it to sorta cover that condition up.  I have been aware of it, but I do not have the ability to identify and correct the root issues.  He was able to do this.  In the past I would experiment with a change and I would get bad results, so I would abandon the change as wrong.  But I can now see that some of those changes were correct, but I had to change more than one thing at once to see the benefits.  At the driving range by myself and conscious that I was putting a puzzle together without a clue what the final picture looks like, that had always been beyond me.

I have not tried any of this at the range yet, and I have been let down by apparent progress before.  But I now have hard facts for the first time, rather than just guesses.  I KNOW that my swing plane was about 5-10 degrees too steep.  I KNOW that my grip was too strong in an attempt to counter that, resulting in less consistent strikes.  I KNOW what I need to do to correct all of this, and I practiced it hooked up and on camera to see what works.  Etc.  It is all available on their website for me to use as reference.  He annotated what we discussed as well as the proposed solutions.  He included videos of drills to help me achieve this.

Golftec was wonderful. Noobs like me should take a lesson - don't go cheap on it either - learn what you can, and then consider if you want another.

Caveat - Six months ago I would not have benefited from this experience nearly as much.  Joining this web site & learning the mechanics, jargon, and simple necessity of a good swing were all helpful for me to get the most out of it.  In other words, I knew what I wanted going in, right down to the last minute input from you guys.  Thanks for contributing.

I was swinging great at the place. I will update this thread at least one more time with my ability to retain the knowledge and put it to use.

[DaveP043]

Glad it worked out so well for you.  I guess the one thing to ask, after this one session, do you have a single specific change that you'll try to make right now?  Or maybe a couple?  That's one thing I've learned here, its difficult to make a number of changes all at once, the job at hand needs to be pretty focused in order to be effective.

[ShawnSum]

Glad to hear it went well for you!!

[Zippo]

2 hours ago, Cantankerish said:

Zippo, the place is nearly walking distance from my home. I know...Florida.  Anyway, I am very pleased that I did.  The lesson exceeded my expectations in nearly every way.

Hey! Sounds like you really enjoyed your lesson. Glad to hear it!

[FlyingAce]

I take lessons from Golftec. They should be having a sale right now that’s up to 20% off and if you buy 10 of more lessons, the swing evaluation is free. I purchased 15 lessons last August and just finished them. I go once a month just to make sure I did not develop any bad habits unknowingly along the way. I started last August with a 11.7 hcp and I am a 7.0 today. Very happy with the results. It is expensive but I think it is worth it.

Glad to hear your evaluation went well and that you have gotten some tips on what to work on. I’d rather take 1 quality lesson every month than a couple cheaper lessons.

[chilepepper]

Hopefully you’ve come away with one or two key things to work on. NOT a laundry list of stuff that will only hinder you

[Cantankerish]

There were a number of proposed changes.  But I really benefited from the lessons I have learned here.  I was able to comprehend his analysis and discuss it. So I was able to ask the right questions.  The result is that, while there are a number of details, I think I know how to work on one issue at a time.

Driving range went well.  As long as I focus on the recommendations from the lesson, I am good. Now, to make that natural...Gonna take some time and practice.

My neighbor mentioned to me that he has taken many lessons, and that the benefits did not stick.  Naturally that has stoked my fears, but I suspect that it will not be my fate.

I have my guesses but I can’t help wonder what causes that.

Edited August 3, 2019 by Cantankerish

[dennyjones]

Continue to focus on "your" priority piece and practice until it is second nature.    Good luck

[easyjay39402]

Glad to hear you had a great experience with Golftec! My daughter gave me a package of lessons with them for my birthday, and my first, the swing evaluation, is on Friday. I’m really looking forward learning more about my current swing. My last six rounds have been in the high 70s, which is good for me, but I struggle with the driver. I can see my swing flaw on video, but have not been able to figure out what is causing it.