What’s the best way to develop a golfer?

[Rebecca Wilson]

As this is my favourite subject, I am going to thoroughly enjoy expanding on it. The process has three important factors:

1) Mentally
Be capable of controlling the interference that comes from the conscious mind.

2) Physically
Although most sports require fairly uniform physical attributes, I can quite positively say for golf, although it can help to have a good regime, there are no absolutes. Example: John Daly, Monte and all.

3) Gross motor skills
This is certainly the most important factor to develop a golfer, which is without doubt what moves them to a totally different level.

I will be discussing and devoting all my efforts on this page to gross motor skills development. Be warned, you’ve now got me started on my passion and I hope this spills over to you, the reader.

When I started learning golf at 8 years old, my simple adaptation of my already developed motor skills were transported to an entirely new level by a so called Inner Game coach. His method entailed using these skills and he preached that from the day I was born, long before I could talk, along with all other babies, I was busy developing these skills.

By the age of two, we had more or less learned the basic mechanics for walking, jumping, climbing, throwing, pushing, pulling and many more. From this age until about our sixth year we smooth out these skills and the speed of development had long since reached its peak. A child learns these skills by example and imitates its peers.

It is very important to consider the importance of this learning curve and its significance to developing a golfer. I started at eight, a perfect age where the natural learning process is still achieved through example. If you compare this to an adult’s learning process which is unfortunately hampered through an array of verbal instruction and endless questions and answers.

I always find it amusing the difficulties many adults have when they take up golf. He/she starts this game and hits the ball pretty good with a natural feel for the swing and when adjusted to the ‘model swing’ cannot hit it any more. I see it time and time again. They holler,

"What am I doing wrong?"

Quite simply, nothing is wrong other than the fact that they are trying to control their motor skills with verbal commands. Now take young children, they rarely feels that they are doing anything wrong.

Why?

Easy, because they are still young enough to learn by example and have the patience to make mistakes. Just like when we all started to walk but spent more time picking ourselves up.

Did we get frustrated to the point of asking what we were doing wrong?

Or does every fall lead to an improvement in our motor skills?

Here lies the secret of how to best develop a golfer.

[soon_tourpro]

High intensity focused deep deliberate practice on variation making it perfect.

[Shorty]

This isn't another of Patrick's personalities, is it? The pattern is the same. A thread title which is a question and then a long winded essay.

[Mr. Desmond]

Best way to develop a golfer?

Keep them away from:

Hank Haney

Jim Hardy

Golf Magazines

[Rebecca Wilson]

Originally Posted by Shorty

This isn't another of Patrick's personalities, is it?

The pattern is the same. A thread title which is a question and then a long winded essay.

Patrick?

Long winded?

[Rebecca Wilson]

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

Best way to develop a golfer?

Keep them away from:

Hank Haney

Jim Hardy

Golf Magazines

And David Leadbetter, I agree

The Harmon brothers as well maybe.

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by Shorty

This isn't another of Patrick's personalities, is it?

The pattern is the same. A thread title which is a question and then a long winded essay.

In case you didn't see, it is Patrick, dude has some serious issues

[iacas]

Originally Posted by mvmac

In case you didn't see, it is Patrick, dude has some serious issues

Whoops. Shorty may have called it. Elsewhere I think I gave credit to sean_miller. Maybe they both did. I don't know.

To be clear, the topics Patrick57 started aren't necessarily bad. So if we can let's get back to topic, even if it was started by yet another alias of Patrick57.

[Zeph]

First and foremost I would make sure the player knows the ball flight laws and the basic fundamentals of how the swing works. Why do you hit it fat, why do you hit it thin, how do you hit it well. Since feel is not real, a video could go a long way. You can get there on your own, but it takes some dedication. The best way to improve is by learning the basics yourself; ball flight laws, etc. Then find a decent instructor. Without knowledge, you can't rate how good the instructor is of course, which can be a big bump for a lot of people. Sadly, a lot of players out there struggle because they are using wrong and poor information. One guy can improve in big strides with a good instructor and stay put with a bad one. If you really want to get better, you'll gain a lot by doing some research yourself. It gives you a better starting point and makes the process easier. You may also get some ideas on how to evaluate instructors.

[x129]

I know I am going to regret this but what is wrong with Hardy? I don't know much about him but a lot of other pros speak very highly of his teaching and the couple of articles I read seemed pretty sane.  But any of the guys that have been around long enough seem to have some crazy ideas somewhere in their past.

As far as golf magazines, you just have to read 30% of the tips. Good luck picking the right ones.

Originally Posted by Rebecca Wilson

And David Leadbetter, I agree

The Harmon brothers as well maybe.

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

Best way to develop a golfer?

Keep them away from:

Hank Haney

Jim Hardy

Golf Magazines

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by x129

I know I am going to regret this but what is wrong with Hardy? I don't know much about him but a lot of other pros speak very highly of his teaching and the couple of articles I read seemed pretty sane.  But any of the guys that have been around long enough seem to have some crazy ideas somewhere in their past.

Hardy imo is a great guy and done a lot of good for the game.  The biggest negative imo is that his mentor is John Jacobs who came up with the 9 Ball Flights, that we now know are incorrect.  Path controlled start line etc.  And some of the arm stuff with Hardy can get  a little wonky.  But in a general sense I think the swing info is better than the other guys mentioned.

[Patrick57]

Originally Posted by Zeph

First and foremost I would make sure the player knows the ball flight laws and the basic fundamentals of how the swing works. Why do you hit it fat, why do you hit it thin, how do you hit it well.

Since feel is not real, a video could go a long way.

You can get there on your own, but it takes some dedication. The best way to improve is by learning the basics yourself; ball flight laws, etc. Then find a decent instructor. Without knowledge, you can't rate how good the instructor is of course, which can be a big bump for a lot of people. Sadly, a lot of players out there struggle because they are using wrong and poor information.

One guy can improve in big strides with a good instructor and stay put with a bad one. If you really want to get better, you'll gain a lot by doing some research yourself. It gives you a better starting point and makes the process easier. You may also get some ideas on how to evaluate instructors.

Bottom line Zeth, at least 90% of your improvement is down to your own efforts.

[Patrick57]

Originally Posted by mvmac

Hardy imo is a great guy and done a lot of good for the game.  The biggest negative imo is that his mentor is John Jacobs who came up with the 9 Ball Flights, that we now know are incorrect.  Path controlled start line etc.  And some of the arm stuff with Hardy can get  a little wonky.  But in a general sense I think the swing info is better than the other guys mentioned.

I think to put a negative against Jacobs for coming up with the original laws is unjustified. He used inferior equipment to devise those laws. I demonstrate these laws without using any electonic equipment because that's the way we have to play the shot. I do however deserve more criticism than Jacobs for being unaware of the new laws but in saying that I can still curve balls efficiently using the basic principles of the old laws.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Patrick57

Bottom line Zeth, at least 90% of your improvement is down to your own efforts.

Who cares what % a student wants to credit to his instructor? In some ways it's 100% the student since he's the one swinging the club. In other ways whatever % credit he wants to assign to his instructor is probably accurate as well.

I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't care less about what % credit I "get" for the improvements my students make.

Originally Posted by Patrick57

I think to put a negative against Jacobs for coming up with the original laws is unjustified. He used inferior equipment to devise those laws. I demonstrate these laws without using any electonic equipment because that's the way we have to play the shot. I do however deserve more criticism than Jacobs for being unaware of the new laws but in saying that I can still curve balls efficiently using the basic principles of the old laws

Stating that someone was wrong is not "putting a negative" against them. It's a simple statement of fact: Jacobs was wrong. Doesn't mean he was a bad person or something. You demonstrate what laws? Not the ones Jacobs taught. Nope. Physics are the same everywhere. The ball does not start on the direction of your swing path and finish where the face is pointing, sorry. You cannot demonstrate those laws.

Can we move beyond the BFL discussion now, please?

[Patrick57]

Originally Posted by iacas

Who cares what % a student wants to credit to his instructor? In some ways it's 100% the student since he's the one swinging the club. In other ways whatever % credit he wants to assign to his instructor is probably accurate as well.

I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't care less about what % credit I "get" for the improvements my students make.

I totally agree and am more than happy to know that somehow I have managed to contribute to their enjoyment of the sport. The more they enjoy our coaching sessions the better chance they have to improve.

Originally Posted by iacas

Stating that someone was wrong is not "putting a negative" against them. It's a simple statement of fact: Jacobs was wrong. Doesn't mean he was a bad person or something. You demonstrate what laws? Not the ones Jacobs taught. Nope. Physics are the same everywhere. The ball does not start on the direction of your swing path and finish where the face is pointing, sorry. You cannot demonstrate those laws.

Jacob's wasn't really wrong, just the game didn't have or use the specific technology required for the facts. To the best of his knowledge he was providing some useful facts to golfers. I am actually still happy that his laws have helped me to understand the basics of BF.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Patrick57

Jacob's wasn't really wrong, just the game didn't have or use the specific technology required for the facts.

Jacobs was wrong. The ball does not, in fact, behave or react the way he stated.

We're not discussing BFL anymore, Patrick.

[Patrick57]

Originally Posted by iacas

Jacobs was wrong. The ball does not, in fact, behave or react the way he stated.

We're not discussing BFL anymore, Patrick.

But you must have sworn by the OBFL at some time or are you too young?

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by Patrick57

Jacob's wasn't really wrong, just the game didn't have or use the specific technology required for the facts. To the best of his knowledge he was providing some useful facts to golfers. I am actually still happy that his laws have helped me to understand the basics of BF.

Physics wasn't any different when Jacobs came up with the laws

Originally Posted by Patrick57

But you must have sworn by the OBFL at some time or are you too young?

I think most golfers are taught the OBFL, doesn't mean they are correct.  When shown the correct info, Erik, like me, changed our approach.  Made more sense to me and why I hated hitting draws on the course.