Understanding Instruction

[Patch]

I found this little tid-bit in an old "Business Today" magazine. 

"Communications Error. What is said, versus what is meant, versus what is heard, has all the ingredients for a perfect can of worms. "

The article was bout teaching young executives how to get their points across to those folks they supervise. I thought these words, more often than not,  would fit quite well between a golf swing instructor, and their student(s). 

[Buckeyebowman]

I can appreciate this. Many golf phrases are somewhat cryptic. "You're coming off the ball", "you're casting", "you're spinning out", "you're coming over the top", etc. It's hard to convey a physical movement and feeling via the spoken word. So much so that good instructors will put their hands on you and try to guide you through the proper motions.

[billchao]

It's called "noise" in communications the classes that I've taken. Basically the purpose of communications is to get your message across. If your audience fails to understand your message, regardless of how well you articulated it, you have not succeeded as a communicator.

Same would apply for golf (or any subject really) instruction. Doesn't matter how well you may know the golf swing; if you can't communicate to a student effectively, you can't teach them.

[Rainmaker]

I've been thinking a lot lately about why it's so hard to teach (and learn) golf  . . here is what I think . .

If an instructor, or anybody, could tell you how a particular move "feels like to you", they would become a millionaire overnight.  But they can't . .they can only tell you how it feels to them or how it feels to many people, etc.     

Because there is no one thing that the golf swing "is like" and there are many things it is "sort of like" or that certain parts of it are like . . .it's easy to get confused.  Does it feel like throwing sidearm?  Would that be how you throw sidearm or how I throw sidearm?  Maybe we throw sidearm the same way but it just doesn't feel like that to me. 

I've watched my 3 year old learn to eat with a spoon over the last year or so.  He's got it pretty well now but,for some reason, he just really struggled with it.  He tried to put it in his mouth sideways.  He rolled his wrists too early, lol, causing it to dump in his lap.  He's would see what we were doing but he didn't know yet what it felt like, so he didn't have "cognition" around the movements . .ie, he saw that we turned our wrists so he did, too . .but at the wrong time . .  because he didn't have the muscle coordination or whatever to know where his mouth was  - and there wasn't any way to really tell him. 

Even controlling his hands with the spoon didn't seem to help much.  It's like it's a different thing even to just be put through the motions vs truly understanding and having "cognition" of it . .the internal awareness that we are rotating the spoon to dump the food in our mouth . .not just to rotate it. 

edit - that last sentence sounds weird, lol . . I haven't made a full analysis of spoon mechanics.  I meant we turn our wrists to put the spoon in our mouth - not just for the sake of turning them.  We also don't turn them so the food falls out like he did, lol. 

Edited June 13, 2016 by Rainmaker

[Groucho Valentine]

Theres always going to be something lost in translation in terms of relating feel to a student. Especially during a full swing. But something instructors can always give concerte advice on is golf fundamentals like grip, alignment and posture. 

[Buckeyebowman]

There are so many subjective experiences that are hard to describe. Tell me how a slice of pizza tastes!

[boogielicious]

For me, the best instruction answers the questions, what, when, where, why and how. The who is obviously me. I tried a couple of instructors who just answered how. It wasn't until I took a clinic with Erik and Dave that the other questions were answered. 

[jkelley9]

I'm a young professional and truthfully I have struggled with this at my workplace ever since I started. I've gotten a lot better, though.

The best way to put it is my mind tries to talk as if I'm writing a research paper. A bunch of details, important or not, get mixed into my objective - mostly because I find them interesting. But "interesting" is not usually objective in production  My job is a process engineer, which translates to "chemical detective." So I get asked all the time by operators and non-technical staff why/how something happened, and I'll explain all the little pieces that go into why such-and-such happened. It won't even take me but 30 seconds to explain, but still... I should just break it down into the basics and leave some "unimportant" details out.

Oh and more on-topic is that in the chemical industry I have my own vocabulary I use that I've picked up from both my first plant and my current plant haha. I'll say things like "critters," "witches brew," "fairy dust," "mojo," "slop" and people seem to get what I'm talking so I think it helps haha. 

 

[Odogesq]

The best instructors I have had were always good at communicating their ideas and instructions in more than one way. A failure to communicate can just as easily be the result of a failure to grasp the target audience. People learn and communicate in all types of ways, and imoh, the best instructors will intuitively try different methods. For example, a student might be a visual learner, so demonstrating the proper sequence in person or on video will work better than explaining it verbally. Likewise, some people will learn better by physically being placed into positions and shown what "over the top" or "casting" means. Others, myself included, do better with certain concepts or mental swing thoughts. 

And now a side note/gripe related to this topic: In my experience, Americans  in general are poor communicators. Our educational system does not emphasize writing and proper grammar. As a result, people grow up and get jobs but struggle to articulate basic ideas, concepts, and messages. I say that regardless if your job oe stature in society, you will always have to communicate persuasively either verbally or in writing, and being able.to do so is a life skill everyone should have. Fortunately, that apparently does not stop people from making money because I can't even begin to tell you how many documents I have read that were written by wealthy individuals but totally lacking in cohesiveness. If I was king, I would ensure that the first 10 years or so of a child's education was spent learning to communicate using the English language, both in writing and orally.

[iacas]

On June 13, 2016 at 3:38 PM, Rainmaker said:

If an instructor, or anybody, could tell you how a particular move "feels like to you", they would become a millionaire overnight.  But they can't . .they can only tell you how it feels to them or how it feels to many people, etc.

Do you take lessons?

Because… I can get anyone to do the thing I want them to do and feel it. I do this by… having them do it properly. Sometimes they can put it into words, sometimes they say "it feels like… this."

You don't have to say what it feels like to someone, you often simply have to get the person to do it. It's often slow, and very specific, and that's it. There are a lot of ways to do it - mimicry, slow motion, mirror work, related moves that you can modify a bit, etc.

[Rainmaker]

28 minutes ago, iacas said:

Do you take lessons?

Because… I can get anyone to do the thing I want them to do and feel it. I do this by… having them do it properly. Sometimes they can put it into words, sometimes they say "it feels like… this."

You don't have to say what it feels like to someone, you often simply have to get the person to do it. It's often slow, and very specific, and that's it. There are a lot of ways to do it - mimicry, slow motion, mirror work, related moves that you can modify a bit, etc.

Right - I actually think we're talking about the same thing except . .except I'm saying - if you could figure out a way to just "give us the understanding of the movement we'll have after practicing it a lot" then that would be great and save a lot of time, lol. 

It's sort of like learning piano, which I'm also doing, but there I feel like I'm "re-programming my brain circuits" to allow my fingers to make movements they already know how to make - just more and more independently and accurately.  With golf I feel more like my 3 year old son, rotating the spoon too early, dumping food in his lap and not really understanding why that just happened. 

I do take lessons - not as many as I should but I've been taking a lot since around March. 

[Hiway1tele]

On 6/12/2016 at 9:39 PM, billchao said:

Same would apply for golf (or any subject really) instruction. Doesn't matter how well you may know the golf swing; if you can't communicate to a student effectively, you can't teach them.

and I have had many Golf Coaches that cant teach whatsoever...because you can play under par, doesnt mean you can teach someone with no ability to understand and learn the game of golf...I was lucky to have found maybe 3 that could teach and actually help students learn to play...