Director of Instruction
Trump National Golf Club
For quite some time, we have been moving into a new era of teaching.
The days of an instructor trying to find out as many things as possible about your personality and your game in a two- minute drive out to the practice tee should be over.
The instructor asks you to hit some shots, and then will proceed as if they were blindfolded throwing darts at a board to pick one of the many issues the player is exhibiting.
As chance might have it, the player might improve for a split second during the lesson only to learn that no progress has truly been made for the long-term.
I know what you’re thinking, there must be an easier way, and you’re right! Contrary to popular belief, the game of golf is not that hard to learn, mentally or physically.
The question is, who is teaching you? If an Instructor passes on to a student what he read in a book, is that teaching? I don’t believe that students should receive the full amount of blame for the average handicap not changing for half a century. I believe there is a right and wrong way to teach, and if the instructor is truly passionate about his craft they will always find the best way to improve the players game.
Most, if not all, great Instructors have said that students should be taught the game from the ground up, start from the short game and work to the long game.
Think of how we all learn starting from kindergarten to when we finally graduate high school. Our parents didn’t send us to school only to say “Go learn whatever you want.” Can you imagine at age 5 if we were being taught trigonometry before learning basic math skills?
If you’re being taught swing plane and it’s the second lesson with your new Instructor, run for the hills!
