Why do you take a golf lesson? Why do you listen to your golf buddy’s advice about what you are doing wrong? What is your goal in either of these instances? I would hope the goal in either of these cases is to play better. It seems like an obvious answer but based on some of the advice I hear given, or tips my students have received from former instructors, I am not convinced that the person giving the advice has your clear cut goal in mind.
All too often, advice is given to a student or a friend based on how a golf swing looks rather than how it performs. Another way to refer to this scenario is people being coached on their Style rather than their Skills. The result of this is more confusion, maybe a more traditional looking swing yet the performance is still as poor or worse.
Allow me to give you a few examples:
A friend of mine is an exceptional player. Right out of college he started making money playing professionally and won a Mini-Tour event just a few weeks after earning his degree. After a strong six months of playing he started to get into a bit of a slump. He was by no means playing horrible golf but was just not as sharp as he had been. He turned to his swing coach for a tune-up and got an overhaul. Posture changes, swing plane changes to places it had never been etc. I had a long conversation with this young man about what was going on with his game. As it turned out, he was doing a lot of good things but had simply lost his normal, expert control of the clubface. After spending some time working solely on his ability to deliver the clubface as he wanted, he was able to regain his ability to hit solid shots that flew to the target. He was lacking in a particular skill, he addressed only that skill and was back on the right track.
Another case study is of a high school player that takes a lesson a week from her “teacher.” They use 3D Motion analysis in all of her lessons and she has memorized many of the particular angles, degrees of rotation, side bend amounts etc. that the 3D machine has listed as optimal. Despite all of this, she has the uncanny ability to deliver a clubface that is consistently 15 to 20 degrees right of her target. She knows all the numbers but can hit shot after shot a mile off line!
Finally, reflecting back on my visit to the Ryder Cup a few weeks ago, I saw players with some unique swings that obviously have become the world’s elite players. To name a few, Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia and of course Jim Furyk all have quite unique swings. I would venture to say that if as developing players these gentlemen were forced to fit their swings into a look that was more traditional, we might never have heard of them. Furyk’s posture and backswing are “wrong.” McDowell’s clubface is “shut”, Garcia’s plane is “way off” and well Bubba’s swing is just……wow.
These players look different but have amazing skill to strike the ball solidly, with expert control of the clubface, not to mention hitting the ball tremendous distances. They may look different but are some of the best in the world.
In order to be a better golfer, look to develop better skills. Put that ability in front of what your swing looks like. The goal should be to consistently hit the ball solidly and have it fly with a consistent shape to the target. How it “looks” to others should always be secondary to that.
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