"I do that"

Most golf coaches don’t have an online profile (their fault not mine) and might be somewhat envious of any exposure I get. They are also probably naive as to what I do and how I coach because they’re stuck in their traditional mindset. This is all OK and I always look forward to the challenge of meeting/playing/socialising with PGA members.

But it annoys me when they pick my brains about my coaching style and ideas and then tell me, “I do that” or “that’s what I do”.

It’s crap. Late last year a golf pro started asking the usual questions about this golf blog and The Golf Tribe.

Each time I told him about my methodologies he repeated, “that’s what I do”. Every time. He kept asking questions and it was obvious he was clueless and was digging deep to learn some more. The frustrating thing was he wasn’t honest (or brave) enough to admit he didn’t know; because I would have been more than happy to share my experiences with him.

He got to me. I tried avoiding him – but he persisted with his questions.

Enough. I was fed up with his bullshit.

So I told him. I said he didn’t understand automatic golf and he didn’t teach what I teach. I felt uncomfortable and relieved at the same time.

He tried to back pedal. He made excuses. He attempted to justify his coaching ideas and concepts are like mine.

I didn’t hold back. I finished off with:

You don’t teach Einsteining
You don’t teach your clients how to walk to the ball
You don’t understand where the eyes need to look when approaching the ball
You don’t know why visualising is the worst thing you can do when trying to play golf
You don’t teach clients to automate their swing
In fact, you don’t understand the automatic process at all because you’ve never learned about it

Things ended quite well. He apologised and we had a great discussion about golf and all things coaching. The day ended how it should have gone from the start. My little outburst was out of character but it certainly broke his stubborn mindset.

This blog post is not about bashing PGA members. Not at all. It’s about opening their minds to different ideas and getting them to admit they don’t know everything about the game (because who does?). Most importantly I’m hoping they can learn not to be intimidated by other coaches who are not PGA members or from those that have ideas that differ from the traditional mindset.

What’s the main point here?

If all coaches can be more understanding and open to new (or different) ideas golf coaching will take a leap forward. This will then allow all golfers to experience the magic of improved performance and just maybe something profound can be created.

Then everyone wins.