Golf - A Game that has become too tough to learn!

Golf - A game that is now too tough to learn!

Do you find the game complicated, confusing and frustrating? Have you given up on ever being able to understand all the instructional jargon let alone play better? Do you get worse the harder you try? If this is you, then you have found you way to the right place. The Golfwise project is taking on the monumental task of overhauling the way golf is coached.

The notoriously difficult game that’s enjoyed, or should we say endured, by millions around the world is “stuck in a rut”, or more accurately a mind-set, of complexity”

The problem is becoming more compounded because the way the game is taught today is growing in ever more complexity with modern technology surprisingly as one of the reasons behind this.

In recent years, there has been a drop off in people coming into the game and while there is not one singular reason why this is, the games difficulty is definitely a contributing factor!

It fair to say that societies expectation of instant gratification and the game of golf have never been bed mates and the continued complication of instruction of the game drives the two ever further apart.

We have reached the saturation point now whereby the game has become too tough to be taught because of the enormous amount of detail or “informational noise” out there to digest. Information has become the sole focus to the point where the holistic dynamic swing becomes non-existent; replaced by an informationally overloaded fragmented swing that will not deliver even though it can sometimes look OK to the eye.

I am a big believer in teaching people how to learn instead of teaching people how to get bogged down in a mass of conscious positional reference points that basically jams the mother of all spanners into the works.

I often use the analogy of a toddler learning to walk to explain the difference between been coached and actual learning. A toddler is not taught how to walk, it just learns how to do it with the all-important process of feedback providing the catalyst to success. The youngster takes one step, falls, gets up and has another go but this time armed with the feedback from his first effort or “failure.” The next attempt does not show visible improvement but learning was there in the process non-the less. After maybe 10 or 20 or more goes, he can then put 2 steps together and so it goes on. Mistakes are critical to learning any skill. There is no other way to do it.

Imagine having a toddler and teaching them to read, write and develop basic analytical skills and only then teach them how to walk by verbal instruction in a classroom environment. The amount of instruction required to analyse would be massively overwhelming. It would be catastrophic! Remember, we learn how to drive a motor car by trial and error. The early simple verbal instructions become instinctive reactions in response to the “fail and have another go” process. Can you imagine what a disaster it would be If all you had to do to get your driving licence was complete a seated multiple-choice exam paper and achieve 75% to get your car keys!

I am more and more critical of the prevailing failed system of coaching that is totally lacking a simplified methodology of swing instruction working in conjunction with a proper understanding of adult learning psychology. I am not one of those people who simply trashes a system and walks away. On the contrary, my studies and experience in the game since 1978 has given rise to an alternative approach that I have used for nearly 24 years now when I moved away from video style coaching and its freeze frame function having realised that over studying “static points” kills the essential dynamics that give the swing its purpose.” David Leadbetter finally came out last year speaking of the damage created by too much hi-tech analysis.

My coaching methods enable the player to bring out their natural abilities that would otherwise be held in check by a mental straitjacket of their own making due to the flawed coaching system!

Virtually everyone has sufficient natural ability and talent to play to a far better standard than where they currently are. If you can catch a ball thrown across a room then you have sufficient coordination skills to succeed.

Quite simply there is far too much flawed coaching and not enough proper learning going on.

The challenge is to get yourself into a proper learning situation?

This project will not only explain the flawed foundation on which traditional coaching is based but will go on to reveal a far simpler approach that will be totally understandable to the golfer either wanting to learn the game or wanting to improve their existing golf game.

I am disappointed that the coaching establishment have been negligent in trying to understand just why the game tends to be so difficult. My philosophy is one of simplicity. The endurance of the traditional approach is down to a mind-set amongst coaches who are unknowingly stuck in a paradigm of “It’s the way we have always done it.” No one, seems to question anything anymore which results in no one even bothering to look for the “simplicity beyond the complexity” that Tommy Armour, one of the games past legends espoused.

There are too many analysts and coaches who delve ever deeper into fragmenting the swing into its endless individual parts believing that somewhere in the detail is a secret. This is like looking at a painting on a canvas from such close range that you cannot see what the picture is.

I doubt this project will make me popular within the coaching establishment and fellow Pros but I am not in this as a popularity contest and will not lose a great deal of sleep over it. I just happen to have a lifetime of experience that spells out a different story to the one that currently holds sway. It is the culmination of my time in the game and I don’t want it to go to the grave with me.