Golf is like a love affair. If you don’t take it seriously, It’s no fun; If you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart. Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots – But you have to play the ball where it lies.
How to Find a Golf Coach
The best method for finding the right golf coach or instructor is to first know what type of student you are. This is probably more important, in the game of the golf than other sport. If you are a mechanical player, you will struggle with some types of instructors, who don’t care to explain the details. If you are a feel player, a mechanical coach wouldn’t fit, either, as they tend to over-teach. Know that you are a student of golf and that key information comes from the darndest places, at the darndest times. Self discover is the only way to learn the game of golf. (in my humble opinion). The right coach will spend more time learning what your swing is doing, vs not doing. I remembered some of my best epiphanies in the game were on the range, where a suggestion was made for a swing thought. Here’s one of the world’s best-known golf coaches; Hank Haney. He has great student advice here
How to Sort Golf Advice
True learning is accomplished when an idea is taken apart in the mind and can be put back together. I’ve read everything from Ben Hogan’s “5 Lessons” to Tiger Woods’ “How I Play Golf”, “Golf My Way”, Jack Nicholas. The one thing they have going for them is the confidence it took to explain what they had figured it out. This “discovery through a confidence” is a key and critical element to play golf successfully. And this type of discovery does take time; for the impatient lose many important lessons.
Unsolicited Advice
The best advice to soliciting golf advice is “don’t”… If your playing partner starts talking about their swing, and you see something simple and obvious, then ask if they’d like a small observation. The is key to the aforementioned advice, “your observation”, not by offering a piece of swing advice (unless of course, they ask). Golf is a very personal game; though a sport that can be played alone or in teams. We take pride in figuring things out on our own. For the golf who is lost in his/her own head, the absolute worse thing to do is to offer advice.
Here is a great article on getting and weeding through advice.