I told you so!

ONE of the most fascinating aspects of helping people learn to play golf is that there are so many different ways of explaining the same thing.

Occasionally, I will explain something in a way that I believe is very logical and straightforward, only to be met with a look of confusion from the person that I am working with.

One of the fundamentals of Neuro-Linguistic Programming is to understand that the quality of your communication is in the response that you get. In essence, it doesn’t matter how well YOU think you have explained something, if the other person hasn’t understood the concept, you haven’t done a very good job.

Here is an example.

In order to hit a successful bunker shot, it is important that we set up to the ball correctly, strike down two inches behind the ball and give the sand enough energy to ‘float’ the ball out of the bunker.

Once learned, this concept is actually very straightforward and easy to repeat, as there is a larger room for error than in a normal golf shot.

I gave three bunker lessons this weekend and interestingly, each of the golfers made the same mistake. They were leaning backwards and flicking their hands at the ball in an effort to gain flight. As a result, they were contacting the sand too far behind the ball and only moving it a few feet.

Considering that this fault is fairly common amongst club golfers, most professionals will have a ‘stock’ way to explain and demonstrate why this poor technique doesn’t work and what the person needs to do to fix it.

Personally, I find that a combination of explaining the required science and demonstrating the correct technique helps most people understand, and apply the concept.

The first person I taught fell into this category and was soon executing better shots once I explained that they needed to retain the 90-degree angle between their left arm and shaft for longer in the downswing to gain more precision with their contact.

Unfortunately, this explanation did not work with the second student. This person was unable to visualise the angle and therefore did not initially improve. However, once I had helped identify a pressure he could feel in his wrists (when correctly hinged), he was able to retain that pressure for longer in the downswing and achieve better technique, resulting in more solid bunker shots.

The third person was unable to visualise the angle and did not find it easy to feel the pressure in the wrists. However, he mentioned that he could really hear the difference between the good shots and the poor ones during my demonstrations.

We soon identified that in order for them to hear the correct noise, they needed to hit down more steeply and positively. Once this had registered, they were soon splashing the ball out of the bunker confidently!
These three golfers perfectly highlighted that different people can learn the same skill in completely different ways.

Some people are visual learners, some prefer audio cues, some learn based on feel and believe it or not, some people can learn by smell!

A woman I teach with a historically long backswing has learned that if she puts perfume on her left shoulder, and stops her backswing when she smells it, she is in the correct position. Amazing!

Finally, if you have been working on something in your game for a while with no improvement, don’t despair. Perhaps somebody hasn’t explained it to you in the way that suits you best? That’s what I’m here for.

For more information on this topic or to find out about the golf coaching services offered at Awali Golf Club, please call 39761873 or visit https://www.awaligolfclub.com/. Good luck and happy golfing!