Where have we gone wrong? Since when is a coach, teacher, or tutor hired or chosen to make it “easier”? Why is it that PGA Professionals mislead their students or players? They insist on telling them golf is easy and that if they only fix their grip, stance and posture, golfing like a pro is right around the corner. I call this the coaching fallacy. It is a mistake that has happened for so many years that the general golf population believes good golf is magic, it is mystical, and the golf teachers have the potion or pill that will fix it so they can be a good golfer. Unfortunately, PGA Professionals are not the only ones to blame here. Even in our educational system we see this. Some parents hire a teacher or tutor to help their child learn a subject matter or study habits, but this is not why all parents hire a tutor. They hire a tutor to help guarantee a good grade on test day, whether this is a hard math test, the SAT’s, or an essay. I wonder why grade inflation has happened over the past 10 years and why a college undergrad degree seems to be as worthless as the piece of paper it is written on! Few are learning, but they have good test scores!
For some reason, our society has moved from learning to having. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” We are no longer looking to learn and form habits of excellence, but to have someone give us the magic pill, the secret to a great golf swing. Learning requires many hours of intense work, struggle, and breakthroughs. It is not enough to have found the answer, but rather to arrive at an answer or solution due to the hard work it takes to earn the answer. If you desire to improve or learn something, it is a MUST to have the courage to challenge yourself and to repeatedly find yourself in situations that make you uncomfortable. Do not let a coach or teacher rob you from the opportunity to learn. Build habits of excellence and navigate the pain train to your station of achievements. Learning requires commitment beyond the surface level understanding, to withstand the pressures of competitive golf, and to repeatedly have good scores. Developing a good golf swing does not entirely guarantee a good golf skill to score. If a golf teacher offers the opportunity to fix you, let him/her know you didn’t know you were broken. If a golf teacher offers you the chance to change your game in five minutes, ask him if that means you should quit.
Golf is a hard game; it requires many hours of learning many nuggets of information. If you are struggling with understanding where you are, check out our Player Development System, find out your Player Development Index at The Golf Performance Center or download the Junior Golf Hub app. Then you can start with a self- assessment and check out where you can find a PDI Coach Guided Assessment. Let us help you build great habits of learning, I promise we won’t fix you but you will gain the valuable tools to learn and become the player and person you want to become!
Enjoy Your Journey!
