Of course, there are a lot of teachers who are only average, just as there are average dentists and so-so lawyers. The great savior for them has been video. When an instructor's knowledge and creativity run dry, he can start drawing lines on the screen and tell a guy how his swing doesn't match some model swing. There you have it—proof by an expert that your swing doesn't look like a touring pro's. Guess what? Most likely it never will.
All golfers know the short game is at least as crucial to shooting better scores as the long game, but in their heart of hearts what they want is the exhilaration of hitting the ball long and straight. Teachers are merely going where the action is.
I coached the Southern Methodist men's college golf team for five years. It was a good experience, and fascinating politically. It's not for the faint of heart. There's a coaches' mafia, if you will, in which you have to play ball to survive. Playing ball means not recruiting junior players who are already spoken for, rubbing each others' backs in terms of tournament invites, and so on. If you go against the grain, there's hell to pay. Suddenly you're reported for NCAA violations that didn't happen, and you're not invited to the best tournaments. I thought coaching was going to be solely about helping young people with their lives and their golf, and I felt like I was able to do some of that, but as for the rest, boy, was I naive.
So-called "pushy parents" usually don't deserve that label. A pushy parent is an involved parent, and it's far preferable to being a parent who isn't involved at all. It's irresponsible when the media find an extreme case and make a huge deal of it when the instances of uninvolved parents are far more common and 50 times as tragic. I'm very leery of the parent who says, "I don't want to push my kid," and I'm alarmed by the knee-jerk applause they get from certain segments of our society. I'm disappointed that parents are discouraged from even approaching the line of being "too involved." When parents are accused of "living vicariously" through their children, I say, well, at least they're in there pitching.
You've heard the expression, "If his real swing were like his practice swing, he'd be great." In truth, most practice swings are terrible. The rhythm is pretty nice, and that's where the quote originated, but mechanically most practice swings don't resemble a correct swing in any way. The changes I've encouraged Tiger to make in his swing are minuscule, but it's hard for anyone to change something in their swing. The best way to instill changes in someone's swing is to first improve your practice swings. I always say, if you can't do it in parts or in slow motion, how are you going to do it at full speed in a tournament? I think Tiger now has a lot of purpose in his practice swings; you can certainly see that he's taking a lot more of them. You can also see that Tiger is really trying to capture and groove a feeling before he hits a shot. Sometimes you can tell he's trying to over-exaggerate something in his practice swing to really get a feeling that is opposite of what he feels is his mistake tendency.
Most golfers say they're in it for the long haul, but they don't mean it. If they don't see immediate improvement, they find another instructor. So the teacher compromises to try to get quick results.
Tour pros have more skill and talent than amateurs. They also have bigger egos, which can make them difficult to deal with. To get through the day, the instructor has to remember that a large ego is a key reason the player is a high achiever, and if he wasn't a high achiever he wouldn't be playing for so much money.
Keith Kleven is a friend who is a physical therapist and the guy who helps Tiger with his physical conditioning. Keith is as knowledgeable about his profession as anyone I have ever seen in any profession, but the thing that really makes him special is that he lives by a saying that he has posted on a wall at his office. That saying says it all to me: "No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care." I carry that saying in the back of my mind every day that I teach, and I never get too impressed with how much I think I might know.
Improve the quality of your practice. No more blind experimenting, hoping you'll stumble upon a secret or sensation that will become permanent. Get with your pro and make a list of three clear objectives. Give them time to sink in, and you will improve. I pass along this strategy with compliments to Vijay Singh. He's a real practicer who has identified his mistakes and just keeps working on the same things over and over.
Pay less attention to what your body is doing and more to what the club is doing. The club is hitting the ball, not your hips, shoulders, legs, arms or hands.
You can learn by seeing, hearing and feeling. Most teachers talk too much, and there's also a limit to what students will learn through their eyes. Feel is by far the most effective way to learn. You've got to put your hands on people and the club, and guide them through a motion physically. Once they get the correct feeling, the light really goes on. They've got it for good.
What I'm looking for is repeat business. Whether you teach golf or serve hamburgers, the most important part of business is getting people to come back. I don't think the reason McDonald's advertises is to get customers through their doors for the first time.
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