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Having done this job for as long as I have I’m usually the most experienced (and expensive) instructor wherever I am working, and thus do not get many beginners in my book or give anyone their first lesson ever, although I certainly don’t avoid the prospect. The general perception is that a beginner would start with a less accomplished teacher, and I have heard the statement more than a few times that “I am not good enough to take a lesson from you”. Of course, if you give that statement a bit of thought it makes no sense, but that’s the way most people feel. Michael did not feel that way and chose to take his first ever series of lessons with me, and this is a revealing video in that regard. Unless the student has never picked up a club or hit a ball before they already have built in tendencies as their mind and body tries to make sense of what it takes to propel the ball straight ahead, up in the air, with enough distance to play the course. What you will see here with Michael is quite common amongst beginner golfers: in an effort to mimic the ease with which it appears that the players on TV swing the beginner forgoes anything that makes the movement feel restricted or tight. Bracing in the right foot, keeping the hips in the face on “box”, creating structure in the arms and wrists, all these things are certain to feel somewhat difficult to accomplish without applying conscious physical effort. Thus, in a first lesson there is necessarily a good bit of talking about the overall concept of how the swing works and what it takes to hit the ball with some consistency. We can’t listen to the in between discussions of each filmed swing, but as you watch the progression of the lesson you can see how Michael applies what he is learning and how I go about trying to teach him without overloading him with thoughts.
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