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It’s always nice to get something accomplished in the short period of an hour. If you think about what you might realistically expect out of an hour golf lesson you might say that you would like add to your understanding of what it is that you are doing in your swing and what would be better to do. You would feel like you were going in the right direction, that you had something tangible to think about when you practiced, and maybe even a feel for what you were going to be trying to do. You probably understand that change comes slowly most times, and that improvement is an incremental process wherein you put in the work and wait until something good happens. Of course, it is always nice when something clicks right away, although you have probably had that happen before only to find that the “feel” goes away after a day, or a week, or a month, or whatever, and you find yourself back at the same place again looking for the next tidbit to keep you going.
One of the things that makes video such a powerful tool in golf instruction is the fact that with side by side views a teacher can show a student a real difference between two swings. I can tell you that without the ability to slow down and process the complex movements of a full speed golf swing I am a fraction of the teacher I am otherwise. The film is reality. If you take an idea and try to incorporate it into your movement the only way to know whether or not you have done so is to look at the swing and compare it to the previous version using the same methods of analysis. Standing out on the range and telling a student that they have incorporated and idea correctly because the last shot came off better is simply not as truthful as showing them the swing and highlighting the parts that they were trying to change. It certainly is less bothersome to not use video, and it allows all sorts of clever, personable people to pretend to be effective teachers, but I don’t care who you are talking about (and I include every Hall of Fame instructor who had the opportunity to use video and did not) they did not approach their potential as teachers if they didn’t take advantage of the technology. This retro movement touting “old school” instruction (“simple”, “uncomplicated”, etc…) is simply misguided and in keeping with the traditions of golf instruction wherein guys stand on the range and claim to be able to see the minute differences that make shots go one way or another. Sorry, can’t see that. You can only guess what might have just happened.
A closely related subject revolves around the new Trackman machine (not that new, but now becoming popularized) and its cheaper cousin, Flightscope. These machines tell us way more about what happens when the ball is hit and how the club hit it than we ever knew before, so much so that we pretty much have had to scrap the old “ball flight laws” for new ones that state that the clubface is way more important to the direction the ball takes off than is the path of the club. Some teachers who own and use these machines have started an entirely new way to teach, where the numbers spewed out by the machine after each shot are used by the teacher to help suggest a different shot type (say “push-draw” or “pull-fade”) to modify the numbers. When the numbers are good, you have found the swing thought that will work best for you. I’m not buying this method at all, as it completely ignores everything I like to do to educate a student about the swing in general, their own swing specifically, and how their physical movements can be altered to produce better shots. Can Trackman be a positive addition to any instructor? I would have to say yes, as long as it is used for what it has to offer, data that helps explain what the video shows.
I think it is obvious that teaching golf is difficult, and that it would be silly to ignore technological advances that would enable the teacher to provide more effective help to the student. That said, it would also be silly to discount the skills that have defined great teachers for decades, those of observation, communication, and the ability to somehow get the best out of their students. Technology does not make a teacher great, but it will make a good teacher better. Anyone who argues against using video, motion capture, or launch monitor technology is putting their head in the sand. If we are going to keep people playing golf it will be by giving them real help in their attempt to play a game that is simply too hard for them to be any good at without a lot of help. And that means using the tools that are available.
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