Visit any driving range in the world and you’ll see golfers offering free advice to their friends, spouses, or anyone within earshot who is willing to listen. Based on the amount of informal instruction, a viewer could easily believe that golf is the only sport that has more instructors than students.

What is the most common misconception regarding golf instruction? Trying to help a student by telling her what she is doing wrong, without understanding the student’s mindset.

You have to discover a student’s preconceived idea about the swing, before you can offer an effective solution. Change students’ perception of the swing and the natural resistance to change will disappear.

Let’s look at a typical example of a student seeking career guidance to eliminate a chronic chop. Obviously, the cure is different for every golfer, but the principle can be applied in any situation.

How do you help a student who comes at you with a wild chop? He (based on my experience, most women hit the ball relatively straight) takes half a dozen shots; the more he tries to correct the curve from left to right, the steeper it becomes.

It is obvious that the student is “throwing” the stick to start the losing streak. You explain the cause-effect relationship and demonstrate the error, but your advice seems to meet some (unconscious) resistance. How do you convince the student to follow your recommendation?

Ask the student to show you how they would correct the problem. For the golfer who plays once a week, ninety percent of faulty swing mechanics are the result of misconceptions about the swing.

One of the biggest contributors to chronic cutting is the belief that the clubhead should follow a straight line back and forth. There are no straight lines in full swing. The goal is to swing the club in a consistent or “flat” arc. While the “straight line” solution sounds logical, it actually exacerbates the problem.

Golf is a game that defies logic; easy swing to hit farther, hit down to make the ball go up. Helping a student understand these seeming contradictions is essential for effective learning.

Once a student understands the misconception, they can work with it to develop a new effective move. Armed with a new image, you’ll see flashes of improvement followed by steady progress.

Effective instruction begins with understanding the student’s perception.

Thank you for reading!