I am the only Golf Coach east of Toronto with TrackMan, K-vest, and BodiTrak technology. I am one of three certified AimPoint putting instructors in Ontario. I am certified as a Level III Golf Coach and Junior Coach through the Titleist Performance Institute. I am a Level II Golf Medical Professional. My coached students range from beginners to professional golfers.
My golf experience began similar to many, but I was able to improve in a short period of time through trial and error. To advance myself, I began to take lessons. I was shown on video, compared to professional golfers, with lines drawn on my image. It was exciting. Then frustrating. I was told, repeatedly, that “I would get worse before I got better.” This was puzzling, because this was the only game I had ever attempted that this was the case. Wasn’t the idea that I could improve, even a little bit? To compound matters, I was battling a very painful right hip, the result of a condition called Legg Perthes Calves disease when I was a child. Following surgery when I was three years old, I had enjoyed nearly two decades of being a high quality athlete. Although my hip now literally kept me awake at night, it liberated my thinking regarding golf. I had a background in therapy, so quickly I successfully designed my own personal golf swing based on some basic principles. It didn’t look like the pro swings that I had been compared to on video, but it worked consistently.
I had been teaching golf a while prior to having a total hip replacement with some success. I found folks resistant to some of my new ideas, so I slipped into referencing hundreds of books and videos, and The Golf Channel. This information was much more palatable for students, but I noticed their progress slowed considerably. My own game was pretty good, because I believed I was “different” due to my physical history, so I continued to be “unconventional.”
In 2006 I discovered the Titleist Performance Institute and my life changed. There were others that didn’t believe in convention either! It was ok!
In the ten years since, I’ve travelled North America searching for new information and fresh examinations of old information. In that time 3-D technology began to emerge. K-vest allows us to measure what body part is moving, when it is moving, and how it is moving. TrackMan has revolutionized the measurement of the golf swing and ball flight. BodiTrak allows us to quantify where and when and how fast the body is interacting with ground forces and pressure. AimPoint has quantified the measurement of slope and break of putts. And it goes on. Yet amazingly, all of these advancements are soundly criticized in most “established” circles as being too “technical.” Guesswork continues to rule the masses, explaining why handicaps have remained steady for 60 years despite huge advancements in equipment and course agronomy.
As time progressed, I made a pledge to question everything I read, saw or heard. Most of what the public is fed is not congruent with biomechanics or simple physics. I have learned that single golf lessons are useless for 90 percent of the population. Golf purveys the thought that a lesson here and there is all one needs. If that were the case I would have won twenty majors by now, and some of you would have played in the last group with me!
What we need is education. Support. Inspiration. Quantifiable measurement instead of guesswork based on accepted folklore, explained in a manner that we can digest. Enthusiasm when ours is low. Someone to challenge us. Someone to challenge. Positive thinking when we are negative. A sounding board. Someone to argue with in a healthy fashion. A friend willing to offer the truth, not what we wish to hear.
Results come to those with a plan, those who are confidently prepared for any circumstance, and those who are willing to accept any outcome. Good coaching prepares the body and mind to coach one’s own self while playing. My goal is that my golfers become masters of their own game under game conditions.
MODEV MEDIA