Where Do You See Golf Instruction Going?

[Richie3Jack]

I was talking with a friend of mine about the swing and he asked me about where I think golf instruction will be going in the next few years.

I think in the short term the swing instruction will be geared more towards flatter backswings. The only reason why is that basically golf instruction goes between upright and flat every few years and I think now that we are in the 'upright' swing mode of teaching, I think next up will be flatter backswings. Also the S&T instruction will either rise or pop instructors will ape parts of the S&T and use a much more inside hand path down the line creating a flatter backswing as well. The downswings will probably remain quite upright because of the way clubs are built.

I think that the instruction will be geared towards more 'centered' pivots. Again, the golf instruction world tends to alternate between 'centered' and 'moving off the ball.'

I think the good news is that TGM will become much more prevalent in golf instruction, even in golf magazines. The bad news is that I think we will see a lot of people sticking to one type of procedure and we'll see a lot of new TGM oriented golfers who will run into the same problems that older TGM AI's ran into and solved long ago. If anything because many guys will be very 'half assed' getting into TGM instead of becoming an AI and working with other AI's to improve their teaching. It also won't help that Lynn Blake can't teach everybody TGM, he knows it down pat more than anybody IMO.

I think we'll probably see teachers getting into 'swinging left', but doing it all with the arms and hands instead of using the pivot.






3JACK

[joec]

what is it going to take to get more people involved in tgm? joe daniels recently spent a week at my house. the question he was asking was..............what type of person wanted to get involved in tgm? i am not sure that the current system, with the schools, is the answer. but,the old system, ai to ai , had too many personal interpretations of the book. ben doyle was asked by homer not to show his videos. he did not like them for some reason. ben honored homer's request. he did not sell them till homer passed. the forums that are now availabe will have some bearing on lessons. thank you for starting this one. i rarely posted on the others. this forum is going to be the easiest to gain knowledge because you can name names and challenge answers without fear of being rmoved from the site.

[Richie3Jack]

Thanks, Joe. I believe that true, legitimate debate is the best way to 'get all of the answers.' Unfortunately, message board debate (be it on golf or anything else) usually devolves into name calling or even more of the case condesceding remarks and tones. I believe I can moderate the forum in such to prevent that in part because I don't have a big ego about this stuff and just want everybody to present their side and do it with either facts, reason or logic.




3JACK

[gmbtempe]

I asked Denny Alberts today why he was not listed on the TGM website anymore and he said he was not taking classes or going to the summit anymore and did not re-up.

We talked a little bit about the book and the teaching and while he said that the book is a great tool and has many great things about the swing it was not the best on producing final results. I am sure guys like Lynn would disagree but what I took out of his comments was that it described the componets, the planes, the types of grips, etc etc, but it was a catolog of pieces, ingrediants, and not a good recipe providing a road map. I can tell you my last AI I saw was very much locked into the pieces more so than the final recipe, in three hours of instruction all we worked on was backswing pivot, and I would imagine would still be working on it until I got it right.

I think he has moved to getting people into the correct impact alignments and doing that the easiest way he could find. Definitely did things today the Book would eschew.

[Richie3Jack]

Sometimes teachers, even TGM AI's, get the idea in their head that the golfer must get thru one part of the swing first, and then they can move on. But when the golfer can't get thru that part, instead of working on something else, they continue to run into the same wall.



3JACK

[gmbtempe]

I do agree with you though that instruction is going to be impact based rather than position based.

I also had a discussion with Denny regarding bigger teachers changing their teaching or philospophy and to paraphrase that a guy like Leadbetter is never going to admit they were wrong or do anything that seems controversial because it could cost them financially. I see what he is saying, a guy like Manzella can be more bold, not to be mean but there is a lot less at stake for him than say Jim McLean.

Has there ever been a major teaching that has radically changed the way they have taught even if new information has shown them some better pieces? I mean Jim Flick probably still teaches ball direction is all about the path.

[Richie3Jack]

Popular Golf instruction will always be 'position' based instead of 'alignment based.' I think we'll see more golf instructors talk about swinging left, but just going about it the wrong way.

Leadbetter has changed a lot of his instruction philosophy but he doesn't talke about it and still sticks with a lot of the stuff he's always teached over the years. I do get the feeling that the 'well will run dry' with him as far as popularity goes because his popularity has already declined quite a bit since the mid-90's. That doesn't mean he won't fill golf clinics and schools and still have the naive Tour pro that gets lessons from him, but unless he hits the lotto again and gets a guy like Faldo who is a heckuva talent and was an unbelievable putter back in the day, he just won't have the success on tour to keep that popularity. He'll still make a ton of money. but he won't be nearly the household name he once was.

A lot of other teachers have switched their philosophies but more or less act like it never happened.




3JACK