Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 30, 2010 8:51:40 GMT -5
I feel that the mainstream in just about anything, tends to sell the public short when it comes to intelligence and patience. I think that in particular the golfing public just wants to get better, they just need to BELIEVE that it will happen and they will see NOTICEABLE improvement IMMEDIATELY if they work on it.
I can safely say this because I believe I play with more 20+ handicappers than 99% of the golfers of my caliber. And the other golfers of my caliber who do play with this many high handicappers are usually the local club pro or playing assistant pro or the instructor and these high handicappers usually act and talk differently when they are with a club pro. With me, they are very honest on why they don’t get lessons even though they play every week. I’ll never forget the time one of my friends, Mark (8 handicapper) said that getting lessons are a waste of time in his opinion because at best you’ll only get a little better for a few weeks and then go back to the way you were hitting it…and the rest of the group completely agreed with him.
According to studies, only 10% of the golfing population get lessons and from talking to instructors, 80-90% of their lessons are from the same students. So there’s an obvious problem with instruction when you have that much of an untapped market.
I kind of like to use the old saying ‘you’re best thinking got you here.’ Meaning that if you’re in some type of rut and you always approach it from the same perspective, you need to start approaching it from a very different perspective. I think that golf instruction has always approached it from a simplistic, non-technical, and ‘golf tip’ perspective and that perspective has left them with a large untapped market and golfers more or less not getting any better over the past 80 years.
The Golf Channel will look at it from a ratings perspective, but from a very broad viewpoint, Michael Breed’s ratings are nothing to write home about. From a golf instruction viewpoint, they are very good, but he also has a lot of resources (which cost TGC a lot of money) behind his show. IMO, even if they are making good money off of Breed, I honestly believe that they *can* make a lot more because the golf instruction market is so untapped.
I get e-mails every week from readers who tell me how they love my blog and how much it has helped them and how easy it is to understand complex subjects. They claim I make it simple, but the reality is that I just take complex subjects and break them down so the reader can focus on that one area and fully comprehend it. I think where teachers in any profession get in trouble is when:
1) They talk about multiple complex subjects at once and they divide their student’s focus and thus *at best* the student becomes a ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’
Or
2) They try to simplify complex subjects which lead to gross erroneous conclusions
Whether we like it or not, the golf swing is a complex subject. Trying to make it a simple subject is just more counterintuitive and IMO, a top 3 reason why golfers don’t get better.
3JACK
I can safely say this because I believe I play with more 20+ handicappers than 99% of the golfers of my caliber. And the other golfers of my caliber who do play with this many high handicappers are usually the local club pro or playing assistant pro or the instructor and these high handicappers usually act and talk differently when they are with a club pro. With me, they are very honest on why they don’t get lessons even though they play every week. I’ll never forget the time one of my friends, Mark (8 handicapper) said that getting lessons are a waste of time in his opinion because at best you’ll only get a little better for a few weeks and then go back to the way you were hitting it…and the rest of the group completely agreed with him.
According to studies, only 10% of the golfing population get lessons and from talking to instructors, 80-90% of their lessons are from the same students. So there’s an obvious problem with instruction when you have that much of an untapped market.
I kind of like to use the old saying ‘you’re best thinking got you here.’ Meaning that if you’re in some type of rut and you always approach it from the same perspective, you need to start approaching it from a very different perspective. I think that golf instruction has always approached it from a simplistic, non-technical, and ‘golf tip’ perspective and that perspective has left them with a large untapped market and golfers more or less not getting any better over the past 80 years.
The Golf Channel will look at it from a ratings perspective, but from a very broad viewpoint, Michael Breed’s ratings are nothing to write home about. From a golf instruction viewpoint, they are very good, but he also has a lot of resources (which cost TGC a lot of money) behind his show. IMO, even if they are making good money off of Breed, I honestly believe that they *can* make a lot more because the golf instruction market is so untapped.
I get e-mails every week from readers who tell me how they love my blog and how much it has helped them and how easy it is to understand complex subjects. They claim I make it simple, but the reality is that I just take complex subjects and break them down so the reader can focus on that one area and fully comprehend it. I think where teachers in any profession get in trouble is when:
1) They talk about multiple complex subjects at once and they divide their student’s focus and thus *at best* the student becomes a ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’
Or
2) They try to simplify complex subjects which lead to gross erroneous conclusions
Whether we like it or not, the golf swing is a complex subject. Trying to make it a simple subject is just more counterintuitive and IMO, a top 3 reason why golfers don’t get better.
3JACK
