Private lessons – a step worth taking

This is a sponsored post from BirdGolf

Let’s talk about private lessons.  Before you go running to the hills shouting “I just need to align my stance” or “My hips are rotating too far on my follow through, but after that I’ll be good”, hear this.  With golf being a singular sport, it’s easy to get lost in one’s own thoughts and stay away from a dedicated private golf coach.  With the nature of golf instruction changing so much over the past few years, it is easy to get lost in the weeds.  With someone like BirdGolf Academy, the process is seamless and straightforward and will yield great results for your golf game all the way around.  Let’s review a few of the ways golf coaching can improve your game, as well as some of the reasons one might choose to stay away from hiring a golf coach. Disclaimer: You should hire a golf coach.

Measurable, Personalized Improvement

As a community of golfers, we collectively realize the only tangible factor to look at in improvements to your game is strokes.  If you are scoring in the 90s, and you break that threshold into the 80s, you are going to be content with your improvements.  However, there are many steps along the way to be able to measure improvement aside from counting strokes.  A quality golf coach is going to be able to help you with the following core aspects of your game:

• Fundamental understanding of a good shot
• How our bodies create a golf shot
• Focus your practice
• Quantify your results

Given the complexity of the golf swing, there is far more involved than the four items listed above, but these represent the core fundamentals.  These core aspects of the golf swing build on each other and let one evaluate the small successes in their game.  Working with a golf coach allows someone with experience evaluating a variety of golf swings to cater a unique approach that best suits each student.  Private instructors have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of golf swings, meaning there a few things related to the golf swing where they have a lack of experience.  This gives students a leg up on other golfers trying to sort things out themselves.  YouTube can get yield decent results, but finding a video that works for one’s particular golf swing can be difficult.  There is no personalization to watching a YouTube video, and what works for John or Jane Doe, may not be what works for you.  The personal touch reduces the time involved in creating and modifying one’s golf swing.

Established Knowledge

While we touched on it a bit in the section above, the knowledge a golf coach brings to the table is the most important aspect of keeping your game on track.  Establishing precedents and learning from previous mistakes is what we instinctually do as humans, why would we not translate that to the golf course?  To some degree we do. When we hit the ball left, we tweak things until we start hitting the ball right, then try to find a common ground in the middle.  A golf coach can identify the things you are doing incorrectly and has the knowledge to provide solutions quickly.  What could take you 3 weeks to sort out on the range, could be as simple as sliding the ball back in your stance a few inches. Having a source of established, experienced knowledge when approaching one’s game takes much of the time involved out of the equation.

Reasons You May Not Want a Golf Coach

For many, there is a pride factor involved with learning the game and devoting one’s self to being a student.  After years of trial and error, the feeling of breaking a certain threshold you’ve set for yourself can be one of the most rewarding accomplishments in golf.  Imagine yourself crushing your drives 300+ yards and hitting 80-90% GIR. You can get there through training yourself, watching videos, analyzing your swing and implementing changes throughout the process. Looking back at the journey is certainly a visceral experience and one you will be able to relate to and pull from when you need some motivation.  How many clever tricks and “fix my slice” articles did you have to read to get to that point? If you are a self-starter and truly determined to improve your golf game on your own, it can be done, and it’s rewarding, but it does come at a cost. That cost is most specifically related to time.

Are Golf Coaches Required for Success?

Simply put, no. Hiring a golf coach is not a prerequisite for success on the golf course. However, a solid golf coach can speed along the process and allows golfers to quantify the improvements to their game that they likely wouldn’t discover on their own.  If you’ve hit a metaphorical wall in your golf game and improvements have ceased, or perhaps you’re jumping in to the game head first, hiring a golf coach will expedite your improvements and provide quantifiable measurements intended to help your golf swing. So do you need a golf coach to enjoy the game, no. But if you have aspirations to play well, it can only be beneficial to work with an instructor.

This is a sponsored post from BirdGolf