An extraordinary golf method

For a successful and joyful game.

I would now like to introduce you to this wonderful coaching technique.

Let me start by explaining that there are two main methods being used to teach golf, the 'outside-in' and the 'inside-out' methods , one of which, is at best ordinary and the other outstanding.

The ordinary coaching method is widespread and it entails endless instruction with slow levels of improvement. Gallwey captures this well when he states in his book, (The Inner Game of Golf),

"Golf teaching professionals certainly know a lot about the swing but very little about how to teach it."

On the other hand, the extraordinary golf method is easier to understand and, once learned, cannot be forgotten. Are you an extraordinary golf student?

It would probably be appropriate of me to explain why I have described the present golf teaching method as being ordinary.

The word 'ordinary' is not the description I want to use but as I have many colleagues who use this method, I am going to have to tread carefully. (I would prefer to use the word 'poor' if I was being more honest). Allow me to continue.

Man has only recently developed the sport of Golf and a golf coach is a by-product of this and, like the game, he started out rather uncomplicated.

The participants of the sport, for want of playing a better game, then turned to the expert players who were using a more extraordinary golf method. They asked them to demonstrate how they managed to hit the ball so far and accurately.

These experts then became the first coaches of golf but it puzzles me that their knowledgeable advice changed from:

Simply saying, "Swing like this!", to a high tech...

"On the downswing, you have to return the club to the ball on the correct inside plane. You are coming from the outside of this when you swing because you start the downswing with your upper body instead of initiating it with the lower body."

And all of this to a sweet old lady who attempted, rather unsuccessfully, to do it correctly after watching her attempts several times on a video screen.

(The modern teacher knows a lot about the swing but very little about how to teach it)

"I have rarely walked away from such a lesson with anything better than a feeling of hopelessness and an awkward and jerky swing."

It puzzles me that somewhere along the way golf teachers decided to ignore the ancient method of coaching by example (extraordinary golf method) and have instead adopted a complicated, frame by frame, diagnosis of the entire swing.

There just isn't another sport that comes close in this complicated biomechanical analysing.

The extraordinary golf method is dedicated to making natural reflexive movement the basis of your swing. This can only be achieved when the conscious mind is not involved in trying to control body movement. Reflex is something you do, not something you have to learn to do.

I recently read an article that claims our ancestors, the apes, first adopted an upright posture in the act of throwing missiles and wielding a stick. They adopted this posture because it improved the dynamics of the swing and thus gave them an advantage over otherwise faster and stronger opponents.

All human beings possess this amazing and highly developed learning system, which is the product of millions of years of evolution. It’s how you learn to walk, run, jump, climb, drive a car, ride a bicycle and all other motor skills.

"The less we use the conscious mind for these tasks the more they seem to flow."

To be coached by someone who is not using this system is quite easy to spot. He will be filling you with instructions on how to swing. These will help you, at best, for a short time and then you will have to go back to him again and again to be filled with the same or similar info.

Read about swinging without thinking.

It’s like taking your car to the petrol station and filling it up, you just know it’s going to run empty again and again.

A coach who is using the extraordinary golf method would however start with an empty tank and fill it using his pupil’s highly developed learning capabilities.

Consider the following example:

Not so long ago, world aid organizations were mainly concerned with supplying food parcels to starving people.

They have since come to realise that these people were being put into a state of total dependency on the re-supply of similar parcels and the hunger problem wasn't being addressed.

By supplying these same people with a way of growing their own crops, a better solution was realised and they were able to lead a more fulfilling life.

In a nutshell, ‘Extraordinary Golf’ involves itself with improving the learning technique and ignores the supply of quick fixes that do no more than leave the golfer in a needy state. The truth about a quick fix.

To summarise:

Teach a child to talk and he can talk forever, teach a farmer to grow crops and he will make them flourish, teach a golfer using the extraordinary golf method and he will enjoy this wonderful game beyond all of his expectations.

Thank you

S.MacD.