The Real Problem With Golf Instruction Today

Hello Tracy,

Just wanted to say that although I did not buy your CD’s, I did however watch all the bits and pieces and the Balance aspect is bang on, I have been playing golf for 10 years since I had a head on accident with a car while I was riding a motorbike, it was a 160km impact that was so bad that I severed my aorta when my Sternim hit my Spine.
Anyway I was in the lucky 10% that survive, and since I started playing golf I have only had 1 lesson which was 5 years in. It was with Peter Jagger of the Lismore golf club, Australia, he is a great Golf teacher, but as a golfer he stinks, plays off a 10 handicap on a saturday. That being said, when he took a look at my swing he said that I have more movements than a swiss watch( I have a flat swing due to my accident) but my timing and consistancy are great. I was on a 10 handicap at that point.
He said I am not going to change anything in your swing except 1 thing.
He stated that therewas a tree behind me he could not see and when I swung the club back he could see it in front of me and when I swung thru he could see it behind me, he stated he did not want to see it at all. And that was it BALANCE it worked and within a month I was hitting the ball sweater and longer. In saying that my scores only improved sligtly as I was already consistant and this just gave me more length and better ball striking.

After watching all your bits and pieces and the analises of Tigers swing as well as the transistion, I started to feel my swing better mentally and after reading some of your mental notes about visualization I found what I was looking for and that I can describe as Serenity on the golf course, and boy did it work I have always blown out from a 7 in Summer to about a 10 in winter, well I watched and read all your stuff end of summer and during the winter I was down from a 7 to a 3 and it was all BALANCE and VISUALIZATION, I was not hitting it long as soft ground conditions but mentally I was hitting evry shot I was picturing and my mind stayed with the shot that I pictured while I got into balance and struck the shot.

I must admit some days are tough to stay in that HAPPY PLACE and there are many rounds were I get to 3 or 4 under and your mind starts to get ahead of yourself, like yesterday 3 under after 10, just missed a birdie put on 11 and then 4 bogeys straight, finnished 2 over. But although its a geat system you have, you still have to work hard, so lazy people will have to step it up and realize no effort equals no improvement, whether its BALANCE or Staying in the moment.

Thanks Tracy for all your efforts, I for one know that you have put a lot of time into this and that you done it all on the slight chace of making some money. but there was no gaurantee of that so thanks for taking the risk, it has definatly helped me to look at the game in a different light and has helped me enjoy the game even more than I thought I ever could.

Justin Ure

New Zealand.

Tracy,

If we taught sexual intercourse the way most PGA professionals teach golf, the human race would have been extinct millions of years ago.

Ben

Wow Tracy – talk about putting the cat amongst the pigeons! You are quite right of course. However, I will take issue with you on one point. You state that “the golf swing is one of the most complicated moves in sports”. Well yes and no. Too many PGA teaching pros make it so, but following your instruction I can honestly say this is not the case – you have made it “child’s play”.

The harsh truth is that whilst most PGA pros have a good golf swing they are more often limited by a “psychological” barrier. If you think that their teaching of the golf swing leaves a lot to be desired, then their appreciation of the mental processes required to play first class golf is often abysmal. That is the other aspect of your approach that must be emphasised – it really does cover both the physical and mental aspects of the game.

Thanks for all your help,

Mike

Tracy,
I’m not trying to say you are wrong about balance. I do think it’s paramount in the golf swing. I’m merely implying that your insistance that PGA professionals do not know about balance and the importance of it in the golf swing is incorrect.

Have you read any Ernest Jones books?

Tom

I have taken golf lesson from numerious CPGA professionals. Two of them tried to teach me by showing me how they hit a golf ball. Another one only wanted my money. He gave me a 5 minute lession that took one hour. The best instruction I ever received was by a up and coming CPGA who taught me about cause and effect. We started off with posture and proper balance from the ground up. From there we worked on mechanics, always making sure my tempo and balance was in sync. This took me the better part of four months at a winter golf school. Apparently in Canada there is no standard for teaching golf. Some of these guys are all over the map.

Tom,
What I teach that other pros do not is not just that you must be in balance, but:
how balance works in the body,
how to use balance to shape shots,
how to use balance to prevent a bad swing, and
how to use balance to improve your ability to focus on the golf course among other things.

Show me another pro who understands balance, let alone can explain how to use it for all of those purposes.
Had this information ever been available, I would never have had togo through all of the research to find it.
Regards,
Tracy

Tracy,

First of all thank you from the depths of my heart for your love of golf and desire to help all golfers play the game correctly!! As a person who has spent decades trying to play golf properly I want to let everyone know that your systematic tell-and-show-then-retell instruction with the basic mechanical how it works and why it works is without a doubt the absolute best teaching I’ve experienced. I agree that so called experts or pros (in any field) are only as good as their explanation of ‘why’. Understanding is a basic human need. Just listen to any 3 year old’s persistant “Why?”

After just one time through your book and DVDs my 1st round of golf 3 months later (without any range practice or ball striking in between) proved to me that I didn’t have a chronic slice, in fact I didn’t have a slice at all. My score wasn’t improved, yet. My 2nd round 1 month later (again without any ball striking practice) I improved my score slightly but what’s better is I won 2 skins, a greenie, and a sand save.

My background as a 2 sport athlete through college, a degree in engineering, and finally a medical doctor in sports medicine gave me the need to know the details of how to do things properly, how to mechanically reproduce the proper movements correctly, and how to remove the variables from the process and motions in order to consistently reproduce the desired results. I have used other instruction which explained the physics and mechanics of certain parts of the game, and was satisfied with the logic of reducing error by reducing variables and error in tolerance, but until you explained the swing and broke it down into each segment of the swing and how to faithfully reproduce each part, and then included the mental preparation as well, I was still frustrated with a nagging sense of a lack of knowing ‘the secret that the pros know’.

Thanks to you, I know know. My game instantly got better, even if my scoring hasn’t… yet, but what can I expect when I’ve only played three rounds of golf since having arthroscopic knee surgery 1 year ago.

Tracy, thanks again,

John

Tracy,
I agree with your thoughts on “balance”. This is true with most all athletic moves as most would agree. In order to make a good golf swing balance is paramount. I don’t however agree with bad mouthing of PGA pros.
My son is a PGA/PGM student at one of the Universities here in the USA. You are right in what you said about the PAT (players ability test), it isn’t all that hard to pass. I do think that if you were to look at the scores that these players post when taking their PAT you would find most of these players post very good scores. Of course this doesn’t mean they can teach golf as a professional though.

PGA/PGM students have a pretty good overall curriculim though. Being a PGA pro isn’t all about teaching the golf swing. They also need to be able to manage as well as teach. I guess you are only interested in the teaching aspect of golf though.

I’ve purchased your golf instruction videos and have reviewed them several times. Although I agree with what you say in them I don’t believe you have anything that most golf professionals (PGA) don’t already teach. They may not be able to convey their thoughts on every aspect of the golf swing but it isn’t that they don’t know what they are talking about. As with any coaching of a sport some are better than others. Some students are better students than others also. Just knowing all the sutle parts of a golf swing doesn’t mean you can teach them or even perform them. It simply takes more than that.

I’ve bought several of the instuction videos on the internet and read quite alot of articles. What is quite funny to me however is that most if not all the “instructors” always have someone demonstrate the golf swing. We rarely if ever actually get to see the “instructor” swing a golf club. Why is that? Are you afraid we might actually critique your swing? Do you actually do what you preach? Are these “instructors” actually as good as they say they are? If they are the end all to instruction then why don’t we see them on the PGA tour?

I’ve been playing golf for over 40 years now. I’ve seen a whole lot of golf swings. Most have been homemade or self taught but in the past 5 years I am seeing more swings that have been taught by professionals. Better than 90% of the golfers I’ve seen though these years were never even taught how to hold the club properly. At least now more than ever I’m seeing some reasonable golf grips thanks to PGA professionals. I’m seeing more golfers all the time that actually are interested in learning the golf swing.

No you don’t have anything that any PGA golf pro doesn’t know. You aren’t teaching anything that hasn’t already been taught. You are not a “guru”. Most if not all the internet teachings are methods and technique that is taught to all PGA pros. Many of the internet teachings are merely there to try to make money and not to teach out of some deep desire to improve golf swings.

By the way I am nearly 60 but still play to somewhere in the 2 handicap area. I don’t keep track of a handicap though. My only interests in golf is the game. I play for money and if there is nobody to play for money then I practice. Equipment and balls has improved the game more than anything but the golf swing is still the same and always will be. In my opinion there is entirely too much “instruction” and not enough actual playing which is how you learn the game. Just the given fact that every physical body is different and coordination is different makes every golf swing different. All anybody needs is the basics of how to hold a golf club, alignment and setup. From there it’s all up to the individual to practice what every PGA pro teaches. If they can’t or won’t do that they won’t succeed in having a good golf swing. Balance is something that happens if they make a good swing.

Thanks,
Tom Rutledge

The information provided on the transition is the most valuable part of the instruction I received from Tracy Reed’s Golf Swing Control System. That by itself was worth the price of admission.

Tom in the Sonoran Desert.

Hey Tracy,

Everything you speak is true. One minor correction (I think). I had looked into becoming a PGA pro a few years back. Unless my memory is really faulty or unless they’ve changed it very recently, the playability requirement to become a PGA pro is only 15 over par for 2 consecutive rounds. That means you only have to shoot 159 or less for two rounds, not 148. Also, you can specialize in one of three areas. I don’t remember them fully but only one was for teaching. I think the other two were business management and course management. But to specialize in teaching, they didn’t even require any study of anatomy, biomechanics or even the mechanics of the golf swing. Basically you just learned some pedagogy methods and how to schedule and what to charge and how to maximize income with group lessons, etc., etc.

That doesn’t mean you can’t find some good teaching pros, but it isn’t as easy as it should be, and certainly not as simple as just signing up at your local course. The sad fact is, most PGA pros only teach because they need the extra income, not because they are passionate about it. To find someone who is really good and knows what they are talking about is more expensive than most people can afford. People are better off buying your golf control dvd’s and learning themselves.

I used to coach baseball and was a batting instructor. My mantra was always: “balance = power.” So your dynamic balance technique really resonated with me. I’m not sure why everyone isn’t teaching this. I guess ignorance is bliss (and keeps the cash register ringing!)

Tom in the Desert

Hi Tracy,

I live in Australia, my golf handicap is 13 and going down. I have been playing golf for the best part of 35 years and I’m only getting better now because I have finally found “GOOD GOLF INFORMATION”.

I had to laugh at this blog (crying is not allowed) – it is sad yet so very true in every respect. Your observations about teaching pros were succinct as well as disturbing.

Unfortunately, the standard of “instructors” of any description, in many industries, suffers the same problems. Self proclaimed “underqualified” gurus instructing the “unwashed”, and the masses lap it up believing everything they see and hear, without questioning the veracity of the information.

People don’t seem to question information imparted from “recognised professionals in their field” today – they accept it as fact – and the governments of this age love it. It is an international disease.

Back on topic, I have had personal lessons from “teaching pros”, bought into several different programs on the net (mainly through recommendation from a very few select people I have come to rely on and trust for their information), subscribed to many different golf professionals’ sites as well as golf schools specialising in different areas of the game, bought DVDs, CDs, Books, Teaching Aids, etc. over the past several years – including your system.

Some good has come from each thing I have tried – even if it was only that the information that I have just gathered was a complete waste of my time and money – at least if I heard someone else recommending the same information, I was better equipped to refute their claims and misinformation to my unsuspecting friends and associates.

The one thing that I have learned from all of my investments in this great game is that there is no “quick fix” or “magic pill” and that there is no single piece of golfing equipment that will improve anyone’s golf game overnight. It takes discipline, time, effort and GOOD practice to put any and all of this information learnt into effect. We are human beings, not robots – the programming involved to impart “the perfect golf swing” or “play the perfect round of golf” cannot be assimilated by us just from reading or quickly and sporadically practicing a golf swing. It is far more complicated than that in the “real world on the golf course”. We go into battle with ourselves every time we step onto the course and it takes more than just a good swing to “win the day”. You touch on this in your UltimateGolfSystem, as have others with their own instruction.

One thing I will say to anyone reading Tracy’s blog or my comment – the information imparted by Tracy in his “UltimateGolfSystem” is well worth your investment in time and money. I do not consider it to be the only golf instruction program that you need to play great golf, but I do believe that this system is a “must have” and is a worthwhile “tool” to have at your disposal in the quest to better your golf game.

Cheers,

Peter from “downunder”