Lessons finally

After a couple of years of hacking iv decided to take some lessons, iv found a pro, but how many lessons will it take until I see an improvement? And how often do I need to see him?

It is the same as anything - you generally get out what you put in. I would say get a course of 6 lessons and have them over 6 months - that way you have plenty of time to practice in between and work on what he/she shows you.

Hi Paul,

I had one lesson when going through a bad patch with my local pro, and it's worked wonders. I have a consistent swing now, hopefully reflected in my scores over the last 2/3 months. All depends on the pro really. One good lesson should get you down to consistent golf and into the mid teens handicap wise, any specialist things after that (chipping, draw/fade etc) more lessons would be required.

Iv booked a free video lesson and 6 half hour sessions, I think il go 1 a week to start to straighten me up!

I have booked 5 lessons and had 3 upto now. The guy giving me the instruction has given me a real insight into what I am doing wrong. He has changed my set up and given me pointers on my swing. I tend to look for where the ball is going as I am hitting it, so that causes me to mis hit many iron shots. Also my short game, chipping especially he has shown me things that I knew I had faults with, but he has identified the reasons behind it, and how to correct it. All in all, I think it has well been worth the money as I have a better understanding of what I am doing wrong when I mis-hit a shot.

Paul,

I personally think one per week is too much. The changes that your pro will want you to work on will take a little time to bed in. Even when I first started the pro told me every two weeks max

I have a lesson per month at the moment and normally find my game dips a little for a couple of weeks after a lesson until the changes I am working on start to take effect

My recommendation is the same as Judy has said; do one per month and practice in between. If you do one per week you won't have the chance to make the changes, you will overload with information and many of the lessons will just be going over what was said in the last one because you still aren't doing what you were taught

Cheers guys,, will go with one a month for now, see how I get on, hopefully il see a difference soon

It's no good having a lesson every week as you won't be able to put into practice what you have been taught from the previous lesson.

Once a month is a good idea. This will give you time to practice what you have been taught and have it as a natural part of your swing.

If you have a poor swing and are not doing the basics correctly then you may need a couple of lessons closer together to start with.

Remember, you can practice your grip, posture and alignment in the comfort of your own home. A full length mirror is a real help with this.

Try to keep your practice session interesting. It's no good being bored on the range due to the fact that you are just hitting the ball, one after the other. Take different clubs and give yourself a target. Concentrate on each and every shot. You should see an improvement if you do this.

Russ

Chris and Russ have hit it on the head Paul. You must, if you undertake lessons, commit to them and be prepared to have your natural swing adjusted, if not totally dismantled. Practice tirelessly what the pro tells you 'til it's second nature and only then go for your next lesson. The number of people I know who have had lessons and then six months later are using the same swing they had before the lessons ie reverting back to their old swing, is baffling.

Patrick, long time since we spoke to each other. When I was a member at my club in Somerset I could have told you who was swinging a club at 200 yards by their swing, because it is personal and will always look the same and this is the reason everyone will return to their comfort zone, even after the most stringent of lessons and practice.

This is a failing with professional teachers, they try to teach something that will always feel alien to the player instead of implementing little changes that will make the difference but enable the player to keep his natural swing. They are called coaches and good ones are few and far between.

Yes, I agree John and it's one of the reasons I never had lessons. If you're a high handicapper and new to the game they're a good idea to get the b (I was down to 6 and won some major club cups). Come to think of it, my game starred going downhill when I started reading books and watching videoes. Sure there are lots of tips but if they go against the grain of your natural swing then you're inevitably going to be in conflict. Anyway, back to theshort game...

I have had a number of lessons over the years, with a number of different pro's and I have to say most of them I only had the one lesson and never went back, I remember one time I booked a video lesson with a pro I had never been to before, after he had taken the video of my swing he then split the screen on his sophisticate equipment and started to compare my swing to Tigers and started to analize Tigers swing and how good his positions were compared to mine, all I took from the lesson was what a cock the pro was, Tiger was at the time the best in the world, the winner of numerous majors championships, and I was a seven handicap player who played once a week due to work commitments, I went to the lesson to find out out how I could improve my swing not learn how to swing like Tiger Woods, how was I ever going to accomplish that playing once a week, anyway I never went back, My advice keep it simple and if your pro starts to try and clone you into Tiger woods or any other tour player for that matter leave and never go back, it is highly unlikely that us mere mortals can change our swings into mirror images of the top tour players, especially if you started playing later in life, As JP said we need coaches to improve what we have, not cloners trying to have us do things that we are never going to accomplish, still I guess it keeps us going back and handing over our hard earned money with very little reward .

Enjoyed reading your comments Russell. Clearly, your video pro didn't have an original thought in his head. Probably just a decent player who thought he could teach. It shows there's a lot more to teaching/coaching than people realise.