I was talking to a coach the other day from Australia who would be the epitome of Golf Knowledge. He had just put up a video of one of his students hitting some shots, nothing unusual in that you might think, except the student in question was a 12-year-old girl whose swing speed was approaching LPGA tour standard. But, you might say that there are many fine young players on the way into golf but what was most striking about the video was the array of technology she was using as she hit shots!

This is the reality in today's world of high-performance golf instruction, golf knowledge is power, both in the physical and mental sense. 

When I first started at the Titleist Performance Institute, it was very evident from day one that everything was measured. It was a different conversation to the one that you will typically hear golf pros discuss, the latest swing style doing the rounds, the latest drills and products coming out to help the golfer improve. Likewise, did you see that Cameron Champ swing?

If you struggle with numbers and graphs, forces and torques, power outputs, then TPI wouldn't hold much fun for you. It was that type of place, sterile and clean, like a hospital, right down to the edge trimmings on the grass borders as you entered the facility. It was, and still is, the Nirvana of golf knowledge, instruction, and education. This left an indelible mark on me when I returned to teach in Ireland, consequently, I am unashamedly committed to three distinct pillars of golf knowledge when I am teaching.

My mother was a wizard with numbers, and from an early age, I was fascinated with counting. It comes naturally to me; I see everything analytically. (I couldn't draw a stick man yet love graphic design? go figure!) 

In conclusion, they say to be successful you need to be different, I saw a gap in the market in terms of how golf was taught here in Ireland. Lots of golf professionals doing the same thing, I decided early on to take the TPI route to teach golf. Analyse, assess, measure and then make a decision based on facts and figures. If you want an opinion on a golf swing, what golf coach I follow, or what my swing style influences are,  you will be sadly disappointed. 

An aside -
For example, a guy came into me one day for an assessment, (I assess every client, to be sure I can help them), he was a member of a prestigious golf club, with "Royal" in the title, playing off a 5 handicap, I remember him well. Hardly got by the introductions when he enquired, "what golf coach most influences your teaching?"
I said Newton, and he replied, "The guy from Australia?" No, I said, Issac Newton. I wasn't joking, his third Law of Motion is one of my main tenants of teaching, if you move one way in the swing, (an action), therefore, as a result, you MUST move back to get to the ball, (opposite and equal reaction). If you don't truly believe this, you need to find another coach that will teach you the "A" swing, or "D" plane! Though I will discuss "Z" trace if you have a 110+mph swing speed!!

(1) Firstly, the array of technology available to golf coaches today is mind-boggling, and it is easy to be seduced by the latest claims of each manufacturer. In this regard, taking advice from my TPI colleagues and from the experience of using the equipment, I settled on four pillars of technology to help me in my day to day teaching.

(1) BodiTrak pressure mats, help me to track how the feet move in the swing, how your center of pressure moves. It is the only thing attached to the ground when you swing and is the most misunderstood area of golf. How many golf pros do you know that use a pressure mat, (force plate)?

(2) Working up, I use K-Motion to measure rotations in the swing. Simply put, what your body is doing as you swing the club, (this includes wrist angles).

(3) Capto putting, the only system on the market that measures in real time in 3D space. An incredible invention by Luca Menci. This WILL be the game changer in putting instruction.

(4) Trusty Trackman, an expensive piece of equipment to be sure, however on the other hand, a vital piece of the cog to put everything together. I teach with it every day using just three pieces of information on screen. The client doesn't need to see other vanity metrics. Using all four pieces of tech gives me the ability to see what the camera CAN'T see. Marrying specific figures together gives you the total picture of what the golfer is doing, add experiential learning to those figures and you have the recipe for success. For example, if I had a penny for every time a client told me they were "Over the Top, but "why are they over the top? in short, I find that 90% of the time the fault emanates a long way from the shoulder area!

(2) Movement and Motor patterns, above all, mostly from the pen of Richard Schmidt (now sadly deceased). I met him at TPI and his book "Motor Learning and Performance" is the bible in terms of motor learning. Certainly, years of experience teaching have taught me that it is very difficult to fix a broken motor pattern, in other words, it is much better to rewrite the code and start again. This takes time but is preferable to the quick fix promise of the "snake oil saleman"

(3) Errorful learning. The groundbreaking work from Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University. Known as the "Queen of Learning" in the States, she pioneered the premise that the most useful learning comes from making errors, breaking things, being able to judge good against error (there is no bad in her world!) I find it helpful when trying to convey images and feelings to clients, teaching them this mindset as we go through the coaching program together helps them accept the difficulty of the task in hand! 

It's a brave new world out there and much like the gold rush in the 1840s and '50s, the guys who made the most money were those selling the shovels. Make sure to hire a coach that has plenty of shovels!

​