correcting posture

Was practising at a range today and a coach from the range told me that what i learnt from my previous coach,my posture, the way I hold my club is all wrong!!

Wondering if anyone has the same experience and if yes. Any coach to recommend to correct posture? I stay in the west

I have similar encounters. Once in while, a coach at the range will come along and seems to offer free advice. Then he will say this is wrong and that is wrong.  I start to scratch my head because he seems to contradict what I have been taught.  Sometimes I really wonder whether to take the advice....

Maybe he is looking for business ...  

For those who just started and went thru the basic (10 lesson to PC) lesson one, we might not taught the correct posture nor holding of the club etc as it (e 10 lessons) is merely a introduction to the game of golf.

That's how I truly felt, thus I m still learning the basics to play a better golf.

willytan wrote:

For those who just started and went thru the basic (10 lesson to PC) lesson one, we might not taught the correct posture nor holding of the club etc as it (e 10 lessons) is merely a introduction to the game of golf.

That's how I truly felt, thus I m still learning the basics to play a better golf.

What Bro Willy said is correct. I went thru the 10 lesson and realised that I dont really learn much from there except the safety part during my 2hrs Mandai lesson.

So what abt learning the correct posture, grip & swing etc etc?

No matter how many lessons I take, it still boiled down to whether u have naturally self induced bad habits. So continue to learn and visit a coach once a while, it helps...

Do u believe in your coach? Very important question. Even if u are currently taught by butch Harmon or hank Haney, somebody will still walk up to you and ruffle ur feathers. Also the same coach will teach u different things at different phases of your game. 

I'm not very experienced nor brilliant golfer, but if you're looking for advice, I'd say find a coach u trust, stick with him and dun allow others to influence ur swing.

Turbo wrote:

Maybe he is looking for business ...  

Yeah there is a salesman in every pro. Lol.

Different coach will teach differently. I don't think there are 2 different coaches that teach the exact same thing.

Believe this is true for pros as well, u see on tour almost none have the exact same swing.

As long as u trust your current coach and his methods are working well for you, things should be fine.

If someone with all the 'wrong basics' is playing in the 80s and someone with the 'right posture and grip' is playing in the 100s, who's to say who is right or wrong?

hi karnewgolfer, how u feel abt yur techniques? can u hit a ball with launch? many advices from bros here r right, u ll need different level of coaching when u reached different level of yur game. If u wanna see some statistics abt yur techniques to gauge? go see a pro wi Trackman technology & e results will show u e truth..... jus my 2-cents' bit to share, eg Pro JH @ seletar  

fmfa wrote:

So what abt learning the correct posture, grip & swing etc etc?

When u have a correct posture, grip the club properly and swing properly (hip initiated body turn instead of arm lead aka use cow strength) you can effectively hit the ball better without injuring any part of your body.

Everyone has a different swing but the basis remains the same.

Ask him why it is wrong and ask him to explain and demo. Personally I dun think it is right to discredit or bad mouth another fellow professional. If someone does that, it speaks much abt the person's character

Ok. Thanks all for the advice! I don't think I myself have v good posture etc so I'm actually quite eager to hear from all who have been playing a long time.  Maybe I'll try to engage another coach to just hear a new opinion. Like what u all say. 10 lessons to pc probably not about posture and stuff and only intro to game. 

Thanks all for advice!!

my wife and me were taught by two different coaches. i think diff coaches have diff style and preference. the most important thing is to find the style that suits ur build structure. =)

While there may be some truth to what has been discussed so far, perhaps it may not even be one coach versus another's methods, but rather ourselves.

A coach may teach a student the proper grip and posture (which should be included in the 10 introductory lessons as they form the very basic foundation of a golf swing), but it doesn't necessarily mean that what has been taught will be cast in stone, in that the student will automatically assume the exact same grip and posture every single swing, especially for someone new to the game.

It is all too easy for mistakes to imperceptibly creep in over time with every swing as the body makes compensations one over the other in our imperfect attempt to hit the ball. And this happens to everyone, novice to professional, which is why a tour level professional has a coach to make sure his swing is sound from one tournament to the next.

So isn't it funny that a pro with constant coaching takes nothing for granted, grip, posture and swing, and has it constantly assessed with a teacher's eye, yet we amateurs having taken 10 basic lessons or even having played for 10 years, take for granted that we still have the same posture and grip that was once taught to us 10 lessons or 10 years ago?   

I totally agree with Birdman.  My perspective is that the coach at the range who commented is not saying that your previous coach taught you the wrong setup and grip, he is just observing that what you are currently executing (which is what he is seeing) might have some issues.  In fact, if you went back to your own coach, he/she might tell you the same thing.

There have been many times where I thought I was doing what I was taught, only to realise when I visited my coach again that I had let a lot of compensations creep in ...

The coaches i see at my local range are gross. I believe they are self taught golfers, and they teach a swing that is not fundamentally sound. I actually feel bad for the students whenever i see them going through lessons.

Here's what i learnt about taking advice at the range... Only listen to those that are about common and known problems. For example, over-swinging during the backswing, looking up before impact etc. These are bad habits that sometimes form without you realising, and it helps when people highlight them to you.

DO NOT listen when people say you must do a specific move or action. Something like "you must drop your right shoulder" or my personal fave "you must flip your wrists to close the club face". Two reasons. Firstly, unless this recommended action corrects a fundamental error, it is not guaranteed that whatever works for someone else will work for you. Secondly, most of the time people think they are doing one thing but are actually doing something else.

Solarpop is right, there shouldn't be any compensations required, my coach taught me it is all about the swing that's all. And once we do it correct, it should be a relax execution without tense muscles whatsoever.

*Current coach : David (Resident Pro at OCC)

David Leadbetter Longer Drive Golf Tip
Golf Life Television presents a golf tip from Legendary golf

Go find my teacher. It's in the YouTube.

if not, you can "benchmark" your address with what Hank Haney's

Hope this helps =)

http://www.thenewgolfer.com/index.php/golfresourcesmenu/a-swing-breakdown/30-swing-breakdown

solarpop wrote:

The coaches i see at my local range are gross. I believe they are self taught golfers, and they teach a swing that is not fundamentally sound. I actually feel bad for the students whenever i see them going through lessons.

Here's what i learnt about taking advice at the range... Only listen to those that are about common and known problems. For example, over-swinging during the backswing, looking up before impact etc. These are bad habits that sometimes form without you realising, and it helps when people highlight them to you.

DO NOT listen when people say you must do a specific move or action. Something like "you must drop your right shoulder" or my personal fave "you must flip your wrists to close the club face". Two reasons. Firstly, unless this recommended action corrects a fundamental error, it is not guaranteed that whatever works for someone else will work for you. Secondly, most of the time people think they are doing one thing but are actually doing something else.

understand the point you are trying to make ... just some food for thought

Bubba Watson is a self taught golfer ... and while his swing does not look fundamentally sound but his impact position is definitely consistent

Arnold Palmer had a very flat backswing and came over the top on his downswing (but still came from and inside to out path relative to target line) ... not what you would term fundamentally sound ... but he won quite a few majors

Even looking up before impact, while generally considered bad, may be useful as a drill for someone who is struggling with the feeling of releasing the clubhead and hitting a lot of fat shots.

As you mentioned, it is hard to see what we are doing wrong, and we should accept that even self taught pros, who have gone through their own journey to solve the equation of what works for them to get consistent impact, would know more about the golf swing than we, as social golfers.

Not saying that all coaches are good, some really struggle with expressing and communicating their ideas across to their students, but we should give respect where it is due.

Of course, if you are a +6 handicap golfer representing Singapore and thinking of turning professional, then I apologise for my post, because then I would have to accept that you are more than qualfied to assess whether or not the professionals you observed are effective or not.

Derek wrote:

solarpop wrote:

The coaches i see at my local range are gross. I believe they are self taught golfers, and they teach a swing that is not fundamentally sound. I actually feel bad for the students whenever i see them going through lessons.

Here's what i learnt about taking advice at the range... Only listen to those that are about common and known problems. For example, over-swinging during the backswing, looking up before impact etc. These are bad habits that sometimes form without you realising, and it helps when people highlight them to you.

DO NOT listen when people say you must do a specific move or action. Something like "you must drop your right shoulder" or my personal fave "you must flip your wrists to close the club face". Two reasons. Firstly, unless this recommended action corrects a fundamental error, it is not guaranteed that whatever works for someone else will work for you. Secondly, most of the time people think they are doing one thing but are actually doing something else.

understand the point you are trying to make ... just some food for thought

Bubba Watson is a self taught golfer ... and while his swing does not look fundamentally sound but his impact position is definitely consistent

Arnold Palmer had a very flat backswing and came over the top on his downswing (but still came from and inside to out path relative to target line) ... not what you would term fundamentally sound ... but he won quite a few majors

Even looking up before impact, while generally considered bad, may be useful as a drill for someone who is struggling with the feeling of releasing the clubhead and hitting a lot of fat shots.

As you mentioned, it is hard to see what we are doing wrong, and we should accept that even self taught pros, who have gone through their own journey to solve the equation of what works for them to get consistent impact, would know more about the golf swing than we, as social golfers.

Not saying that all coaches are good, some really struggle with expressing and communicating their ideas across to their students, but we should give respect where it is due.

Of course, if you are a +6 handicap golfer representing Singapore and thinking of turning professional, then I apologise for my post, because then I would have to accept that you are more than qualfied to assess whether or not the professionals you observed are effective or not.

To add to Derek's comments above ~ a classic case would be Jim Furyk's swing motion (past winner of FedEx Cup) which has often been described as an octopus in a London telephone booth OR even Liang Wen Chong (China's top golfing pro) for his swing follow through. As Derek mentioned that these are guys who have been through the journey in grinding out their swing for consistent impact. 

On the flip side, top golf swing teachers such as Michael Breed, Leadbetter and so forth are gifted with the talent to spot bad swing habits / mechanics and articulate the solution with swing drills to correct them ~ they probably play decent golf but definitely not better than the guys on tour…. 

The main problem with this game / sport is that we're blind to our mistakes / bad habits and there definitely is some limitation to self correction vs having a 3rd eye to pinpoint where we went wrong.

In view of the above, another common mental issue which social golfers encounter is retention deficit ~ how often are they able to transcend instructions imparted on the range to the golf course, let alone the limited time we spend perfecting our swing or mistake… So the journey continues in sort of the perfect golf swing…

 

! When did golf become so cheem!?