Nobody wants to see somebody struggle and everybody likes to feel of some use. So the trip to the range to help somebody get started in golf or the friendly piece of post round advice is totally understandable, yet possibly misguided.
I first came across it when I was Assistant Professional at a Hotel and Golf Venue in Northamptonshire called Staverton Park. It was here I first started playing as a Junior and had a wonderful team of resident Professionals who were really dedicated to coaching. Brian Mudge was my Pro and what a coach he still is; dedicated, kind, thorough, articulate and unbelievably generous with his time, especially where Juniors are involved.
Yet it was here where I realised how many people would quite happily take free advice from a friend rather than pay for professional advice from a Professional. Quite often I would find myself looking down the sixteen bay covered area and watch the newbie into the game receiving some well-intentioned destructive advice whilst his “coach” would give me an occasional, kindred look of ‘only a coach would understand what it’s like’ and then full attention would be directed towards their player.
Please, please don’t think I am saying that the law states that only trained Professionals should impart their wisdom on the golfing population and woe betide the individual who dares to utter a word of uneducated advice. This is actually an article on how a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing underpinned by the old saying, “if you think a professional is expensive wait until you hire an amateur”.
The classic coaching utterance of ‘keep your head down’ or ‘keep your head still’ would serve as a great example within this topic. Saying to a player that they need to keep their head down is, in my view, one of the most destructive tips out there. If you look at the photo attached to this article this is the general result of the advice. The eyes focus on the ball and the head tilts dangerously downwards taking any chance of shoulder rotation out of the equation. The space between the chin and the chest disappears, again taking any chance of rotation out of the equation.
The knock on effect of this is that there is very limited space at impact, so the spine moves vertically upwards to make room for the club to hit the ball. This usually results in the topping of the ball. And here’s the rub, the next thing to be said is ‘You moved your head up, keep your head down.’ And so the cycle continues.
Yet the player was doomed to this outcome simply down to the start/address position. Seriously, it’s that simple. Get the address-posture position correct at the start then the body can move far more freely and dynamically, from there let’s see what movement patterns occur.
There is a lot of coaching jargon out there around kinetic chains, knock on movement patterns, etc. I have found the best one being the classic ‘cause and effect’ concept which is where the best coaching occurs. The effect always being the end result and the cause being the start. In the case above the cause being a poor or less than ideal set up and the effect being a moving head.
In this case, saying ‘keep your head down’ or ‘keep your head still’ actually makes the problem worse.
If you can answer the question, ‘Why is that happening?’ then that’s a good place to be, if you are reporting on, ‘What just happened’ then the ground is a little shakier. Whenever I am coaching the ‘Fundamentals’ group, I always say be careful out there, there is a lot of strange advice floating around which can be dangerous.
Even when playing golf with my wife I have to be very careful with any advice given, sometimes silence is safer.