There are 5 keys to what makes a good golf lesson. These include:
- An Assessment of Strengths and Weaknesses
- A Video Recording of Your Current Swing
- Clarity on the Changes Needed
- The Step by Step Plan To Improve Your Swing
- Drills To Work on Before The Next Lesson
Considering taking a golf lesson to help reach your goals for the season?
For the amount of money spent on a golf lesson, you want to ensure that you are getting the best lesson possible.
Different golf instructors will run lessons differently based on their teaching philosophy and access to technology.
Golf lessons can be a major benefit for many golfers. Ensure with the instructor that you select that you have a system to follow, quality feedback and some drills to work on between lessons.
The goal of any lesson is to walk away with greater clarity on your strengths and weaknesses with a plan on how to get better.
Prior to your golf lesson, you should start to recognize your shot patterns and shot dispersions taking place. Taking certain information to your golf lesson can be helpful.
Updates: Learning is a process. You need a clear target, quality instruction, time to practice, timely and specific feedback. This loop should be continuous. The best coaches can lay out a learning map for 1-3 months at a time, providing the students with clarity on where the journey is going.
Qualities of a Good Golf Lesson
After I go through the 5 keys, I have some tips below on what to do between golf lessons.
Key #1: An Assessment of Strengths and Weaknesses
The golf instructor should spend some time watching your swing and notifying ball flight patterns and areas of weakness that you might have. Too often golf instructor jump right in without seeing your swing and start to try to make corrections or teach something from their approach.
I am a big believer in the golf instructor ensuring that they have a good grasp of what is actually taking place in your swing.
In today’s golf world, you might expect your golf instructor to have access to certain technologies like a Launch Monitor and video camera to be able to show you what is taking place in your swing.
Making a list of your strengths (what you are doing well) and your weaknesses (what is causing issues) will go a long way in helping your improve.
This clarity is needed for the golfers to be on the same page as the instructor. You want your instructor to be a solid communicator and have a system for giving lessons.
Do you battle a slice? Check out our possible solution.
Key #2: A Video Recording of Your Current Swing
It is always nice to have a before and after video of your swing.
Ideally, one is taken at the beginning of the lesson and one is taken at the end, so that you can see the before and after of the movements that you are working on. You can access this video and refer to it over the coming weeks as your work to improve your golf swing.
Video has come a long way in the golf world and is a great tool to help you understand what is taking place and what needs to be fixed. Many golf instructors will compare your swing side by side to someone making the proper motion to create a visual of the change that needs to take place.
Having the proper visuals and feels will help speed up the process to make the changes, but you must be able to drill these movements into your swing.
Key #3: Clarity on the Changes Needed
Clarity is needed in any learning situation. A golf lesson is an opportunity to learn. To learn more about your swing and what it will take to get better. This starts with clarity of your current swing and what changes need to take place.
The golf instructor may lay out numerous changes that are needed and should prioritize where to start with the changes. The golfer needs to commit to the changes and be a good student.
One that soaks in the information and is willing to put in the work.
Key #4: The Step by Step Plan To Improve Your Swing
As a learner, I always want to be able to see the big picture of where it is headed. The golf instructor should provide this plan and have a system to get you there.
Most golf instructors have a system in mind and what they believe the swing should look like. It is ok to inquire about your golf instructors swing philosophy and ask some questions about why certain changes are made.
This may feel like the golf instructor is just trying to get you to come back and spend more money, but in reality and swing change or swing improvement is going to take time. Be sure to commit to the changes and be willing to put in the time.
Key #5: Drills To Work on Before The Next Lesson
Drills are essential to making improvements in your golf swing. It takes sometimes thousands of reps for a change to actual happen in the swing. Your body and your swing has ingrained a certain swing that can be difficult to change.
Look for extreme types of feels and drills to help ingrain a new motor pattern into your swing.
Hopefully, your golf instructor provides these drills that you can use over time and prior to the next lesson to help you make progress. The key once again is to ensure you work between lessons.
Here is a list of our 7 favorite golf drills.
Myth: I Took A Lesson, I Should Be Better Now
While a golf lesson can help you get better and strike the ball better in as early as an hour, the work really starts when the lesson ends. It is time to utilize your drills and spend time at the range working on the correction in the swing.
Too many golfers don’t do anything between lessons and then wonder why they did not get any better from the last lesson.
If you are going to take a lesson and spend the time and money, make sure you are willing to invest the time and energy after the lesson to actually work on the swing changes. Golf can be hard and it will take time.
You can get better from a lesson, but a lot of it does come down to the time you are willing to put in to make improvements.
Between Lessons: Measure Your Swing
We have to have a way to measure what is best for our swings. Between golf lessons, we have to have a way to measure our swings and get the feedback necessary to grow our game.
The great thing about golf in today’s era is that golfers have access to some wonderful technology that can allow them to experiment and figure out what is best for their game. I highly recommend a launch monitor to help you measure what amount of hip rotation is best for your game.
In today’s golf world, the access to affordable launch monitors is a complete game changer. Not only can one help you set up your experiment with different swings and philosophies, but it can also help you map your bag by knowing the distance you carry each club.
One could try out the different methods of instruction found above and use the launch monitor to measure for success. Some areas you will want to monitor include:
- Start line consistency
- Amount of side spin
- Ball speed
- Carry distance
A Launch Monitor is a great addition to your practice sessions even beyond determining what hip movement is best for your game.
Stop guessing on your ball and club data and get the immediate feedback that you need to improve your game. Club selection and the makeup of your bag is often overlooked by many amateurs.
The professional golfers of today all have access to some great technology including launch monitors to help measure their swing and know their numbers. Can an amateur use this same or similar technology for game improvement?
Yes, absolutely and I would highly recommend it.
Even if you aren’t going to go all out and build an indoor golf simulator like I did (see below), you can still pick up a launch monitor at a reasonable price and use it in your indoor net or taking to the course or driving range with you!
Knowing numbers like spin rate, ball speed, spin axis and other key information is vital to your growth. Sharing these numbers with your instructor can be helpful and help with equipment selection as well. This will help you select the right clubs for your bag and when to add that extra hybrid or wedge.
I would recommend one of the three launch monitors listed below:
Between Lessons: Train for Speed
Train for Speed – The key to lower scores.
Regardless of your current ability level or swing speed, we could all use additional speed.
This speed drill below will also help you improve your swing mechanics. It is worth checking it out regardless of your current ability level. The swing mechanic improvement along with the additional distance will help your game!
Let’s face it, regardless of the current state of your game we all want more speed. It has become very clear the need for speed in the golf swing and there are ways to add speed! The analytics on all levels of golf show how important speed and additional speed are in reducing golf scores.
It is time to start training for some additional speed. This is a drill and training protocol that I would highly recommend.
SPEED DRILL: Increase your swing speed through overspeed training
- Check out SuperSpeed Overspeed Training Protocols
- Train every other day for 10-15 minutes.
- See a 4-6% increase in swing speed as early as the first training protocol.
The number one thing that has helped me gain significant distance is the SuperSpeed Training System. This overspeed based system where you train every other day for about 10-15 minutes with different swing sticks can help you increase your swing speed by 5-8% which can be 20-30 yards. Who wouldn’t want an extra 20-30 yards. Plus it helps improve your mechanics.
SuperSpeed Golf – Use Discount Code Golfjourney365 for some savings!
The analytics are pretty clear on the importance of speed in the game of golf. Would you rather hit your approach shot from 130 yards of 160 yards? The answer is pretty simple!
We know that over the course of time, we will hit shots from 130 yards much closer than from 160 yards, whether we are an average amateur golfer, a scratch golfer, or a PGA Tour member!
The key is having shorter approach shots, so we can hit the ball closer to the hole and then make more putts! Speed is king in the game of golf! Make sure you check out SuperSpeed Golf!
Between Lessons: Consider Your Course Management
We have provided guides on how to break 100, 90, 80 and 70. Check out more below, if interested.
My Secret To Golf Improvement
Let’s face it, in order to get really good at golf, we must practice frequently. About three years ago, I made the leap and invested in a golf simulator build for my garage.
I went with a SkyTrak Launch Monitor and the TGC software and can now play over 100,000 courses including Augusta, Pebble Beach, Bethpage Black, Whistling Straits. St. Andrews and many other of the top 100 courses in the world.
This golf simulator setup, which is more affordable that you might imagine, has been a game changer. I can now play golf everyday of the year regardless of rain, snow, cold weather or time of day. I can practice or play rounds of golf.
I can stand in the 11th fairway at Augusta and with the auto-rewind feature I am able to practice my approach shots from various differences.
It is worth checking out through Rain or Shine Golf as they offer some incredible packages along with financing offers that are difficult to beat.
Some direct links to Rain or Shine Golf for pricing and financing:
Take Action – What You Can Do Today to Get Better
What does this mean for you? I believe in the following recipe to get better:
1 – Improve your motion in the golf swing by identifying a golf instructor. Here are some options:
Here is a list of golf instructors that we have reviewed:
2 – Train to swing faster and improve your swing speed. Here are some options:
Looking to gain more Speed and Distance in your swing. Two Options:
3 – Understand course strategy and work to break through your next barrier. Here is a series on breaking through:
We have provided guides on how to break 100, 90, 80 and 70. Check out more below, if interested.
4 – Practice Frequently
Did you know that I build a golf simulator in my garage and have played over 500 rounds of golf on my SkyTrak system? It has been a game changer and one worth checking out. Here are some of my other posts on golf simulators frequently asked questions:
- Is a Golf Simulator Worth It?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator?
- What is the Best Golf Simulator?
- Golf Simulator Accessories?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for under $7000
- Top 11 Reasons to Buy a SkyTrak
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for Under $1000
- Why Build A Golf Simulator?
- What Space is Needed?
- Can A Golf Simulator Improve My Game?
- How Much Does A Golf Simulator Cost?
- Don’t Forget to Check out our 15 best golf swings of all time.